One of the hardest things about freelancing is finding clients, right? I mean... what do you even look for? Just... work?
If you know exactly what you want to do with your career, then this post probably won't help much. You're probably already prepared with a list of places you want to work and what you want to do for them.
But if you're like me, you're armed with nothing more than a hobby, some good AP exam and SAT scores, and the hope that you're somehow going to make enough money to eat this year.
So what's a good solution here? Freelancing sites! They match up clients and freelancers for a cut of the profits. It's a fantastic way to gets started. I can't vouch for many sites, so be wary of scams. I can however, vouch for the website that got me started:
ELance
It's a fantastic resource for beginning freelancers. They give you a profile, a spot to upload portfolio, and a bunch of other stuff. You get a certain number of credits, which you use to bid on jobs posted by clients. It will help you get a feel for what kinds of work are out there, and what you want to do in particular. Check it out!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
How to Make To-Do Lists You'll Actually Use
I'm an "artsy" person. You know the type. Daydreamy, whimsical, kind of really really awful at doing all of the things that I need to do to get organized. Has a sneaking suspicion that grades aren't really a good measure of success. Tendency toward the counterculture, with hipster sympathies.
But when I got my first two jobs, I realized that my old standby of "I forgot" really wouldn't cut it anymore. Somehow, the knowledge that I could be fired did a lot more than all the frowning of college professors - in school, you just make it up by acing all the tests. When that's not an option, suddenly the familiar "uh oh... I was supposed to what?" becomes "uh oh... can I make rent now?"
But how to keep track of to-do lists? They're boring and just one more thing to remember! Well, you might only have so much willpower during the day. If you waste it on your task list, that's probably counter-productive.
So you have to be sneaky and trick yourself - make your list fun and attractive.
Try everything. Preferably for a week or more, unless you are really convinced that you hate a particular system. I used Wunderlist (whimsical yet traditional), an Excel spreadsheet (very official looking), notebooks (portable, and I like writing in notebooks, but easy to forget/lose), a planner (reminds me too much of school) and even a whiteboard (satisfying to cross stuff off, not portable) to learn my personal style.
Ultimately, I found that I need a couple of things from a list. It needs to be pretty, and it needs to be funny. So I set up a private Tumblr blog called "To Do: Figure out Life."
I customized it to be very self-indulgently colorful and whimsical, and gave myself permission to be funny in my entries; it's combination task list and journal for all of the little details that probably wouldn't make it into a real journal entry. (See below for an example)
What's your personal style? Don't know? Take a look at the blogs and comics and news and podcasts that you consume regularly. Which ones are your favorites, the ones that excite you the most and make you happy when they update? Why do you like those ones? Do they have an informative, solid, dependable tone? An artistic and/or inspiring tone? Lots of quotes and pictures? Do you like narratives?
The blogs I like to read are usually light-hearted, with a sense of humor tending toward the sardonic.
So a to-do list might look like this:
Like anything, you have to give yourself permission to fail, or you'll get discouraged. I started making the lists before going to bed. If I forgot, that was ok. Now, since I have a job that starts at 5:30 am, I tend to make them in the morning. Whenever works best for you. I don't cross everything off, either. It's ok if you forget sometimes - as long as your lists are interesting to you, you won't forget every time.
Basically, you can either try and force yourself to use a list you don't like, or work with yourself and trick yourself into doing what you're supposed to do and enjoy it. So take the time to figure out how to keep yourself interested - it'll help a lot in the future.
But when I got my first two jobs, I realized that my old standby of "I forgot" really wouldn't cut it anymore. Somehow, the knowledge that I could be fired did a lot more than all the frowning of college professors - in school, you just make it up by acing all the tests. When that's not an option, suddenly the familiar "uh oh... I was supposed to what?" becomes "uh oh... can I make rent now?"
But how to keep track of to-do lists? They're boring and just one more thing to remember! Well, you might only have so much willpower during the day. If you waste it on your task list, that's probably counter-productive.
So you have to be sneaky and trick yourself - make your list fun and attractive.
Try everything. Preferably for a week or more, unless you are really convinced that you hate a particular system. I used Wunderlist (whimsical yet traditional), an Excel spreadsheet (very official looking), notebooks (portable, and I like writing in notebooks, but easy to forget/lose), a planner (reminds me too much of school) and even a whiteboard (satisfying to cross stuff off, not portable) to learn my personal style.
Ultimately, I found that I need a couple of things from a list. It needs to be pretty, and it needs to be funny. So I set up a private Tumblr blog called "To Do: Figure out Life."
I customized it to be very self-indulgently colorful and whimsical, and gave myself permission to be funny in my entries; it's combination task list and journal for all of the little details that probably wouldn't make it into a real journal entry. (See below for an example)
What's your personal style? Don't know? Take a look at the blogs and comics and news and podcasts that you consume regularly. Which ones are your favorites, the ones that excite you the most and make you happy when they update? Why do you like those ones? Do they have an informative, solid, dependable tone? An artistic and/or inspiring tone? Lots of quotes and pictures? Do you like narratives?
The blogs I like to read are usually light-hearted, with a sense of humor tending toward the sardonic.
So a to-do list might look like this:
- Wake up at 5:10. Ugh.
-Stupid daylight savings. - Work 5:30-7:30
-Check - Work on social media job
-Check - Cry a little. Kidding (mostly).
Do yogaTake a shower- Conversely, sleep.
Breakfast: Stir fry.- Instead of doing any of that: worked, took a 2 hour nap, woke up with a headache. Awwww yay-ah.
- Work 10-12
-Go to Rendevous or Macey’s for work. You really need a change of scenery and something yummy to help you work. Maybe even Biff’s, I bet they don’t close before 1...?
-Check. Mmmmmm, hipster pastries. - Work on your novel
- Go to the bank
-Check. Also, check deposited. Booyah.
Like anything, you have to give yourself permission to fail, or you'll get discouraged. I started making the lists before going to bed. If I forgot, that was ok. Now, since I have a job that starts at 5:30 am, I tend to make them in the morning. Whenever works best for you. I don't cross everything off, either. It's ok if you forget sometimes - as long as your lists are interesting to you, you won't forget every time.
Basically, you can either try and force yourself to use a list you don't like, or work with yourself and trick yourself into doing what you're supposed to do and enjoy it. So take the time to figure out how to keep yourself interested - it'll help a lot in the future.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Keep Your Home and Work Life Separate
Protip: when you clock out of work, really clock out of work and leave the area. Don't do the online equivalent to standing around the break room shouting about your shower, and how you're just now starting to get halfway decent at time management skills. Does this even really need to be said? Yep.
Learn from my mistake. I'm just glad I was off the clock.
Learn from my mistake. I'm just glad I was off the clock.
Monday, March 26, 2012
How I Started Freelancing, Or: This Economy Sucks!
I was unemployed for almost a year. During that time, I got really depressed, dropped out of school, and starting lounging around the house in my pajamas, getting more and more morose, and keeping a roof over my head by the grace of my very tolerant boyfriend and room mate, as well as money my parents had very generously given me after I had to admit that my lofty plans and goals were falling through, and I wasn't going to be able to keep up my end of the "graduate college and get a job" deal on the agreed time schedule.
I suspect that for my boyfriend and room mate, at least, my pathetic-ness was much helped by my pathetic cat. No one quite had the heart to throw both of us out, even after I ran out of gifted money.
I had a couple of crappy jobs during this time - as a bartender for a very shady strip club that never put me on the payroll and paid me by personal checks (also electrocuted me repeatedly and fired me for complaining), as a manufacturer of river rafting gear (yes, that job should probably be done by a robot), and as a receptionist (still have that job for a little longer actually), but nothing that made minimum wage and/or provided living hours.
I also became an expert at camping Craigslist and going to interviews with 8 million more qualified, older other people. It was the first time I considered taking my nose ring out, after my facial jewelry barred me from a job that I KNEW I was going to hate, KNEW was too far away and too early in the morning and I KNEW would slowly crush my soul every day. I just wanted to have a job - it was coming down to having my soul or having my self respect, and I was losing hope of attaining either.
Then, one day, justifiably concerned by my third straight day hanging out in bed, my boyfriend said to me, "Why don't you try freelancing? You did pretty well in the English AP exams, right?"
"...Yeah... but... so?"
"So someone might need an editor, or even a writer."
"I don't think so."
"You haven't even tried."
"Don't wanna try."
"Well, you can't sit around eating ice cream forever."
"Watch me. Besides, I clean house sometimes."
"Just try it, ok?"
"...Fine, whatever."
1 week and an ELance account later...
"I have 6 jobs!"
"How are you keeping track of all of those jobs? You can't even keep track of your keys."
"I'm an adult now. Also I have a spreadsheet."
(So I actually wrote this post before this comic. But I love it.)
And now: a blog. About being really ill suited for... pretty much any kind of job, finding my niche and making it work anyway. Hopefully someone will come across this in the depths of depression and it'll help.
Or else it'll just be funny. I think it's funny. Happy reading!
I suspect that for my boyfriend and room mate, at least, my pathetic-ness was much helped by my pathetic cat. No one quite had the heart to throw both of us out, even after I ran out of gifted money.
I had a couple of crappy jobs during this time - as a bartender for a very shady strip club that never put me on the payroll and paid me by personal checks (also electrocuted me repeatedly and fired me for complaining), as a manufacturer of river rafting gear (yes, that job should probably be done by a robot), and as a receptionist (still have that job for a little longer actually), but nothing that made minimum wage and/or provided living hours.
I also became an expert at camping Craigslist and going to interviews with 8 million more qualified, older other people. It was the first time I considered taking my nose ring out, after my facial jewelry barred me from a job that I KNEW I was going to hate, KNEW was too far away and too early in the morning and I KNEW would slowly crush my soul every day. I just wanted to have a job - it was coming down to having my soul or having my self respect, and I was losing hope of attaining either.
Then, one day, justifiably concerned by my third straight day hanging out in bed, my boyfriend said to me, "Why don't you try freelancing? You did pretty well in the English AP exams, right?"
"...Yeah... but... so?"
"So someone might need an editor, or even a writer."
"I don't think so."
"You haven't even tried."
"Don't wanna try."
"Well, you can't sit around eating ice cream forever."
"Watch me. Besides, I clean house sometimes."
"Just try it, ok?"
"...Fine, whatever."
1 week and an ELance account later...
"I have 6 jobs!"
"How are you keeping track of all of those jobs? You can't even keep track of your keys."
"I'm an adult now. Also I have a spreadsheet."
(So I actually wrote this post before this comic. But I love it.)
And now: a blog. About being really ill suited for... pretty much any kind of job, finding my niche and making it work anyway. Hopefully someone will come across this in the depths of depression and it'll help.
Or else it'll just be funny. I think it's funny. Happy reading!
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