Writing and not writing

Assignment #11 for Writing 101 of Blogging University is about learning to take time out of your ‘work time’ for other things, for living life.

As much as we love to write, it’s important to take breaks — to live your life and have new experiences, and to reflect and recharge so you can come back to your desk, ready to hit the keyboard again. Not writing allows you to gain the distance from your words, and thus perspective, which are both needed when it’s time to edit.

What do you do when you’re not writing? How do you reset and return to this dashboard, refreshed? What do you need in your day-to-day life to maintain balance: Running? Yoga? Gardening? Painting? Cooking?

For me writing is not a ‘full-time job’ so it ends up being pretty easy to take time out and do other things. It’s the ‘other things’ that I need to learn to take a break from. Pet sitting, especially as a sole proprietor, can become an all consuming type of job if you let it. When I was first starting out there were many times that it became all encompassing because when you are new you don’t want to turn away any jobs. Now that I have been doing this for over 10 years, I have finally managed to be better at saying “No” once and awhile for my own sanity and so that I can attempt to live life. It is not easy, but I find it is very necessary in order to not get burnt out.

Writing and blogging for me is still a relatively new endeavor, so at the moment I am trying to establish a writing discipline so I do try to write often….but I can definitely appreciate the value of taking time out for life!

When I am not writing (or working), I am probably spending time with my animals. With my menagerie there is always someone that needs a clean cage, or to be fed or just needs a cuddle…and I do actually enjoy taking care of them so for me it is quality down time from the busyness of life. I also try to squeeze in yoga whenever I get the chance. My yoga time is my little peace of heaven in what is often a hectic schedule of running here, there and every where.

I also just need ‘down-time,’ I get very stressed out when it has been a day where I am on the go from early in the morning til evening. I have become accustom to the lifestyle of a pet sitter, which often involves chunks of the day where you tend to be busy and then an hour or two of down time in between the busy times. Those down times often end up being computer-time, reading, knitting or nap taking times and they make me a much better person when I get that down time!

Speaking of taking time off for enjoying life…now that I have finished today’s assignment, I am off, to spending some bonding time with my sugar gliders and working on some knitting that I started earlier today.