People ask me all the time how I balance creating content for the blog with all the less creative stuff that comes with running a business and the answer is I don’t. I am pretty much ride or die in this situation, and either I am super regular on my blog when with every single post published I missed out on yet another email in my inbox, or I am living a secretary life, regularly managing all of my administration, filing tax receipts while almost forgetting where I put my camera last time I used it.
But here come the good news. Even though I constantly feel in struggle, or almost like that string cheese that you can pull so hard until it breaks I am still over here hanging in one piece. I still never missed the tax deadline or disappeared for way too long. My social media channels are regularly updated and my YouTube is pretty consistent, I am publishing new post every other day (or at least thats the plan for May) and I am maintaining my personal life to some extent (with maybe some construction undergoing)…
So how is it that I balance it? Hmm I guess I dont, I just try to prioritise, and its like having two glasses, one is completely full the other is 1/2 full, I try to pour from the full to the slightly less full all the time, and then in that sense balance the content of water between two pretty full glasses or 3/4 full glasses to keep them from overfilling.
If you are unfortunate enough to meet me at the time of too many deadlines, you will often hear me say “I need to do the stuff thats burning first”, that is really what my balancing comes to always – good priorities. I try to write a list of everything that needs tone done, creative and non creative, and then I assign the numbers of importance next to it. If the tax deadline is tomorrow, you wont see me shooting a blog post.
Ljudi me cesto pitaju kako balansiram dva aspekta svog posla, stvaranje sadrzaja za blog i onaj manje kreativni deo koji dolazi sa vodjenjem kompanije. Odgovor je a zapravo ni sama ne uspevam. Na tom polju sam osoba koja ide iz krajnosti u krajnost, ili sam veoma azurna na blogu, gdesa svakim postom koji objavim me ceka nekoliko neodgovorenih mejlova u inobxu, ili zivim zivot sekretarice, citam ugovore,slazem racune za porez a istovremeno ne mogu da se setim kada sam poslednji put nesto slikala za blog.
Ipak, za vas imam i dobre vesti. Iako se konstantno osecam razvuceno i samu sebe podsecam na onaj sir koji morate jako razvuci dok ne pukne, i dalje sam u jednom komadu. Do sada nikada nisam propustila nijedan rok, porez placam na vreme, na drustvenim mrezama sam redovna, na Youtube vec mesecima objavlljujem dva videa nedeljno, na blogu svaki drugi dan (ili je to bar plan za maj) istovremeno posvecena sam i ljudima u mom privatnom zivotu (mada mozda bolje njih da pitate).
Pa kako to balansiram? Hmm i dalje ostajem pri tome da sam losa u toj igri. Zamislite me sa dve case vode, jedna je puna a druga puna do pola. Sve vreme presipam iz jedne u drugu kako se nijedna casa ne bi prelila.
Ako nemate srece, srescete me u nekom trenutku kada imam gomilu rokova pred sobom. Cucete me da kazem “Moram prvo da zavrsim gorece stvari”, to znaci da moje balansiranje uvek ima veze sa prioritetima. Napisem na papir sve sto moram da uradim, onda im dodelim brojeve po vaznosti pa krenem. To znaci da me nikada necete sresti u spa centru kako popravljam nokat dan pred predavanje poreza, ili kako slikam nove outfite ako imam prepun inbox “gorecih pitanja”.
Its though working like that in creative industry as ideas and creative juices flow when you don’t expect them to. Like I am writing this post currently on the plane to London, even though the plan was to sleep. I had to stop everything to get my lap top from the overhead compartment, and may I add cause a lot of commotion getting it out of my little suitcase, while people were waiting to sit down, but I knew I simply had to write this post now. No excuses, the idea of balance is really something that was drilling my head.
So what is that work and personal balance then? In my opinion its something like trying not to get fired or dumped, just about scraping through, and definitely not getting award for the employee of the month, or girlfriend of the month. It also doesn’t mean losing sleep because you work whole night, because come on, beauty sleep is so important. It means doing work when its work time, and really enjoying yourself after. My biggest problem is working all the time, and I do that only when I don’t put 100% in. I work 18 hours per day, because while working I also play with my nephew, look out of window, dance to Rihanna and read about latest update on Beyonce’s Lemonade drama. Not the best choice.
I now learned that balance is really giving 100% of yourself to work during work hours, so that you can finish it more efficiently and then give 100% of your precious time to your friends and family when work is done. Balance really means being efficient and managing time well, and you can only do that if you appreciate your time while working or resting. I ll leave you to think about it, as something is burning on my list.
Tesko je raditi u kreativnoj industriji i planirrati unapred jer nikada ne znate kada ce vam se javiti ideja. Trenutno pisem ovaj post u avionu za London – a nameravala sam da spavam. Sve sam zaustavila, i krenula da vadim kompjuter iz kofera koji je vec bio odlozen u onom pretincu iznad glave. Ljudi su cekali da udju u avion, a ja sam vadila kompjuter. Ovo je bitno, ideja o balansiranju mi je probijala glavu i morala sam da nesto napisem.
Pa sta je onda to balansiranje izmedju posla i privatnog zivota o kom svi pricaju? U top si formi i balansu ako jos nisi dobio korpu ili otkaz, ali ne ocekuj da budes nagradjen kao zaposlenik meseca. Ovo takodje znaci ne gubiti san, nema te kreme koja moze nadoknaditi propustene sate u krevetu. Balansirati znaci raditi kada je vreme rada i odmarati kada je vreme za odmor. Moj najveci problem je previse rada, ponedak sedim u kancelariji po 18 sati, a to cinim samo kad izmedju mejlova pricam sa necakom, plesem uz Rihannu, gledam kroz prozor ili citam sta je novo u Bijonsinoj drami Lemonade. Kao sto mozete zamisliti, ovo nije dobra ideja.
Naucila sam da je balans kada date 100% svoje paznje radu dok radite, tako da mozete dati 100% sebe dragim ljudima i odmoru posle rada. Balans podrazumeva dobro raspolaganje vremenom, a to mozete uraditi samo kada postujete vreme i odmor. Ostavicu vas da razmislite o tome, jer mi nesto zaista gori na listi…
