Balance
I realize my previous "work work work" post was a little cryptic as to why I was so overwhelmed by work.
In early June I got a new laptop at work, which meant it was now possible for me to work at home fairly easily. At the same time I was assigned to complete a high priority short deadline task in addition to my normal workload. So the ability to work from home and the need to do overtime very nicely dovetailed into several weeks of way too much work at home. This is only the second time I’ve let work come home with me and neither time was very pleasant. I felt disjointed and out of touch with myself.
It’s not all works "fault" as I could have let some things slide at work while I balanced the geek career and the rest of my life. But I didn’t. Hence the lack of art production in June.
It’s all a big balancing act. As Pam RuBert very astutely points out on her blog, having an outside job probably contributes to my creativity in a very positive way much of the time. I just need to work harder at keeping it in balance better.
There will be times the day job will suck down too much time and when that happens I need to readjust expectations and do my best to minimize the impact on other parts of my life. I’m not really sure how to do this but it sounds good. I still have too much work to do but the major stressful deadlines are gone for a while and so I’m committed to keeping the work and work and the art at home.
I’ve been thinking about how I approach my art and fitting it into my life and I’ve decided that I need to give it a bit of a boost for the next few months. So instead of setting goals for the projects I want to complete I’m setting a goal of working on my artwork a minimum of 20 hours a week.
[Although in my head I’m really thinking I would love to make that 30 if possible - my kids are in camp for the next 5 weeks so I have the opportunity to really get focused - but don’t tell anyone as that goal of 30 seems a bit unsustainable.]
So far this week (starting monday) I’ve put in 7 hours. Not too bad.
And this 20 hours, it does not include any of the art business, its studio time only I’m counting. I know I need to get refocused on the business side of things but when it comes down to it the most important thing I need, to feel balanced and happy, is a significant amount of time in the studio.
Now, back to the studio.
Posted by Lisa in: About Me
Pam RuBert said,
June 29, 2006 @ 6:50 am
I think this time goal is a very good idea. I find that I need to readjust my goals and game plan occasionally, because when I get too comfortable with a way of thinking, it stops working. I guess I take it for granted. So sometimes it’s better to have deadline goals and others time goals. Last year I actually had a similar goal of 21 hours a week (I also wanted to say 30, but knew I couldn’t!) with a minimum of 3 hours a day. It worked very well, because often once I got started, I work over three hours. I think this is also good, because it still gives you the liberty to play and experiment, something necessary to stay creative. Sadly for me now, I’m traveling so much that I haven’t been in the studio for a month. In July, I think I’ll try to get back to the 21 hours a week goal.
Lisa Call said,
June 30, 2006 @ 8:27 pm
Thanks Pam! It’s cool to get confirmation that this approach might be a good one. Funny how we landed on about the same number of hours.