My parents were visiting over the last two weeks, so instead of stressing over trying to balance my work with my visitors, I spent almost that entire time without writing anything. Since I'm a workaholic, I was kind of nervous about not writing, but it turned out to be easy. No book editing, no copywriting, no blogging, no emails, no essay writing, no queries, no nothing.Out of not writing, came two ideas for my writing: one for a book and one for an essay.
I guess you could say that not writing is productive too. Maybe I should relax more often.
How do you schedule time away from writing? And if you have visitors that come for long periods of time, do they respect your work even if you work from home?
One problem with being a writer and working from home is that most people think you don't work, or that you're on call at any time. Unless you're a best seller, it's seen more as a hobby than anything else.
ReplyDeleteWith three kids, I have no choice but to balance my time, especially in the evenings when I would really love to write and write. When I have visitors, I don't even try to write much because they end up standing over my shoulder trying to read it! Argh!
I hear you. My parents are respectful of my work, but still. It's very hard to concentrate in a small apartment filled with people! So I just decided not even to try. It was worth it to take a break.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about this as one of my best friends was visiting. Because I'm so far from home, I want to soak every minute with people I don't usually get to see. At the same time, I have work to do. I did manage to do both this time, but regretted not spending more time with my friend. I think you were right to just prioritize your family. Though I live in Paris and LOTS of people come through to visit. So I kind of have to continue working through it or else I'd never get anything done!
ReplyDeleteThat's what's so hard about living far from friends and family. When they do come to visit, it's so intense that it's hard to do anything else. Priorities are different when living abroad.
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