Work-Life Unbalance
Jan. 22nd, 2015 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjI don't have a random Thursday topic yet, though I might chat about my initial impressions of Scrivener if I have time on my lunch hour. But it's been a while since I nattered on about anything of trivial everyday moment, and I was chatting on Twitter yesterday about the alleged work-life balance, so I though I might talk about how that's going for me at the moment.
I sometimes note that, for an allegedly "creative" person, I'm most productive when I have a fixed routine. That routine changes in accordance with the seasons, but when I settle into something that achieving my goals of the moment, I tend to stick with it even if some details are non-optimal.
Take commuting, for example. On a theoretical basis, I'm a whole-hearted supporter of mass transit and I have a BART commute that works fairly well for ordinary purposes. But that BART commute means that I spend, in whole, an hour at each end of the day dealing with transit, of which only half an hour (tops) is an uninterrupted stretch in which I can pull out my iPad and get something productive done. Where "productive" may only be "reading something" if I don't have an actual seat on the train. If I then do my gym workout on my lunch hour (which pushes it out to an hour and a half), then my routine goes something like: alarm at 6:30, at work at 8:00, off work at 5:30, home by 6:30, 3.5 hours to try to get something productive done including dinner and e-mail, in bed by 10:00 asleep by 10:30. In theory, I have a total 4.5 hours of "me time", but in reality it takes a lot of strength of will to work on writing projects in the evening and everything gets pushed to weekends.
In contrast [ETA: "if I drive"], if traffic is no bar (on which more below), the commute only takes half an hour at each end of the day, and I can use the time either to dictate story bits or to listen to sff-related podcasts (which is quickly becoming one of my go-to methods of keeping up with the field). But traffic: there's the rub. Because if I'm on the road after 6:30 in the morning or before 7:00 in the evening, that commute could easily get doubled and suddenly I'm feeling a lot less productive. I can shift my whole day earlier, but that isn't always compatible with necessary meetings and appointments at work. And the simple fact of the matter is that whatever my intentions, it's very hard for me to settle in to writing in the evening after work. So here's an alternate schedule (the one I'm currently on):
Alarm at 5:30, coffee shop in Berkeley ca 6:15 writing on the laptop, at work at 8:00, research or writing on my lunch hour, off work and to the gym at 5:30ish (because somehow I never actually get away at 5), done with workout and on the road at 7:00, home at 7:30, 1.5 hours for anything productive, in bed by 9:00, asleep by 9:30. In theory, I have a total 4-4.5 hours of "me time", of which about 3 are spent on writing. But almost nothing else gets done. I get home and have no interest in cooking dinner, any e-mail that needs to be responded to gets pushed off to the weekend (though read in snatches during the day). And keep in mind that shopping, housecleaning, and setting up the next day's lunch and clothing comes out of "me time". The only thing that really saves me is that I'm quite low-maintenance when it comes to getting ready for the day.
When the days lengthen enough to add a bicycle back into the commute mix, everything shifts around again. Substituting the bike for the BART shuttle actually trims about 15 minutes off of each commute leg. The gym workout shifts back to lunchtime. And all I need is the willpower to write in the evenings. But at that time of year there's also gardening and yardwork to throw into the mix (since I'm actually home in daylight on workdays).
The big thing that my current focus on writing has cut out? Doing much of anything other than scrambling to keep my life in order on weekends. But at the moment, it's what I want to be doing. What am I writing? If you're reading this, you probably know. Current projects are: 2 new novels in progress (Mother of Souls & Floodtide), revisions on The Mystic Marriage, 1 short story (untitled - Margaret of Parma) and 1 novelette (Hidebound) in various stages of writing/revision, and the constantly ongoing Lesbian Historic Motif Project blog. On top of that, any sort of writing or research I commit to for publicity purposes (guest-blogs, con panel preparations, etc.). And when I get tired, I contemplate what life would be like if I had children on top of that.
I sometimes note that, for an allegedly "creative" person, I'm most productive when I have a fixed routine. That routine changes in accordance with the seasons, but when I settle into something that achieving my goals of the moment, I tend to stick with it even if some details are non-optimal.
Take commuting, for example. On a theoretical basis, I'm a whole-hearted supporter of mass transit and I have a BART commute that works fairly well for ordinary purposes. But that BART commute means that I spend, in whole, an hour at each end of the day dealing with transit, of which only half an hour (tops) is an uninterrupted stretch in which I can pull out my iPad and get something productive done. Where "productive" may only be "reading something" if I don't have an actual seat on the train. If I then do my gym workout on my lunch hour (which pushes it out to an hour and a half), then my routine goes something like: alarm at 6:30, at work at 8:00, off work at 5:30, home by 6:30, 3.5 hours to try to get something productive done including dinner and e-mail, in bed by 10:00 asleep by 10:30. In theory, I have a total 4.5 hours of "me time", but in reality it takes a lot of strength of will to work on writing projects in the evening and everything gets pushed to weekends.
In contrast [ETA: "if I drive"], if traffic is no bar (on which more below), the commute only takes half an hour at each end of the day, and I can use the time either to dictate story bits or to listen to sff-related podcasts (which is quickly becoming one of my go-to methods of keeping up with the field). But traffic: there's the rub. Because if I'm on the road after 6:30 in the morning or before 7:00 in the evening, that commute could easily get doubled and suddenly I'm feeling a lot less productive. I can shift my whole day earlier, but that isn't always compatible with necessary meetings and appointments at work. And the simple fact of the matter is that whatever my intentions, it's very hard for me to settle in to writing in the evening after work. So here's an alternate schedule (the one I'm currently on):
Alarm at 5:30, coffee shop in Berkeley ca 6:15 writing on the laptop, at work at 8:00, research or writing on my lunch hour, off work and to the gym at 5:30ish (because somehow I never actually get away at 5), done with workout and on the road at 7:00, home at 7:30, 1.5 hours for anything productive, in bed by 9:00, asleep by 9:30. In theory, I have a total 4-4.5 hours of "me time", of which about 3 are spent on writing. But almost nothing else gets done. I get home and have no interest in cooking dinner, any e-mail that needs to be responded to gets pushed off to the weekend (though read in snatches during the day). And keep in mind that shopping, housecleaning, and setting up the next day's lunch and clothing comes out of "me time". The only thing that really saves me is that I'm quite low-maintenance when it comes to getting ready for the day.
When the days lengthen enough to add a bicycle back into the commute mix, everything shifts around again. Substituting the bike for the BART shuttle actually trims about 15 minutes off of each commute leg. The gym workout shifts back to lunchtime. And all I need is the willpower to write in the evenings. But at that time of year there's also gardening and yardwork to throw into the mix (since I'm actually home in daylight on workdays).
The big thing that my current focus on writing has cut out? Doing much of anything other than scrambling to keep my life in order on weekends. But at the moment, it's what I want to be doing. What am I writing? If you're reading this, you probably know. Current projects are: 2 new novels in progress (Mother of Souls & Floodtide), revisions on The Mystic Marriage, 1 short story (untitled - Margaret of Parma) and 1 novelette (Hidebound) in various stages of writing/revision, and the constantly ongoing Lesbian Historic Motif Project blog. On top of that, any sort of writing or research I commit to for publicity purposes (guest-blogs, con panel preparations, etc.). And when I get tired, I contemplate what life would be like if I had children on top of that.
