There’s no such thing as too much work, it’s great having clients, new projects and still have a balanced life. But sometimes work swallows us alive… maybe because we let it and maybe because it’s just the way we like to live life.
I love working and I’m becoming a workaholic, I need to have the feeling that my work is under control, so that I’m OK with me. I would love to have an ON and OFF button in order to separate work from all the rest, but I have to confess that I have a hard time doing this.
I’ve never dealt well with criticism, with having fingers pointed at me, and I work to keep all that from happening. Which pretty much means I’m always working, even when I sleep… I know that I often do final artwork in my head and I review it over and over again.
But now that we’re already in March, I’ve realized that there are many things that I’ve stopped doing.
1. I stopped photographing
In recent years, I’ve learned so much about photography (the advantages of having friends who are professional photographers). I started to use my Canon more and more, I even bought a new lens and I used to create scenarios just to take my own photos and create my own content. But the truth is that I haven’t picked up my camera in over 6 months.
2. I forget birthdays
And not even Facebook helps me out because those are precisely the ones I forget. I work with social media, I create content plans for my clients and time flies by so quickly that I end up not remembering to leave a happy birthday message.
3. I wasn’t particularly concerned about gift giving
I didn’t even have time to think about it and I assumed right off the bat that the “excuse” of not having time was justification enough for not giving gifts to almost anyone at Christmas and some family and close friends’ birthdays.
4. I’m allergic to texts and WhatsApp
I developed an allergic reaction to messages because I rarely reply. I can only focus my attention on one single channel (in my case email) and I haven’t been able to keep up with all my messages. I receive them, I see them and if I don’t reply in that instant, I’ll completely forget about them.
5. My social media accounts have been slowing down
I love creating my own content, planning my month on social media, thinking about new ideas to launch, and in recent months this hasn’t happened. I’m half asleep on this subject. 2018 was the year that I published the least photos on Instagram… And I haven’t commented on almost anyone’s posts. It’s funny to see that, in recent months, my Instagram captions say very little, they’re getting shorter and shorter.
6. I simply stopped reading
I keep buying books and stacking them by my bed, and taking them to work with me. I started some, but never finished them. When I pick up a book to read, I can’t even finish a paragraph without falling asleep immediately.
7. I went from 2018 to 2019 without inventing anything new
I don’t want to be an inventor or a scientist, but every year I challenge myself to create something new for my business. And no, I haven’t created anything new (yet).
8. I didn’t attend any course or workshop in the last year
I signed up for one, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to go. During the last year I didn’t even consult an online course, something that I’m actually in the habit of doing.
9. I doubled my work hours
I’ve always thought that working all night was a sign of bad time management, but I think I’m slowly changing my mind. I’ve been working more hours, weekends, because in order to feel relaxed, I need to have my work under control.
10. I said was going, I would visit, and I didn’t go anywhere
I thought I could go to Porto, host more workshops, visit friends who have invited me over so many times, go to birthdays… Visit my clients’ stores more often, and I wasn’t able to.
More than 10 reasons, these are 10 failures. Time that I didn’t take advantage of properly, time during which I was working, time during which I didn’t talk to anyone, and mostly I stopped doing things that were a constant in my daily life.
One of these days…
I’ll be able to resume some of the things I haven’t been doing.