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Question: How do you balance your job and hobbies? What’s your routine? From Lita Kino.
Let’s be real, there is no such thing as work/life balance in the modern world. Work hours are insane for those who are lucky enough to have secure employment, meanwhile others are unable to get a foothold in the market. And yet, instead of reducing stress and workloads by actually hiring more workers and sharing the load, employers keep tightening their numbers and push more and more work onto people not secure enough in their job to actually say ‘no’.
I actually really love my job but in 2017 was hitting 55 – 65 hours a week at work regularly and a firm life resolution in 2018 was cutting that back regardless of what it cost or how guilty I felt leaving at the end of the day. While I still tend to do an average 50 – 55 hours a week I haven’t hit 65 yet this year and so am feeling a bit better about things (though my job list at work is looking pretty tragic and there are some things I’ve just openly dropped off my list and decided it isn’t worth the effort of following through).
So finding a balance is more or less impossible given the hours work eats up. That said, I firmly believe that you will make the time for things that are important to you. You can’t find time. There are 24 hours in a day, divide them as you will. While most of us have limited control over working hours, how we use the rest of our day is entirely in our hands. And for me, I’d rather spend my time on anime and writing my blog then sitting on the side of a football field, going to the pub or the club, or many of the other ‘entertainments’ available in my very small town.
Essentially that means if I’m not at work, asleep, or doing housework, I’m probably going to be doing something related to anime, movies, games, or reading. Because that’s what I love to do. For sure there are other social interactions that do occur, but if I get to choose, I’ll probably be typing away at my computer or watching something on TV.
As to a routine, it should be fairly well known that I don’t really sleep much (an ongoing habit of mine). Again, 2017 was a terrible year with my average sleep dropping to barely four hours most nights, but I’ve clawed back to five hours for now. However, that means I wake up really early and so I usually spend an hour or two on the computer before work reading blog posts and replying to comments. I don’t tend to watch much anime in the morning, saving that for evenings, but I try to touch base with new posts from followers and follow up on any emails or messages. Then my actual alarm goes off and I have to get ready and go to work (one of these days I’ll sleep long enough to hear my alarm from my bed and wonder why I left it next to my computer).
After work I try to do another quick visit of blog posts, though I tend to comment less and like more on posts I read after work due to usually being brain tired, and then I catch up on the anime of the day and draft reviews.
Weekends, outside of exercise and cleaning, tend to involve a lot of watching and writing and reading though I have no real set routine on weekends. I just kind of do what I feel like doing and then wonder where my day went. That’s of course when I haven’t brought work home with me, then I usually promise myself that when I finish task A, I can watch an episode of this show or this one, and that usually keeps me working.
This one is probably a great question for readers. How do you balance your job and your hobbies?
Thanks for reading.
Karandi James
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So that’s how you do it. You have some incredible self discipline. I would say lack of self discipline is 2/3 of my problem. It’s more tempting to just want to relax than work on stuff after a long day of work. I really don’t balance my life, and blog all that well. Typically I think during my shifts what I could write about, and then when I get home relax for a bit, read, and then get to work late at night writing some drafts.
My job is inconsistent with my hours, and at times I get told to work weekends last minute, or come in early. Sometimes staying for 11 hours, and doing some stuff I wasn’t suppose to do in the first place. Like searching through several trucks filled with bacon products (I work in food processing) to look for part of a missing fingers. My bosses are pretty thankless for the work I do, but if I don’t do my job than uh oh, whole factory gets shut down XD.
Some days I’m just to tire to write, and knock out as soon as I lay down in my bed. I try to remedy this by writing more than usual on weekends, completing most of the things I plan to post for the week, and finish them on the weekdays. If I feel my work affected me too much than I save the post, and try to complete it later so it’s not something I didn’t put much effort in. I’m still trying to get into the rhythm of things, but that’s part of the experience.
I think it would definitely be harder to organise a schedule for blogging time when your day job isn’t on any kind of consistent schedule. It takes away your ability to really plan out your week and when you are going to have time and energy.
I’m trying not think about the missing fingers in the truck.
Luckily I care about my job, and what people actually eat to make sure stuff like that doesn’t happen. Even if I do have to clean up my co-workers mess at times…ugh XD
I don’t think you’ve ever said what it is you do…
I’m a househusband, and I do most of chores while I’m waking up. (I do not sleep well because of medication.) My problem is balancing hobbies… I have too damn many of them! It’s a pain right now as I’m double-booked supporting the photo club at the County Fair, *AND* getting ready for a huge local SCA event. (That starts 96 hours after the Fair ends…)
I’m fairly deliberate in avoiding mentioning specifically what I do. Mostly because it is boring to others anyway but there’s also a few other reasons why it is better for that part to remain a bit of mystery.
Fair enough, figured it doesn’t hurt to ask.
No problem. While I’m fairly open with most things, there’s a list I have of topics that are just to not go on the blog. I may eventually re-evaluate the list it is what it is at the moment.
It sounds like that “Buy me a coffee” button isn’t just there for show! Click it, people!
Thank you. I wish it said buy me pepsi instead, but caffeine is definitely a needed substance.
Wow! Well, I don’t know how you do it and not have gone insane from tiredness or stress to be honest. I might be unemployed (medically struck off) but I am still busy with my DVD reviews. filmmaking endeavours or domestic duties but still don’t find enough hours in the day to do what I need or want to.
Kudos to you but please don’t but yourself out 😮
I’m assuming that last line was burn yourself out.
Honestly, I’m more likely to burn out on my day job than blogging and blogging makes it easier to face the day job so it all kind of works. And I’m pretty used to being sleep deprived these days given I’ve had sleep issues since I was twelve.
Yes it was meant to say “burn” . Sorry, didn’t have my glasses on…. 🙁
Well, like you I also have a job that really takes up a lot of my hours (unfortunately) Except on fridays, in the early morning I have about an hour where I read new posts, and place comments on posts/answering some myself and then I am off. On my breaks at work, depending how busy it is, I try to read the occasional comment/post, but most of the time I end up doing that when I am home.
I lately have a little bit less time to watch things ( I just have way too much hobbies) which is why I am looking forward to my 3 week vacation that I will have in September. I hope to catch up to a lot of things during that time. For now though I have two days off, and besided reading posts for the creator showcase, I will probably watch some stuff and finally finish a book I have been reading for ages 😊
Finishing a book always feels good. I was trying to get to the end of a light novel last week but kept falling asleep while reading so was making little progress. Last night I finally managed to finish it before falling asleep.
Well…you will be interested to know that the book I am reading is actually comprised of two different things: one is a manga, the other is a novel. And….it’s two new chapters for Another (yes….THAT Another).
I have read way too less the past few weeks, ugh. And I totally agree, finishing a book is fun. Glad you were able to finish one too 😀
That sounds exciting. Do you plan to review?
I definitely plan to review. I’m currently reading a lot of posts for the Showcase, but I also hope to finish the book tomorrow so hopefully I can find the time to write a review on monday 😊
Yea there isn’t really any time to really concentrate on play when work dominates on a day to day basis. It’s really admirable that you’re still able to keep up with reading many other bloggers’ posts and schedule content at the same time.
As I’m going back to studying (I mean working) again, that pushes all the anime watching and blogging to the weekends – If I have them. I have an ipad which I share with my mum, but she’s passing it to me during my studies, so I do reading 3 times a day on the go on campus using its wifi.
Woah your weeks sound so incredibly busy! Recently I’ve been way too focused on my blog and have neglected everything else. Today my mum actually reminded me that I’ve got whole thesis to write and research but I’ve just put it to the side for the last 2 months to do blogging 😅😅
Busy is good. And the way I see it, if I wasn’t busy with this and work, I’d find something else to be busy with. I don’t like feeling like I have nothing I need to do as it kind of just leaves me at a loose end.