Personally I haven't figure out my way yet because everything is a little new to me. Hold on though you will see something like that coming from me at a later date. For now I have a newly found twitter friend name Rachel. Her blog is called Coffee&Calligraphy I spoke to her a few times on Twitter and she is so nice. I just got done reading some of her posts on her blog and its literally like one of the best blogs I read. Its full of life and its like talking to her in person. That is what I try to do in my posts. I'm getting a off topic now Rachel is going to be taking about this in this post. She was so kind to agreed to guest post talking about this subject, here she is.
Hey People of Earth!
Hmm... this is a different setting isn't it? As it is, I'd like to give Cheyenne here on My Little Writing Corner a huge thanks for having me guest post on her blog! As she's mentioned above, I'm Rachel from Coffee and Calligraphy on Tumblr, just to let you know, and today, I'm going to be talking about how to balance life.
Yes, life.
And by life, I mean writing, blogging and school... duh... Because what is life outside of those three time-consuming activities? Just a bit of background information on me: I am a student who happens to be a part-time writer (part-time meaning I don't get paid for it... so sad...) who attempts blogging and attends school on the daily. My life is pretty hectic, meaning that I am doing something at every part of the day. That actually brings me to my main point for you all today.
How exactly do I balance my time?
Now, with school practically around the corner (yikes!) and new stress about to be hurtled in my direction, it is actually quite hard to do all three things that I love while still deeming successful.
But I've been doing it for a while now, and it's working out well. So today, I'll be sharing a few tips with you all about how exactly you can balance your time while writing, blogging, and going to that dreaded thing we call school.
Shall we dive right in?
1. Sleep. Get all of the sleep you can possibly manage.
Why? Is what you're probably asking. Writing (whether that be fictitious or for a blog) and balancing school is a tricky thing. Trust me. I know. But this point is especially important because if you do decide that you want to practice both of these daily, you need to make sure that you're not sacrificing sleep for either side.
Confession: it's impossible for me to sleep before midnight. As a student, this part really hits me hard. Because of course, the next morning, I have to wake up early, and am expected to do well during my classes (which I thankfully can pull off). But, this isn't ideal, and my mother has told me this on more than one occasion, haha.
Sleep is important, and I always try to get at least eight hours a night. The most important thing that you can remember while balancing your busy life is: don't ever sacrifice your sleep time because of two clashing activities.
This ties into my next tip:
2. Try to have a schedule.
Okay, hold on, before you raise your eyebrow, I myself am a person that doesn't like sticking to schedules (working for said 'system'). I like to do what I want when I want, but have realized that once again, this is probably the most ideal thing to do.
I haven't realized this, but I do it, even if I don't particularly like it. I'm not asking you to create a slated schedule of your day after school, but am suggesting (keyword: suggesting) that you have an average time as to when you can start blogging/writing.
For me, I personally have completely detoxed from school from around 4-5-ish, then have gotten my work done from 5:30 - 6:40. This means that I usually start writing at around seven o'clock, after all of the work is completed. I find that sticking to the 'around seven' time helps me out tremendously because I can gain anticipation for my specific writing time and end up working harder. (Note: this does not mean that you should slack off because you want to write! School first, okay?) This schedule doesn't have to be legitimate times laid out for you. Just keep an inner alarm clock
within you and choose the right time for when you need to switch gears.
3. Take a break.
This is actually kind of counterintuitive, considering what I've just told you, but it's so important regardless. Sometimes, we -- as perfectly normal human beings -- forget that we actually need breaks. We want to work ourselves hard, use every bit of time we have to the fullest and end up breaking ourselves into a drowsy exhaustion.
We all need to stop at some point.Think about it. Is every machine meant to work forever? Don't they break down eventually? We don't want them to, but it happens.
Because we are human.
This is probably the tip that I use the most (without shame of course!). Basically, I'm trying to say that you don't want to end up working yourself down to the bone with schoolwork/writing. If you have to drift from one to put more work into the other -- so be it. I know it can be heartbreaking (I can't go a day without writing something) but it's what'll give you the most success in the end.
Grab some tea. Coffee. Warm milk. A glass of tart, flamingo pink lemonade poured over ice.
Whatever it is that'll help to relax you a bit. Sometimes we just need to power down for a bit, even if it's just for a few minutes. Don't try to overwork yourself just for the sake of it.
4. Be productive.
Of course, this is pretty much a no-brainer. To manage your time well, you need to put those minutes into the fullest productivity possible. Always try to get whatever you can done to the best of your ability (even if it's just your best for that day). This is really, really important, even if it doesn't seem like it. If you're productive in one subject area (say schooling) then, when you come home, you will find that writing is your own form of relaxation (see the point above).
This could work reversed, as well. If you've done really well in writing one night, the next day at school can seem a lot less hectic. Try to get something done each day, even if it's not much. It's important that you do, because being productive fuels your want to continue. My next point may seem like the cheesiest thing in the world (and let me tell you, it is) but, it's also a very important part that plays so importantly in our lives. Like pizza. Yeah, that's right, pizza... Because it's cheesy, but vital for our existence.
5. Believe in yourself.
Again, another no-brainer. But people kind of overlook it. I know I do at times, at least. Honestly, sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to work really hard, wanting to do everything in x amount of time. We can turn into robots. Just working, 24/7 in school, on blogs, in Word documents.
This leaves no time to actually reflect, see what you've done and appreciate your energy for it. Believing in yourself is super important because it helps you work better, and more efficiently (pretty much refer to all of the other tips...). Super important here. Believe that you can get your work done if you work for it. Believe that what you're doing is going to be effective in the end.
Alrighty, so on that ooey-gooey, super cheesy note, I'll leave you all with that.
These are of course, just a few tips that I find work well for me, and hopefully will/have helped you out as well.Thanks so much again, to Cheyenne for having me on her blog, and to you for taking your time to read this!
- Rachel
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