I’ve never been very good at juggling. Throwing balls in the air and catching them at the right time, in the right order requires more coordination than the gods and my genes have given me.
Metaphorically, I’ve been trying to keep a lot of balls in the air for a few months now. Sometimes, it feels less like juggling balls than flaming swords, given some of the stakes I’m working with.
Back in June, I decided it was time to self-publish the series of novels I’ve been working on for several years. I tried to go the traditional publishing route for these books and it just isn’t the right path for them. It took a long time and a lot of rejections to figure that out, but I’m glad I finally did.
I never thought I would be starting my own author business, but here I am. And I’m loving it! Content creation, public relations and digital marketing is something I do in day job and I’m excited to apply that to my writing business.
But I also have this day job that I love. And I have a husband and baby. And friends. And obligations to my community. It’s a lot.
But everyone has a lot of things that they are juggling at any one time. We all do that.
I’ve found that there is never enough time for all the things we want to do. We’re all busy. Priorities shift and change. It’s hard to know where to put our focus.
Something that helps me juggle all of this is putting my focus where my joy is. That is easy when it comes to my family. And I love my day job, although I have to put boundaries around it or it can take over. And I love writing and I even love the business aspects of marketing, social media etc.
There are times I look around and think I would like to add another thing, another ball in the air. Maybe I will someday. But for right now, I think I’ve got a pretty good rhythm with the ones I have.
Here are my tips for keeping creativity flowing while keeping all those balls (or flaming swords) in the air:
1) Focus on the things that bring you joy. I know not everyone can quit the job they hate right now, but if something isn’t bringing you joy, can you cut it out? Can you take steps in that direction?
2) Set a schedule. Things will suck up your time if you let them. I’m particularly guilty of this with social media. Set a timer if you have to. If things aren’t important enough to end up on the schedule, evaluate whether they need to be on your list at all.
3) Grab time when you can. Can you write or plan on a lunch break? Do you commute on public transportation? Use that time. I wrote a lot of books in my head while driving to and from work.
4) Ask for help. I ask my family members for help with childcare so that I can write. They are happy to help and I’m grateful for the time.
5) Write it all down. Seriously. I know it takes a minute, but bullet journal is the book I live my life by. And it helps to be able to refer to something, to focus on something. And it’s helpful to look back and see, “Oh, I haven’t gotten to that yet,” or “That seemed to work really well last week, let’s do that again.”
Tell me in the comments below how you make time for the things that are important to you.
