© 2026 Urcelia Teixeira. All rights reserved. This episode and its accompanying materials may not be reproduced, republished, transcribed, or adapted without written permission.
Sometimes my author life feels like a train that never stops long enough for me to get off.
There is always something else to do, another chapter to write, another newsletter to send, Amazon ads to tweak, Facebook campaigns to check, a social post to create, or another problem to solve.
So inevitably, somewhere around the middle of the year, I usually start to feel the cost of trying to keep all of it moving.
And the way I plan and pace the months leading up to the end of the year, when I'm hoping to take some time off,
will determine whether I reach my goals and still get to enjoy that break,
or whether I arrive completely depleted and scrambling to finish things at the last minute.
So I started looking more closely at what author life balance could realistically mean for us Christian indie authors when our work never truly comes to an end. And what I came back to was not another complicated productivity system or time tracker.
It was four parts of my author life that need to be protected deliberately,
because my author business will not necessarily protect them for me.
So this is what I want to share with you today, friend.
Four areas that will protect your writing life so you can grow your author business without sacrificing your faith, family, or health.
Whether you're folding the laundry today, taking your dog for a walk, or simply kicking back with me for the next 20 minutes,
let's explore how to balance our author life together.
This is the Anointed Scribe Podcast.
If you're a Christian writer, whether you are starting out or want to build right from the beginning, or you've published a book or two and feel off course,
this is your home for growing your faith and building a profitable author business. God's way.
Come on in, friend. It's great to have you here.
Hey, it's your author friend, Urcelia, and welcome back to the show.
If it's the first time we meet, I'm your host and founder of Anointed. Subscribe as of this episode, I've written and self published just shy of 30 Christian mystery thrillers, and it's my privilege and blessing to help you grow your relationship with God and build a successful author business that makes a real kingdom impact.
Okay, so let's get into today's topic, which, as you've already gathered, is all about finding balance in your author life.
And it's something I'm personally navigating almost all the time.
I'm a writer, but I'm also the person creating my book covers, formatting my manuscripts, planning book promotions,
creating and managing my ads, writing my newsletters, updating my author store and website myself and trying to keep on top of my social media too.
And because I'm a self published solopreneur and quite protective of my business,
most of it still falls to me.
That works for a while, but it also means there is no one else telling me when I have taken on too much.
So when the middle of the year rolls around like it is now,
no amount of coffee gets me through the day and I usually notice that I'm running low.
My brain keeps working long after I've closed the laptop so I sleep less,
exercise is the easiest thing to push aside, meals become whatever is quickest,
and I can reach the end of the day having worked for hours without giving much attention to my home or the people I love.
And perhaps most concerning of all, it becomes very easy to carry my whole author business into my time with God.
Sure, I may still sit down to pray, but my mind drifts to my task list or my story and I catch myself already sitting at my desk instead of sitting at God's feet Feet so I found myself thinking about all of this recently because if you're following the show and listening to this episode live,
you'll know that we're at the end of July today. And so personally, I'm looking ahead at the next four months because I'm gearing up and planning to hopefully take some meaningful time off in December.
December, I have found for myself, is when most of the world slows down, so it's easy easier to take time off. It also happens to fall during our summer holiday here in the Southern hemisphere,
so it's usually the time when I want to slow down,
spend some time with my family, and step away from my author business for a while to properly rest.
Your ideal rest period may be different from mine if you live in the Northern hemisphere. Perhaps July or August is when you take a holiday or reduce your workload.
Now I know from experience that rest will not simply happen because the festive season or the summer arrives.
I have learned to be intentional about it and to make sure I've planned well in advance.
See, I think the word balance can give us the wrong picture. It can sound as though every part of our life should receive the same number of hours every day.
But real life seldom works like that, right?
Sometimes our writing does not go as well as we hoped and we write more slowly, for example, which has a knock on effect on our deadlines,
or our book promotion company's availability or editor's calendar may not align with our ideal dates.
There will also be seasons when family, health or another responsibility needs to take priority.
And much of this is completely artsy side of our control.
For me, balance means building at a pace that allows each important part of life to receive the attention it needs over time.
One demanding week is not necessarily a problem. The problem is when a demanding week never ends.
So let's look at the four parts of my life I'm learning to protect while I continue moving my author business forward.
And I'm willing to bet you will agree that they apply to your author life too.
So the first thing we need to protect is our time and attention with God.
And for me, that is about more than simply making sure I have had enough quiet time before I begin work.
I can spend time praying and still carry so much noise from the business that I'm never fully still before Him.
Publishing brings pressure. Regardless of where we are in our journey, there's always something to improve,
learn,
promote, fix or add. And that can create a constant sense of urgency. And when our minds are constantly jumping from one task, one result, one problem to the next,
it becomes difficult to slow down and give God our full attention.
But Jesus said in Matthew 11, Come to me all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
We often focus on the promise of rest in that passage, but Jesus also says learn from me. We miss that sometimes.
He's inviting us into his way of carrying the load.
And throughout the Gospels we also see him pull away from the crowds to pray and rest.
That means we don't only need God to bless the work we have already decided to do, we we need enough space with him to notice when the way we are working needs to change.
One way I protect this time is by refusing to make every business decision in the moment.
Before I commit to another project or react to poor sales or Chase's strategy that seems to be working for someone else, I stop myself and bring it to God first.
It also helps me to spend time with him before I open my inbox, sales dashboard or social media, because once my working mind takes over,
it is much harder to pull back.
Another way we can protect our time with God is by taking 10 quiet minutes during the day to step away from the screen to breathe and remember that the business is not being carried by us and our effort alone.
Right?
It boils down to simply asking yourself, what part of my day belongs to God and God alone before my author business takes up every available space?
Okay, the next thing we need to protect is the people who share our lives. I have learned that being in the same room as the people I love is not always the same as being present with them.
It is entirely possible to close my laptop and still carry my whole author business around in my head.
I may be sitting at the dinner table, but mentally I am still trying to solve a plot problem.
Or I may be listening to someone speak while part of my mind is wondering why my sales have dropped and what I need to do to bring them back up.
My work will never tell me when I have done enough for the day, so I have to decide when my working day is over.
Because if I wait until every author task is finished before giving my family my full attention,
they will keep waiting forever.
My work is never completely finished, right? Our author works continues forever now. For me, that might mean putting my phone away during dinner or protecting one evening each week when my author business is completely off limits.
It does not have to be complicated. It just needs to be time when the people I love are not competing with my work for my attention.
Of course, there will be unusually busy seasons during those times. We might need to explain clearly to our families what is happening,
how long it's likely to last, and when we expect to be fully available again.
The goal is not to pretend that every season will feel perfectly balanced. The goal is to stop one busy season from becoming the way we live all year round.
Our author business is part of our lives, yes, but it should never take over the relationships that matter most to us.
The third thing we need to protect is our bodies, because it's carrying us through our work, right?
This is often the first area we sacrifice because it seems less urgent than our book deadline in front of us. And I, for one, am definitely guilty of this.
We stay at our desk too long, we eat badly, we sleep less, and we keep working long after our concentration has gone.
I'm reminded of Elijah. There is a moment in the life of Elijah that I find deeply encouraging.
After an intense and frightening season, Elijah ran into the wilderness completely depleted.
And God's first response was very, very practical.
Elijah slept, it says. Then an angel woke him and gave him food and water.
Then Elijah slept again and ate again.
God did speak to him and give him direction, but he first cared for the exhausted man who needed sleep, food, and time to recover.
That passage reminds me that physical needs are not an inconvenience standing in the way of the work God has given us.
What happens physically affects the way we think,
write, make decisions, and respond to the people around us.
When we are tired, manageable problems can feel enormous, and our patience wears thin. Right? It also becomes harder to think creatively or make measured business decisions, because sometimes we simply want the pressure to just stop.
And here's the thing, we don't need an elaborate health plan to protect this part of our author life.
I think the easiest place to begin is with the basic thing you know you have been neglecting the most.
Now for me, that might mean protecting my bedtime or scheduling the grocery delivery for 5:30 in the afternoon because when it arrives I have to stop working and start preparing dinner.
Perhaps it's taking a walk between writing and business tasks.
The thing to remember here is that we do not have to transform every habit in one week.
We can begin by asking what does my body need that I have repeatedly ignored right now.
Then we can respond to that need with the same seriousness we would give a publishing deadline.
The fourth thing we need to protect is having a clear limit around our work that seems to never stop.
This is where wearing all the hats becomes especially difficult.
There is a story in Exodus 18 where Moses is personally handling every dispute brought to him by the people, right? He sits from morning until evening and everyone waits for him to deal with every issue.
I can just imagine this long long line or queue in front of him. And this is where his father in law Jethro steps in. And Jethro is watching all of this.
And he says to Moses,
what you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.
The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.
Now Jethro does not suggest that the work is unimportant. That's not what he was saying. He points out that the way Moses is carrying it cannot continue.
Jethro told him to stop dealing with every issue personally.
Other people could handle many of those matters, leaving Moses free to focus on the work that only he could do.
That made me think about how many things I still do simply because I have always done them, not because they actually need me to do them right.
And yes, self published authors might not be able to outsource every task. I totally get that many of us are doing the work ourselves because hiring help is not currently affordable.
But sharing the workload does not always mean hiring someone. Sometimes it means automating a repetitive task,
simplifying a system, or posting less often,
or admitting that a project does not even belong in this season.
It may even mean stopping something that takes hours but produces very little impact or income.
Part of having an author life balance is deciding what quote, unquote enough looks like for the day, the week, and the current season you're in.
Without a stopping point, our work will keep expanding until it takes all the time we give it.
Psalm 127 says in vain you rise early and stay up late toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves.
That does not mean working early or late is always wrong. There are seasons when we will need to do both.
But the psalm challenges the belief that everything depends on us extending the working day indefinitely.
It reminds me that working longer and harder cannot guarantee the results I'm hoping for.
There comes a point when adding more hours produces very little useful work.
We are simply tired for longer Mark tells us that Jesus once looked at his disciples after an extremely busy period of ministry.
So many people were coming and going that they did not even have enough time to eat or sleep.
So Jesus said to them, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.
What stands out to me is that the work was still there,
the people still needed them,
and yet Jesus still told his disciples to step away and rest.
That means I do not have to wait until every task is complete before I allow myself to stop.
For me, building in rest means putting it on the calendar before every space fills up. It may be an evening when my laptop stays closed or full day away from the office or some breathing room after a book launch before I begin my next project.
And if I genuinely want to take December off, I need to start making decisions now about what I will finish, what I will postpone, and what I will not add to the rest of this year.
If July or August is your main rest period, the same principle applies.
Your work will never be completely finished, so your break has to become part of your plan rather than something you hope will happen once in a while. Everything else is done.
Rest that is only planned after all your work is finished will almost always be postponed because your work will never be completely finished.
So those are my four areas I am personally learning to protect my time with God, the people I love, my physical health, and a clear stopping point for working.
Remember, do not expect every area to feel perfectly balanced every day.
Be flexible, but do not allow one part of your author business to consume everything else for too long. The goal is to reach your break having made meaningful progress without arriving there at breaking point.
So two simple questions you might want to ask yourself now are what do I want to complete by the time I want to take my break?
And what am I not willing to sacrifice to get there?
Perhaps you want to finish your book, improve your email system, or master meta ads,
but you are no longer willing to sacrifice your time with God, your sleep, your family, or your health.
Then review these four areas and decide which one needs protecting most before you add anything else to the rest of your year. Don't try to do all four at once.
Choose one thing to protect and then set small boundaries because small boundaries add up to meaningful change.
Friend, your books and readers matter, but so do your faith, your health, your family, and the life you are living while you build this business.
Isaiah 40 reminds us that God gives strength to the weary. We can ask him for that strength before we reach the point where we have nothing left.
We do not have to run empty before we begin working with greater wisdom, honoring our limits, and making rest a normal part of the way we build.
So friend, I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe or follow the show so you don't miss any future episodes. Episodes I've got a few good topics coming up and if you really want to bless me today, please consider leaving a review.
You can also use the Send me a Message link in the show notes if you'd like to ask me a question.
Just remember to leave your email address so I can reply to you.
May your pen stay faithful, your roots grow deep, and every word you write bear fruit for his glory.
© 2026 Urcelia Teixeira. All rights reserved. This episode and its accompanying materials may not be reproduced, republished, transcribed, or adapted without written permission.
