Work-Life Balance

I've got a huge work deadline in just under a week* and I'm spending most of my waking hours either working or thinking about work. I'm normally pretty strict with myself about not working when I'm not actually in work but at the moment there is so much to do and so little time that I'm drowning a little bit.

When I first started working in the university sector at Coventry ten years ago (yikes!) I worked in a team where everyone hotdesked, worked from home and only had mobiles and laptops. In many, many ways it was fantastic and one of the most flexible work environments I've ever had. I still miss that freedom to just work wherever and whenever, particularly when the expectation in my current job is pretty much that I am in the office every day. With my commute being an hour each way this cuts into the rest of my life somewhat but it's manageable providing I start and finish on time. If I end up working late then it starts to feel like I'm living in the office which is pretty depressing.

The thing I didn't realise until I left Coventry in 2013 though was that it wasn't particularly normal to come in each morning, and particularly each Monday morning, to a full inbox. Because the team could and did work anywhere, it had created a culture of working any time as well - something that has obviously become increasingly common anyway with the rise of smartphones. Working in an "always on duty" culture as a fresh-faced and underpaid twenty-something meant that I quickly set quite clear boundaries about what work I was prepared to do out of hours which is something I try to stick to even now that I'm older and slightly better remunerated. That discipline goes out of the window somewhat when I'm working on a major project and whilst I would consider my willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done a strength I do sometimes worry about whether it's a particularly healthy habit. I get less sleep, I work longer hours, I have less downtime, I do less exercise, and I'm significantly less fun to be around. I also notice myself forgetting more, losing track of things more often, and even not being able to spell properly. This is admittedly only temporary, but I do feel like I'm using up too much bandwidth focusing on one project so singlemindedly and not giving myself enough time to recharge. Check back in 30 years to see whether I've lost my mind and my health completely I guess!

*I realise this is a very long winded way of explaining the larger than planned gap between newsletters... Normal service should resume from next week...

Stuff I've Enjoyed

Reading:
I've mostly been comfort re-reading the Wheel of Time still (now up to book 13 of 14!) but I've also finally got around to reading How to be a Grown Up by Daisy Buchanan. I've followed Daisy on Twitter for ages and lots of people I know were raving about her book when it came out earlier this year. It's essentially a guide to being a woman in your twenties and trying to get your shit together. Funny, personal and incredibly wise it's exactly the sort of book I wish I could have read when I was 21 or even 25.

Watching:
One of the things I really miss about living in Coventry is being 20 minutes away from the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon - I used to be a pretty regular theatregoer when it was easy to pop down and watch some Shakespeare on a random Tuesday night. It's a bit more of a faff these days as we're an hour away and need to make sure we don't abandon the dog for too long but we did manage to see Macbeth at the RSC last week. Christopher Eccleston played Macbeth, opposite Niamh Cusack as Lady Macbeth and some wonderfully creepy small children as the Weird Sisters. The staging was stark and modern, somewhere between dystopia and the current day (I mean it's difficult to tell the difference these days) and the play was incredible. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were brilliantly mad from the start and casting children as the witches was pretty inspired as gave the play a really creepy edge. I cannot recommend it enough - I think the Stratford run is nearly over but then the play transfers to London in the Autumn so do get tickets if you can!

Listening To:
I've been particularly enjoying the recent episodes of And Then What - a storytelling podcast hosted by Amy Jones and Becky Brynolf. Amy is again someone I've followed on twitter for a long time and also someone who writes a great newsletter so I've been listening to her podcast since it started. The format is pretty relaxed: Amy and Becky plus occasional guests take it in turn to tell stories - ones they've read, found on the internet, or written themselves. The podcast is hilarious, feminist, sweary, honest and frequently very moving - this week's episode was about teenage diaries and was so true to life it was like hearing my teenage diary read out!

Doing:
I did a triathlon! It was my first open water race since I had a major freak out at Bala last year - although admittedly the race at Bala was in storm conditions and I was perfectly justified in giving up about two minutes into the swim leg. However it has been a bit of a mental block ever since and I've not done a huge amount of swimming since last September. The recent heatwave has been motivational mostly because it's been too hot to do land-based exercise and I've managed to not only endure but enjoy a couple of open water swimming sessions which has been a real confidence booster. So who knows, I may yet manage an Olympic Distance race yet...

I'm off to lie on the sofa and complain about the oppressive heat whilst simultaneously stressing about work... See you next time! Cx