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Heading towards more balance in my life and work

My blogging experience started with a post about my typical day. I am still not sure anyone read it besides me ;) (note from 2013: that post is now removed) I now realize how hectic my life then was, and all because I thought I could be both a full-time ESL teacher and a translator. I can't, and I'm glad I finally realized it last year. That's when I reevaluated my work and made a choice to give up teaching through Skype with a company I used to cooperate with and choose translation as my primary work. There were many reasons for that. This year I took only 2 students who could come to my place to study and I am glad I made this change. I feel not as tired and overwhelmed this year, and I am thinking about adding a couple Skype students next year, we'll see.

But that alone wasn't enough to bring my life to a balance. This week I came across another great blog about/for freelancers. I loved the post there called "Living a Balanced Freelance Life". Since I already knew that I needed more balance in my life, this article really helped me make a decision to change my life style. I'd like to share with you a couple things that need to be changed.

First of all, I really need more physical activity. I tend to either sit at the computer or cook in the kitchen, or do some other chores, but I don't exercise. I have to admit, I'm lazy. =( Need to change this attitude and include daily physical exercises into the list of my good habits. By the way, please feel free to ask me later if I stick to the changes I made a decision about. Being accountable to other people always brings positive results!

I really liked the part that talks about not letting your life pile up. I certainly need to learn to balance my freelancer and housewife roles. I need to learn to manage my time wisely. When I am not too busy I love trying new food recipes, clean the house etc. But that's not always the case. That's another area that needs improvement. I need to learn to start my day with a quick clean-up and THEN move on to my teaching preparation, translation etc. I am glad I don't get up at noon, so I can actually have quite a few things done in the morning and I am going to use this opportunity!

But the hardest thing for me is PATIENCE. I am not a patient person. As any other freelancer, I sometimes get overwhelmed when I see the volume of work and analyze whether I can make it till the deadline. But I feel a lot worse when I don't have enough work, so as you may know I've been learning to wait and not to worry. I've been a freelancer for only about 3 years, so I am sure there are lots of things for me to learn. I am grateful that freelancing helps to deal with personal issues like time management, patience (or lack of it) etc.

March also brought some marketing decisions. I am going to close my google website (it is hardly ever visited any way) and make my blog, FB and twitter my main marketing tools. I am also thinking about making a profile on LinkedIn. If you have a profile there, could you please share if it is useful to you or not? Many thanks in advance!

So, I guess that's all the news for now. Wishing you a wonderful, productive and BALANCED week!

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