Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Balance

I've been a bit frazzled this week, but I think I am starting to get the hang of this new schedule.

The hardest part about shifting from a full time teaching position to a part time position is, actually, the time. When I was teaching middle school, I knew that every day I would leave the house at 6 am, and every night I'd return around 4 or 5. That meant that from 5 to 7, I wrote, did yoga, and got my online teaching responsibilities out of the way.

Now that I'm living the life of a full-time writer, I have no two days with exactly the same schedule. Some days I teach from 9 am to noon before having to go pick up my husband at 4, and then some days I don't have to leave the house until my 8pm class. It's really challenging, because I am a creature of habit. I like my routines. They feel comfortable.

I am learning the beauty of the kitchen timer. I give myself, for example, two hours to prep for class, grade, and take care of school-related responsibilities. Then, in theory, I walk away from the job and begin the heart work of writing.

Some days, I don't get to yoga. Other days, I don't write very much. But slowly, surely, I am figuring out how to balance my new life.

What do you do to juggle your responsibilities with your joy?

5 comments:

  1. Yea, I struggle with this at times. One day, I hope to be able to pull back from the day job. Until then, I just do the best I can and give myself a break!

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  2. I really thought I commented on this earlier but am struggling with the balance, myself.
    I am excited about revisions to my WIP but don't think I will make it to the conference in October, this year. I was pushing to get the first 30 pages in great shape so I could send them in by Thursday.
    But now mom guilt, wife guilt plus a nagging feeling that I could make them just a bit better....has me looking for something later or closer to home, this year.

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  3. Lory,

    Rethinking is good, stagnating is not. I hope you are able to balance everything in a way that fits you! (and, selfishly, I hope I see you in October, but I understand Mom and Wife guilt)

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  4. You are so right. I started another blog post and then found that I had written it already...almost word-for-word...three years ago!
    I immediately registered for the conference to get my a** in gear. I will see you there!

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