Maintaining Balance

As an aspiring author, a soon-to-be-graduating college student, an adult with responsibilities (and bills), and a social creature by nature, this last month of really getting started on my career path has made it starkly obvious how hard maintaining balance can be. Despite having made it this far in life, I never before realized the real importance of time management. Until now I have always just done what's necessary to make everything work, even if that meant pulling all nighters or simply deciding that I can forgo the completion of some things in order to finish others. I know now that, especially once things start to kick off spectacularly (I'm hoping for some self-actualizing prophecy here!), just making it work really won't work. Here are some of the things I've started to do now so that by the time they are necessity they will already be habit.

1. Scheduling

I have owned a massive white board calendar for years. I bought it my freshman year of college thinking that I would hang it on the wall above the desk in my dorm, put all of my assignments and due dates on it, and that I would look at it and be reminded every time I sat down to do homework (HW). I never hung the board up, and I never used the desk, choosing instead to do my assignments sprawled out in my bed instead. At the start of this year and the start of my adventure I finally hung it up, eye level over my dresser on the wall in my own home. On it is marked, in different colors of dry erase markers, my self-imposed deadlines for the release of content, books and page numbers for reading assignments from class, and, in the notes section on the side, dates when bills are to be paid and small reminders. "Interview today. Prepare content beforehand!"

2. Deadlines

I am a terrible procrastinator. Since hearing Squidward Tentacles say it when I was very young I've held the mentality "why do today what you can put off til tomorrow?" (Don't get me wrong, I was a procrastinator before watching Spongebob, the show just helped me to put it into words.) Somehow, though, I have managed to be a good noodle through all my years in school and get done all (well, most) of the things I need to get done. However, this has been the motivation behind many a late night cram session and fevered essay writing. It's also been the source of much undue stress for myself.

Since beginning this adventure I've made it a point to set deadlines for myself. It may not seem very important right now, but it will very quickly become a necessity as the school year comes into full swing and I begin adding more writing to my portfolio. (Currently I release content every Wednesday on Patreon, but soon I'll start releasing more, up to possibly three times a week.) I've also given myself pre-deadlines for post dates. My pre-deadline for my Wednesday post content is Tuesday at noon so that I have time enough for a peer to review and edit the work and for me to revise it.

Sticking with these deadlines will relieve some of my stress once I get into the swing of things, and having a set schedule for "work" writing will allow me to more easily plan writing times for school and "work" together.

3. Pre-Planning

Because I am very spontaneous, pre-planning is often the hardest thing for me to do. Be that as it may, in attempting to balance work, school, responsibilities, and a social life I'm learning that planning is the best thing I can possibly do. By setting times aside for myself as times to work on content for specific deadlines and assignmnents, to read for school and pleasure, and leaving myself slots for housework, chores, and free time, I have made my life much easier than it would be if I didn't have a schedule.

For myself, my schedule is fairly malleable. If I am in a rhythm and words are flowing, I may extend my writing time by half an hour to an hour in order to keep that rhythm. (This happened last Monday when the writer's block that had been tormenting me shook loose and I wrote 13 pages of content in a span of two hours, though I'd only planned for one.) The most important thing, though, is that responsibilities trump everything. For now, my due dates for school assignments trump my self-imposed deadlines for content.

The easiest pre-planning method for me has been to make a list each night before I go to bed of all the things I need to accomplish the next day. In the morning I wake up, look over the list, and allot time to complete each task.

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Overall, these are extremely basic methods of maintaining balance between work, school, adulthood, and play, but they've definitely been working for me so far. My problem will be sticking with them until they become second nature and I don't have to remind myself anymore. What methods do you use to maintain balance in your own adventures? How do you stick with those methods?