For the past two years, I have balanced my full-time job as a teacher and my full-time job as a blogger. Though at time, I try to say that blogging is my part-time job, it is a full time responsibility. Both of my jobs require time from me outside of the “normal” working hours that are set. When the school bell rings at the end of the day, there is always work to do. And for my weekend office hours that I make for myself, I still have to work by answering emails, posting to social media, and so much more during the week.
There are days when I am fully exhausted, and on those days, I feel myself falling behind which only gives me anxiety and puts me back to work. Earlier this year, my husband and I even had argument about the amount of time that I don’t spend with him because both of my jobs took up each and every minute of my time. It was in those moments that I realized that I needed to find a balance. And I needed to find it immediately.
Today, I can proudly say that I have found a balance between maintaining my two jobs and still having time for myself. Especially since I’m the boss of one of my jobs, I have been able to set a schedule that works for me. And even in teaching, I have been able to find ways that give me extra time and not make myself feel overworked.
The biggest thing that I do is set a schedule and give myself reasonable due dates.
For teaching – I plan ahead and create a calendar that both my students can see and I can manage. With this calendar, I am able to prepare all my lesson materials early, give myself manageable due dates for returning graded work, and my students are able to know what work they should be doing ahead of time and what to prepare for an entire month ahead. At the end of each school day, I am able to simply put out my already prepared materials and I am ready for the next school day. This even gives me less anxiety for in the case that I am sick. No need to break plans with an emergency lesson plan for an unexpected sick day – the show can go on because everything is already prepared.
For blogging – I set a to-do list for myself with manageable due dates. And I make sure not to overwork myself. There have been times when I am overloaded with brand requests for collaborations and at this point, I do sit through them and decide which ones will work for me and which ones won’t. I will admit that there have been times where I turned down collaborations that didn’t work for me. Either the timeline would not fit or it was just something that I didn’t feel would work for me at this time. I always tell brands upfront what my collaboration timeline would be and I am very open about the fact that I am also a full-time teacher. Honesty in the blogging world goes a long way, and many people – brands, agencies, other bloggers, etc. are very accepting and willing to work with you if they want to work with you.
I am still in the works of perfecting my balance, but since I began focusing on finding that balance I have found more time to spend with my husband and get back to some of the things I enjoy doing such as reading new books and taking time to work on some writing of my own.
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Dress c/o Leota | Shoes – Charlotte Russe | Earrings c/o Bluma Project
{{Photos by Stephanie Vasilidias}}
