My friend, Ozoz, is a phenomenon.

She’s a geologist, a blogger, a recipe creator, a “traveller by plate”, a photographer and a cook. She’s also a mom. She’s  given a TedTalk, appeared on TV a few times, held a photography exhibition and recently collaborated on #TechmeetsArtng.

I, on the other hand, struggle with staying awake long enough to update my blog.

Forget work-life balance. I’m not even sure what that is.

I think about this often: how to balance my day-job with my creative life, my social obligations, my family life, my spiritual life …and a need to sleep. Sleep is winning, I must admit.

Someone commented once that she’s not sure how I do everything. The truth is, I don’t. Some days, I should be writing and I just want to bake chocolate chip cookies instead. So I bake the cookies and eat them as I mindlessly scroll through Pinterest and Twitter.

I console myself with this TedTalk by Nigel Marsh. I’ve listed it in my post on the  5 TedTalks Every Young Professional should watch. In this particular TedTalk, Nigel jokes about being able to balance his life only after he quit his job. Lol.

Importantly, he talks about achieving work-life balance long term, not day-to-day. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Sometimes, work is pretty hectic for a month or so, and there’s no way to “balance” things without looking like a jerk to your team mates. And then, there are periods when things are sort of chill, and so you can easily take time off to do other stuff.

Still, I admit I could make more effort. So when @theIbukun pointed out on Instagram that the Google Calendar app allowed you to schedule your micro-goals, I immediately downloaded it. (Clearly I depend a lot on technology to keep my life organized. Re: my post on my favorite apps.)

I’m trying to kick off my old habit of doing “pages” first thing in the morning. I have to wake up early enough to write 3 pages in my journal. Rant and ramble. I got into it because I read The Artist’s Way last year.  I can do it. Technically, I’m awake feeding my lad at 4:30 am. But then once I’m done, I just want to close my eyes and catch the last 30 minutes of sleep before my alarm goes off. I told you sleep was winning.

What do you think? Do you have your life all balanced out? How do you do it? Or are you struggling too?

P.s. If you’ve asked me a question in the last few months (via comments, emails, the Facebook page or the contact box) that I’m yet to respond to, please resend it and I’ll get to it asap. Thanks!