A Week in the Life of a Work From Home Writer (Why I Suck at Work-Life Balance)

It’s been at least 2 years since I’ve done a day in the life post. Time really flies.

I found it helpful reading these types of posts when I was a new blogger as well as when I was thinking about quitting my day job to run my online business full time.

I like to share my daily routine, work schedule for anyone who’s curious about what it takes to run a blog or freelance. Some people get confused about what I do for a living and if it’s actually work 🙂

Trust me, it is. I work just as much as I did (if not more)  now than when I had my 9-5 job. I truly love what I do though and it’s a blessing that I get to help others and make money doing it.

Self-employment has allowed me to increase my income rapidly helping me pay off my debt faster and save more.

Related: A Day in the Life of a Full-Time Work-From-Home Mom

Here’s the thing though, my schedule is pretty flexible and no day is ever quite the same. That’s why this time around, I decided to share a ‘week in the life’ style post to go over how I structure my weeks and what I do each day.

Monday – Wednesday

I typically split my work week up in two main sections. Monday through Wednesday, I spend most of my time freelancing.

I have a few freelance writing clients and two virtual assistant clients. For my VA clients, I mostly do blog management which includes editing and scheduling blog posts along with some light SEO work.

I try to write at least 3 client articles per day from Monday through Wednesday. Most of my writing clients are in the personal finance niche and a few are in the small business niche.

I enjoy working with all my clients and covering topics that are important to me. Some clients have me pitch ideas to write for them while others assign topics. To be honest, I like the mix of both options.

Sometimes I’m feeling creative and passionate about covering certain topics while other times my brain is fried and I just want to be told what to write 🙂

Related: 22+ Websites That Pay Writers for Guest Posts

Thursday and Friday

Once Thursday hits, I switch over and start focusing more on doing tasks for my blog. I may have a client meeting on one of these days but otherwise, I focus strictly on My Debt Epiphany.

I do things like:

• Write and edit blog posts
• Schedule social media
• Write and schedule emails for my subscribers
• Seek out potential partners for my brand
• Work on special products like webinars, products, etc.
• Learn a new skill that will help me grow my blog business (currently, I’m focused on improving my copywriting skills and getting better at Facebook ads)

Overall, it takes a lot of moving parts to keep things running smoothly. You can check out the link below to see how I actually monetize my blog and how you can do the same if you have a blog or niche site.

Related: How to Make Money With a Blog or Niche Site

I aim to spend around 10 hours per week on my blog. I recently started tracking my time with a free tool called Clockify and it’s helping me work more efficiently.

To continue working smart, I also outsource a few things so I’m not doing everything by myself.

I hire out:

• Contractors to help me publish more valuable content on this site
• A virtual assistant to help me with special projects
• Some social media work and scheduling
• Graphics creation – I hire someone to design my Pinterest images for this site as well as some of the graphics for my digital products and custom-made resources because I can’t design stuff for diddly squat

Weekends

Yes, I work on weekends more often than I’d like to admit. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I suck at work-life balance. Sometimes, I don’t really give myself an off day because I’m trying to meet deadlines and get stuff done.

Sometimes, I have to take time off during the week or take a trip and usually end up working weekends to catch up or prepare for the time off. As an example, last week I went on a field trip with my son on Friday so I spent some time on Friday evening catching up on stuff.

In general, I like to be at least one week ahead on all my freelance writing client work so I’ll use weekends to catch up and make sure I’m always ahead.

For a freelancer, I’d highly recommend working ahead when you can. You don’t get paid when you don’t work. So if you need to take time off, it helps to already have some of your work caught up so you can still earn an income.

Sometimes I get up on Saturdays around 8 am to write an article or two if I didn’t get it done during the week. If I didn’t get around to scheduling social media posts on Friday, I’ll use weekends to do this as well.

Daily Schedule

Here’s what my schedule is typically like on a weekday.

6:00 – Wake up. Do daily devotions, stretch, drink water, and check a few emails. I like to go through emails before I start working for the day because I feel anxious if I don’t. I may work on a small task during this time as well if I feel up to it.

My husband takes the lead on getting our son ready for son up and ready for school in the morning and I’m so grateful for that. I handle the after-school stuff, but mornings are super important to me as it’s when I have the most energy and feel most productive.

7:00 – 7:45 – Gym. I try to go to the gym in the morning for at least 45 minutes. I’m really not a gym person, but I sit on my butt all day so I have to do something. The weather is cold currently but I’d rather just ride my bike or do something active over going to the gym for a formal workout. However, mornings work best for me so I can get it over with. I try to make it to the gym at least 3 times per week.

If I don’t go to the gym, I usually just get ready and start working around this time.

8:00 – 8:30 – Get back from the gym. Eat breakfast and get dressed for the day.

Getting dressed each day is new for me because I work at home and for the past 2 years, I’ve been tempted to just work in my pajamas for most of the day until I go somewhere. This can backfire sometimes when I have to jump on video meetings with clients and feel like I’m looking crazy.

Getting dressed actually makes me feel better and more productive. It also helps me take myself more seriously so I try to do it 🙂

8:30 – Start work for the day. The work I do depends on which day of the week it is. My goal during this time is to time block and knock out my most mentally challenging tasks for the day.

I try to limit social media time, distractions, and emails.

10:30 – Quick break. This is not an official break time, but I know for a fact that I tend to take a quick 10-20 minute break during the morning.

My husband walks our 13-month old dog multiple times per day so when the weather gets nicer, I’ll start to go on morning walks with them.

10:50 – Back to work.

12:30 pm – 1:15 pm – Break for lunch. I usually each lunch at home with my husband, since he works from home too. If we’re out at a coffee shop or the library, we’ll either come home for lunch or grab something.

1:15 pm – 3:00 pm – Another power hour for work. This is the final countdown in a sense for me because once I get my son from school, it’s more difficult to work distraction free.

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm– Pick up Jordan from school. The school is fairly close but it takes this long because there’s some traffic and I have to sit in the pickup line for a bit.

When we drive home, he tells me about his day along with all the happenings and cute drama going on in his 3rd-grade class.

3:30 pm – 4:45 pm – Homework and finishing up for the day. During this time, Jordan does his homework and I take advantage of the time to squeeze in a little more work myself if I need to. On Wednesday, I have a drum lesson around 3:30 pm so that also keeps me occupied during this time.

5:00 pm – Either I or my husband starts dinner and we start cleaning up around the house. I may listen to a podcast while I do this of just chatting with the fam. We also try to prep things for the following day while dinner is cooking. This means picking out clothes packing lunch for Jordan, planning future meals, getting organized, etc. Jordan usually has his free time.

6:00 pm – Dinner. Dinner is not at a strict time but it just depends on what we’re doing for the day or if we have anywhere to go in the evening.

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – If we don’t have anywhere to go in the evening, we’ll just have family time at home. Sometimes I’ll visit my mom and siblings who live close by or they’ll come over. Other times, we’ll play a game (we’re obsessed with this one right now), watch a movie or whatever.

8:30 – Get Jordan ready for bed. Jordan never wants to go to bed so it’s a struggle. He purposely takes 30-minute showers and asks for snacks to stall his bedtime I feel, haha. I’m lucky if he’s in bed by 8:30 but it’s usually no later than 9.

8:30 – 10:30 – This is wind down time for my husband and I. We usually talk, watch a show, or read a book together. Right now we’re reading a marriage communication book. I heard from a couple that it’s super helpful to read a book with your partner out loud.

Other days, we are just bombarded by the day. My husband may go out to Uber for a few hours after Jordan goes to sleep and I may do some evening work. I really don’t like working nights, but sometimes I just do it.

My husband helps me do some things on my blog so I may spend this time checking over some of the stuff he’s done, assigning tasks to him, contractors, and my VA in Asana or basically prepping for the next day.

10:30 – Bedtime. Sleep is so important to me. If I don’t get enough sleep, I won’t be getting up early in the morning and I won’t function well. By this time, I’m usually exhausted anyway and ready to knock out and catch some Zzzzzs.

Why I Feel I Suck at Work-Life Balance

I’m pretty pleased with my daily/weekly schedule as of now, but I do feel my work-life balance could be better.

I actually don’t believe in finding the perfect work-life balance, but I do feel it can be such a struggle especially when you side hustle and work from home.

Sometimes, I feel like I work wayyyyy too much and have less time for my social/personal life which is why I feel things could be better.

Here are some of the reasons why I feel I suck at work-life balance.

Social media – Like most people probably, I feel like I waste too much time on social media. I run a Facebook group and I also try to be active in a few other Facebook groups, but I’m really trying to keep my time limited on social media.

I recently deleted all my social apps except Instagram. I try to put my phone away in the evening and give myself some dedicated time to check social media once in the morning and once in the afternoon. I’m actually thinking about turning on a timer on my phone to help ensure I’m not wasting too much time on this.

Working nights and weekends – I really want to stop doing this. I think it all just comes down to planning and putting work away at a specific time.

I have every intention to not work weekends but stuff just pops up sometimes whether it’s work I didn’t get to or tasks like updating my accounting spreadsheet to track business income and expenses.

Sometimes if I have nothing to do in the evening, I’ll get out my laptop and start doing things like scheduling social media content while watching a show or movie. Often times, it doesn’t really feel like work, but I want to have more set hours and not feel tempted to do this during the weekend.

Working on the go – Okay so I picked up this really bad habit of bringing my laptop with me whenever we go somewhere that is more than 30 minutes away. Sometimes we go to visit my in-laws or other friends and if the drive is more than 30 minutes, I’ll often bring my laptop so I can type and crank out a blog post on the way.

By the way, I’m currently typing this blog post while on the way home from a weekend in Wisconsin.

Is this a genius move or just plain workaholic? Be honest! On one end, I feel like it’s productive because I probably wouldn’t be doing anything during the ride anyway and I can get some work done so I can relax when I get home. On the other hand, I feel it makes my husband seem like my driver and discourages a conversation between us during the drive. I’m torn on doing this!

Not scheduling in time with friends – Maybe it’s just something that happens when you get older, but I find it hard to keep up with friends because we all have careers, family, responsibilities, etc.

I feel it just comes down to keeping lines of communication open and scheduling in time together. I need to start showing up for my personal life just like I do for my professional life.

That means scheduling in time with friends and date nights with my husband so I can get it on my calendar and prioritize it. At the very minimum, I should start scheduling free time so I know when I can get out and do stuff.

Related: 10 High-Paying Part-Time Work From Home Jobs

At the end of the day, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work from home. It provides me with a ton of flexibility and I work in projects that I love.

When it comes to balance, I know I’ll never have the perfect balance, so I’m just trying to roll with the punches for now. I have a ton of exciting projects I’m working on this year and I know everything will require a lot of my time and commitment. This is my season to hustle and crush it.

What does your typical schedule look like? What time do you wake up? Have you ever thought about working from home?