If you have been following along on instagram or snapchat (@lovefromberlin), you may have realized that I am currently in the US (and will be until the 1st of June). For the past three days, I have been vacationing in Florida with my family, soaking up the sun at the beach and cooling down in both the ocean and the pool. And although this is technically my summer holiday, I have also been trying to use the time to get a bit ahead with work for Love from Berlin and somehow re-establish that fitness routine that I’ve never quite exactly successfully established in the past. Which brings me to the topic of this post – work vs. play.
I figure that there are four major schools of thought when it comes to working on holiday:
Great, I am on holiday!…
1. Finally have some time to catch up on all the shit I’m behind on!
2. Good thing I’m hella organized and can just sit back and relax.
3. Time to get started on everything that’s not even due yet. Relaxation, what are you even?
4. I’m super behind on work, but I’ll be damned if I do any during this trip besides eat all the foods and spend most of my time in a reclining position either in a beach lounge chair or in my hotel bed eating all the foods.
Now, I am a self-admitted workaholic. But because Love from Berlin is currently a side-project, no matter how organized and on top of my shit I am, it is very rare that I am actually ahead of schedule with work. And thus, at the moment, I definitely fall into group one. Meaning, even though I should probably cut myself some slack due to the fact that my being behind is not a reflection of my work ethic, and holidays are needed and important – both for mental health and long-term work stamina – I just can’t seem to lay poolside free of worry. Nope. Instead I took breakfast in bed (still clearly a holiday perk) in order to work on some behind-the-scenes LFB work, all the while simultaneously feeling guilty that I have been behind on replying to comments and hadn’t posted since the 16th.
Granted, I also saw my holiday as a great opportunity to try and kick start some kind of semblance of a workout routine, so I am pretty sure that my workaholic tendencies supersede purely getting a handle on work-related things. But when your side-project (or full time job) calls for creating online content and being present on social media, working while on holiday is not just about catching up on work or getting ahead of things. It’s about using the unique opportunity of being in a new and exciting location to create new content as well. Thus, besides setting aside a good few hours a day during my trip to write up content for LFB, I also spent the majority of my trip concerning myself with keeping my social media accounts updated and photographically documenting my surroundings and experiences for future LFB content.
I am sure this differs from blogger to blogger, but for me, I am constantly aware that half of the content I share with you all on LFB is content that I am creating. And for this reason, when I am on holiday, I am constantly thinking about what I can share with you guys, what posts I am going to write, and which pictures I need to take to accompany them – especially because travel content is some of the most interesting and useful content for a lot of people.
In a perfect world, Love from Berlin would be just as much a part of my working life as my other projects, but even then, I would still face the dilemma of just eating my damned breakfast and jumping into the ocean without thinking twice about photographing it all or using this holiday as an opportunity to create. I think this is something that most bloggers struggle with and to be honest, I haven’t hit the sweet spot yet. And although I was unable to just turn off my phone, set my camera down and just enjoy my surroundings for what they were, there is a part of me that is happy to capture it all. I love taking photos of everything first and foremost as a photographer. I also love running my little space on the internet and creating things to share on LFB. I am just hoping that I eventually figure out how to find a happy medium between work and play and to know when and when not to combine the two and to be able to do so without feeling guilty about it.
Which camp do you fall into? How do you deal with managing work and play?
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