Sometimes, life can feel very busy.  What with work, education, family, friends, hobbies and general life admin, it can feel like our days are divided into one-hour windows from when we wake up to when we go to sleep.  As we live more of our lives online, I would argue that life is getting even more busy.  When we can message our friends at work, and answer work emails at home, all the different parts of our life can start to bleed together and it can be difficult to know when to say no to things.  In the time it’s taken me to write this paragraph, I’ve had two email notifications, one from my part-time job offering me shifts, one from my university about upcoming exams, and messages from three different friends (for once, I’ve been disciplined with my friends and told them I need to concentrate!).  

For many people, me included, living a busy and structured life is vital to maintain good mental health.  I enjoy being on the go, having a lot of plates spinning, and I can feel a bit bored if things are too sedate.  At some point, though, we have to recognise that we’ve got enough on and, as I wrote in one of my first blog posts for Make Me A Plan, it’s also important that we leave time to rest.  Unfortunately, sometimes this means giving up something we enjoy.  Given I have non-negotiables like full-time education, part-time work, a hobby which seems to take up more of my free-time every month and friends and family spread out all over the country, for me right now, the thing I’m going to have to call time on is this blog.  As much as I enjoy it, and I don’t like admitting defeat, I’m hoping that the little bit of extra breathing space is going to make the rest of my life easier.  Especially as I’ve now started my second year of my course and oh my goodness, it is so much more work than first year!  As an aside, for everyone who is also spinning a ‘children’ plate, I don’t know how you’re doing it, you are honestly superhuman.

We seem to increasingly live in a word of ‘hustle-culture’, where it’s normal to have multiple side-gigs alongside our full time jobs, or to monetise our hobbies, or to be constantly working towards the next big goal.  All of that is fine, as long as we are enjoying it and it is what we want.  What’s also fine, though, is to have a job that you leave at 5pm and forget about while you spend time relaxing with your family, friends or pets.  It’s all about choosing the life we want, as much as possible.

So, my final message in my final blog is that it is OK not to do it all.  It is OK not to reply to work emails at home.  It is OK to stick your phone onto focus mode and not reply to Facebook messages when you have a deadline looming.  It is OK to say no to taking on something new if you are feeling over-saturated.  When it comes down to it, the most important way we can all improve our wellbeing is just to enjoy our lives, and to try to live as stress-free as possible.