Today’s prompt was for favorite autumn quotes, but I don’t really do quotes very much, so I don’t have any. So made up my own thing to blog about today. I’m going to talk about how I balance work, school, and reading.
Balancing work, school, and reading is probably a bit easier for me considering I work at home. What do I do? Well, clearly I blog. I’ve started adding Amazon and Book Depository affiliate links to my book reviews (I’ll be linking up older book reviews as I have time), which will earn me a small commission if people make purchases through my links. I also keep house for my roommates. I clean the downstairs and upstairs hallway bathrooms, the laundry room, sweep and mop all the hard floors downstairs, vacuum all the carpets upstairs & the stairs (exception is the master bedroom, that is all my roommates’ responsibility), and run the dishwasher every day. They pay me a little bit – $150/month + room & board – so I’m not getting much, but it’s at least something.
Other work related things I do are freelance design work for blogs and helping people fix their website issues. I have a Ko-fi page (link in sidebar) as well, so people can donate to me if they like my content or just want to help me out a bit. Most of my work things take me a couple of hours to do each day, so in that respect, I have plenty of time to read.
Then I have school. Right now I’m going through the BYU-Pathway Worldwide program. I’m in my second semester of the Pathway program – a 3 semester program where you learn life skills, professional skills, university skills, and take religion classes like Book of Mormon 1 and Book of Mormon 2. In the third semester, you take three classes – University Skills, a religion class that I can’t think of, and your first class toward your first certificate through BYU-Idaho Online. School takes me about 10 hours a week total, so I still have plenty of time to read.
So then there is my reading. I tend to read late at night when everyone else is sleeping. I do my work and school work during the day, plus any errands that need to be run. Then, after everyone else goes to bed, I go downstairs, curl up in the comfy chair with a cup of hot cocoa and my phone, and start reading. I pull up Bookly and get a reading session started, then grab my book and get reading. I usually read until either my butt falls asleep or my eyes won’t stay open. Then I head for bed. Usually this is between 2 and 4 in the morning.
So that’s how I balance my work, school, and reading. I’m sure once I start BYU-Idaho Online full time or once I find a part-time or full-time job other than what I’m currently doing, this will change. But for now, balancing work, school, and reading is pretty easy.
