Motunrayo: Hello, welcome to Life in Brown. My name is Motunrayo. Today's episode is inspired by a question that I got on Instagram stories and the question was about how I balance creating content for this podcast as well as the podcast and book recommendations newsletter that I write.

You can actually subscribe to that newsletter in the show notes. I would love for you to subscribe and stay in touch. So the question was, how do I balance creating content with my full-time day job, I work in communications in higher education and also being a parent to a two-year-old and all the other responsibilities that come with being an adult.

So I started thinking about that question and I remembered that in an earlier podcast episode that I did, I spoke to. Author Zainab Kwaw-Swanzy and she's also a product manager. So in that episode, we talked about how she balanced writing her book, A Quick Ting on the Black Girl Afro alongside how she, um, alongside her day job.

So I thought I would play a clip from that episode for you to hear how she was able to do that and why she feels that different passions and having multiple interests is important or can be helpful in a person's life. Then I'll share a couple of tips that have helped me in terms of being able to create content alongside my day job, but I must say it truly is a labour of love.

But first, let's hear from Zainab.

Zainab: I've always operated best if I am exploring more than one passion.

So I never just focused on my studies. I always. You know, whether it was a sport or something creative on the side, that's how I operate best. I need those various outlets personally so what I would say to somebody is if you, if you feel that you have particular passions or even if you don't know, but there's areas you want to explore, there's no, you know, it's never too late to do that.

The main kind of, I guess point I would raise is the issue is how you're able to manage more than one, in a way that allows you to do them or to the best of your ability. That's something I'm still working on now. I think with me, you know, I've, I've always had an interest in tech and that's kind of the space that I'm in at the moment.

I'm also, you know, very grateful that, you know, particularly since COVID, it's a more flexible job, you know, I'm working from home a lot of the time. My times, don't they, they can be a little warmer, a little bit more flexible if I'm getting, you know, and this happened in the past two years when I was writing the book, you know, I would work and then take, turn off my work laptop and open up my personal laptop and write, and I was able to do that because I wasn't commuting into the office, which has taken up, you know, two hours of my day.

I was getting my work done and it didn't matter where. You know, when I was doing it, as long as it was getting done, I was doing it to the best of my ability. So actually that really worked to my advantage, during lockdown. So, again, it was a challenge. So I think there's something around you probably always need, you know, a couple of priorities.

So I know for me, I go, my career at the moment is a big priority. It allows me to actually, you know, Everything else that I want to do on the side. So that's obviously going to be a huge priority, but you know, over the past few years, so was this booked. So, you know, I had to have conversations with my team, my managers, you know, my editor to talk about how do I make this work for me?

So I think it's really, about you thinking about your own personal interests and passions, What is that prioritization for you in that moment in time, because that will also change. and then what might you need to really allow you to do these things well? So is it additional support from others?

Is it, you know, having a group of people around you, is it actually like dedicating specific time to specific activities? Which did start to work for me? But it's definitely something I'm still working on and it is a challenge. You know, life is too short to feel like you can only do one thing.

If there are other things that interest you, you're only going to regret not trying them. So that was kind of the stance I have. And that's also why I eventually said yes to writing the book because I just thought, you know, what will I lose if I don't do it? I just, I just won't have a new challenge or a new adventure to embark on.

Actually, let me just do it and see what happens. And if the book doesn't do well, that's fine. I'm sure millions of books every year don't do well. And you know, those people are, they survived it. So, yeah, that's kind of, I guess the approach I tried to take.

Motunrayo: Zainab mentioned how working remotely helped her save because she was saving time, not commuting. She was able to then write her book and that's something that's happened with me. I mainly work from home. I only go to the office once or twice a month. So that way in the mornings I can wake up before my daughter and then I'm more productive in the morning.

So I tend to do editing or writing or things like that. I tend to do that very early in the morning before I wake her up, get her ready and then start my job. So that's kind of how I've been able to balance it. So doing work in the morning, doing the easy bits. In the evening. So between five and six, I finish work at five.

So she comes back around six. So I'll do a little bit between that five and six. Sometimes, sometimes I feel tired. So it's not every morning, every evening that I do work on the podcast. I try to take time for myself. And also some days I just don't feel like doing any work.

Like I'm currently recording this podcast, it’s currently around 9:45 in the evening after she's gone to bed because the house is quiet. So I try to like find when, depending on what I'm doing, I try to balance it and then also I get, I ask my husband. He usually helps with like watching her so that way I'm able to do work on this podcast. So that's been mainly how. Also, I tend to have guests sometimes most times, I try to have guests most times.

So what I do is sometimes I record on Saturday mornings with my guests or in the evenings after work. And then usually I allocate mornings or evenings for editing. So that's kind of how I've been able to like balance it. And of course, some days I don't feel productive. I don't feel as gingered to work on the podcast so then I take breaks during those moments and then the other thing that's helped is just working in seasons so like with the podcast I aim to just have eight episodes every season so that way I know that I'm factoring in breaks and I'm less likely to burn out even though even with the season sometimes I still deal with self-doubt with progressing with this podcast, but I keep going. So those are just like the few things I've helped and also brainstorming ideas.

I have a notes app on my phone So when I'm like, oh I'm stuck I go and look at the list of ideas that I've written. Like a brain dump that I had and then I draw from that and that's what helps with me managing my time. And so those are just my tips.

Are there any things that have helped you with your, like, creative projects that you can share? Please, you can email me or message me on Instagram at lifeinbrown_ or you can email me at lifeinbrownpod@gmail.com. You can send me a voice note and email it to me and then I can possibly play it on the podcast in a future episode to help other listeners. So thank you so much for listening.

If you've enjoyed the episode I spoke to Zainab earlier and I'll put a link to the episode that I had with Zainab where we talked about her book and the British natural hair experience. I've been natural for a number of years. So I was very curious about her book and I got to speak to her. She shares a lot about her writing process, but also things that can help you in your own creative journey as well. So definitely check out my episode with Zainab Kwaw-Swanzy.

Thanks again and I hope to speak to you on the next episode.

Ire: Bye-bye.