I have the best job in the world. I love the people I meet, the places I get to go, and most of all, I love that I get to spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with my dreamy husband by my side.

With the good, however, comes some bad: Last year, we were pulling 60 hour work weeks. Unless we were out of town or shooting a wedding, I was working in the office from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. That’s the thing about working from home that never sinks in until you’re doing it- There’s no off switch to your work. We can’t just stop what we’re doing at 5:00, and not think about it again until 9:00 the next morning. On top of that, being in the wedding industry, our weekends are kind of spoken for. ;)

All that aside, I wouldn’t change what I do for the world… But I have to change how I do it. Sometime around Christmas last year, I reached my breaking point. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I hated not having one day off a week (or even a month),  but the worst part of all of it was that even though I was spending every minute with Nate, unless we were shooting together, that time together included headphones and editing. 2009 wasn’t pretty, friends.

Then we went to Africa. There’s something completely unique about spending 2 weeks away from your phone, computer, email, work, etc. I went through a serious detox period: The first couple days, I almost felt a panic when I wanted to check my email, Twitter, go on Facebook… And then somewhere around the 3rd or 4th day, I just plain didn’t care anymore. The days started feeling so much longer, so much richer, and I loved the genuine quality time I was getting with Nate and our best friends. I could think more clearly, I was so much happier. I wasn’t breaking conversations by casually pulling out my phone, or thinking of all the things I had to do while someone was talking to me. :/ Before coming home, Nate and I had a long talk about how to free up my life. I knew, like an addiction, it’d be a lot harder to do once the temptation was there, but I was determined to make a change. A big one.

At the time I came home in mid July, I was following over 350 people on Twitter. I’ve since cut that number down to about 50- Really just my ‘real’ friends and a couple random celebrities and such. I went through Facebook and hid about 95% of the people that were showing up in my feed- I really didn’t need to hear about a high school classmate’s hangover, or a rough day a bridesmaid from a wedding was having at work. I didn’t want to unfriend them or anything, just keep them from showing up in my feed. Now only about 40 people show up out of the previous 1400. Finally, I took a machete to my Google Reader- Cut that down from the 500+ blogs I was following to 46.

I’m not even kidding when I say it’s completely changed my life. For one, when I’m editing a wedding and go check Facebook, it takes me less than a minute to see my friends’ status updates. Before Africa, I’d spend close to 40 minutes every couple hours reading statuses from people in my life that I’m not even sure I’d say hi to on the street if I saw them! I use Twitter much more efficiently now, because instead of just reading statuses, if only 2 pop up in my feed, I’m more likely to actually respond to them.

My Google Reader has made the biggest difference. I previously followed the feeds of hundreds of other photographers and wedding planning blogs. I’d spend nearly an hour and a half in the morning alone catching up. Not to mention the 15 other times I’d check during the day. Yes, sometimes I was inspired by those blogs. But you know what I realized? For the most part, they left me feeling depressed. Depressed because I was following all these amazing photographers who made me feel like I’m not as good as them. Like Nate and I were falling short. There was so rarely a good feeling that came out of the hours of my life I was throwing down the drain, that I finally just quit.

Now, I only follow blogs of past brides, or close friends, or less than 10 photographers whom I just plain aspire to be like- But not to the point that it depresses me. After all of this, I’ve gained so much time back in my life. I’ve always wished for more hours in the day, and now I have them. :)

This photo was taken during one of our afternoon game drives in Tanzania- The boys ate a picnic lunch on the roof of our safari truck while we watched the Great Migration. I’m hoping to live more like this every day- Minus the Africa, Great Migration, and safari truck part. :) And who knows- Maybe in a few years I won’t hyperventilate at the thought of starting a family, because we’ll actually have the time to you know, feed the kid. I hear they like that. :)