How do you balance your work as an instructor and your personal life?

Hello Hello!

As instructors, you put a lot of effort and time into creating high-quality courses, engaging with your students, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies.

However, it's also essential to take care of your personal life, your health, and your well-being. Balancing work and personal life can be a challenge, but it's crucial to find a healthy balance that works for you.

So, we want to start a conversation about how you manage to balance your work as an instructor and your personal life:

What are some strategies that you've found helpful in managing your time and energy? How do you make sure that you're taking care of yourself while still meeting your course creation, marketing, and student engagement goals?

Share your experiences in the comments below!

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Comments

MarkLassoff

It's all about maintaining connections with family, friends, people in my fellowship, and the larger community.

I've worked solo and with a small team in this business for almost two decades. It can be very isolating at times. Time spent recording courses and preparing content is often time spent alone.

Also, as a recovering addict active in a 12-step recovery program, I know that isolation is bad for me. So, I agree with @Bella
that self-care is imperative because if I'm not caring for myself, I cannot succeed at work or personally.

I know when I am maintaining connections, I am healthy.

I know when I am isolated, I am not.

So each day-- no matter how much I work I call a friend, fellow or relative.

I keep a gratitude journal and remind myself that I am privileged to be in my position.

I take a walk outside for 30 minutes to an hour.

Even though I am now working from home, I get up each day, shower, and dress for work, which reminds me of my value.

Most of all, I make every effort to stay connected with the people in my life. No computer, and no amount of AI, can love you back.

Michael_D_Nwaogu

Hmm. 🥴To be sincere, it is not easy.

In fact, I realised I have less friends now,

due to continuous striving to meet up

with some targets, which I still find

not easy to do -- the time is never just

enough, but we will keep on keeping on.

Hope someday, Udemy will consider

hosting meeting to teach or guide

the instructors on how to create

a company out of this venture and run

it like a Pro, with employed staff.

We need stuff like that.

Yes, I know that it could

be easy for one person to startup on

this journey, but when expansion is

required, or one wants to turn it to a

sort of a system, more hands would

definitely be of a huge leverage.

That's where I have my focus for now.

It's just not easy.

Bella

Thank you so much for sharing, @MarkLassoff, It's so good to hear that you know how important it is to stay in touch with your friends, family, and community, both for your personal and professional well-being. Working alone for a long time can be tough, but it's really cool that you take care of yourself by being grateful, taking walks, and getting ready for work each day to remind yourself that you're worth it.

I can understand how hard it can be to battle addiction, especially if you're by yourself a lot. You're doing an amazing job of looking after yourself and staying connected with people, and that shows how strong you are. Keep it up and remember to take things one day at a time.

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community

Bella

Hi @MichaelDeleNwaogu, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. It's hard to pursue your goals while feeling disconnected from your loved ones. It's great that you're pushing through, even though it's not easy. Building something successful takes hard work, but I can see that you have a lot of passion for what you're doing, and I truly hope that you get the support and resources you need to continue growing your business. We'll definitely keep your suggestion in mind as we look to improve our events and networking opportunities.

Remember that you're not alone in this, and it's okay to ask for help when you need it. You have a community right here!

Bella Almeida

Udemy Community

Michael_D_Nwaogu

🤭Woah! @Bella

I just don't know what to say, again.

Hmm. May your days be long with

every good thing in life.

I'm wishing it double, whatever

you wish for yourself today.

Thank you, I really appreciate this

I don't think I can thank you enough

for letting this out of you -- very comforting.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

ScienceAndLearn

Luckily, Udemy is just a hobby for me and I work when I find time. Especially on travel and holiday I can push forward with literature reading and thinking which info I will take up in the class. I'm often a solo traveller, so that gives me plenty of time in hotel rooms or waiting in airport or so to work on it : ))

LawrenceMMiller

Is there ever true work/life balance? I have been an entrepreneur with responsibility for selling business and keeping 25 consultants employed; I have been an author; and, now an online course developer. I am not sure that my life has ever been in balance. I have had periods when I was on my sailboat for six months (I claimed to be writing) and then many months of business travel and very late nights working or writing. It is a wave pattern.

I am just finishing a new course now. I am on the home stretch, and it is just like writing the last chapter of a book. I don't want balance, I want to be left alone so I can completely obsess on completing my course. But, last year I didn't develop any new course because I was consumed by personal transitions.

I may go six month and not develop anything, then for a few months I may be completely dedicated to my new project. Fortunately now, my kids are all grown up, and my wife is a successful author/playwright and now Udemy course developer. So, she completely gets it.

Of course you have to take care of your family relationships and not sacrifice those to your work. But, balance, I don't think I have ever been in balance.

MichaelPog

Course Creation is very isolating. And I have to say keeping both physical and mental health is a constant struggle.

I'm an extrovert, so for me it's extra hard.

Also, no unproductive meetings and micro kitchen conversations with colleagues to take your mind off of your work.

So it's your responsibility to find time to exercise, talk to friends and relax.

To be completely honest, the first few years were very tough and I've made too many sacrifices.

But it's a lot easier now.

My main strategies are:

- Having a fixed schedule for exercising. No matter what!

- Having a hard stop everyday at 5pm. No more work after that.

- Cooking healthy meals. You are what you eat. No junk food on workdays.

- Taking a walk to clear your mind, every day.

- Yoga resets your body after sitting at a desk for hours.

- Good night sleep.

- Reading my 5 star reviews every morning to start the day.

FrankKane

Unless it's some sort of emergency, I limit my working days to 5 days a week, and each of those days I set a goal for myself. Once that goal is complete, and all of the messages I've received for the day have been dealt with, I sign off, go outside, and enjoy nature for a bit. As an introvert I don't need much else to recharge.

My working day starts as soon as I get up, usually around 7 or 8 AM - so usually I'm done by 2 or 3 PM, which leaves plenty of time for the other stuff life has to offer and all the stuff that needs doing around the house. I find it far more rewarding to wrap things up after producing something I aimed to produce today, than to wrap things up at some arbitrary time on the clock.

I am religious about maintaining "inbox zero" so I'm not left with outstanding things to worry about all the time.

One little hack I do is to take my "weekends" on Mondays and Tuesdays whenever possible, when the local attractions are much less crowded. We also try to schedule actual vacations during off-seasons to make them more enjoyable. Our kids are grown and on their own, so we're no longer tied to school schedules!

SaiAcuityIn756

More than Balance - its time that one gets off Udemy. I enjoy spending time with friends, family, enjoy road trips etc....Udemy gives you Time! Both my kids are young and am happy spending quality time with them when they need me.

The day starts and ends with answering questions, reviewing feedback, marketing, and creating captions in new languages. A natural creative juice emersion kicks off creating new courses, and as per the flow am able to get new course done within a week, and then start to improve it for the next 2-3 months. This flow has come overtime - I was fixated to having a structured schedule - but now its more of going with the flow.

unknown

It's all based on revenue. As a new instructor in the saturated programming space, I can safely inform the forum that being here is only stressful. The revenue achievement posts, with few exceptions, are just bragging and sometimes even demotivating after looking at the course quality fueling the sales.

The biased selling algorithms, template responses in the community, and missing platform features are a daily drain. It's just another social media platform in most ways, and the drain is exponentially higher since a course is a single post at the end of the day. Such generic posts where all instructors get clubbed under a single category sometimes seem insensitive.

Most will overlook the facts, assuming I am bad at selling, hence complaining. I have written many posts with data, so best to keep this one short for sanity.

RonErez

I go skateboarding everyday and walk a lot to relax.

Also cooking helps me relax. I'm currently at a serious Hummus phase. I'm making hummus like there is no tomorrow.

At the same time I continually update my courses and work on new courses on a regular basis. I found consistency is key.

I try to take everything seriously, but not too seriously.

Also I do not look at how many students sign up to the course. I only take a look at the end of the month. Initially I would check how many students would sign up everyday and that would really mess with me.

I do check the Q&A obsessively and check for any new reviews to respond daily.

Wishing everyone well !

RonErez

Just wondering. How do you go about creating captions for new languages.

I've only been on Udemy for six months and haven't considered that yet.

RonErez

Hey Michael,

Wishing you well from one person to another.

Good luck with Udemy and also good luck with the people around you.

Ron

SaiAcuityIn756

I use google translate once I download the English caption file. Create VTT docs and upload, its pretty simple.

Takes time when it comes to long duration courses but I try to create captions in languages like Spanish, French, German since for my courses I see lot of interest from these regions. Moreover I create captions only for my highly saleable courses.