When your career is based on sharing your life online, drawing lines between your personal life and your work life can be challenging. However, like with any other job, achieving work-life balance is vital to your well-being. Learning to separate the two will have positive impacts on both.
Here are the work-life balance tips all vloggers need.
Set clear boundaries with your loved ones about what to share online.
In a society that’s obsessed with reality television, sharing everything about your life online can be tempting. The juicier the details, the more attention you can get. More attention leads to more viewers and more sponsorships, which, of course, leads to more money.
However, you’ve probably seen a lot of public figures who share a lot of their personal lives with the world, whether reality stars or vloggers, meet their downfall when fans discover some unsavory detail of their past. On the other hand, those who set clear boundaries between what they’ll share online and what they won’t often find themselves with long, lucrative careers far from the grasp of cancel culture.
Therefore, you should establish strict boundaries regarding what you share online. Have this discussion with your loved ones, especially those who live with you or who are featured prominently in your vlogs. Be open to compromise. For example, you may want to make videos with your child, but your spouse may prefer to keep your child’s likeness off the internet. To compromise, you may agree to obscure your child’s face in all your Instagram posts, the way actress Kristen Bell does.
Establish “office hours” for getting your work done.
Your non-vlogger friends may spend their work days behind a desk, at the front of a classroom, or in a hospital. Regardless of their career path, they likely have set hours for their shift every day. It’s called “nine-to-five,” after all. As a vlogger, however, you’re in charge of setting your own schedule, so you may not set hours at all.
Even though you’re working on your own schedule, you should still establish “work hours” for yourself. Match your work schedule to your partner’s, your roommate’s , or a friend’s to maintain a sense of normalcy. Then, moving forward, only allow yourself to work during those hours.
You may need to work outside of your office hours occasionally, such as when you’re vlogging a trip or a late night concert. However, all of your editing, editing, and posting should be restricted to your established schedule. Make the people in your real life aware of your office hours so they can hold you accountable.
Prioritize your privacy.
Another struggle that comes with sharing so much of your life on the internet is privacy. You never know who could be watching your videos or looking at your social media posts. A lot of prominent YouTubers struggle with things like fans showing up at their houses or people tracking where they are in order to meet them in public.
Therefore, you need to prioritize your own privacy. Have a P.O. Box for fan mail and a separate email address for work. Never film outside the front of your house or near any distinguishable street signs, mail boxes, etc. You might also consider waiting until the next day to post pictures from public places such as restaurants or amusement parks so that your followers don’t know exactly where you are. Make sure to turn off any automatic location tagging features on social media as well.
Consider your friends’ and family’s privacy as well. Unless you have their express permission, never share their names or images in videos. For example, you may need to use fake names when telling story times. Be extra cautious when posting about your hometown or places you go to visit friends.
Utilize “close friends” features on social media.
Finally, don’t forget that the point of social media is to be social! You can set boundaries with privacy settings on certain social media or make private accounts that are only for close friends and family to follow.
Instagram has a great feature called “close friends.” You can make a list of people you want to designate as your close friends. Then, when you post something to your “close friends” story, only the people on your list will be able to see it.
When your career blurs the lines between your work life and your personal life, it’s important to set clear boundaries. Prioritize your privacy as well as time with loved ones.
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Kristen Harris enjoys listening to a wide range of music, from Taylor Swift to, on occasion, Celtic instrumental. She also spends her time writing, reading, and baking.
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