Work/life balance.. within SL!

Do you have one?

If you've got one, does it bother you?

If I've got one, am I doing something wrong?

yes

I was talking about something similar with people in world the other day - for me I find that if I spend my time in Second Life thinking 'work work work' then things just don't come together for me - what I try and make simply won't come together.

However if I spend my time in world 'living' (having fun - hanging with friends) then the ideas and inclination for work come to me - and the things I do make end up being a lot better..

So yeah - theres a balance between work and play, and for me it's fairly essential..

Further - when Second Life becomes 'Second Job' I tend to sign off for a few months and have a break. Others milage may vary, but Second Life for me is entertainment and relaxation and when it stays in that catagory my time here is not only more fun but also more productive.

95% work, 5% fun.... but that will even out over time.

5% work and 95% fun!

Once a business reaches a certain level of success it becomes difficult to devote time to pure fun anymore. Not because you don't want to, but because there are too many demands on your time.

100% work at the moment. Things take twice as long since the update, plus 1.70 has got me to the point where I just can't wait to sign out.

2% work, 10% nuisance, 8% unidentified, 80% fun

Yes. But the "fun" comes in two types. There's the socializing I do when people come to visit me, or I run into somebody in a store, or something. With closer friends, I chat while I keep building.

Then there's the fun I actively seek out, as a change of pace. Playing bingo, or trying a new game, or exploring around.

And then there's the occasional tp invite I get to something I didn't even know was going on and I drop everything and go to it!

coco

Yikes, some scary stuff there.

Since I know folks have been good enough to offer me scripting jobs I now feel guilty, or that I'm letting them down, if I do things other than working on them in an evening's SL session, even if I'm not in "scripting is fun" mode. And what stung me was when I got a message from another friend, who was setting up a community on an island that I joined, accusing me of "not participating".. well, I'm not going to make customers wait while I "participate" or do anything else, but it did induce a nice "what am I actually here for?" moment (approximately the twentieth of those I've had since I joined SL...).

And the fact that even Chip Midnight isn't able to sit back and just enjoy the profits from what he's already got active inworld is quite a scary shock to me really

SL is aboot.. 70% fun, 2% work, and 28% orange jello.

I used to be a partner in a reasonably successful aircraft-building thing.. But I quit that when I got tired of having to think up new designs.

Money is good--especially since i don't buy Lindens--but I like earning it in a fun manner, such as from a race or conest.

It makes me kinda sad, when a person becomes successful enough in SL that they don't have time to enjoy much in it. ..Unless they enjoy the whole business thing, then more power to them. ^.^

Fun. All fun. If it becomes work I'm going to play Battle ground 2 like the lindens do.

Second Life, my dear friends, is ninety-three percent perspiration, six percent electricity, four percent evaporation, and two percent butterscotch ripple.

Don't get me wrong... overall I enjoy doing what I do or I wouldn't be here anymore or have my stores still open. You hit the nail on the head though. Some times you end up with a lot of obligations to customers, and other things you've promised to do, or wanted to participate in, and it's all hanging there waiting for you to log in like this giant to-do list. You feel guilty when you don't really want to do any of it and it can keep you from logging in. If I don't sign in for a few days it can take me an hour just to respond to all the IM's I've been saving in email to deal with later. The best advice I can give is learn to say no without feeling guilty about it. If you let SL become so full of obligations that you don't have time for anything else it can be a real drag sometimes. Trust me, I have experience in this area. I often think of SL as SJ (Second Job).

I am still fresh here, so these proportions don't add up to 100%, but there is some considerable overlap among them since they are not mutually exclusive:

Work: 80%
Pure Play: 5%
Socializing/Networking: 15%
Nightclub: 35%
Mall Management: 40%
Personal Merchant Stuff (New stock, maintaining, promoting merch, etc) :20%
Fun: 100%

I know... hard to imagine, but I am still having a LOAD of fun doing all the stuff that is available to me.

Between my Art (Ophidian Artisans Gallery: Fine Art for your Body, Home and Business), Talamasca Transportation Systems (Avatars, Vehicles and Scripted Gadgets),
The Mall (Skyline Mall: some of the most original and creative merchants in SL),
and the Skyliners' Club (Jazz, Blues, Swing and Salsa. Living the High Life with Class in Cass!),
I have morethan enough to keep me busy, but it is ALL fun.

The trick is to find stuff that interests you and do that... When it no longer catches your fancy, sell it off to some enterprising person who wants to take it over, and seek out what interests you now.

96% work for me. 94% fun

God, you folks have seen me out there. 95% of my time is spent with the new folks, or at one meeting or another, or teaching my weekly class, or the ad-hoc classes for those who cannot attend the regular class.

1% of my time is spent dealing with my stores and vendors.

4% is break time, where I can try to catch up with one or two friends (Sorry, I've not really had a lot of spare time), or help someone out by debugging their scripts.

As for fun? 94% of what I do is fun. A few percentage points of everything I do isn't all that much fun, but it's more than made up for by the things that are.