It's quite the irony - so many go independent in pursuit of a better work/life balance only to find that working for yourself blurs those lines even more.
It makes sense, though. How do you compartmentalize when you're living your life and running your business and your brain gets inspired when it does?
Most of the books, speakers, podcasts and people I talk to seem focused on corraling and containing the hours of work that you do. Only return emails during the time you've scheduled for that. Make a point to work only until 5pm. Keep set office hours. And there are so many people out there spreading this message that I have to assume it works for many. I'm also not saying that I got nothing from them - I learned some great tips and tricks. But they didn't help to the level I thought they would and I feel like I saw so many exceptions to the rule as I went about my day. It's not email return time but this is from an important client! It's after 5pm but I just realized I'm out of something I need for tomorrow. I'm sure you have your own exceptions.
What I'm trying now is a slightly different approach. I'm accepting that as an artist I can't limit when inspiration strikes or the hours of a market or the many other things that can pop up at a moment's notice. But I can set aside time for not working -- and it doesn't have to be the same time of day or days of the week. I can schedule breaks in my labor. I can keep a notebook nearby so that inspiration can be captured in the moment then saved until later to pursue. And because I have intentionally carved out this time and set it apart I don't feel conflicted in the same way I felt guilty about not being with my family while I was trying to keep my work scheduled.
This is a very long way to explain why I won't be at market Saturday night this weekend. One of my children and his family are moving and I have the beautiful opportunity to spend time with my grandbabies! So I'm carving out the time and focusing on life over work. It also helps when you vend with amazing people and you enjoy that part of your work.
I'm curious what your thoughts are -- how do you find that work/life balance?
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