First of all, I want to wish everyone a fabulous week — a week where you can be incredibly productive while getting boatloads of rest at the same time. Wait, what!? Okay, I admit that I just laid out somewhat of an oxymoron for you to ponder over a bit. I mean, have you ever had a week where you were able to do both successfully? If so, you win the prize and I would love for you to reveal your genius to me a.s.a.p.
Well, I have no idea how to adequately cover both sides of the spectrum in the course of a week (at least not at the beginning of this new product development journey, that is). As a matter of fact, one area tends to dominate in the “taking over” arena while the other more than happily relinquishes its authority altogether. Can you guess which area is the bossy one? If you said “work”, then you get an “A” for today. And, right there is the dilemma. There’s no balance in Jana’s life right now. But, I already know the things that create more balance in one’s life. And here are a few attributing factors that I’ve touted around in past blog posts:
- organizing your day – using block and hourly scheduling tactics, organizers, planners, calendars, timers, etc. to map out the weekly/daily activities that you want to get accomplished and when you want to accomplish them
- getting help when and where you can
- not taking on new tasks until you get the current ones in check
- doing the undesirable tasks first and getting them knocked out so you can move on to the less undesirable tasks
- working on the major priorities first and then ordering everything else for completion based on a measure of importance, such as the deadline date or a prerequisite to be completed before the main task can be accomplished.
Of course, there are many more productivity tips that I’ve shared over the course of months, but quite frankly, I’m failing at the majority of them right now. And “NO”, I don’t want to come off like a hypocrite. You know the type of people I’m talking about, don’t you? They’re those individuals who encourage you to do as they say and not as they do. Or, actually, they’re those individuals who encourage you to do as they say but never come clean about what they’re actually doing behind closed doors (which is in direct opposition to what they’re telling you to do — hypocrites, right)?
Well, I’m not purposely trying to mess up, but I’m relaying my very imperfect human nature at the moment. I’m failing in the organized flow of my work and I know that’s directly influencing my productivity and my ability to get adequate rest at the end of my work day. Oh, and some of my inability to rest properly has everything to do with my excitement about this new phase in my digital product journey. I’m also constantly bombarded with incredible ideas of all the different paths I could take with my content creation. And I think my adrenaline kicks in and keeps my mind overloaded with “shiny new objects” when it needs to simply process what’s before it.
Anyone got a remedy for that?
Truth be told, I have enough to process with what I currently have in the works for rolling out in the next few weeks — the next 4 theme-based journal pages, bookmarks, and doorknob hangers for our young readers and writers out there. But once those are out in the Etsy shop, I’ve got so much more I’m planning to do, but not enough manpower to do it. Wait a minute. Yes, I do — just not in the breakneck speed I’d like to. But sometimes, slow and steady wins the race.
And here’s where the work-life balance gets tested.
New processes and ventures take time to work into your life. Remember: you already had a busy enough life pre-new activities, and now you’re taking on fresh endeavors that have to fit somewhere in your same 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 52 weeks in a year. You get where I’m coming from? You have the same amount of time to work with but more items on your plate to deal with.
And, that’s the simplicity of it all. The math doesn’t equate. You’re not going to be able to take the same course of action you previously took to manage your day. You now have excess to incorporate into your life along with all the regular stuff. What to do, what to do?
Honestly, I’ve hit a new low in the organization area. I’m a complete mess right now and it’s really difficult to feel productive when I have so many things out of order and loose ends that need to be tied up.
- I have papers and notes here and there,
- files saved without rhyme or reason,
- a daily planner that hasn’t been properly filled out for weeks,
- no true breakdown of a summer schedule that’s been created for my son (the makeshift one just isn’t working and summer break is ending soon),
- a house that is torn up and needs some TLC from momma . . .
I could go on, but I don’t want to embarrass myself anymore than I already have. But what I’m telling myself is that this feeling of failing in the work-life balance arena is a natural process that one can easily find him or herself in when assuming additional responsibilities and reactively trying to determine what to do with them. The additional requirements of the new responsibilities must be recognized in their entirety, worked into the life routine somehow (with all the others), and managed with wisdom. And, it takes time to work out the kinks that are brought on with an uptick in the amount of workload that one takes on.
Well, here’s what I intend to do.
So, I’ve decided not to be too hard on myself, but to understand that I need to take a pause this week and for however long it takes for me to appropriately fit my new responsibilities into my life so I can successfully create the content I’d like to roll out (in a realistic timeline), while managing to practice self-care. That way, I experience a win-win scenario instead of settling for the work part taking over and leaving the life part (outside of work) in disarray. (NOTE: “taking a pause” doesn’t mean no work. I’ll still be cranking out content and getting ready for my next product bundle to roll out. It just means I’ll be slowing down on the electronics a bit and refocusing some attention on my life outside of online business.)
I’ll definitely share with you what courses of action I take to set my path in order once I get it going. Most of those courses of action should have something to do with taking my own advice that I’ve offered up here at Degrees of Maternity. And hopefully, I can share with you that I accomplished some normalcy while adding my new content creation efforts to my life. Time will tell, but my “clean-up my life” initiative started yesterday. And I’ll take this initiative one day at a time and see where I end up this week.
In conclusion, I’d like to leave you with this thought: please continue to value the productivity tips I’ve laid out for you in the course of this blog. The tips do work if you apply them. And, I’ve never set out to appear to be perfect or to take on the hypocrite persona. I’m human just like you and go through periods where I need to recalibrate, refocus, and bring the proper perspective into view. Now that I’ve stopped to breath and recognize that I can’t keep functioning in the mode I’m currently in, then it’s time to make some progress toward work-life balance. I know that I have to figure out how to make both sides work congruently with one another in order to achieve and sustain growth in my personal as well as professional endeavors.
New on the horizon:
LAST WEEK – I launched the two “Sweet Treats” journal pages, bookmarks, and doorknob hangers for children product bundles.
THIS WEEK – I just launched the two “Sports Fun” journal pages, bookmarks, and doorknob hangers for children product bundles.
degreesofmaternity.com 