I have a bit of a confession to make: sometimes, I forget to have a life. I forget to text my friends, I forget to do chores, or sometimes I even forget to eat food or make time for a bubble bath. For a few years now, my priority has always been working.
I think it started during my Bachelor's Degree. There was a point where I really wanted to do well but still had an actual social life, but in my third year I was single for the first time in six years. I didn't really know what to do now that I was suddenly alone most of the time, so I poured myself into my degree. After that I did a Master's Degree, and even though I'd moved on and had another boyfriend by that point, the habit of overworking stuck around. Master's Degrees are much more intense and I felt like I was drowning in work, and making sure I stayed busy felt like the only way I was ever going to keep on top of it.
Fast forward to 2016, and I'm self-employed and trying to make a name for myself as a freelance photographer/videographer, vlogger and blogger while also doing administration work for my mum. It's safe to say that my to-do list is pretty long. The thing about working for yourself is that there's always something that needs to be done. I'm not saying that the tasks will necessarily be big, just that they're always there. There are always tweets that need to be scheduled, videos that need to be edited, blog posts to be written, and emails to reply to.
So why do I do this? Why is staying busy so important to me?
Well, I guess deep down I believe that the harder I work now the more successful I will be in the long term. I pour days of my life into YouTube videos because I believe that they will get noticed. I'm spending my Sunday writing this week's blog posts instead of watching Netflix in my pyjamas or playing The Sims because I think in the long term it will be worth it.
Perhaps there is a way to stay productive, but still be able to have a social life at the same time... I just haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
What do you think? Have you mastered the work-life balance? Or do you do too much of one and not enough of the other?