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Blogging Tips

24 September 2016

Finding Time to Find Time- 3 Steps to Balancing Life as a Blogger

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A balanced life is a rare prize that most of us cannot seem to find time to pursue. Finding time to find time- ha! Who has the time? But the truth is, in today’s world of perpetual wi-fi and 4g, we can no longer expect balance to find us. We are left to instigate our own harmony between work and play.

Time-off , downtime- whatever you want to call those moments when you are truly at peace, your phone far from your itching finger tips and your laptop closed down in another room- THOSE times- those times are what we are going to talk about and most importantly, learn to reintegrate into our ever-so-fast-paced lives.

I’ve created a general list of my top Three Essential’s toward making time for a real life. These are a great start toward finding more balance and peace for yourself, your family and even for your work. After all, a happy blogger creates better content.

1. Create Work Hours- Start times & End Times

One of the greatest challenges of self employment are the hours. Across all fields, free-lancers often struggle with the call of duty even at odd hours of the day. When you are your own boss and the weight of every client falls on your shoulders, it can be hard to shut your mind off to the work load. But there’s something so physiologically comforting about set hours- particularly that ending hour of your work day. Knowing that you logged a full day of work allows a sense of accomplishment rather than a sense of nagging guilt. You can feel entitled to your day being over when you know you accomplished a full work-day like anyone else would.

While I understand there are exceptions to this (sometimes you need to add a 30 minute evening social check-in etc) but I challenge you to make that a part of your everyday schedule so that it’s not invading the rest of your life. If you need those 30 minutes, schedule them in for the same time every evening, so that you can log off and go back to your “real life”. 

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2. Schedule Time for Yourself & Your Family- And make is sacred.

This part is important for bloggers in particular, because of the 24-7 demand to be online. Snapchat, Periscope and now Insta-story seem to weight us down with gilt anytime we put makeup on and try to spend a moment alone.

“Why waste a perfectly good hair day NOT online”, we think to ourselves.

A bloggers life is made up of never-ending deadlines and snapshots of what we’d like to call life, but sort of ends up being a never ending day on set. What kind of life is that? Especially for those who surround, love and would like to spend time with us? So my challenge is to schedule 2-4 social media-free hours into each and every week day. And when you schedule this time- make it sacred and make it truly inaccessible to work. This means, putting your phone and laptop in another room. It might mean wearing sweats and not doing your hair or going on a long hike where wifi is spotty. It definitely means saying no to clients are pushing a deadline to the next morning for the sake of our over all sanity, health and wonderfully balanced life.

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3. Go completely makeup Free and Wear sweats all day- Once a Week

No this is not a joke. And don’t wear cute sweats- I mean it! Because curling up in bed in some super sexy lacy thangs and then taking selfies for 3 hours does not constitute real life. What I mean by this is, get rid of every source of pressure to take photos. Put your ugliest comfiest sweats on, don’t do your hair or even put concealer on. Put your bloggers mail pile in a cabinet and lay down at a park or binge on TV or read a book.

Look at someone else in real life and talk with them over an ugly cup of coffee.

This is what balance looks like. And after a while, you’ll even remember what it feels like too; Enjoying food, beauty and conversation without the tainted perspective of “where is the best light” and “don’t drink your coffee yet!”.

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I know these tips may sound simple, but the true challenge is implementing them and creating space for real life to make its way back to you. Content creators are incredibly gifted and see beauty all around, yet sometimes we spend so much time capturing it that we lose sight of embracing the original inspirations. We lose out on a really wonderful, non-photogenic life.

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Comments

  1. Kyleigh McCollam says

    September 25, 2016 at 2:55 pm

    This is so true! I will definitely be trying to put my phone in another room more often. I’ve actually been doing that lately, and it has been working. Thank you so much for these tips!

    Reply
    • lavendamemory@gmail.com says

      September 26, 2016 at 5:00 am

      Oh, it’s so helpful right? Removing the temptation fully goes a long way, haha. Good luck sweet girl! xoxo

      Reply
  2. Rita says

    September 26, 2016 at 5:18 am

    Awesome post! Creating balance is very important. Great tips, thanks for sharing!

    Rita | http://www.styleroundtheclock.com

    Reply
    • lavendamemory@gmail.com says

      September 27, 2016 at 2:01 am

      Thanks for reading babe 🙂

      Reply
  3. Shelby says

    September 26, 2016 at 11:08 am

    Love this post! I am always looking for ways to use my time better and just bookmarked this post! This is why I’ve never 100% loved snapchat – makes it feel like even your downtime needs to be documented but I’m glad you feel the same way I do! Thanks so much for sharing!!

    xo, Shelby
    http://www.prettyinthepines.com

    Reply
    • lavendamemory@gmail.com says

      September 26, 2016 at 7:28 pm

      Oh thanks for letting me know girl! Yeah, snapchat is hard for me and I tend to only use it once a day or special occasions… We have to make those work decisions in favor of our quality lives sometimes 🙂

      Reply
  4. sarah lindner says

    September 26, 2016 at 12:36 pm

    Loving that watch girl! I find it hard to make time for real life esp with blogging!

    Great tips!

    xoxo
    Sarah Lindner
    http://www.thehouseofsequins.com

    Reply
  5. Nina says

    September 26, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Great post! I definitely need to work on those social media-free hours in my day.

    xx Nina
    http://www.theHSSfeed.com

    Reply
  6. Chelsea Deakin says

    September 26, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    such great advice! and I am obsessed with that watch, I have the same one and wear it ALL the time!!

    Reply
  7. Laura Beverlin says

    September 26, 2016 at 5:34 pm

    This is such a great post and a great reminder to log off and enjoy life. It’s so easy to caught up and used to our hectic blogger schedules. Great tips girl!!

    xo,
    Laura
    Styled Adventures

    Reply
  8. Morgan Klein says

    September 26, 2016 at 7:53 pm

    Thanks for sharing these amazing tips. I DEF need to try to put my phone in the other room!!

    Reply
  9. Bella says

    September 27, 2016 at 1:25 am

    Creating a balance is key!!! If I didn’t plan out my day I don’t know what I found do lol

    Reply
    • lavendamemory@gmail.com says

      September 27, 2016 at 1:59 am

      Haha. It’s SO true!

      Reply
  10. L says

    September 27, 2016 at 6:05 am

    Gosh I need these tips badly. Thanks for sharing!

    xo,
    L
    livingincolorblog.com

    Reply
  11. Greta says

    September 27, 2016 at 9:16 am

    Great read! I’m so bad about now having set hours and working all the time. Trying to find balance is key!

    Greta | http://www.gretahollar.com

    Reply
    • lavendamemory@gmail.com says

      September 28, 2016 at 1:00 am

      Oh it’s insanely difficult at first. It take persistence despite slide backs 😉 Good luck babe!

      Reply
  12. Sandy a la Mode says

    September 27, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    scheduling time for family is a must!!

    xo,
    Sandy
    Sandy a la Mode

    Reply
  13. Emily | Life With Emily says

    September 27, 2016 at 4:16 pm

    Girl I REALLY need to get better about having balance & I think this post is exactly what I needed to read! Perfect tips. xo

    Reply
    • lavendamemory@gmail.com says

      September 28, 2016 at 1:00 am

      I’m so glad it resonated with you! Thanks for your feedback 🙂

      Reply
  14. Maggie says

    September 27, 2016 at 11:46 pm

    I love #3!! You definitely need a break to do nothing blog related sometimes 🙂

    http://www.maggiealamode.com

    Reply

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