I’m starting to write this on a three-day stretch of public holidays.
So, I have a lot of free time. And, given this is the blog post I am writing, this is not a very accurate depiction of my life right now. I don’t usually have this much free time. This is a bit of an anomaly.
Okay, so let’s stop being cryptic.
A while ago, I mean, a long while ago, someone asked me how I manage to combine medicine and writing.
I didn’t respond to them immediately. But now, I think the best way to do that would be here, on this blog – one of the places where it is evident that I combine both fields.
To be honest, combining the two of them has never been the easiest thing. And it was a very different thing when I was a student and now that I am in the workforce.
For example, I had a lot more time when I was a student than now – not because I literally had more free time – I just had a stronger grasp on time management when the only thing I had to do were study as a student, and write as a writer. Also, the physical stress on the body is much milder as a student than as an actual doctor.
It is why when I was asked that question, I couldn’t respond immediately because things had really changed. I remember some time in 2022 that I told a friend that I had to figure out how to combine medicine with writing and she said to me; “Aren’t you already doing that?”
I was shocked, but it was true, I had subconsciously figured out how to do it.
Now, as I have said, things are different. I have to figure out the time management thing manually.
And not just time, all of the energies that I put into both aspects of my work: physical, mental, emotional.
There is a lot to doing this balancing act and even if I don’t know everything, I am more than happy to share what I do know. And what I have found works well.
SHOWING UP EVERYDAY.
You know, when I started this blog, it would take me a whole week to write a single blog post.
The first blog post I published this year, that took me only an hour to complete.
The difference was that I had two years of knowing that if I sit down to write, I will WRITE.
It feels too simple almost, when you think about it. That all you have to do when it comes to achieving things is just showing up. Everyday.
Still, the showing up is hard.
But the showing up every day? I cannot lie to you, that takes time. It takes a lot of courage really.
There will always be a reason why you cannot do something today – or do a task right now: there are dishes to be washed, there is this or that friend that needs you to do something. You are not in the mood. And in Nigeria – there is even no electricity to charge up your laptop.
Sigh.
But, over time, I just realized that if I thought about how tasking the task was (ha-ha), I would never get anything done. So, I devised a much simpler thing.
You see, before I moved back to Lagos, the apartment I lived in had this bright orange table and chair. I used to joke to myself that it looked like the exact color of a lifejacket. You know that life-saving contraption? That keeps you afloat in a sea of procrastination? Yes, that.
I would tell myself that I didn’t even need to write. I didn’t even need to do anything.
All I had to do is place myself in that lifejacket (the table and chair) and not do anything. We would see what would happen.
The truth is, almost always, I would write something. Specifically, because it gets awkward sitting down and staring at a blank wall for minutes. Some line of poetry would pop into my head, the outline for a new blog post would suddenly need to be written down. I would sketch out and refine a plot segment in a story I was writing.
Things just always happened when I sat down. And had no other choice, no other thing to do but to write.
Of course, I learnt this trick from another writer. Neil Gaiman’s tumblr page (a loosely guarded secret) was a place I found myself entering during the pandemic. I had a very strange form of writer’s block because of all of the Covid anxiety, and his advice to writers just helped me get back into what I loved doing.
Over time, I found other ways to trick myself into writing, and not just showing up at a desk to write.
Simple things like this:
I only have to write the first sentence of this story.
Can I get this blog post to go from 200 to 500 words.
I don’t have to edit this story right now – how about I just write the outline for how to edit it (one of my favorites because it forces you to look at the story all over again, and you’ll find your fingers typing away at corrections that are low-hanging fruit in the story, and eventually, big plot points become clearer.
The hardest part is the showing up.
But just remember, the way you feel is not a reflection of how great a writer you are – or your capacity in anything. How good you are is dependent on how willing you are to show up, and improve at what you do. It is by doing this that the confidence comes in.
The time management of doing this, while a student was something that I am not sure I had a big struggle with. In all honesty, it is very foggy in my memory now how I managed to read SO much and still have time to write.
But really, I always saw my school work as something that I was willing to dedicate time to, and make that time FIXED because I could deal with getting a rejection email – but not with failing out of medical school.
For example, if I preferred to study in the afternoon, I would make sure that the two hours I would study would be guaranteed uninterrupted time, then the rest of the day I would use to dwell on (or avoid) my writing task for the day.
And the thing is, with studying, with writing, they are very kind things. The world will not burn if you don’t finish it all today.
You don’t have to do it all today.
Do what you can today, tomorrow is very good at worrying about its own self.
DO IT FOR THE LOVE
I have spoken multiple times about how doing art for just … love is one of the biggest hacks to creating awesome work, to avoiding burnout, to ensuring long-term sustainability.
I wrote about how love encourages us to be brave.
How it is the best way, and really, the only true way to fight in a world that would always prefer we dim our light.
But, love is also one of the biggest ways to ensure that I was able to juggle two fields that are very, very different in how you need to approach them.
There will always be some accolade, some amount of money that looks so shiny in our eyes. And those things, when we get them, or even when we chase them, can become distractions. They can deceive us and not allow us to see the beauty in just being.
In just being a person that creates. In just being a person who is dedicated to learning their craft out of love, out of a passion that is borne from doing something that delights you. That fulfils the very urge that all of us have to do great things. To do great work.
Some years ago, I found it very hard to justify why I should even be this concerned about wanting to do my work well. Who is going to notice, anyways? How sure am I that I am going to even triumph and achieve the goals that I am striving towards.
But, I think my faith helped me answer that question. It helped me realize that wanting to do good work is a very human thing.
You know, we often think of work as a form of punishment. The fact that we have to work is something that feels wrong sometimes. Wouldn’t it be great if the world were just some island paradise where we kicked up our feet and enjoyed the beautiful fruits from the beautiful trees of this world?
Well, I was listening to a sermon all those years ago when I was asking questions about the virtue of choosing to do our work well, and I found out that when you look at the Biblical story, Adam was given work even before the fall of man.
It means even in a paradise, we would work. We would tend to the earth, we would create from it, we would grow it, harness it. We would do work.
It made me realize that all honest work, is holy work.
That makes me feel like even in the boring day to day, me choosing to sit up in that orange lifejacket, that I was contributing to something divine. Something special. So, it was work that had to be taken very seriously. The Lord Himself is going to come and inspect it on one cool evening.
I don’t know if that helps. But it helped me create a healthier mindset towards work. One where I was able to separate it from my self esteem (cue Toni Morrison’s quote “ the work you do, is not who you are. The work you do, is the work you do. You are who you are”)
The right mindset is important. The why behind our work is important. The love for it is important.
And the showing up everyday, is only because the work we do is a work of love, that is important.
Now, given everything, with the new life that I live, I struggle to really put these things to work.
Maybe I am even experiencing some atypical form of burnout.
Maybe these are all excuses.
But, dear reader, I hope you can find something important in the things I have written in this blog post. These are steps I have carried out myself that have helped.
And really, the comment section is our dear friend (ha-ha), what have you found to be helpful while you create? While you work?
How do you balance work and everything else?
Let me know in the comments!