I took a trip a few months ago. It’s kind of crazy that so much time has already passed and I’m just now getting this up, but that just furthers the point I’m about to make… Vacations and mental separation are necessary parts of not only a work-life balance, but productivity, creativity, and your well-being.
My Work-Life “Balance”
To give you a run-down of my day… I am a night owl. I focus best after midnight for some strange reason. For example, I’m writing this sitting on my living room floor at 2:30 AM… So, I tend to work late hours and sleep in. I’m always tired because I don’t usually get much sleep even though I sleep later than most people. I still work 8ish-hour days. And tend to work 6 days a week - trying to work my way down from 7 days a week to 5 days a week.
But here’s the thing, I work from home. I have no separation of work and life. My office is in my living room. When I try to work, I’m distracted. When I try to relax, I’m stressing out about something I should be doing. People often suggest going to a coffee shop or something similar as a way to get out of the house. For me, that just doesn’t seem to work. I have a hard time focusing with a bunch of constant movement and noise around me. I really think that’s part of why I focus best at night - nothing is happening. I wish I had an office I could go to and leave work at when I walk out the door, but that’s just not an option right now. So, I’m constantly stuck in a place of being stressed-out rather than relaxing.
So, Why Did I Tell You All of This?
Well… a few of reasons.
I am always honest with people - sometimes to a fault. But most don’t actually know when I’m struggling with something.
I constantly feel that with being my own boss and having a free-flowing schedule people think I’m not busy. That’s not the case. I make time for those around me as much as possible - even when I need to work (again, sometimes to a fault).
I wanted to talk about how this affects me (and other creatives). BURNOUT!
How It Affects Me
Well, let’s start here…
I currently own 2 businesses. Jonathan Wade Visuals & Cardinal Films (which I co-own). Jonathan Wade Visuals is the company that I do all of my freelancing through. I’ve created a couple websites and done event photography, but my main focus is video production. After a main client of mine stopping bringing me so much work, I turned to creating wedding videos. That turned into something. It turned into something I couldn’t really handle all on my own. So, I started Cardinal Films with a guy I had worked closely with for the prior 2 years. Since publicly announcing the opening of Cardinal Films in August, we’ve filmed 8 weddings. Many don’t know what kind of a workload that brings. Each wedding from start to finish takes us somewhere between 50-70 hours of work. Could it be done more efficiently? Yes, but we’d lose quality. So, we have a lot of work on our plates.
Well, back to work-life balance. Since I started doing wedding videos, I’ve ran into more and more procrastination and burnout. Burnout is something I deal with almost daily it seems. When you burnout, it’s almost impossible to make yourself actually work on something or be excited to work on it. For creatives, who have to constantly put their heart and sole into things, burnout is pretty much the worst thing you can come across. It’s crippling. And when your both always stressed out and burnt out, it can lead to bad health, sub-par work (at least from my perspective), inability to focus, and altered personalities. Ask me how I know.
That’s Exactly Why I Needed This Trip!
When I was asked about going on this trip my first thought was about money. My second was about how much I needed to go on this trip despite the money. It was the first thing that was new and exciting to me in a while. I couldn’t wait to go. I was ready to leave about 2 months ahead of the trip. Everyone who went was part of my small group at a church my wife & I just started going to this past spring. So, I wanted to get to know them better. Most of the people on the trip, I had known for a while before going to the church anyways though.
What I was really excited for - bare with me - was losing cell service and internet. I finally had a reason to not stress out about work. I could relax 100% and just focus on enjoying myself. And besides the fact that I’m an introvert who is constantly aware of how awkward I am, I enjoyed myself the whole time. It was so refreshing! We enjoyed nature, played with cameras, took tons of pictures, played games, took naps, went to local shops and parks. The only thing I didn’t like about this trip was that it only lasted 3 days. I can’t wait for the next time I get to do something like this.
Even creating this video was a relaxing thing for me. I got to create something that no one was expecting and no one would care if it turned out poorly. That’s the best feeling. Creating something just to create it. It’s not something I get to do very often, but it’s why I started working in video production in the first place. It can be a privilege to work on the things you do. It can be a super-fun vocation with a ton of perks. But only if you are mentally on your game and prepared to work hard. I think that’s true for all creators & all careers.
It’s Okay To Relax
Being busy all the time is not a great thing. I know a lot of people think that staying busy is a key to success, and to an extent it is. But if you’re always busy, you’re going to hit a wall. And it sucks to hit that wall. Having a work-life balance is the most important thing a self-employed person (or any person) can do. Sometimes we have to realize that even something like playing a video game or taking a nap is being productive, because we are relaxing for once and recharging ourselves. Nothing good comes from overworking.
So… work hard, but not too hard. Learn to relax and take time to enjoy life. Take up that hobby you’ve been wanting to. Take that trip that you may not feel like you can afford. Put your phone down for a minute and enjoy the sunshine. Life is what you make it. Make it enjoyable.
