3 Powerful Work-Life Balance Secrets for Writers

Work-life balance often seems like an unattainable goal for writers.

We must fit writing into the spaces between our jobs, family, and communities, and those spaces can be super small. To find an audience for our stories, we must also build platforms and regularly engage in marketing activities.

We want to have it all. We want to work, raise our families, be involved in our communities, experience hugely successful writing careers, and enjoy optimal health, vitality, and joy.

That’s not asking too much, is it?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me—yes, that’s asking a bit too much. You may feel the same way.

Maybe you started out thinking you could do it all, but then you got burned out and started questioning that belief.

After over 20 years as a professional writer who writes books on the side, I’ve learned three secrets that have helped me continue to seek my best work-life balance. I say “continue to seek” because I haven’t yet arrived. I don’t know if I will ever be at a place where I feel everything in my life is perfectly balanced, and maybe that’s not an achievable goal anyway, at least not for very long periods.

Instead, I have learned ways to keep my writing career moving forward without sacrificing my health, while continuing to enjoy my work and family life.

3 Ways to Better Manage Your Work-Life Balance

1. Make Writing a Priority…Again and Again

You’d think after 20 years of writing I’d have no problem making writing a priority in my life. But there are times when I still have to remind myself to do it.

I am a full-time freelance writer—that’s my day job and how I support myself. What I consider “my writing” is the writing I do on this blog and in my books. And it’s that writing that can sometimes receive less attention than it deserves.

This probably happens to you too. You’re going along great guns on your story, and then suddenly you get a promotion and your workload doubles. Or you lose your job and have to find another. Or someone in your family falls ill and everything stops as you focus on taking care of them.

Life is full of surprises that disrupt our normal routines. When one of them shows up in your life, it’s easy for writing to take a back seat. You have other priorities, and there just isn’t enough time or mental energy to focus on both the issue and your writing at the same time.

The problem is that when these things happen, we writers tend to blame ourselves. We think we should be able to do it all, so during those times when we have to focus on other parts of our lives, we often feel guilty for ignoring our writing.

I’ve learned over the years that we simply can’t control these upheavals in our schedules. They’re going to happen no matter how much of a super multi-tasker you are, and when they do, you’re probably going to feel bad that you’re not writing as much as usual.

For Better Work-Life Balance, Recommit to Your Priority

What works for me is to simply recommit myself to writing as one of my main priorities…again and again. When I notice that guilty feeling—I’m not writing—I’ll make a mental note of it, then the next time I can squeeze 15 minutes out of my day, I’ll sit down and take a look at my schedule.

My goal at that point is to find a way to put writing back into my life. That may mean writing only on the weekends or writing 15 minutes four days a week. Using a calendar or a list, I’ll schedule that writing time, then try it out for a week. (Read more about “How to Boost Productivity with Calendars or To-Do Lists.”)

If the times I chose didn’t work, I’ll rearrange my schedule and try again. The important thing is to accept what’s going on and find a way to fit writing in somehow, even if I don’t get as much time as I’d like.

This always works. The instant I start writing again, I feel that balance return. If you find that you’ve drifted away from writing, I encourage you to do the same. Accept what your life is like now, and find a way to fit writing in. Even short periods, if you practice them regularly, can restore that feeling of balance in your life.

2. Achieve Work-Life Balance by Working in Cycles

To expect that you can work, raise your family, fulfill your community responsibilities, write, and regularly market your work is often expecting too much of yourself.

Writers have frequently shared with me their frustrations in trying to market as well as create their work. Even retired writers who no longer have to fit in a day job can experience similar frustrations.

I share those feelings, and though everyone needs to find a balance between writing and marketing that works for them, I do think we have to make sure that we keep writing in the first place.

By remembering that our job is to create, we can keep our feet firmly on the writing path for our entire lives.

If we get too caught up in marketing, sales, and social media, we can quickly become discouraged and that discouragement can bleed into our work. Nothing good comes of that, so if you find yourself walking down that path, please do redirect. (Read, “4 Obstacles Between You and Your Love of Writing.”)

We must not ignore marketing, however, as then we fail to enjoy the benefits that a thriving readership can provide. The secret, I’ve found, is to work in cycles.

Work in Cycles to Better Balance Writing with Life

I like to think of my writing and platform-building processes as seasonal. Rather than trying to write and market at the same time all the time, I can enjoy better writing-life balance by focusing mainly on certain activities at different times of the year.

I can explain this best by giving you some examples of my priorities and how they change with the seasons:

• Winter: This is the time when I focus most on writing. I have more time in the evenings and weekends, so I tend to get more words written. I focus both on the novel I’m working on as well as on my nonfiction projects.
• Spring: This is my “gearing-up” season when I’ll begin to plant the seeds for future appearances on blogs, podcasts, and writers’ workshops. I’ll continue to focus on writing, but marketing activities begin to become a bigger priority.
• Summer: Though I love to get outside more during this time of year, it often seems to be a super busy period work-wise, and I also devote extra time to family. If everything went right during the spring, I’ll also be busy talking to people about my work. This is an “out-there” season, so I typically get less writing done.
• Fall: Fall is my favorite time to step back and reflect. The marketing projects begin to slow down, and I make a point to take some time away to relax, look back, see what I’ve accomplished, and establish goals for the next year. This is also a time to focus on editing and when writing begins to take a greater priority once again.

This is a general overview, but you get the idea. The point is to decide what times of year work best for different writing and marketing activities, and schedule your time accordingly.

3. Work-Life Balance is Possible Only When You Forgive Yourself

We shouldn’t have to forgive ourselves for not being able to do it all, but I’ve found that it’s necessary anyway.

In a perfect world, we would naturally forgive ourselves whenever we fail to write or our subscriber list stagnates. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case.

Instead, you may blame yourself. You didn’t work hard enough. Too often, you were slacking off. You should have pushed yourself more.

Of course, it’s possible that maybe you were slacking off. But maybe you needed that time off to avoid burnout. Maybe you were plain exhausted.

Whatever took you away from your writing and platform-building activities, it doesn’t matter. Beating yourself up isn’t going to help, and if you allow it to continue, it can delay you from regaining your former motivation and productivity.

Forgive Yourself and Try Work-Life Balance Again

Rather than blaming yourself for whatever happened, forgive yourself immediately. I find it’s helpful to build a habit of regular self-forgiveness.

Didn’t get your writing done today? Okay, it’s forgiven. Let’s focus on writing tomorrow. Didn’t submit that guest post query? It’s forgiven, but let’s be sure to get it on the schedule for this week.

This sort of process doesn’t necessarily let you “off the hook,” but rather, focuses on redirecting your mental energy toward productivity. Instead of wasting precious time blaming yourself, it’s much better to use that time to concentrate on how you can best move forward.

Another part of this is to figure out why you may be falling behind. If something came up in life and you couldn’t help it, forgive yourself and move on. But if you haven’t gotten any writing done for a few weeks and your life has been pretty routine, take a half-hour to go for a walk and ask yourself why. It could be that something else is going on that’s blocking your progress. Figuring it out can help you move past it and start writing again.

Work-Life Balance is a Moving Target

I can sum up this post this way: Work-life balance is a moving target. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, something will change and you’ll be unsettled again.

This is normal. Expect life to mess up your writing and marketing routine, be kind to yourself, schedule your writing and marketing tasks in cycles, and be ready to start over again and again.

If you can do that, you’ll make steady progress toward your writing goals.

(For more help on achieving work-life balance, see Overwhelmed Writer Rescue.)

How do you manage work-life balance?

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