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Jade has been a food blogger for just over 10 years. During that time, she’s had 3 (about to be 4) children (CONGRATULATIONS), she has moved 7 times (twice cross country), and she’s struggled to balance her time as a wife and mother all while dealing with depression. Over this time, she has learned how to batch work to be consistent with her blog but ALSO to allow herself time to deal with depression.
Takeaways
Notes from Episode #005: Food Blogging and Mental Health
Separating who you are and what is depression is important for they are two different things.
Determine what your triggers and stressors are so you can address them before they overtake you. Make a plan for what to do when it does overwhelm you and depression takes hold.
Make time for yourself for 20-30 min a day – going on a walk, for exercise, reading, any self-love, schedule a fun day etc
Let organization become your norm and say goodbye to “living by the seat of your pants.”
Let technology work for you and still have easy access to all your work.
Learn to use and live by a flexible calendar – built-in with to-do’s and required down time to deal with mental health.
Jade has learned to create a very flexible calendar. It’s not realistic to plan out a year. Try to keep a list of what you want to be working on for an upcoming holiday, and what you 00get done is what you get done. If you don’t get it done then recognize you can hold onto the idea for the next year.
Learn to batch work each week making and photographing anywhere from 2-4 new recipes. This allows for you to be productive even when a bout of depression hits.
Make connecting with others a priority so you’re not alone – through online groups where people understand your career and lifestyle, at conferences, and by using your social media channels to highlight real life struggles so you don’t feel so alone.
“For me, allowing myself that grace of that it’s ok if I don’t get everything done is again a huge part of allowing myself to not stress and then get depressed. It’s just knowing that if I get some of the things done on my to-do list, that’s a win. If I get most of the things done on my to-do list done, it’s awesome. Because my to-do list is always going to be so much longer than I really am physically capable of doing. I think just saying it’s ok that I got ⅚ recipes that I was wanting to get done for this year, that’s a huge accomplishment and I think sometimes I think we’ve failed no matter where we are whether we have depression or not. We can feel like we’ve failed…”
Ask for help and don’t try to do it all!
Keep a list of what you have accomplished and take comfort in what you did versus seeing all you didn’t get done. Keep it next to the calendar, then say, you know what, I didn’t get this all done, but these I did get done and it pushed me towards my goals.
There are so many things you have to do each day and kids take time and your day totally getting busier and so many things take away from your time. “If I just really look at each day as a unique day what are my main goals for the week, how can I make this happen, what is feasible for each day. I’m amazed just how much I can get done, really. It’s really breaking it down into bite sized pieces and focus on what my goals are, what am I going to work on, what’s important, what’s not.”
Finding a Mommy’s helper is a great plan if you can. A homeschooled girl comes over and helps with Jade’s 2 year old while she works.
Using InstaCart to get groceries has been a game changer. She’s found it helps two-fold: Accounting is better for family and blog groceries and she isn’t losing hours doing the job herself with the unhappy kids tagging along.
Social media can suck the life out of you. So to combat that, set a timer for yourself to complete your use of scheduling posts. Be using the Facebook Create app, Tailwind and Pinterest schedulers to help so you aren’t having the life sucked out of you.
“Acknowledge you have depression. Let yourself work through the bout of it. If you fight that process, you stay in it longer. Sometimes you have to “feed it” and work through what you’re feeling. Let the kids eat cereal, chicken nuggets and easy foods, lay down more. Take the time for yourself because you’ll come out of it “soonerish” and then move up through levels until you can get back to yourself.”
Learn to give yourself grace for days or weeks when life is hard. Acknowledge there will be times you won’t get done as much as you want to do but still acknowledging the successes.
Helpful references from the episode:
Get Your Girl Back- Traci Bild (helped me recognize my needs and triggers)
Eat That Frog- Brian Tracy (time management)
Food Bloggers Entrepreneurs Course by Dani Meyer (this helps to learn about setting up systems and streamlining your work flow)