There’s no doubt that horse people have to juggle their barn goals, horse’s needs, with their families and job. We lament over how little time we get to ride or how little time we get to spend at the barn. It seems like life always has something in the way. And yet, authors also face this struggle. Not only do we have to worry about writing the book, but there’s publication and marketing. Even if we publish through a publisher, a lot of the marketing still falls on our shoulders.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter what our hobbies are. Music. Cats. Lizards. Parrots. Poultry. Everything we do takes up time and there’s some element of juggling involved. And yet, when you’re multi-passionate there are more balls in the air and more things to deal with.
Author work-life balance is a topic I’m passionate about. It’s one I’ll probably speak on again.
I find that organization is the key. Now, I can hear you groaning. Organization? What’s that? My favorite is a to do app. I happen to use the “to do list” that’s built into Windows 10 since I’m on my laptop quite a bit. Not only do I keep my rolling to do list of daily chores. Blogging. Scheduling social media. My daily word count goals. But I add in things.
Take today for example. It’s a “feed all the things” sort of day, so I’ve already mixed up the bearded dragon’s food for the week (I love Repashy just for this purpose.) and I have to bake the parrots’ “birdy bread” and cook up their “cook and serve” mix for the week as well. I’ll do that this afternoon because the lizard and parrot mom needs her egg muffins that she takes to work for breakfast.
Doing once a week cooking for the pets, keeping an organized schedule, and frankly, stopping the SQUIRREL! brain hiccups are the best things I can do to keep on track and keep writing. Speaking of which, I’ve got some edits to finish up on a new project and if you’ve read Hidden, you heard mention of the unicorns? Well they’re getting their own story and the writing of it is on this month’s to do list.
