Find a balance between life and work.....

M

mrleesimpson

Guest
I speak to a lot of people in business who tell me that they find it hard to get the balance right between work and life, and although I get this from people in all sorts of sectors the people I hear it from most are those involved in the design industry.

Personally I question all the time if I'm working too much (not to be confused with too hard) and if I'm giving enough time to everything else. For starters I've got piles of unwatched DVDs, unread books and lists of personal stuff to do that never seem to get done.

So how do you make sure that you get the balance right between your work life and non-work life?
 
I think it's important to have days where you switch off. I always give myself a day or two each week where I try to do things that are not design related.

I think managing your time well is the key to a good life/work balance. Give yourself a few days off every week so you can watch those DVD's and read those books. And then try to be as productive as possible all other days of the week. I also find that sometimes it can be beneficial to leave whatever project you're working on for a little while and then return to it with fresh eyes.

I work full time in an agency and when it's not busy I spend the time doing my freelance projects on the sly. So I never really do much design work at home. Sometimes I'll do some freelance work over the weekend but I always have at least one day where I don't turn on my computer and do other things. So I'm pretty happy with my life/work balance at the moment. If you only do freelance work I guess it can be a bit more difficult.

Work to live, don't live to work! ;). Now get away from that computer and go get hammered! :cheers:
 
I work in education and find I have a terrible work/life balance. I am frequently working till 9-10pm either marking or planning and can't see it changing any time soon!
 
I think when you first start out as a freelancer, freetime is non-existant. I sort of blend my free time with my work time (it works for me - might not for others).

But when you first start, your so panicked about getting everything 'done' and 'right' you don't rest as much as you should. Eventually though, you get into a routine and will find that rest time.
 
To a certain extent when your a designer work is life... most of us are constantly being influcenced by what we see, inspired by what we read. People confuse design with constantly sitting behind a computer when if thats all you do you'll never be a good designer, a copy cat perhaps? but not a true designer...

It's important to keep time away from the computer, the tv, email, texts and I ususally find when I've been excluded from all the norms mentioned above I come back to it to produce some of my best work.

Popping out for a coffee when your stuck or under pressure even can do wonders I find.
 
Some good points there guys.

One thing for me is I find it hard to detach myself from work. Even when I'm not staring at a monitor I'm thinking all the time about one work related thing or another.
 
mrleesimpson said:
Some good points there guys.

One thing for me is I find it hard to detach myself from work. Even when I'm not staring at a monitor I'm thinking all the time about one work related thing or another.

Hi, I'm Berry, I'm a workaholic.......
The best advice I took to create some daylight is to take a lunch hour. Stop at a SET time, for 1 whole hour AWAY from your desk and your computer - no surfing. Have some food read a book, go to Starbucks or go jogging. Anything that breaks the day physically. Now you have 2 parts to your day rather than 1 long one. It is hard at first but it does create separation and breathing space. It also makes your work area less of a prison.
 
I'm liking Berry's idea.

When this happens to me, I tend to go meet a few mates somewhere, have a bit of a laugh and forget about work for a while, otherwise the stress makes me want to hide in a dark room for the rest of my working days.
 
I've now decided to work only 10 hours a week on my freelance work. It helps to give yourself a target and it doesn't seem as daunting!
 
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