Productivity
I’m Doing This Weird New Thing With Sticky Notes
Organization is my addiction, especially in my office. Getting work done in a disorganized office just isn’t going to happen for me. In fact, when Kristin King wrote about her Dirty Little Office Secret on Inkthinker, I was both shocked at the existence of her pile and impressed that she got even one line of work done with it sitting next to her.
Rethinking the C Word
My parents were strict with me when I was growing up but I don’t remember having very many rules. Instead my parents would give us choices. It wasn’t “You can’t do this.” It was more like “If this happens, than this will happen” or “as long as this doesn’t happen, you can decide how this will go.” Instead of giving us a bed time, they would tell me that I could go to sleep whenever I wanted as long as I could get up by myself to go to school. If I even hesitated in waking up in the morning, I would be on an eight o’clock lock down bedtime immediately with no further chances. I think I was the only first grader who stayed up all night watching Patty Duke, Dobie Gillis and Dick Van Dyke reruns on Nick at Nite. But I always got up on time and got myself dressed without delay because I wanted to see what happened to Patty and her twin cousin Cathy the next night. (Yes, I realize that it was just one chick playing two parts now but at the time I was obsessed by it.)
Network It!
I don’t care how old you are fortunate to be, you will never get so old that you can’t afford to learn more. As solitary as a freelancer’s life is, it’s important that you have reliable sources of information, inspiration and advice. Recently, I upped my networking game with a few new groups I’d like to share with you:
Evernote for Freelancers
I’m an obsessive note taker. (You know, now that I think about it, I’m obsessive about a lot of things. Maybe I shouldsee someone about this. When the doctor asks me why I’m in therapy, I’ll say “Well, I started writing more about myself on my blog and I realized that I’m pretty damn crazy. What should we do about this?”)
Read MoreNo, You Don’t Work Better Under Pressure
The biggest lie you can tell yourself as freelancer (or anybody really) is that you work better under pressure than you do with enough time to work steadily on your projects. I hear people saying this all the time. “Oh, it’s due on Monday but I really can’t think about it right now. I work best under pressure.” Usually I just laugh to myself because I was taught not argue with fools. To admit that you’re procrastinating is one thing. To try to claim that it makes your work better is another.
Workaholic Goes on Vacation
You may not know this, but I’m on vacation. Which doesn’t make me happy because to me vacation is a dirty word. I’m a workaholic through and through. Even when I wasn’t doing this freelance thing, I always wanted to work more than I didn’t want to work. When I worked hourly jobs, I’ve often had the conversation with my boss where he told me I could come back to work until such and such day because he couldn’t afford the required overtime. And I never took my vacation days. I just got them paid out to me at the end of year.
