Scrapbook / Web Design & Devleopment

Work & Home life balance

Trying to maintain a work & home life balance is much more difficult than it may initially appear.

In the last few weeks since finishing my placement year, I have been doing some work for my previous employer. I can maintain some income while in the transitional period of finishing my placement year and going back to university to complete my final year at Plymouth University.

I don’t currently have a dedicated workspace. I set up the big monitor and the laptop on a table and go. This means when it came to stopping, it was incredibly difficult! I really enjoy what I do and found myself working all day and into the night because “I didn’t see the time” or something along those lines. From this experience I learnt that you really need to take time off from your busy schedule to enjoy life, maybe any hobbies you may have, for example, I enjoy photography.

It is potentially the hardest thing about being a freelancer and working from home. I have read many articles on this sort of thing before and they all say to have a work and social life balance otherwise you start to feel a bit rubbish, who wants to work ALL of the time. I have previously done this with another project and just kept working either because I didn’t realise the time or I came across something I really wanted to solve. This proved problematic resulting in high-stress levels and illness due to the strain in working too many hours and not getting enough rest.

I highly suggest to anybody in the same situation to take this into account because we do all need some chill out time to do other things we enjoy. Here are a few articles from other sites that I have found that may also be of interest.

How To Be a Successful Freelance Programmer & Developer From Day One

The roadmap to becoming a professional freelance designer – Smashing Magazine

How to Manage Your Work-Life Balance and Reduce Stress

Finding Your Balance as a Freelancer

Freelance Designers: How to Balance Your Work Life

What next?

Check out some of my work!

I'm constantly working on new and exciting projects. Check out my web design and development portfolio with write-ups on how each project was conducted. Looking for some great photography? Check out my latest photography articles or browse the whole colection. Finally, I love to write. I write about everything from the web and photography to many other subjects that interest me.