By Chloe Cordon

Work life balance

What is a work life balance? What is work? What is life? Should I have one? A balance, I mean, not a life. I obviously have one of those.

How many hours should I put into SCA? We all know it requires more than there are in the day. We’re screwed from the start, really.

So that’s where the schedule comes in. All hail the schedule. Long live the schedule. God they’re great. I get notifications by the hour practically telling me when to piss. My schedule starts at 8:30 and ends at 6:30. A reasonable day, especially since my commute is a peaceful 10 minute cycle through Brockwell Park (well it was peaceful until the current craze for scooters, [I wanted a pun here about segways and segwaying and not changing the subject but I couldn’t think of one]).

But things aren’t as easy as they are for mindless children zig-zagging across busy pathways. Some projects I’ve been counting as extracurricular, and a catch up over a beer often runs into the night. Does this count as work? When I have a job can I expense this? On which side of the scale does this activity reside?

And excitement comes into it too. Sometimes I’ll be having a giggle about Jesus’s opinions on wine when my phone is like “STAAAHHHHPPPPP. No srsly those emails ain’t gonna write themselves.” Well, don’t tell it, but sometimes I don’t listen to my phone. Sometimes I don’t listen to it at 6:30 when it tells me to go home. Sometimes I do listen to it and go home but I go behind its back and work late into the night. “But you were supposed to be doing pilates!”. I turn it face down and try not to think about chocolate biscuits.

And socialising. Well that problem is solved easily. Since all I talk about is advertising now nobody wants to hang out with me anyway. But I do have this one friend who really likes to just, you know, get a hot water bottle, a sharing bag of crisps, and a chocolate bar for afters, and get into bed and watch Netflix for, well, a considerable amount of time. Personally I don’t know how she does it. I’d much rather be doing pilates myself. But where does that come into the schedule?
I think I have a pretty good balance at the moment, and that worries me. it makes me think I could be working harder. Especially since my achilles heel is never finishing anything. Is a work life balance a thing for the best of the best? Should I just give up on having time to myself until July? If you figure it out then let me know. Please. I’m serious. Answers to chloecordon27@gmail.com. Please start your message with “I solved life” (although I have a feeling that might go straight to spam).