Sunday 23 March 2014

What the Weazel Wonders: Where Does The Time Go?!

It has been a ridiculously long time since I blogged on here. Unacceptably long. You likely follow me on Twitter for this - and the #TVTIPS - exact reason. I would have stopped following me by now...

I made an attempt to keep things current with a few tweets and lots of re-posting old entries.

I am officially a lame ass blogger.

The purpose of what I am going to talk about today is two fold: a reminder that it's important to not allow this here career we have all desperately battled to break into take over, and secondly, to ponder as to how others do so much!

Take my friend Tulip*. She is an AP. A freelance AP - so like myself, and many of you - has to stay on top of her networking game to keep in work. So - she has a full time job (full time being TV full time - so at least 15 hour days... and an extra day on the weekends for good measure); she has to keep her schmoozing, networking and CV in current top form; and she does social stuff. On top of this, I see from her social-networking feed that she sees her family on a very regular basis. She also volunteers in a soup kitchen - every week. She regularly talks of days spent in supermarkets collecting tins for another charitable giving project. She never turns up at a do without a card and gift- and a good gift at that. She finds time to see friends. She also constantly promotes cool things - where you can tell she has taken the time to research them. Oh, and she goes to Power Ballads and other awesome nights on a regular basis. I have never seen her in the office in an un-ironed outfit, or with hair that should have been washed at least that morning.

Last week I started wearing Ben's clothes to work. I kid you not. I had literally run out of clean -suitable - things to wear. It was a case of aim for 'I'm still young and funky at heart' and go for jeans, converse and Ben's Hooters t-shirt - or, wear the kind of outfit the girls at Hooters actually wear. I wasn't sure the latter would go down well with my new Exec - especially in light of the fact that not only have I not had time to do any clothes washing, neither have I tanned my pasty thighs in quite some time!

Ok - so it isn't always like this - but I have found that since Christmas my work life has taken over. Everything. No wonder the odd Friday I have escaped early I have ended up a drunken, quivering mess in the new local at Media City.

January was spent in a mental edit - literally mental. Long days, masses of legals, too many people requiring viewings and sign off and more changes than you could shake a stick at. I was privileged that
I have been involved in this project in a way a PM would never usually be - to the extent little old me was, for example, doing audio sign offs and sitting in online making changes and having actual editorial influence. So - I didn't mind being crazy busy - I was loving it in fact!

February followed suit - with the added pleasure of contributor viewings (cue more fixes), press and PR, PASC and music cues (I curse them - all 9042 of them).

Before I knew it, it was March. The second week of March. How the mother-funk did that happen?!

Those of you who know me well - or have merely met me in the latter stages of a #TVMINGLING event - will know a few things about me:
- I love a good time (work hard, play hard is a big mantra of mine)
- I am obsessed with having perfectly manicured fingers and pedicured toes
- I have OCD and cannot stand anything in any of my cupboards being in the wrong place
- I generally scrub up ok
- I LOVE my family and London

Not now my friends. Over the last 10 weeks or so my life has literally turned to a state of chaos. Admittedly a broken foot (yup - cheers 2014 for that one) hasn't helped. I feel I need to be honest in order to move forward:

- there are currently four (large) hampers of dirty laundry in my house. Some of which has been in the bottom since we came back from New York. At New Year....
- I haven't had a pedicure since Christmas
- not only are my cups in all the wrong cupboards, the cupboards haven't been cleaned internally since Christmas. Just a quick Flash wipe over....
- I haven't been to see my family since Christmas. Despite being in London twice for work.

OH GOD. Did I really admit to the cleaning (lack of) bit on a public blog?!?

So - the moral of this story is: I need to get it sorted. All of it. Especially seeing my family.

The reality is Tulip* and every other well dressed, organised soul in TV feel the strain too. The difference is I have genuinely just let work consume me. I have been so addicted to making sure everything at work is perfect, I have neglected my home life. Poor Ben now has nothing left to wear seeing as I have shimmied my way through his wardrobe now too. Admittedly he could turn the washing machine on from time to time - but that's a whole other story...

So - from tomorrow onwards - I am doing this:
- leaving work by 1900 latest UNLESS it is critical (staying late to chronologically order release forms cos the person who filed them did not, is not urgent. That is just my OCD.)
- going back to Bikram Yoga at least once a week. WITHOUT FAIL. A calm soul is a calm mind - and a calm mind, gets the job done quicker.
- reinstating wine Wednesdays. Social time is vital for a good balance right?
- delegating. I must learn, that even in a limited team, it isn't my job to do it all (combo of the OCD and being a control freak).
- doing at least 2 washes a day until the laundry is caught back up on. By doing the leaving on time thing, I will be able to stay awake til the load finishes and thus hang it out.
- getting a cleaner (yup, I am turning into someone I never thought I would be. She is called Caroline and arrives tomorrow - at 1830 - which is fine, cos I am finishing at 1800, right?!).

This blog will have been way more therapeutic to me than it is of use to you I am sure -but I hope that is shows you this: even those of us who appear to be 'doing well' in the game, are battling. TV is an uncertain game - but what you can be certain of is you will have to learn to balance it along with other elements of your life. It is rarely 9 to 5. You rarely only do what is on your job description. You and only you are responsible for ensuring you don't let the other schizzle slide.

So on that note, I am off to get a pedicure. Then I am going to B&Q. I need to buy some filler.... on one of those rare very drunken Friday's I accidentally smashed my door handle through a wall. 6 weeks ago. Yup, that shit needs fixing!!!

*Tulip is not her name. It's a gorgeous name but it isn't very her - I hope she identifies herself and giggles at my choice of pseudo-name for her....

** I PROMISE - PINKY PROMISE - to write an ace and useful blog by Wednesday of this week

*** #TVMINGLING SPRING BREAK HAS BEEN RE-ORGANISED - TICKET DETAILS OUT FRIDAY 28 MARCH

**** Thank you for standing by me -I promise to be better here on :)

No comments:

Post a Comment