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            <h2>Setting goals as a freelance writer and mum.</h2>
            <div><h3>Goals help motivate, inspire and drive you forward.</h3></div>
            <div><p>medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><p id="b06c">But that is all work, right? When do I have downtime? When do we spend time together as a family?</p><h2 id="cf78">How do I balance my freelance business with my family?</h2><p id="0d80">To ensure I maintain balance, I <b>aim to have at least one evening a week work free and one full day of the weekend (either Saturday or Sunday) is dedicated to family day.</b> Eventually, the aim will be to have the full weekend for the family.</p><p id="a628">However, with balancing both children, school, kinder and nursing shifts, my work time during the week has decreased. Meaning I have to work over the weekends sometimes to ensure I get all my client projects completed. Not to mention my own work, bookkeeping and general tasks to run my business.</p><p id="7b6c">You may be asking right now, but when do you do housework? Groceries? Laundry? I will say grocery delivery or click and collect is an amazing time saver! It is the perfect time management tool! Rather than an hour or so at the supermarket, they are delivered to your door or you shop online and a personal shopper grabs it all off the shelf for you and has it waiting for you to pick up at a specified time.</p><p id="5e6a">I also use a <b>6-week rotating meal plan</b> so I save so much time on meal planning each week!</p><p id="3dc0">My husband and I share the cleaning duties. Well kind of. I do tend to do the majority of it as he works 5 days a week, and I don’t want us to be cleaning all weekend instead of fun family activities.</p><p id="642a">And laundry….well that just gets done when it gets done! Haha!</p><p id="675b">There simply aren’t enough hours in the day, week, month or year for everything.</p><p id="d035">I have learnt to let it go. I cannot do everything. The children won’t remember the baskets of laundry waiting to be folded, or the pile of mail waiting to be filed. They will remember their parents being present and enjoying family time.</p><div id="0577" class="link-block">
      <a href="https://r-m-writing.medium.com/what-is-mental-load-df086bda6110">
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            <h2>What is “mental load”?</h2>
            <div><h3>A woman’s unseen labour.</h3></div>
            <div><p>r-m-writing.medium.com</p></div>
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    </div><h2 id="8290">The key I found is to prioritise.</h2><p id="7152">To help me prioritise and ensure I have some fun during the week, not just work, I write out a list of what I need to achieve for that week. Then I break it down into what I HAVE to do each day.</p><p id="0eaf">At the moment, I usually only have an hour to write a day, sometimes more at night. So all the things on my list need to be completed in a timely manner.</p><p id="d04c">Around what I absolutely have to do, including housework, cooking and the never-ending piles of laundry, <b>I schedule in “family time”.</b> To me, the family is my number one priority, so I have to make sure I spend quality time with them. My diary is scribbled on and highlighted, wrinkled and torn. I would be completely lost without it.</p><p id="de56">I am a bit of an organisational control freak, so I have to-do lists for absolutely everything. With how crazy busy my life is at the moment, I rely on these lists to ensure I get all my daily tasks done. I have to work hard to stay motivated, and not procrastinate. If I waste time getting things done, then it cuts into the time I get to spend with my family.</p><p id="a49f"><b><i>The most important thing I hope you take away from this is it is important to schedule in family or downtime. You have to take care of yourself and your family.</i></b></p><p id="ca51">How do you maintain your work and life balance? Have you found any tricks to help? I would love to read them in the comments.</p><figure id="0976"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*h9dPuo9QZI2uwbsoedvWjg.png"><figcaption></figcaption></figure><p id="2cf7"><b>Rachel Maree</b> is a writer, mum and registered nurse. Bringing you the real truth to parenting, nursing and writing (even when it is downright ugly). You can read more articles or <b>hire her</b> to write amazing content for you — <a href="https://www.rmwriting.com.au">Rachel Maree.</a></p><p id="8a49"><b>To grab your free essential ebook “Best Tips To Create Compelling Content” <a href="https://courses.rmwriting.com.au/medium-sign-ups-1">sign up here.</a></b></p><p id="0294"><i>If you want to make sure you NEVER miss a great Medium story (by me or the other amazing writers here)<a href="https://medium.com/@r-m-writing/membership"> <b>sign up here</b></a><b>. </b>It’s $5 a month, and gives you unlimited access to Medium.</i></p><p id="f795"><i>Full disclosure, when you sign up using this link I get a small kick-back from Medium. Hopefully enough for that cup of coffee I desperately need! ☕🤞</i></p></article></body>

How To Balance Work And Life

The secret to a successful life

There is a constant struggle to maintain a “healthy” work and life balance.

You have to work to live, that’s a given; but how much work is too much?

Where do you draw the line?

When do you spend time with your family?

How do you maintain the balance?

These questions and more have been on my mind lately. With 2 children, running my freelance writing business, and working rotating nursing shifts, a work-life balance is even more important now than it ever was.

I have found this is the most difficult aspect of my writing journey.

There are so many articles and blogs out there touting the benefits of work/life balance.

We all know why it is important to maintain this balance, but how do we do that?

The great thing about writing is you can do it anywhere!

Down by the river whilst having a picnic, at the coffee shop, out in the backyard, on a break at work, on long car trips. Like I said, anywhere!

The important thing to try and remember is to seize any downtime I have and use that to write. So amongst the housework, the mothering, nursing, and being a wife I write. This way I can balance my writing career with all lives other needs!

With two children, those down times happen during “quiet time”. It is an hour-long period after lunch where the kids go to their rooms and play quietly (sometimes they fall asleep). I have planned exactly what I am going to do during that hour and I smash out some work. During the week this downtime is easier as my 5-year-old is at school and I just need to balance work around my 3-year-old.

We are quite strict with our children’s bedtime. They have to be down between 7 and 7:30 pm every night. Routines are great for children….and for us work-at-home-mums too! Once they are down I usually have another hour or so where I can work.

Setting goals as a freelance writer and mum.

Goals help motivate, inspire and drive you forward.

medium.com

But that is all work, right? When do I have downtime? When do we spend time together as a family?

How do I balance my freelance business with my family?

To ensure I maintain balance, I aim to have at least one evening a week work free and one full day of the weekend (either Saturday or Sunday) is dedicated to family day. Eventually, the aim will be to have the full weekend for the family.

However, with balancing both children, school, kinder and nursing shifts, my work time during the week has decreased. Meaning I have to work over the weekends sometimes to ensure I get all my client projects completed. Not to mention my own work, bookkeeping and general tasks to run my business.

You may be asking right now, but when do you do housework? Groceries? Laundry? I will say grocery delivery or click and collect is an amazing time saver! It is the perfect time management tool! Rather than an hour or so at the supermarket, they are delivered to your door or you shop online and a personal shopper grabs it all off the shelf for you and has it waiting for you to pick up at a specified time.

I also use a 6-week rotating meal plan so I save so much time on meal planning each week!

My husband and I share the cleaning duties. Well kind of. I do tend to do the majority of it as he works 5 days a week, and I don’t want us to be cleaning all weekend instead of fun family activities.

And laundry….well that just gets done when it gets done! Haha!

There simply aren’t enough hours in the day, week, month or year for everything.

I have learnt to let it go. I cannot do everything. The children won’t remember the baskets of laundry waiting to be folded, or the pile of mail waiting to be filed. They will remember their parents being present and enjoying family time.

What is “mental load”?

A woman’s unseen labour.

r-m-writing.medium.com

The key I found is to prioritise.

To help me prioritise and ensure I have some fun during the week, not just work, I write out a list of what I need to achieve for that week. Then I break it down into what I HAVE to do each day.

At the moment, I usually only have an hour to write a day, sometimes more at night. So all the things on my list need to be completed in a timely manner.

Around what I absolutely have to do, including housework, cooking and the never-ending piles of laundry, I schedule in “family time”. To me, the family is my number one priority, so I have to make sure I spend quality time with them. My diary is scribbled on and highlighted, wrinkled and torn. I would be completely lost without it.

I am a bit of an organisational control freak, so I have to-do lists for absolutely everything. With how crazy busy my life is at the moment, I rely on these lists to ensure I get all my daily tasks done. I have to work hard to stay motivated, and not procrastinate. If I waste time getting things done, then it cuts into the time I get to spend with my family.

The most important thing I hope you take away from this is it is important to schedule in family or downtime. You have to take care of yourself and your family.

How do you maintain your work and life balance? Have you found any tricks to help? I would love to read them in the comments.

Rachel Maree is a writer, mum and registered nurse. Bringing you the real truth to parenting, nursing and writing (even when it is downright ugly). You can read more articles or hire her to write amazing content for you — Rachel Maree.

To grab your free essential ebook “Best Tips To Create Compelling Content” sign up here.

If you want to make sure you NEVER miss a great Medium story (by me or the other amazing writers here) sign up here. It’s $5 a month, and gives you unlimited access to Medium.

Full disclosure, when you sign up using this link I get a small kick-back from Medium. Hopefully enough for that cup of coffee I desperately need! ☕🤞