How To Make Time For What You Love

24 HOURS

Hi! My name is Arjay, if this is your first time on my site, welcome! I'm a full time content creator and traveller. Though it may seem like I'm constantly just on vacation or playing outside, don't be fooled because my schedule is as busy as they come. The long days, early mornings and late nights is something that is not posted on my Instagram feed or Pinterest boards (but I do post them on my Insta stories and share them on YouTube from time to time). When Gregory Packs asked me how I find time for doing the things I love with my busy schedule, the answer for me was simple. It's actually a two part answer. One is having the ability to say "no". It sounds selfish but by saying "no", I'm able to focus more on what I really want to do. The second part to my answer is by turning what I love into a career. Whether you're a student, someone with two jobs, or a stay at home mom, we all have 24 hours within a day, the difference is what we do with our time.

I'm not telling you to say no to your boss when you're required to come in first thing tomorrow morning, or saying no to your kids who wants to spend time with you. There's a difference between responsibilities and down time. It's not just saying no to other people but also saying no to yourself (i.e. bad habits) in your free time. I know it's easier said than done but read up and hopefully I'm able to make this whole thing work for you as well!

SAYING NO

Self awareness, knowing who you are as a person, and your values will make prioritizing that much easier. Many people today are buying things to impress people they don't like and doing things just to please other people. I was guilty of this too until I took a step back and thought about what really makes me, well... me. As I looked at the bigger picture, travelling, spending time outside up on the mountains and creating content is what really brought true happiness to me. It sounds cheesy I know but once you take a good look at who you are as a person, you wouldn't even think twice about what you want to do with your time. If somebody had asked you to go out on a Friday night but you know you want to pick up an extra shift at work so you could save up for your next big trip or if they just released a new season on Netflix for your favourite show but you know you need to work on your editing skills so you can finally start working with brands like you've always wanted - the decisions you make should be based on your values and not instant gratification. Saying no to things, to others, and even to yourself will lead you to making more time for what you actually love doing.

TURN WHAT YOU LOVE IN TO A CAREER

Now I know what a lot of you are probably thinking at this point. That's great and everything but you still have responsibilities such as working 10 hours a day, walking the dog, or taking your kids to soccer practice etc. That's fair. Now ask yourself if you're happy with what you do for work. If it is, then you can simply just get a sitter for your kids, or take your dog out to whatever it is you like to do. Scheduling some time for yourself is more of the solution if you already love what you do from a career standpoint.

TURN WHAT YOU LOVE IN TO A CAREER (CONT.)

On the other hand, if you don't like what you do, you need to change it. Check out this post about how you can start working for yourself: How To Be A Digital Nomad - Blog Post / How To Be A Digital Nomad - Video.

If you're truly passionate about something, you will find ways to make things happen for you. I knew that my passion for travelling, being outside, and creating would eventually lead me to doing all of these things full time. I just didn't want to make time for them along side the things I "had" to do, such as paying the bills. It wasn't pretty trying to make it happen in the beginning but here I am travelling, spending time outside, and creating content for brands. I don't have it all figured out as I'm still learning a lot everyday and there's still so much to learn but the point is I am where I am now because I turned what I love to do in to a career. I made a choice.

This doesn't mean I'm set for life. I've actually worked double the hours and have worked that much harder compared to when I worked for a company. But at least I'm doing something that actually has more meaning and something that actually does not feel like "work" even though it actually is work. I'm not sure if that even makes sense but I hope you're somewhat following.

To give you a quick example, I could edit a video for clients till 3 in the morning and not even realize I should hit the hay. That's how much I enjoy the process of editing. I used to hate waking up at 7 in the morning just so I could make it to work on time but now I love waking up as early as 4 or 5 am just to catch the sunrise and take photos during golden hour. Even writing up this blog post, I sincerely love sharing my experience so typing up this post does not feel like work at all though technically it really is.

When you get to this point, now it's about balancing "work" (editing, writing up blog posts etc.) and "play" (going outside, exploring). Luckily for me, I just happen to enjoy both of these. All because I made a decision of turning my passion into a career.

WORK AND PLAY

So this last bit may not make sense since I just told you I like to do both. But here's the thing, I love creating content and all but there's just times when I need to unplug. Many creators experience a burnout or a creative block occurs from time to time. This is common and it actually happened to me a lot of times. I create and edit content to the point that I don't even realize that I'm overworking so I burn out or all of a sudden I just can't be creative. Overworking and not realizing it. It happens.

Everyone is going to be different and it really is all about balance here. For me 50/50 doesn't work. I feel like I have to invest more of my time outside and have some sort of movement or motion daily. I also find myself more productive and my creative juices flows better if I do something active on the daily as opposed to hammering out a video in 12 hours or 24 hours straight.

There's definitely times when I'm just editing back to back days, but I make sure I take a break away from my laptop in between so I can recharge my battery just for a bit. This comes down to knowing how your mind and your body functions.