"I've taken back control of my life"
"I took back control of my life"
In 2006, after a stressful year, graphic designer Andrew Mackie decided to take control of his life, and get a better work-life balance. Here he talks about how he did it, and what it meant for him.
"I'd been very busy with work and I'd been working flat out for about a year. It didn't seem to matter at first. If there was a job going, I'd take it on. I'd never say no to extra work.
I work freelance, though I do most of my work in the offices of one client, so the more work I did, the more money I earned. It became addictive. I'd think about how much I'd be paid at the end of the month and it seemed to make everything worthwhile.
Well, it did for a bit. Then I started realising that, although I was being well paid, I never had time to spend it. On top of that, my partner started complaining about how little she saw me, and how little time I had to do nice things with her. It started to cause rows.
Friends became more distant, too. I was spending more and more time in the office, and I remember one time I had to let my five-a-side football team down at the last minute. The game didn't start till 8pm but I was so focused on what I was doing that I couldn't leave work. They only had four players and lost about 12-0!
Before, my partner and I would go everywhere together. Now, she'd turn up for nights out or at dinner parties on her own. I might not be at work, but I'd be beavering away on the computer at home instead.
After a while, it started to tire me out. I never had any free time and it was making me grumpy and miserable. But by that time I had a reputation as someone who wouldn't say no to work, so consequently I kept getting more and more of it.
It all came to a head when my girlfriend and I had a huge argument. She said I was distant, that we never did fun things together anymore, and that I was always grouchy. She said that she did so many things on her own that she might as well be single again.
So I told her things would change, and I realised that they needed to for the sake of my mental health as well as my relationship. If I carried on working all the hours I could, I'd end up burning out.
The next time I was offered a new project, I took the opportunity to speak to the boss of the agency. I said that I'd take the job on, but that it might take me a bit longer than usual because I wouldn't be working on it over weekends.
Funnily enough, he was fine. He said that if I wasn't happy then I probably wasn't working well. It was the least stressful project I'd had in a long time. And having plenty of time away from work meant that I enjoyed it again. I think I actually produced better work for that project than I had in a long time.
My girlfriend immediately noticed the difference. In the middle of this big project we went away for the weekend. That wouldn't have happened before. I forgot about work and came back to it on Monday refreshed and raring to go.
After that I realised that although I'd been working long hours, they hadn't been productive hours. I'd spent long periods just staring at the computer screen, hoping for inspiration. I'd made mistakes that had to be corrected later. Now, I was working less, but working far more efficiently.
So I decided that this was how it should be all the time. Now, when I get offered work, I don't automatically say yes, I work out how long it will realistically take me and give a date that allows me to have most evenings and weekends off.
When I'm right on deadline, I'll work at home at weekends. But I won't do it unless I really have to, and I'll never let it interfere with plans that we might have made. We do so much more with our free time now. It's great.
I feel like I've taken back control of my life. Work was dominating my life, and now it only dominates eight hours a day of it. It's true that I earn a bit less than I did last year, but not much less. And I enjoy it far more. That's definitely been a worthwhile trade-off."
