This week production re-commenced in our manufacturing location which was a huge milestone for me. It’s been lots of starts and stops as a result of COVID related restrictions. When production did start again in factories, PPE was prioritised, but now it looks like everything is up and running again. I’m waiting to get a revised timing plan and then fingers crossed I’ll begin to get lab dips and first samples through.

It’s been less of a frustrating wait this time round. I’ve been completely slammed at my other job, I’ve continued my investigations around design – a lot of umming and aahing to be honest – I need to make a decision soon, but mostly I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I haven’t written for two weeks now and I keep telling myself, ‘Yewande, even if nothing is happening, you should still write about what’s on your mind.’

This is not about Work – Life Balance

I decided a while back that this phrase isn’t for me. So many people use this phrase to discuss how they allocate their time and their energy between work and everything else. I feel like Work – Life Blend was the evolution of Work-Life Balance. The idea behind this is that the two spaces (work and life) don’t need to be discreet but can flow into one and other. This gets closer to my position.

The balance I’m trying to achieve isn’t work vs. life, it’s about what’s most important to me and therefore what demands my most energy and the best of me. Ideally, people shouldn’t hate their work. I know not everyone has a lot of choice in the work they do, but I don’t think many people – if any – love their work 24/7. Even if you don’t enjoy your work but you have a very clear reason why you do it (routine, income to support a family, prepping for retirement, mental stimulation), this often sees people through. I work a minimum of 40 hours a week, work is at least 47% of my awake hours on a week day…and often some of my weekend.

Mind you, these minimum hours I describe are simply my career work. Then there’s the work of being someone’s parent, those that know, know! This work tends to tick along in the background, regardless of what you’re doing, however that’s at least another 3 hours each day (again if everything goes according to plan). So where are we now? 8 hours of work work, 3 hours of running after / taking care of children, 7 hours of sleep (on average). To be honest I’m even surprised there are 6 hours left in the weekday. I guess by the time you commute (when we used to – now we’re just working longer), maybe go to the gym, catch your breath, eat, shower/get ready, read my bible and for me – try and fit in some Mummy’s Muse work – you can see where the time goes.

Life can be found in Work

This drives home to me the fact that where possible life should be found in work. I’m not going to romanticise things and pretend there aren’t days when I want to stay in bed, however I stopped looking outside of work to find life, but have tried to create work that I feel helps me live. It’s a big reason I started Mummy’s Muse.

While my Media job gives me a lot that I’m looking for from work, it doesn’t give me everything. Even while I’m working day in and day out, I’m always looking for the life in that work. For me, this is about mental stimulation – am I learning? But even more than this, it’s about working with so many people. My day job is very team based. It’s about getting to know them, helping them, celebrating their highs and getting through our communal lows together. This is how I find life in work. Another advantage of finding life in work, is that work can seem to be taking up more time than usual, there’s more of a motivation to make it through that season. I won’t lie, this can be really challenging.

With Mummy’s Muse, similarly I find life in the fact that I’m learning constantly, but also from the fact that I get to create and be responsible (to a large extent) for the success or failure of what I’m doing. A huge part of finding balance and feeling balanced is about ensuring you’re finding the time to do things you really want to do. In an upcoming post I’ll talk about how this was illuminated to me and what I’ve done as a result.