Day 04: Post-It Question, 48 Hours Later

Challenge: Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them.

Bonus: tweet or blog a photo of your post-it.

So, how do I find balance and focus -- but still keep up (and have some fun)? I love my job, but it tires me out. Like most people, I think, I struggle to find energy to be productive at anything once I get home. I want to spend time making healthy meals, hanging out with my husband, practicing at drawing, keeping my house clean, reading and maybe even blogging every once it a while. Very often, I end up curled up on the couch watching television and eating delivery. At least my husband is often curled up with me. On the weekends, I might get some things done around the house and get errands taken care of, but I also spend a lot of time curled up on the couch with a book or the laptop, or in the evenings, again with the TV.

Over the years I've spent a lot of energy trying to change these habits. I've cut way down on television. Whereas I used to keep it on for noise, a habit I grew up with, I now try to only turn it on when I have sometime I specifically want to watch. I try not to channel-surf at all. It's been hard. I've thought about giving up television entirely, but there are shows that I really enjoy, and if I can keep it to those shows, I think that's fine. I have developed a new habit of Big Bang Theory on the iPad before bed, though, and I think once I'm finished with that I'm going to have to resist adopting a new show. Overall, if I have down time, I'd rather be spending it reading.

Social media is also a time drain, and sometimes an energy drain as well. For the most part, I enjoy it and I feel like it keeps me connected and informed. I also like to keep up with what's new because I help out with social media campaigns at work, and I feel like I need to keep up to do that. But sometimes I get overwhelmed, and I start to ignore it all a little bit. I don't want to talk to any one, or look at my email, or answer any messages. Some weekends I try and stay away from all of it entirely -- turn the phone off, avoid Twitter, Facebook, email -- all of it. It's nice.

I'm not sure I'll ever achieve actual balance, but I'll continue to try. Attending art classes and figure drawing sessions have helped me carve out specific times for drawing practice, and I'm starting to find time here and there on the evenings and weekends. In my head there is a perfect version of me -- an organized, effictive little machine. I'm well aware that it's not who I am, but it's who I will continue to aspire to be.