I’m tired lately. And by lately, I mean for about the last two years. Since I graduated from Michigan State University and began my professional life, it seems I am always working in one way or another. I have my 8-5 job, but also side projects such as freelance editing and consulting – and there is also the looming (and massive) archiving project I’ve committed myself to for the last year. It seems 40 hours a week is just a myth.

It’s a situtation I’ve completely and totally created for myself. I can’t help it. I’m like an addict – if someone asks if I am interested in consulting, editing, whatever the side work may be – I can’t say no. The extra cash is nice, and I typically enjoy the work itself. The real problem becomes when I stop leaving my 8-5 life at the office door. I think about my day job a lot in the evenings, mostly just because I need to process my day. And a lot of the times, creativity doesn’t strike strictly between business hours. For instance, last Monday after an evening walk with my dog, I was hit with a “burst” of ideas about how to incorporate social networking into our marketing plan. It was 9 p.m. and I was sitting on my bed scrawling notes on a legal pad.

 
Blogger Holly Hoffman writes about finally finding a defintion for herself as a Generation Y “bursty” worker. I love the term “bursty workers.” I think that it does fit many who work in the creative field and are of a particular generation. It’s tempting to check your company email at 8 p.m., and I worry that the blurry lines are going to turn us into a generation of stressed out workaholics.

And I don’t think I am alone. It seems many of my peers are also working full-time jobs and taking on freelance work in the evenings. Are we just trying to pay off the student loans or is it the specific adrenaline rush we get when the possibility of a new project presents itself? (I’m not kidding. I get a rush when someone asks if I am willing to do a side project. It’s all I can talk about for days – just ask my boyfriend).

So how do we balance work and life? Is it better to work in bursts if it means that you get to lull around from 8 til 11:30 if you kick it in high gear from 6 til 10 at night? I think that would be ideal for many creative professionals, but offices don’t typically operate that way. The danger becomes that we end up working, or thinking about work, all of the time.

For me, this all stems from the fact that I had to give back my company laptop when I changed jobs. So the last two weeks I’ve been unplugged in the evening. And the strange thing is that I haven’t really missed it. So I’m not Tweeting from 6-10 p.m., and to be honest, I’m not Tweeting much between 8 and 5 either. And I’ve lived.

It’s amazing the clarity that a life unplugged can bring. Now I just need to figure out how to say no…

Tags: Holly Hoffman, worklife

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under Career. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.