I was responding to a friend who asked me about balancing my work life and my involvement in community activism. As I wrote my response, I realized that it was something that I wanted to save as a reminder to myself:
Although I only work 20 hours a week or so, having a job that now requires more mental energy and has projects, responsibilities and deadlines makes it seem much bigger than 20 hours worth of space. Also, I have a flexible schedule, which is good because it means that I can make it to most things I want, but also a problem because it means I spend a lot of time and energy scheduling and rescheduling. I think I need to strike a better balance so that I have a more regular schedule and spend less time scheduling, even if it means having to say, “no, I can’t make it to that” more often.
Ultimately, I think that I really need to stop having such a schizophrenic existence and try to find a way to pay the bills by doing technology work to support grassroots community projects instead of trying to pay the bills and do technology work + activism. I also need to find a way to balance my role (which I enjoy) as a technology implementer so I’m also involved in the communication, thinking, and essential work of the groups I work with and not just the IT person. I’m not sure how to do this quite yet.