Prioritising

This morning I read a post written by my friend Belinda of The Happy Home. It was exactly what I needed to read, to absorb, to contemplate and to put into action. You see lately, I have been torn between all the various projects I have on, my job(s) and being a mother, a partner and a student. Actually, not just lately. This has been a struggle of mine for a long while now. Maybe you can relate?

Sometimes, most of the time, I drown in it all and all I can do is to churn out a few quick blog posts between lunch breaks or when everyone is asleep because my family and job are a priority. Every day I prioritise and some days I am successful in getting it right and other days I'm not so great at it. I try not to be hard on myself when this happens.

The blogging world has changed over the years. I have been in it for 4 years now and have seen so many of these changes. Social media has taken off and I agree with Belinda, at times it feels as though if you aren't in it then you are missing out. But how do you get yourself in it when every day you are prioritising your time down to the hour?

What has been great to see though with the growth of social media and blogging in general is people embrace blogging as a profession. Four years ago there were only a small handful of people who could call themselves full-time bloggers and people wanted to know what their secret was and could they do it too? And now they are. Many of my blogging friends have quit their day jobs to push their blogs even further and how cool is it that they are doing what they want to do?

I have had a lot of time over the years to think about the bigger picture for ish & chi and it has never been more clear. My intention has never been to become a full-time blogger, I won't be quitting my day job, but to have this blog as a platform that allows me to work on my design business and to share/learn/grow which writing for ish & chi helps me do - with the added great bonus of being able to connect with you too. I owe a lot to blogging. It helped cement in my mind that I wanted to explore a career in interior design and decoration. I took up studies three years ago and soon I'll be finishing the course. I'm also working on various projects through sponsored projects on ish & chi (e.g. the kitchen project) or external projects (e.g. a new restaurant I am designing at the moment). Four years ago, taking on interior projects for clients would have been just a dream.

But it hasn't been easy. It has been so much hard work and many sleepless nights and oh, I'm sounding like I'm complaining but I don't mean to be! Focusing on the design business outside of my full-time job has been quite liberating for me. I have stopped focusing on things like google analytics which I barely check these days and my attention is now turned to working on cool projects that I can share here too. So I'll keep dreaming/building/growing and do what I do professionally and personally and hope that one day, somehow, I'll find that perfect work / life balance and switch off technology when I should. I'll get it right one day. I know I can because I'm in control of it. I hope this post makes some sense and that I'm not rambling. I'm writing it in a hurry today.. but that's no surprise.

Are you a blogger and do you use your blog as a platform to share your work or are you hoping to pursue a career in your chosen field through your blog? Do you want to be a full-time blogger? Are you unsure or do you write because you simply love to write?