Work/Life balance seems to have become the buzz word for working professionals. To be happy we need to find a way to balance work and home. The theory is sound. Life should not be all about work. But it can't be all about play and/or home. As adults we have the responsibility to provide for ourselves and our children. To do so we must work. But all work and no play makes for a dull life. So we find activities to keep from being bored. Activities which generally cost money, so we work longer hours, which takes away time from our activities, and so on and so forth. It can be a vicious cycle.
Since my promotion at work, I have been swamped. Prior to my promotion I had made a goal to only work 8 hours a day unless absolutely necessary. I was starting to make head way on that goal. Then I was promoted. Since then I have averaged 9-10 hours a day. Add the hour each way commute and I am gone from home approximately 12 hours a day. Take out another 8 hours for sleep and that leaves 4 hours for eating, bathing, cleaning, and quilting. Guess which one suffers.
To be honest, it's both the cleaning and quilting. My house has never been immaculate but now it is a nightmare. I have too much stuff and not enough storage. As number of people living here went down, the amount of belongings has gone up. Not to mention the number of animals. I swear my husband is replacing kids with livestock.
Last week as I was catching up on some odds and ends, I was listening to the Quilter on Fire podcast, the one where she interviewed Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. I don't normally listen to this podcast but she was interviewing Karen Brown and any one who has read my blog knows that She is one of my Gurus.
Karen was talking about how busy and over whelming this your-tube and blogging has become and how she had to get extra help to do it all. She said that she needed to schedule time to quilt. She also said that she thought some women feel guilty about taking the time to quilt when the house is not clean or there are other family obligations needing tending too. At which point, my son Killian said "Mom, don't ever feel guilty for quilting. It makes you happy and we want you to be happy." Perigrine, my daughter, echoed his sentiments. Truth be told these two have been taking care of me instead of the other way around. I know I am very blessed.
So back to the work/life balance. Does it exist? I have gotten to the age where overtime pay isn't worth the time I have to give up. Of course now overtime isn't even an option. I get straight salary now so it's definitely not worth the extra hours.
I have decided that there are times when I will need to put more time in at work. I am still learning my new job. That is going to take time. So a little less time at home has to happen right now. And Quilting is going to have to be in small doses.
With much encouragement from Killian and Perigrine, I've started yet another flimsy. I am trying to sew a little each night. Some nights I do it and some nights I come home and flop. Lately it's been the later. It wouldn't be so bad if I came home and read or looked at the quilt magazines but I don't. I watch tv or play Sudoku on my phone or just watch my son play on his Xbox. Basically falling into the time buster trap. But I am hoping to change that.
My goal is to come home and either stitch for 30 minutes, study for 30 minutes, or work in the studio for 30 minutes. Any thing over and above that is great. Any thing less is a start. I'm not going to beat myself up over it though. I am too old to be making myself feel guilty for being human.
So is Work/Life Balance real or is it a Myth. I guess it is up to you. I would say if you are getting up in the morning dreading going to work for no other reason that you just don't want to be there, then I would say your life is out of balance. If you are not finding joy in your activities because work is on your mind, then your life is probably out of balance.
There are going to be times when our lives are out of balance. Fate likes to throw us some curve balls now and again. Some times the balance has to be more skewed to work. Sometimes it will have to be skewed more to home. The trick is to find a way to get all those skewed times to average out in balance.
Since my promotion, I am feeling challenged again and so going to work is not as foreboding as it once was. But I do miss spending time creating and there is so much I need to do in the studio. Eventually work will settle down and I will be able to work a little less. In the meantime to get that balance back I am planning on taking a few days off just to work on my long arm and get some quilts done. Not sure when yet, but soon.
How is your work/life balance? How can you get it back?
