No One Admires your 70-90 Hour Work Week

Want to know a secret?  At one point in time, I had a job outside of the home – a job before blogging.  This job had me working 6-7 days a week… up to 18 hours day.   I traveled for 3 of 4 weeks a month, and believe it or not, I carried my first 2 children while working that job.

I remember going back to work after baby 1 (my oldest daughter, who is almost 10) just 3 weeks after giving birth. It was challenging – having to tote around my breast pump at work, I pumped in the car. I refrigerated bags of milk in the work cooler/fridge. I used bathrooms at recruiting stations to pump, and I planned in advance for work trips to ensure I had sufficient milk for her back at home.

Leaving her every day was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do. Thankfully my husband worked nights, so he was there to care for her, and when he needed help, his mom was around.

Army Recruiting was a thank(less) job – For almost 9 years I worked that job and as much as I loved it, it took my husband to put his foot down to say “that’s ENOUGH traveling”.  I carried baby 2 (my now 6 year old son) through that job and not only was it stressful, it wasn’t until the day after I had given birth that I had military leadership asking when I was going to come back.  I had 2 work phones, and an air card, and was called at ALL hours of the day – imagine being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What happened to maternity leave?  I worked up until the day I went into labor – but the fact that I wanted to take maternity leave for a few weeks of bonding time was just disregarded entirely. So I came back – once again, 3 weeks later. Except that time it was with my resignation in hand.

And just minutes later, I was a stay at home mom to 2.

Now, fast forward almost 7 years, and I work, at home, 40 – 45 hours a week. With 4 (almost 5…), working at home isn’t the easiest .. but it’s often times associated with public comments.  I’m a blogger – and not a family & lifestyle blogger per-se, I’m a person who blogs deals.  Seven years when I started blogging, I slaved for 18-20 hours a day blogging deals, typing up grocery ads, and scheduling posts.

I do have a second blog that is focused on things beyond deals .. but the comments still continue.  

I did coupon classes all over town, some including Tucson, even in Sierra Vista and Flagstaff, on my weekends. I dragged my family all over while I conducted these classes – in most cases, having to pay for the facility, my gas, my time – I started to charge for these classes as a way to reimburse myself for the out of pocket and soon realized that nobody was willing to pay. Even other local bloggers would tell me it was silly to charge for my classes to teach people how to save. Then again, most of these people were not blogging 18- 20 hour days… but were family bloggers who maybe blogged 3-4 times a week. A far cry from the 500+ posts I was pulling in each week.

The culture in the deal blogging industry is to slave away – no questions asked. Unless you have a team of 10-15 + people helping you on your blog, it’s pretty much you…  and your laptop, and your hot spot… or your iPhone if you tether access to the internet – after all, you can’t miss any deal.  Though most people may not realize that, they just assume that the internet is free, stay at home moms are just bored mammas without anything else to occupy their day, and grocery matchups are as easy as pushing a button.

After 7 years of toting that laptop on every family outing to include the local zoo, dinner with friends or family, the labor and delivery ward at the hospital and the back seat of the SUV… this past few years our family has focused on a change in lifestyle habits.

For 7 years, myself (and likely many other bloggers that did what I did), felt the pressure – pressure to post more, do more.. be available more, get more store deals, more prices, more pictures, and be it “all’ — not realizing their health and possibly even family relationships were suffering and falling to the wayside.

This past year, I have seen many deal bloggers take a hard look at the time spent on their blog and realize that the interest in couponing and saving money hasn’t been anything near equal – most of us have stepped down out of store matchups.  Some have gotten out of matchups altogether – most of us have had to let go of long time employees that helped us do what we do, and some of us have changed direction.  Why slave for 18-20 hours typing up a Mega Sale ad, and another 8-9 hours at the store, when over the 2 week period, nobody is going to be motivated to use it? 

It’s time better spent in other areas.

Studies show that over time, working long hours is bad for your health – and yet people still slave away, no questions asked. You are likely to hear people prattle on during the week about how busy they are… working 60-70 hours a week.. how they have meeting after meeting – like it’s a type of honor to be so busy. But why?

There was a time in my life that I told myself anything LESS than 60-70 hours a week was just lazy and unproductive – yet I am almost convinced it made me more forgetful. I couldn’t ever focus long enough to do things truly “well” – my sleep habits were horrendous.. I love to cook yet I found every excuse NOT to cook.  I was stressed all the time and therefore not fun to be around – you can ask my spouse, I’m sure he would agree wholeheartedly.

Adding more hours to my day did NOT make me any more productive now that I look back. Some of my most productive days are when I stay off Facebook, social media (entirely) and the internet and focus on things at home – after all, with 5, there is always something to do.

Being productive makes you more productive – there is NO app that can help inspire productivity. Doing things inspires productivity. Getting rest, eating a normal lunch (and not having to forget it in the microwave 3-4 times before you find it at 5 pm.) – watching memes and videos on Facebook doesn’t increase your productivity either.

I’m not saying that a tough work ethic isn’t important – because it is. There are days when you will and might have a long day.. and that is normal. And there are some business owners who do indeed work more than others do – after all, starting a business and running a business isn’t an easy venture in the least.   And that is fine – provided it’s not something you do every day.

In talking with 7-year long friends who have deal blogged like I have.. who have made the same drastic changes as I have made, one thing is certain – we are finding that we ARE more productive and happy.  Sure, our changes were not received well for the most part – but they were changes we needed to better ourselves and our family.

I talked to several friends just a few days ago – it was amazing. Instead of the typical stressed out, tired conversation, we actually had a conversation.  There is no doubt that they are still working a regular workweek – but they aren’t working 90 hours crammed with no sleep and typing ad after ad.

We are finding joy in other areas of life we never had time for before.

One of them has set a personal time off during the week where she stays away from social media and her computer entirely. The other just took her kids to the beach for the weekend with her spouse – a time when she would have had to stay home to type grocery ads.  The other has a side business that is booming – she’s creative, and by giving her screen printing business more time, her productivity and business have started to explode.  Not only that, she has a huge garden and makes some of the best comfort foods – something she would not have had time for before.

In the end, the decision to cut back (yet still work) might not have been well received by all, but it has been enjoyable to say the least. It doesn’t make you more lazy – less productive and less successful. It means you care enough about your family to want to give them the person they deserve to spend time with. 

It’s ok to take a day off every now & then – it’s perfectly O.K. to let your uncharged phone take a break while you watch a movie with your kids and spouse. And every so often it’s O.K. to sleep in an extra 20-30 minutes.

After all, nobody admires your 70-90 hour work week.