Freelancers don't get sick days.

It's maybe the worst part about the whole concept of freelancing. It's not doing taxes (I say confidently without having done taxes), or juggling all the jobs or waking up early. It's that there are no sick days.

On the one hand, I'm at home, right? So I can just stay in bed and work. True. But on the other hand, ohgodawfulsickness - all I really want to do is sleep. That must wait until work is done, however.

I guess I could take a sick day, but I might be out of a job or two. So instead it's sitting around typing about being sick on the internet and being glad that my Male Compatriot is almost better from his bout with the disease.

To add injury to injury, I have one very weak ankle and an athletic personality, so I sprained the ankle pretty badly.. again... yesterday, while I was desperately pretending I wasn't sick. Now I have to do a bunch of work at home AND go in to the last few days of my remaining part-time office job to see if they send me home. Must sort out my bike, I'm really not sure how that will go.

Good night. I'm going to collapse back into a puddle of self-pity. On the plus side, I am already in bed.

How do you handle being sick? Do you insist upon a day? Do you work through it? I'm fresh out of the music industry, where nothing short of hospitalization is an acceptable excuse for missing work, and then only if you can't sneak past the doctor. So I am in the habit of working through illness, but that may not be a good solution.

Alarm Clocks and Coffee Addictions

Freelancing and coffee addictions go together like teens and sleeping in; a well known, well worn stereotype that is both humorous and sad.

My personal coffee addiction came about because of my hatred for alarm clocks. And my inability to purchase alarms that simulate the sun, or gently buzz me awake or softly caress my cheek with a gentle sonic massage involving gongs from Shangri-La. Oh, and my hourly job that requires me to work on east coast time (8 am in NYC = 5 am in Flag AZ).

Next best thing? Coffee maker on a timer that sits at the foot of the bed. It's not quite as gentle as fictional monk gongs, but there's a nice soft gurgle and the smell of warm, dark roasted addiction. And in case that doesn't wake you up, it beeps when it's done.

Of course, I might spend as much money, over time, on the coffee, because I've been bitten by the sustainability-ethical-buzzword bug, and get suckered into buying "organic shade grown locally-roasted ethically sourced coffee from wise gurus on mountaintops (probably in Shangri-La with the gongs)" on a regular basis. But, you know, live lightly on the planet and all that. Plus I hear coffee tastes better than a sonic massage. Priorities.

Back on topic, my room mate seems to have the best of it - he has an office job with a decent health package that lets him come in to work basically whenever he wants. He doesn't even have to use an alarm. Then again, his commute is kind of a pain. It's really pretty (though long) by bicycle, but he drives.

I hope to soon have the best of both worlds - no hourly jobs AND no commute. In the meantime, though, it's kind of nice waking up early when I don't have to go anywhere and can just sit and cuddle my cat while I work.

How do you wake up? Are you an alarm clock slave? A caffeine junkie? Do you combine the two like me?

Who Needs Sleep Part II: Biphasic Sleeping?

I am a night owl. But I'm also a morning person. In fact, pretty much the only times I'm tired are around 4 am and around 3 pm. The rest of the time it's go, go, go! So I did some research into polyphasic sleeping a while ago, and decided it was too risky. No, I didn't try it for myself. I decided that there wasn't enough evidence that it was safe, and the only research that's been done into sleep suggests that sleep deprivation is quite unhealthy. That's enough for me, sorry, I'm a coward like that.

Biphasic sleep, on the other hand, is a time honored tradition in much of the world - siestas! A mid-afternoon nap. Mmm, yummy. The benefits of working from home. I usually don't get more than 5-6 hours of sleep at night, and I can really feel a difference in my overall performance. And I work from home most days, so I might as well, right? In theory, a 90 minute nap at 2 pm will improve time management and make me way more productive the rest of the day. In practice, it might just make me groggy and not want to do anything else for the rest of the day. We'll see what happens!

Have you undertaken a similar experiment? What were the results?

Synergistic Project Optimization, a.k.a. Gardening While Working

How did you spend your day yesterday? I transplanted tomatoes and lettuce while working and drinking tea in the beautiful Flagstaff sunshine. Next up? Kale and catnip.

Confession: I didn't actually work on my computer after I got dirt all over my hands. But that's what notebooks are for, right?

If you freelance, how do you entertain yourself while working on projects? If you don't, what does your office look like?

Speed Reading for High Productivity

The Art of Manliness (yes, I follow a man-centered blog. Whatcha gunna do, it has some great skill based articles and cool insights on life!) had an excellent article on speed reading a while back (2009, to be imprecise... I'm honestly not even sure how I stumbled across this!). In it, they discuss Spreeder, a free website that will help improve your top reading speed.

It's fun to improve your score, too - in the morning, when I have some free time, I go to Wikipedia and either click "random article" (it can take a while to find an interesting one sometimes) or "recent events" and copy and paste an article into Spreeder. I'm learning a lot about random stuff, like the recently Independent State of Azawad.

So why do this? If you're a writer, programmer, or anyone else who's self employed, you'll be doing a lot of self driven research and skill acquisition. If you're working on a science fiction story and can plow through a paper on astrosociology in five minutes, that is incredibly useful. If you're editing a news piece and suddenly run across something you aren't sure about, having the ability to break out your Chicago Manual of Style and refresh yourself on the rule in a minute flat, that's useful, too.

Another place where speed reading comes in handy: investing. I'm no expert, so I won't talk a lot about this, but I will say that wise, hands-on investing depends a lot on knowing what's going on in the world. Speed read the news and the Wall Street Journal!

In closing, there are plenty of things to take slowly. I wouldn't speed read The Brothers Karamazov, for example. But for research, staying informed about the world, even your daily blogreads, speedy reading is a great way to increase your productivity and your range of skills.

P.S. Know when to use it, though. For example, I edit news stories. And it definitely makes people nervous when I am done in two minutes. While I know I can increase productivity by editing more articles in less time, my client's peace of mind is ultimately more important.

How fast do you read? Have you found that it's useful to be able to read fast? Are you going to try using Spreeder?

Who Needs Sleep?

The past few weeks, I've just kind of stopped sleeping. Whenever I start something, I try and do it all.
I can learn this! I can study this! I can edit and write and yes, of course I can get up super early in the morning and why certainly, I'll do that, it'll be fun to figure it out. And while I'm at it, look how clean the house is getting, and look how much interest I'm regaining in hanging out with friends, and how back in shape I'm getting, and ...

Next thing you know, I'm so deep into crazy land that I'm pondering how much the poppy seeds from my bagel look like bugs when I move my plate back and forth really fast.

That's the thing, though, everyone's work suffers when there's not enough sleep. This is not a secret, everyone knows it. Why is it so hard to sleep?

Well, for the same reason it's so hard to choose between social obligations and work obligations. Going to have to try reigning it in if I'm going to get anything done!

But then, that's self employment. You work harder for yourself than anyone else is allowed to ask you to work.


How do you find balance? Have there been some tough decisions that you've had to make in order to make everything work?

Freelancing: Why I don't have a dedicated workspace.

Look up "freelancing tips" on Google. Go on. What's one of the first tips you see? Everyone says to make a plan, and to set up a dedicated work space that is just like an office, only it's in your home. Don't work from the couch, don't work from the kitchen, and DEFINITELY don't work from the bed! All hell might just break loose, and besides, you'll never get anything done, will you?

But I think that one of the biggest benefits of working from home is that you can do whatever the heck you want with your office. If you're a person that needs a dedicated space to get you in the zone, go for it. Decorate it all pretty and make it yours. I tried establishing a room, and it just ended up really messy.

Instead, I usually work in the same spot in the morning. I get up at 5, so it's early and quiet and I'm not moving too fast. I sit in the same corner of the same couch in the living room, because it's next to a window, under a vent (it's cold at 5 am when you live at 7000 feet!) and next to a lamp and a bookshelf. I put my coffee on the shelf and cuddle my cat. This arrangement has the bonus of making me stay clean, since I'm hanging out in a shared area.

But for the rest of the day, I say, anything goes. You've got energy? Put on some music and dance around while you think about that important contract. Hungry? Make a sandwich. Sprawl out on the couch and put your feet up - whatever makes you the most comfortable for being productive.

I don't want a dedicated work space. I want the freedom to work wherever I dang well feel like it. Sometimes I work on the porch. Sometimes the couch. Often while standing in the kitchen - that's another rule I break, I do chores while I'm working. Occasionally I'll work in bed - I'm writing this blog post from my bed. Sometimes I work from a coffee shop. (Not that often because I'm saving money) Whatever makes me happy, I'll do it.

That's what makes freelancing so exciting and scary - there aren't really that many rules. Go explore! Figure out what works best for you. It's a lot of fun.

Thoughts on Going for It

This weekend, I submitted my first ghostwritten novella. 50 pages, 30 days. The premise was very vague, with just a brief description of 3 characters, the setting of "a strange world," and the basic idea of "good fights evil," so I had to do most of the story and all of the world building myself.

I put out the proposal mostly as practice - I didn't really expect the win the contract, but I figured I could learn something from the "client declined contract: view reason" aspect. Plus, it'd be fun if I did win, wouldn't it! Good experience and all.

As soon as I won, I started panicking. What should I do now? I've participated in NaNoWriMo for the last couple of years and I've never even gotten to the 50 page mark. Why do I think I can do this? I've never written a complete fantasy novella before! I'm not qualified for this; I should just call the whole thing off, apologize, and go hide under a blanket for the next few days with a bowl of soup.

Instead, I asked myself: what's the worst case scenario?

I fail miserably. I don't complete. Or I complete the novella and they hate it. I'll make no money if I don't complete, and a pretty small amount if I do. I might get some bad feedback on my profile. That might make it harder to find jobs for a while. Then again, most of my jobs so far have been in editing, reformatting and copywriting areas, not creative writing areas, so that probably won't actually affect much, will it?

Ok. What's the best case scenario?

I succeed brilliantly. So brilliantly that I'm disappointed that I don't get to take credit for it. My first ever fantasy novella makes my employers fabulously rich and famous. Then again, I don't think they're quite as inspiring as a well-connected teen (Eragon) or a single mother (Harry Potter), so the novella would have to succeed on my brilliant prose alone. Let's be honest, that's not very likely for a first work.

So the most probable scenario is that I make a little money, build my resume, learn about writing on a deadline, and have some fun with it.

Phew. Panic over. Down to business. Erm. I don't have any clue where to start. The blank Word document is staring me in the face. I play around with formatting for a while and surf the internet, calculate how many pages I have to write in a day if I don't want to write on the weekends (3), and go back to staring at the blank page.

But I don't want to close that Word Document. If I do, I know I probably won't open it again. If I choose inertia, then it'll be that much harder to choose action. And I know basically what the story is about - good defeats evil. What else do I know about stories?

Five minutes later, I have:
Exposition:
1.
2.
Rising Action:
1.
2.
3.
Climax:
1. Battle between protagonist and evil person.
Falling Action:
1.
2.
Conclusion:
1. Hero is returned home, victorious.

The next time I got stuck, I started writing down everything I could think of about my main character, who was described as "a 16-year old girl." And so on. I just kept moving in the direction of writing a story, and eventually, the story was written.

The moral of the story: just because you aren't completely qualified, doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it. Do what you are qualified to do, and you'll figure out the rest.

The corollary: A day later, I also won a contract to write a short action-adventure story (I REALLY didn't expect to win both, it was a little overwhelming!). But then it changed to a mystery. I have read a couple of mysteries, but not many. Fewer than 10. That was too far outside of my experience, and I ended up declining. Know your limits.

Always Remember to Do Your Research

Do your research before you offer a service. Simple, right? But sometimes it's easy to overlook. For example: I learned about tracking changes in Word over a year ago.
 (In Microsoft Word 2007, you just go up to the "review" tab and click "track changes." Easy.)

I had fun with it - it's almost as satisfying as a red pen! Plus, the tracked changes helped me land my first ongoing job. The client hadn't seen it before, and really liked the feature.

As you can imagine, I felt quite good about my Word prowess after that. And I started offering a guarantee of tracked changes with each product. In fact, I offered two copies - a clean copy and a tracked copy. Guaranteed!

Some of you are probably shaking your heads already. But for those that don't know - you always have the option to view a clean draft. It's quite simple. Just go up to the "track changes" section like before, and where it says "final showing markup," click it and select "final." Like magic, the changes will disappear, until you change it back. You don't need a clean copy and a tracked copy.

If I had taken the time to experiment with the feature and learn this very simple fact, I suspect I would have gotten a few more jobs. Nothing contradicts the image of a competent editor like not knowing the basics of Word. It's pretty cringe worthy, imagining a company reading my proposal incredulously and dismissing it out of hand.

The corollary to this: if you're not totally sure about something, don't offer it. I might have also gotten more jobs if I hadn't proudly declared my ignorance. Most of them didn't even ask for tracked changes!

Since then, I've been exploring the different options much more closely; any time you think you know about a program, do some research. It will make a much better impression in the long run!