As brilliant as my job is and as fantastic as it is to be a blogger, that doesn’t mean it’s not stressful. We’ve all got deadlines, our inboxes are usually pretty full and there can be a huge overlap between our work and personal life. Especially for those of us who run a blog alongside a full-time job, it can be hard to find a cut-off point.
Sometimes, we become so consumed with everything we want to achieve in our career and with our personal brand that we forget about our own self-care. If we keep on running without pausing for breath, it’ll hit us in a very negative way. We can’t keep performing at our best unless we look after selves. What we need to do is figure out when enough is enough. But no matter how much control we think we have over things, sometimes it all just gets on top of us.
Over the past month, I’ve been very close to the point where I’ve run myself so far into the ground that the climb back up doesn’t seem manageable. I'm pushing myself with my blog to publish content every day, because it’s a change I wanted to make. I'm creating the #BloggingBreakthrough eBook for you. And from January until March, I'm doing two to three evenings a week at my job meaning I’ll be working 12+ hour days – not including blog work.
By Friday, I can be absolutely exhausted. So lately, I’ve been making some changes so I can really let go, switch off and enjoy my weekend. Today, I wanted to share these with you, in case you have a hectic week.
#1 Set Boundaries
It was only in December that I talked about the importance of setting boundaries in the run up to the festive season – but this applies to all aspects of our lives.
We've got to find that cut-off point.
Building boundaries between our career, blog and personal live is something we’ll probably be trying to master for a long time. I'm still figuring it out. But I always try my best to ensure my deadlines and to-do lists don’t spill over into the time I dedicate to relaxing and enjoying myself.
If a person didn't have a blog, they’d be able to come home and have a decent chunk of time to relax. For me, and some of you reading this too, we have to make our own rules. We have to decide how much work we’re going to do and when we’re going to stop so we can spend time with loved ones. Tom and I always give ourselves a deadline of when we’re going to stop working and after that, it’s our time. If we didn't have these things in place, we’d just work all night, which isn't healthy.
Don’t burn yourself into the ground. Your health and your relationships are more important than getting that blog post up within a limited amount of time.
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