There are two sides to the writer debate – those who require certain comforts and those who can write in the middle of a toxic dump. I’d argue both types are just as likely to have hazardous work environments. Your office could be making you sick, or at the very least, decreasing your productivity. The good news is there simple way to creating a safe and healthy work environment.

1. Trouble in the Air

The information is scary: according to the August 2000 EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality and Student Performance report, “Indoor air quality can reduce a person’s ability to perform specific mental tasks requiring concentration, calculation, or memory.” While this specific report discusses students in school, the same can be said for those who require mental acrobatics to earn a paycheck. The solution?

1. Air filtration appliances. Units are available at every price point and are especially helpful for those who have basement offices.

2. Check for radon. Radon is an odorless, tasteless, radioactive gas. It can cause cancer, but can also be detected with a quick and easy test.

3.Get a plant or two. Certain plants suck the toxins of the air. Common chemicals from building materials – formaldehyde, benzene, etc. could be doing a conga line around your desk. Pick up a peace lily and park it in your space.

4. Open a window. Simple right? Nature’s filtration system.

Ergonomics

Hunched over a keyboard typing away…that’s how writers are supposed to be right? Not unless you want a chiropractor to become your best friend. Poor typing habits are hard to break, but buying ergonomic furniture and aids; practicing good posture and workstation alignment and taking breaks will help prevent costly problems like back injuries and eye strain.

Cleaning

An obvious solution, but one many of us overlook. When’s the last time you cleaned underneath the lampshade or vacuumed your keyboard? Simply wiping up crumbs isn’t enough to keep your office safe.

1. Dust and or sweep with a moist cloth to protect from launching dustbunnies into the air.
2. Use a vacuum with a Hepa filter and clean the bag or canister outside.
3. Use natural cleaning products like white vinegar to cut down on unknown pollutants in commercial cleaning supplies.
4. Rugs should be cleaned regularly. If you are in cold weather, wait for a snowy day, haul the rug out and let it sit outside for an hour, once the rug is cold drop it on clean snow and beat it with a broom. Flip it over and beat it some more. The cold will help kill germs and the snow helps clean the fibers without soaking them and damaging the rug. *This is not absolute rug advice, if your rug is expensive or has been in your family for 100 years then hire a professional, don’t try to sue me!*

Green

Kooky chemicals are everywhere, but greener alternatives to traditional inks, papers, etc. are readily available at great prices online and at local office supply stores. Recycled paper, soy ink, glass, metal or wood office organizers from sustainable sources promotes healthy business practices out in the world and at home.

Beautify

So, after buying a weeping fig plant, stocking up on bamboo office accessories and using that odd vacuum cleaner attachment on the back of the computer monitor all’s well in the world right?

Not quite.

I have seen some truly horrific home offices. Neat, clean and completely devoid of any warmth. A desk, chair and wall calendar does not make an office. Infuse some personality into your space. Warm, inviting work areas boosts productivity and overall well being.

Even if funds are tight, cheap and inspiring art can be made by simply framing some of your published pieces. Those clips are accomplishments whether for Time Magazine or Paper Clips Monthly.com. Don’t forget pictures of your family or dog and your ticket stub from that killer concert as well.

Writers spend countless hours in their office meeting deadlines, it is a worthwhile investment to create a space that is inviting, productive and safe. After all, you can’t beat a deadline if your dead.

What do you love about your home office? How can you improve it?

“Oh!” they exclaim, now seemingly impressed. It’s annoying.

Before talking with Deb today I have wondered if I should state what I do differently and market myself differently. Instead of freelance writer, I should maybe say journalist. Instead of saying I own a business that provides writing services, maybe I should say I’m a business consultant…

Here’s the thing. It really doesn’t matter because, writer or journalist, people will ask about who I write for and when I don’t say the local paper or give a well-known publication title, their little eyes will glaze over and I’m back in hobbyist land. It doesn’t matter that I write for the top freelance writing website. It doesn’t matter that I’m paid to hang out on Twitter and Facebook and when I’m off the clock I’m building a brand and they take part in building that brand everyday whether they know it or not. They don’t get it and I’m through trying to help them understand.

If I worked for NASA, someone would be disappointed I wasn’t an astronaut. You see my point? Our career choice is just that – a choice. We chose to become champions of the written word for better or worse. Sure it can get annoying when people think you sit at home eating bon bons, watching Oprah and scratching your butt with your keyboard, but we should realize most of these people are actually jealous. They just got off the longest commute of their lives from a place of hell and they have no choice but to appear there each and everyday if they want to go on eating.

Feel a little better? Still annoyed? Try these things:

• Cut out the daily interruptions by not being available. If you’re working, don’t answer the door when the neighbors show up, don’t answer the phone with your bored friend calls, don’t allow yourself to be guilted into favors.
• End conversations with action phrases. “I’m sorry I’ve got to go edit a piece. I’ll call you later.” “No can do, I’ve got a conference call in an hour.” These are gentle, but not too subtle reminders that you do work and more importantly, they are interrupting.
• Crack their face. “Oh, you’re always on Facebook!” Your response: “I know, it’s great to get paid to interact with people in such a fun way.”

Yes there are days I work in my jammies. There are days I write a piece, do some laundry, play with the kids and bake cookies. And yes, I’ve watched Oprah in my jammies while eating cookies. I do it every so often because I can.

The majority of my time, however, is spent writing, meeting, pitching, running to wash at least some underwear for the family, sliding back online while Elmo sings his closing song so I can manage a community and answer the 300 emails from folks who “see me playing on Facebook” and want to know how I can help them and better yet, how they can pay me to help them.

My respect comes from the way I conduct my business, how I handle my clients and how I ignore the haters, wannabes and neverbes. Consultant, home-based business, freelancer, whatever you call yourself, call yourself lucky and talented!

What’s your title? What are the advantages/disadvantages of it?

Hire a professional organizer.

Yes, they do exist. If you can get paid to sit at home in your underwear and blog about cats, these professional can get paid to get dressed, leave the house and come organize yours. A professional organizer is a cheerleader/drill sargent that will help you organize the good stuff and finally get rid of those freakin Vanilla Ice posters. No, they will not be worth millions someday. They will also help you figure out what kind of organizing style works for you. I’m a visual organizer. If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist so clear bins and open shelves work better for me.

Speed sort.

Before you head off to the store to buy massive gray bins, speed sort your junk, um, stuff. Sort things into the keep, toss or share/donate pile. No lingering! If you can’t decide toss it. You’ll quickly learn about what you really can live without.

Hit the paper trail.

Writers hoard a lot of paper. Clips, research, old publications, receipts from twelve years ago. Here’s where it gets tricky. You have to sort the paper, according to how you categorize items. Be ruthless. Remember, you’re clearing out clutter, not moving clutter from one spot to the next. If you don’t need it, kick it to the curb.

Make everyday life easier.

• Drop junk mail into a bin by the front door. It can be decorative certainly, but it’s at the door so it can take be taken out with the rest of the recycling.
• Put your keys in the same place everyday. Hana Haatainen Caye uses a basket at the front door. A hook is useful or a small table. Whatever it is, pick the spot and stick with it.
• Misti Sandefur uses a file cabinet for her papers, however, a horizontal filing system may work better for you, the key is to have a place and category for every piece of paper. No fair using one gigantic misc. file!
• Make tidying a regular routine Misti also advises.

Here are a few websites I found that have some office, home & life tips:

Unclutter.com

18 Five-Minute Decluttering Tips to Start Conquering Your Mess

And what’s a declutter conversation without a tip from an Oprah guru? Peter Walsh’s Ten Ways to Declutter Your Home

Clearing out clutter is about keeping what’s important, creating a place and space for everything and being consistent with your organization. Clutter happens to everyone, take your time and start small. Each space that is freed is another victory to a clutter free (mostly) life. Just think about what you can do with all the time you save NOT looking for paper clips!

Got more clutter tips? Share them!

The site is called “F My Life,” with people sending in reasons that their lives suck that day, followed by the acronym “FML.” If you get to feeling bad about how things are going for you, a little visit to this site might just make you feel better. It’s schadenfreude at its finest:

fmylife.com

I had the pleasure of working with Gayla while she was a channel manager at b5media, and I was constantly impressed by her ability to connect with people, engage, and share part of herself as well as offer her guidance.  I know she will become an important part of the Freelance Writing Jobs community!

To get you acquainted with Gayla, here is a brief bio:

Gayla has made her own success in the world of online writing and community building.  Her blogs and websites, including MomGadget.com, helped her become a 5 figure affiliate blogger and gave her the opportunity to develop and sell multiple sites over the years, ultimately earning over six-figures from those combined sales.  Today, she writes and manages several blogs and sites, including her blog network, GadAboutMedia.com.

She has ten years of experience as an internet professional in a variety of positions, including:

• Channel editor and manager to as many as 80 writers for a large blog network
• Marketing and support to a major online niche dating website
• Content eeveloper
• Webmaster
• SEO Consultant
• Work at home coach
• Blog training
• Advocate
• Public speaker
• Event organizer
• Online community director
• And last but not least, Mom and Chief of my family

Suffice it to say, Gayla has vast experience in working from home, being your own boss, and building your own career and business.  She will begin publishing content here on Freelance Writing Jobs next week.  Until then, you can connect with Gayla across the social web, and you can learn more about her at GaylaBaer.com.

Please join me in welcoming Gayla to Freelance Writing Jobs!

I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only freelance writer out here that takes on the occasional less-than-stellar project. I admit, there are times that I accept a project based solely on the fact that I want the money that goes along with finishing the task. There’s a certain article about vaginal yeast infections that comes to mind, for example.

There are other projects that just drag on fooooreeeeveeeerrrr. You know these projects. They start out sounding very simple and straightforward, and by the time you’re into the fourth line revision you finally have to admit to yourself that your client is completely insane, and you will end up making approximately nine cents an hour because you bid a flat fee at the onset.

So, there are times when I feel the need to celebrate at the close of a project. I’ll fully admit that some of these times have involved varying amounts of alcohol. Others have revolved around my calculator as I punched in numbers and reminded myself that it was all about the paycheck. This week, my reward for a particularly grueling client experience was the fact that I was able to pay to have my front yard fenced. Those celebrations are particularly sweet.

These guy, though…They know how to celebrate when they reach their goals:

With just a few weeks left before children head back to school and we lose yet another sunny day, let’s take a few minutes to remember that writing can be addictive, but it’s important for our mental and physical health to step away from our computers, escape from our minds, and enjoy life.

Take walk.  Sit by a pool.  Heck, you could even wash your car.  As long as you get outside and breathe some fresh air between projects, you’ll have a chance to enjoy of the great weather before it’s gone and you’ll feel better for it.

Now, I should mention that I am terrible at taking my own advice.  I skipped going to the pool with friends and family today so I could finish a project for a client.  However, I’m always first to tell people, “Do as I say, not as I do.”  If I could just listen to my own advice, I’d surely be healthier and less stressed.  Alas, that’s easier said than done.

Am I alone in my addiction to writing?  Am I the only writer who can get so lost in my own head that you let life pass you by and need to sit back and remind yourself that there is more to life than words?

I’m guessing I’m not alone, and I’m hoping the readers of Freelance Writing Jobs will join me in helping each other step away from the computer once in a while.

What do you say?  Care to join me for a drink by the pool?  Let’s do this!

What do you do to make sure you enjoy the summer weather when projects are calling your name?  Leave  a comment and share your tricks to get away!

Image: stock.xchng

I feel like my freelance life really is a part of my real life. The choices I make in one absolutely affect the realities of the other. I moved to a smaller office, and it gave me more take-home money. I decided to have another baby, and I had to slow my work pace during morning sickness. The two are very much intertwined.

Lately, though, I’m discovering that this can be a bit of a hassle. My DH and I have been house shopping for the last few weeks. There’s a whole neighbor drama thing going on where we live, and while I’m not ready to give up the fight to get the low-lifes out, I’m maybe not up to fighting from this particular location anymore. So, we’re looking for a new place to call home. If I had a regular job, this might be stressful, but I think it would have a lot less impact on my work. After all, I’d still be expected to show up at 8 with my bagel and time card.

Being a freelancer makes things both simpler and more complicated. The agent wants to go look at a house in the middle of the afternoon? Um, sure, I can do that. We need to meet with the banker to get the loan papers in order. Thank goodness I have a flexible schedule! I want to spend all day trolling the real estate sites instead of writing articles? Who’s gonna stop me?

Aaaaaaand that’s where I get in trouble. I think other freelancers have similar stories, especially when their kids are out of school for the summer. Little Jenny wants to go to the pool? Come to think of it, I am pretty hot sitting in front of this computer screen. I’ll just make up the time later. Then later rolls around and Jenny wants to snuggle in with a DVD, and who are you to pass up quality family time? (Or to miss out on Where the Wild Things Are?)

There’s an upside to having my freelance life and real life so dependent on one another, however. I’m currently looking to buy a more expensive home than the one I already have. If I had a “regular” job, this would require me to either wait a few years for a raise or to go in with my hat in my hand and ask for one. Instead, I can just take on more work. Whereas DH is stuck at a certain income level until his next official cost of living increase, I have the ability to increase our family’s income by working a little harder or even working the same amount but choosing to raise my rates.

Just think of how much time I can free up by not needing to look at those real estate sites anymore…

I decided to write about my hair.

This is My Mohawk

I’m sporting a Mohawk.  It’s not a big, bright purple spiked thing, but it’s not one of those “faux-hawks” created with a bunch of gel-goop, either.  It’s the real deal.  Shaved sides.  Three-inch strip of hair straight down the middle.

It’s ridiculous.

I’m thirty-nine years old.  I wear not-so-cool glasses much of the time.  I live in the suburbs.  I take kids to fireworks shows and baseball games.  I shop at the neighborhood Price Chopper and have extended conversations with the meat guys.  While there are approximately 9,335,298,101 things that I’m willing to gripe about, I’m not engaged in all-out rebellion and I haven’t shoved anything through the piercing in my ear for more than a split-second since 1991 or so.

But here I am, with an outrageously silly Mohawk.  And I sort of like it.

A little over a week ago, on my way to the shower, my oldest daughter asked me what I was doing.  I told her I needed to clean up and to shave.  She asked if I planned to shave my head.  That wasn’t really a joke; I’ve been known to go intentionally bald from time to time.  I told her I would emerge with a Mohawk.  I was kidding.  She knew I was kidding.

Then, somewhere between the Irish Spring and the girly-smelling shampoo, I decided that wasn’t the worst idea ever.

I emerged with a Mohawk.  Hilarity ensued.  The kid laughed.  The baby wanted to rub my head as if it was a page in one of those texture books.  My wife gave me the, “You’re a little weird but I’m not going to hold it against you” look.

Yesterday, I shaved down the sides again.  It’s even more pronounced now.  I don’t plan to keep it.  It will be gone before our late July vacation.  I’m enjoying it at the moment, though.

Why Am I Telling You about My Hair?

You’re probably wondering what in the hell I’m doing wasting your time with a long story about my stupid haircut.  Well, here’s the payoff.  I hope it makes the first ten paragraphs of this post at least somewhat worthwhile.

My neighbor works at a bank.  He can’t have a Mohawk.  I doubt he wants one (few do), but the fact of the matter is that he couldn’t pull it off he did.  I have a friend who runs a jewelry store.  Same story.  My insurance agent couldn’t to Mo’.  My buddy the financial planner couldn’t do it.

Me?  I can chew up a few Gillettes and leave a Wednesday afternoon shower looking like a nut job.

No one is going to stop me.

And it’s not going to screw with my bottom line.  I won’t lose business because I decided to follow through with a scalp joke.  In fact, I’ve had a great week in terms of client acquisition while wearing the Mohawk.  It might even be a good luck charm.

I can do something this obviously goofy because I have the best freaking job in the world.  And so do you.

Now, I know that most of you don’t have even the slightest inclination toward Mohawkdom.  You’re in this business, too, though.  That means you could have one if you so desired.  You could even dye it pink and then write “Sex Pistols Forever” in red Sharpie above your ears.

Or, you can decide that you don’t work on Wednesday afternoons because that’s when you go for a drive through the country with your stereo cranked up.  You can wear your most comfortable clothes–even if they are, shall we say, less than professional.  You can keep the TV tuned to the program of your choice or you can take your lunch at 10:58 sharp.  You can pull an all-nighter and take a Tuesday off just because.  Women can skip the makeup.  Guys can grow the beard and/or mustache.  You can scream profanity so twisted and depraved that it will peel paint if you get a rejection slip in the mail or you can parade around the house with a beach towel cape and a baseball bat scepter, honoring your freelance victories with a high-stepping parade through the laundry room.

You can do whatever you want.

Welcome to working for yourself.  Welcome to freelance writing.

When you see cumbersome “how to” posts, long diatribes about the horrible state of the industry, fear-mongering about the future, gripes about the hustle and income levels, or an empty shoulder where your muse should be sitting, think about the fact that you can stand up, march to your bathroom and come out with a freaking Mohawk.

Enjoy the freedom.  Take advantage of it.  Enjoy yourself, express yourself and find your own, personal Mohawk.

Hey, while you’re luxuriating in your freedom, take a minute to share that Mohawk here.  Tell us what you love about being your own boss.

Post-July 4 Fun Fact:  The folks who dumped the English tea into Boston’s harbor boarded the ships disguised as Native Americans.  They dressed like members of the Mohawk tribe.  Coincidence or providence?

When we did accept our first outsourced gig, it was actually with a bit of embarrassment and shame. We definitely didn’t tell other writers that someone else was handing off their “overflow” work to us because we had so much free time on our schedules that we were desperate to fill.

I think another part of the stigma is the term itself. “Outsourcing” has such negative connotations, with visions of call centers in India and slave-wage factories in China. Even “overflow” sound like something your toilet does on a bad day.

The funny thing is that we’ve never had a problem with hiring other writers to do what we call “subcontracting.” (See, doesn’t that term sound a whole lot more respectable.) In fact, we’re really proud and excited when we have enough work coming in that we can help other work-at-home parents make some income. Maybe we’ve given ourselves a pass by including the word “agency” in our title…

This summer I am determined to make as much money as possible with the limited time I have available. It turns out that one sort of economical use of this time is to go ahead and subcontract work from another writer (or two). To be fair, I don’t make as much money as I would if I went out and tracked down the deal myself. On the other hand, I can just sit down at the computer every afternoon and start typing away on whatever’s been assigned. It takes some of the pressure off I think it ends up being just as profitable, if not more so, in the end.

Do I still have some reservations when it comes to doing outsourced work? Yeah, I have to admit that I do. It still makes me feel “less than” for some reason. But, I have a baby due in three months and I’m trying to buy a new house, so I’m going to go ahead and take the path of least resistance for the moment. No, I haven’t stopped looking for new clients. In fact, I’ve got two new ones in the last week or so, but I’m also not spending my time sending out query letters that might get rejected.

As any teenage boy or gambling addict will tell you, there’s something to be said for a “sure thing.”

In an effort to make that happen, I approached the FWJ community for advice.  The post received a number of great comments that, when combined, serve as a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to work on their own efficiency/time management/etc.

As I mentioned last week while handing out free nachos, I decided to combine them into a single post (this one) and to comment on them a little bit.

Buckle up and bring a drink.  This is gonna be a long trip.  It could be even longer–there were some truly great ideas and some of them deserve more attention than I can give them here.

Note: You won’t find anyone talking about increasing their rates.  That was intentional, not an oversight.  When I asked folks to chip in with their $.02 worth, I asked them to leave that topic alone.  I didn’t want to get into the 8,372,898th discussion of freelance writing rates.

Without further ado, here’s an overall look at what folks around here had to say about getting things done more efficiently.

Thanks again to everyone who commented.  My apologies if I somehow forgot to reference your particular remarks in this post.  Every shred of advice provided had real value.

Chill Out

Some of you decided that my rant about “killing time” and some of my other remarks evidenced excess stress and advised me to relax.  Dava, Marcia, Debi and Debra all seem to think I’d benefit from a healthy dose of chill pills and they’re probably right.  Tsarina thinks I should cut myself a little slack.

That’s good advice. A high-stress attitude can be exhausting, which can reduce efficiency.  If one wants to log fewer hours, it’s important to make the remaining hours awesome.

In all honesty, my original post probably made me seem a little more tightly wound than I actually am.  Nonetheless, I think we can all benefit from stress reduction and I’m going to try to maintain a nice, mellow sense of perspective as I work toward my goals.  I think that much of the other advice provided will make it easier to shed stress, too.

Hire Out

A number of you recommended hiring someone else to handle aspects of my business, freeing up my time to concentrate on what matters most to me.  Ideally, the improved productivity would generate enough money to pay the support while leaving me with an improved bottom line and more time on my hands.

Chris recommended hiring someone to do my research.  Kate thought I could benefit by putting a VA on the payroll.  Allena and Phil liked the idea of hiring out, as well.

I think I can benefit from this in the near future, but not immediately.  My fractured schedule and somewhat weird organizational strategies make it tough to bring someone else in on the action without hitting the “pause” button long enough to get that someone up to speed.  We work in a deadline-driven discipline and that just really isn’t an option right now because of it.

By doing some other things, I can get myself in a situation where it is possible to utilize the talents of others more frequently and with greater effect.

This is an area in which I have extensive experience.  For several months, I was spending a significant percentage of my time assembling teams to complete large content production tasks and managing the projects.  Let’s just say I discovered that outsourcing and relying on others can be a challenging process.  I hope to use the lessons I learned on that front in the future.

Scheduling

Smart scheduling was another recurrent theme.  Chris thinks I should actually work intentional “moments of nothing” into the schedule.  Laura cautioned against overscheduling.  Jeremy recommended scheduling things that don’t really exist in hopes of fooling myself into heightened levels of efficiency.  Vicky liked the idea of making time bargains as a means of self-encouragement.  Dee advocates the idea of a 50-minute hour and Su-sieee recommends cutting one thing out every day in order to make life easier and more productive.  Carol thinks I should take more time off and believes that a weekly all-day break is a great way to recharge one’s batteries.

I can see how some of the scheduling “tricks” would work extremely well for some people.  I don’t think I’d respond well to some of them–they seem a little artificial to me.  The ones that really resonate with me on a personal level are the need to avoid overscheduling and working periods of “down time” into the schedule That notion of turning the world “off” one day per week is mouth-watering.

Reading all of this advice about schedules has pushed me to examine the actual mechanics of my personal scheduling.  That includes the tools I use, the way I assess likely time requirements, etc.

Spending

A few people made the perfectly sane observation that there was an alternative to trying to work less while maintaining or increasing income.  Camilla and Marcia both recommended spending less money in the first place and Janed pointed out the potential advantage of moving somewhere less expensive.

Like most families, we’re getting pretty vigilant on those fronts and it can make a big difference.  I’m completely portable in terms of work and my wife is a special education teacher, which is a relatively high-demand profession all over the place.  We’ve discussed the idea of moving to a less expensive area (yeah, we are in Kansas, but we’re in Johnson County, which is relatively pricy).

Perspective

TBri reminded me that single parents are in an even tougher situation.  Brad (the official Nacho Winner) pointed out just how silly it is to complain about having too much work when some folks are struggling to make ends meet these days.  Helen’s tongue-in-cheek recommendations about canceling the good things in life to make more time for work pointed out the risk of taking efficiency to an extreme and Fran’s comments about the role of personality responsibility in these situations struck a chord.

These comments don’t really qualify as advice.  However, I found them to be some of the most valuable contributions.  It’s really easy to get so wrapped up in the details of running your business that you lose track of the bigger, more important things.  Thanks for the reminders.

Systems and Automation

Chris advocated automation and overall simplification (cutting things in half repeatedly).  Matt told me it was time to stop multitasking and that working through the ol’ to-do list in a more focused way would yield results.  Ericka recommended devising better systems.

I’ve had the tremendous luck to work extensively with a leading expert on systematic approaches to business operation and with a client whose analytics business focuses on isolating and improving critical drivers in business processes.  So, I do have a good understanding of how to develop and apply smart systems to my workflow.  Now, the challenge is listening to the good advice I’ve received and combining it with the knowledge I’ve gained.

On an intellectual level, I’m a true believer in systematic processes and automation as a means of improving efficiency.  The problem, thus far, has been stopping the existing Rube Goldberg-esque machine long enough to implement the changes.  It’s hard to stop to tie your shoes when a bear is chasing you.  I’m going to find a way, though.

Health

Karen and Patti recommend improved health.  Of course, they’re absolutely right.  Even if they weren’t right with respect to the impact of better health on productivity, it would still be worth following their advice simply because early death isn’t really on my to-do list.

We tend to have sedentary lifestyles.  When we’re working way too much, the effects of that motionless life becomes even more pronounced.

I think it’s time to start running again.  Swimming on off-days.  Sorry, Patti, but I just can’t see myself doing yoga.  I know it’s great, but I just don’t think it’s me.

Zzzzz…

Angie, Marcia and Su-sieee all think I could benefit from a little more shuteye.  They’re right.  A little more sleep would boost waking hour productivity so much that it would probably result in a substantial net gain in output.  It might also cure my Exploding Head Syndrome.  It’s also a great stress-reducer and it would undoubtedly improve my mood.

Other

Jodee wants me to hold out until we perfect cloning.  I just don’t think science has advanced enough for me to keep plugging along with the status quo that long.

Raina recommends decluttering my life and Ericka emphasizes a productive workspace.  These are extremely smart recommendations and they’re two of the few I’m already doing effectively.  I’ll vouch for them.

Leslie observed that one can kill two birds with one stone by finding ways to work on projects that provide you with information you can use to improve other elements of your business.

Annie reminded us that priorities trump the concept of “balance” and that we should strive to do the bulk of our work during those times when we tend to be most productive.

Ashley understood  my “I wanna crush Ian’s head with a window air conditioner” impulse and Stacy appreciated my use of the word “asshat”.  No, those aren’t pieces of advice.  But I love them.

Luckily, the guy was spared from a beat down.  I was in a hurry and didn’t have enough time to work him over.  Okay, the fact that I wasn’t really that upset was part of the deal, too.

In any case, my thick skull was finally penetrated by the indisputable fact that burning the candle on both ends is rotten and that my approach–tossing it directly into a steel smelter is even worse.

So, took advantage of this handy platform to write a long diatribe filled with elements of my personal story that couldn’t really provide much value to you.  I tacked on a plea for ideas at the end.  My goal?  Work half as many hours without bringing in less bacon.  I wanted your tricks, tips, hints, ideas, theories, recommendations, commiserations and maybe even a few ninja kicks in the ass.  The only rule?  I asked that no one talk about increasing rates as a means of decreasing workloads.  That seemed to easy.

Oh, and I promised a free order of nachos to the person who gave me the best chunk of time-sparing wisdom.

That post generated over 40 comments and I think only one of them was from me.  Almost all of them contained great advice and those that didn’t tended to provide equally important context.

My comment, which came only after 20+ FWJ readers decided to contribute, was simply to encourage even more input (which I received).

It became pretty clear to me that the ideas you provided could serve as the core of a great text about creating an efficient and streamlined freelance business.  A few bigger themes emerged and they were coupled with concrete recommendations and examples.

All in all, it was an incredibly valued idea dump and everyone who added $.02 or more created one of those great situations in which the comment discussion is 100x more valuable than the actual blog post on top.  Kudos to you all.

Anyway, I wanted to do two things before walking away from that post and implementing those good ideas.  First, I wanted to write a “wrap” post about the recommendations, noting the prevailing themes, providing my reactions to them, etc.  Second, I wanted to give away the free nacho prize.

You’ll note that this post is labeled “Part One”.  You’ll see “Part Two” next week.  I’m going to use “Part Two” to break down all of the advice, to provide kind words of thanks to the geniuses who provided it and to come up with what I hope to be a few Marvelous Insights of my own.

This part?  Two things are about to happen.  Keep on reading.

Community

Community.  It’s an extremely over used word in the social networking field.  It’s been overused in the blogosphere for half a decade or more.  Everyone is always talking about building communities, community management, community participation, community this, community that…

Usually, it’s more jibber-jabber than reality.  We use the term “community” to refer to even the least tightly knit groups.  We’ve drained much of the power and meaning from the term by tossing it around as convenient shorthand whenever we’re talking about anything that involves more than one person.

Occasionally, you actually see community in action and understand what it can mean.

I know this has nothing to do with my quest to work half as much without losing money, but it’s probably one of the biggest lessons I’ve seen in real community.

I asked a whole mess o’ people–most of whom wouldn’t recognize me if I bumped into them on the street–to give me good advice.  Yeah, I dangled the magic of nachos as a reward, but no one (I hope) was actually excited about the joke of a prize.  On a superficial level, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, for them to gain by providing me with a recommendation.  In fact, they spend valuable time doing it.

Yet three dozen or more people did do it.  They took the time and effort to comment and to offer something meaningful.

Now, we can make the somewhat cynical argument that people contributed because they’re trying to boost their own name recognition or because they hope to grab a little comment link traffic, etc.  And it’s true that being an active participant in a larger “community” can have some pragmatic benefits along those lines.  I have a sneaking suspicion that most of the people who spoke up weren’t really concerned about that, though.  Some are already well-known and well-read amongst the FWJ population.  Some didn’t bother to even leave a link.  They seemed sincerely motivated to provide people interested in maximizing efficiency with some good advice.

They wanted to share for the sake of sharing.  And that is a big part of what community and social networking in general is really all about.

And none of that happens without Deb Ng, who’s grown this site up from square one.  Her dedication, constant adjustment and all-out effort to create a quality space for freelancers is a big part of why this works.  It may seem ironic, but online community really often starts with a significant effort by one person.

I’m making a big fat point of this because, as most you know, Deb sold Freelance Writing Jobs to SplashMEDIA.  She’s still here, handling the transition.  However, in July, the new crew is gonna take the controls.

That makes this a perfect moment to thank Deb for a job well-done.  It’s also a reminder to the new ownership that they’ll be filling some big shoes and, if they can pull it off, they’ll have one really great community on their hands.

Nachos

After a great deal of consideration, I’ve decided to extend an invitation to all who commented to join me for nachos at El Torreon in Overland Park, KS if you’re ever in the area.  Just drop me a line and we’ll hook up for our nacho date–on me.  I don’t cover the margaritas, though.

Knowing that few of you will venture into the KC suburbs for nachos and pleasant conversation any time soon, I’m also specifically awarding a plate of my favorite vice to Brad.

Interestingly, Brad didn’t really give me any advice about how to reduce the amount of time spent working.  Instead, he reminded me of how some folks wouldn’t mind being that busy and made me think about f-ing obnoxious it probably is to publicly gripe about having too much work in the midst of an ugly recession.  Thanks for the reality check, Brad.

Here’s the comment:

Well I would say to run around in circles as long as possible before your circle gets taken away from you.
Being an IT guy I’m used to running around in circles.

However since Dec 19,2008 when the president of the company I worked for decided they made a mistake in hiring me because I had 4 years experience and not 10 and laid me off, I would love to have a run around in circles experience again.

I like thousands of other people just realized that my last unemployment check that I just spent on food and other household necessities will be my last for a while until Congress and the Senate can work together to pass an unemployment extension bill.

I wish I had a job with people driving me crazy again. I have been unemployed for almost 2 years with no hope in close site. I’m going to school in hopes that an increased education will increase my employment opportunities.

I would love to have someone asking me stupid technical questions right now. When I go back to work someday I’m going to be smiling a really big smile the whole time and saying yes sure I can help you with that and be glad that I can.

Brad, drop me a line and I’ll take care of your cheesy, chippy needs.

Back next week with “How You Made My Life Easier, Free Nachos and Other Delights (Part 2)”

But this time, I’m being a little selfish.  This post is about me and how you can help me.

I’m doing it anyway.  Why?  Because I want your opinions.  I’m also doing it in hopes that my story isn’t so weird and unique that it precludes others from finding value in the advice you might give.
Part One:  In which I imagine beating the crap out of some guy…

I was in a store, efficiently grabbing a specific item before I rushed back to my car.  This other guy was in the same small shop, wandering around as if he was mildly confused.  The clerk engaged him:

CLERK:  Are you finding everything okay?
GUY:  Yeah, not really looking for anything.
CLERK:  Just let me know if you need a hand.
GUY:  Don’t worry about me.  I’m just killing time.

And at that moment, I wanted to go nutso on the guy.  Have you seen High Infidelity?  Remember the scene where John Cusack imagines what it be like if he and his record store homies went crazy on Tim Robbins?  I was right there.  I wanted to find a window air conditioner and heave it right on top of the guy.

Killing time?

KILLING time?

KILLING TIME?

The audacity.  And I don’t mean that in a good kind of Obamaudacity kind of way, either.

Who in the hell did this guy think he was?  Killing time.  It makes me sick.

• Why does this guy have extra time when I can barely find a second of it?
• Why does this guy have so much extra time that he feels he can waste it with impunity?
• Doesn’t this asshat realize how extremely precious time really is?

Killing time?  You might as well be killing yourself.  And rubbing it in the faces of all of us who’d like a little more life.

I can’t think of an expression I despise more.  And I certainly can’t think of a practice that seems more wasteful, sick and twisted.

Part Two:  In which I discuss the value and importance of time…

Time is valuable.  In fact, I think one could make an argument that time is the only thing that’s truly valuable.  After all, it’s a prerequisite for Everything else you do, want or experience.  You can run out of money and coast for a while.  If you run out of time, that’s it.  Adios amigo.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule.  Most of us have at least a few things we could imagine dying for.  We’d take a bullet for our family.  Some of us willingly take the risk for country or God.  But really, aside from those outlying moments of heroism or idealism, it’s all about time.

Tick tock.

Upon further reflection, I realized that I wasn’t just hacked off at Mr. Time Killer just because of his wastefulness and failure to value the most precious of precious things.

I was jealous, too.

Because I don’t have enough time.

Part Three:  In which I discuss my lack of time…

No, I haven’t been diagnosed with a terminal illness.  I just have a life that currently doesn’t afford me enough time to do all of the things I want to do.

I’ve tried the work/personal life separation thing in an effort to increase available non-working hours.  It failed.  I failed.  We failed.

I’ve recognized that I have no choice personally but to integrate all of it into one big time-stew lacking definition and clarity.  I’m okay with that.  In fact, I like it.  Love it.

However, I still don’t have enough hours, people.  I need more time.  I have a baby who’s growing up fast.  I have another baby who’s going into first grade.  I have gray hairs, slowly worsening vision and occasionally experience heartburn after spicy meals.  Time is not my friend right now.  I need to do some things NOW if I’m ever going to do them.

Yes, go ahead and say it.  It’s true, after all.

I’m having an ever-so-slightly premature mid-life crisis.

Fine.  But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong about this.

In fact, I’m convinced that I’m so damn right that I’ve done what a billion other people before me in this exact same situation have undoubtedly done:  I’ve made a plan.

Only I’m going to be different from the bulk of my predecessors because I’m going to make my plan work.

Part Four:  In which I reveal my incredibly simplistic plan…

My plan is simple.  I’m not going to kill time.  I’m not going to waste time.  I’m going to free up as much time as possible to do the things that matter most to me.

I don’t sleep much.  In fact, I don’t sleep nearly enough.  That’s probably why I have Exploding Head Syndrome (not made up).  It’s also one reason that my 40 year-old midsection is destined to be considerably bigger than the 20 year-old model.  They say that messed up sleeping patterns encourage that kind of unwanted growth.  The nachos don’t help, though.

In any case, I don’t log a lot of pillow time.  So I can’t steal another moment from the Sandman to free up more time in my life.

When you take sleep out of the mix, I’m generally doing one of two things.  I’m either working or I’m with my family.

You can see where this is going.  If I want to free up more of that precious time to do the most important things, I have no choice but to take the time from work.

And this, in all honesty, scares me.

Part Five:  In which I reveal my workaholic nature…

I have a work ethic worthy of a Soviet propaganda poster.  I’m a machine.  I produce.  These tendencies have been at the very foundation of my freelance career from Day One.

My ability to work like a team of dogs has always been my trump card.  I’ve never worried that other writers are more talented than I am.  I’ve never worried that they can work for less than I can.  I’ve never worried about a damn thing when it came to making a living in this business because I’ve always known one thing:

I will work harder and longer than anyone else will.  I will crush them while they sleep, if necessary.

That’s been such a part of my freelancing that it’s become ingrained in so much of what I do.  I know a lot of you have 30-, 40- or even 50-hour work weeks.  I laugh at you (not really, of course)!  I double up on that range every single week.  At least.

Unfortunately, this is a major undertaking.  My wife is a teacher.  I’m not earning optional income here.  The idea of cutting my work hours in half (approximately) raises the ugly specters of poverty, repossessions and general brother-can-you-spare-a-dime despondence.

Solutions?

• Focus on the things that pay the most
• Increase rates
• Improve efficiency

My responses?

• The things that pay the most aren’t the most fun and that matters
• Sure, I do that all the time and will continue to do so
• I’m a well-oiled machine these days already

Part Six:  In which I beg you to solve my problems by offering sage advice…

So, here’s what I want from all of you freelance writing geniuses who visit this website and others, collecting wisdom and ideas, synthesizing them into a larger portrait of the Best Ways to Do Things.

I want you to dump your brains right here in the comments section.

I want your best piece of advice (two or three or four pieces will work, too) about how I can slice my work week in half without earning appreciably less dinero.

Oh, but there is a rule for this game:  I don’t want anyone to even mention the topic of rates in their advice.  There are a number of reasons for this, but the biggest is the fact that we all know you can make more by charging more.   I want to see some less-frequently discussed pearls of wisdom.

Well, what are you waiting for?  Give me some advice.  And give me the good stuff.

I’m sure someone else is out there thinking about this stuff, too, so don’t feel like your wasting your A game on me.  Some perfectly decent and innocent soul who wants to cut down their work hours will appreciate the advice, as well.

Let ‘er rip!  Best piece of advice gets a free order of nachos.

My next stab at freelancing included an actual desk, in the corner of a different living room.  I typed away as my pregnant belly forced me to sit farther and farther from the keyboard each week.  There were cords everywhere, and I delighted in the fact that I could watch Oprah while writing SEO articles.  I was up to about $5 a piece at this point.

I now know that I have become completely spoiled.  Some time ago, I got my own office.  Actually, I shared it with my business partner, but she was never there, so I had two couches, two desks, two garbage cans, two bookshelves, and the beautiful décor all to myself.  I turned the radio to the classical music station every day so as not to be distracted by songs with words in them and sat down to get real work done.  At this point, I was making about $0.10 a word.

Today is my first day in my new office.  Everything is a shambles.  There’s nothing on the walls, and the furniture is scattered willy-nilly until I can take the time to move it into every possible configuration to determine which pleases my own personal sense of feng shui the best.

And it’s driving me crazy.

How did I used to write on that little table that constantly threatened to spill its contents on the floor?  How did I get anything done with Oprah giving away cars in the background?  Right now I’m distracted by the smell of paint, so I really don’t know how I used to work from home with an infant clamoring for attention!

I guess the goal this week needs to be to work as fast as possible so that I have a little time at the end of each day to move stuff around and hang my pretties on the wall.  I may even reward myself at the end of each finished project by taking five or ten minutes to putter around in the new space.  Hm.  Writing a blog post counts, right?  Clearly this means that I can at least go set up my stereo so the classical music can soothe some of this agitation away…

In Search of Separation…

Being a freelancer guarantees weirdness.  Unpredictability is the only constant and the bizarre twists and turns of everyday life constantly squash efforts to create that ideal professional/personal balance.

How in the hell are you supposed to balance your work with the rest of your life?

Sure, writing copy so beautiful it brings tears to your eyes is mega-fun/rewarding, but so is making homemade spaghetti sauce, catching an afternoon ballgame on getaway day, dancing to the Godfather of Soul with your kid, making out with your spouse and, to a lesser extent, keeping your house somewhat tidy.

What’s the big secret to separating the wild yet wonderful world of freelancing for a living from the rest of your life?

If you want suggestions, they’re easy to find.  Drawing the work/life line is constantly buzzing topic.  You can find freelancers who’ll suggest setting regular hours, dressing as if you’re actually heading off to a day at the office, putting up signs to keep your family away while you work and a million other things.

You’ll hear lectures about time management, recommendations about working smarter instead of working harder and pleas to turn off your phone, computer and everything else even remotely related to your profession during the weekend.

My Failure to Divide…

Some of that stuff probably works for some people.  It hasn’t worked for me.  Not even close.  This is my experience:

The need to run to Price Chopper for diapers can shred a well-planned schedule.  A weekend free of work sounds ideal until you chop off the tip of your index finger with your favorite Wusthoff on Wednesday (just try writing anything other than “ewoek/lifer supaeratioij u s so dalmn haard” at three a.m. with a bandage on your hand).

The idea of dressing for traditional success makes me a wee bit queasy and all of the smart work in the world can’t solve for an overflowing toilet plugged with a small stuffed giraffe and three plastic Strawberry Shortcake figurines.

If you can tidily separate your work from the rest of your life and that’s what you want to do, congratulations.

I’ve given up.  Completely and intentionally.

Integration vs. Separation…

I realized that I don’t really want a separation between the professional and the personal.  I don’t want regular hours, a regimented schedule or a sign on the door of my basement office.

Screw separation.  I want integration.

I love working for myself for a number of reasons, but the biggest weight on the scale is freedom.  I spent a long time being a damn good employee who secretly hated being on the payroll because I didn’t have that freedom to do what I wanted to do how and when I wanted to do it.

The joy of freelancing isn’t just the money or the satisfaction of those occasional moments of copy perfection.  For me, it’s the fact that I can do things on my terms.

After wrestling with time and experiencing a never-ending series of scheduling snafus, I realized something.  I don’t wear suits for a reason.

Weddings, Russians and Realization…

Let me explain that last part about suits.  A few weeks ago, we were up in Iowa for a wedding.  I decided to dress appropriately.  I was standing in front of the mirror, wearing a suit and marveling at just how freaking weird I looked.  My wife says I look snazzy in a suit.  Maybe she means it.  Maybe she’s just being nice.  All I know is that I think I look like someone else.  I hate the damn things.  I have broad enough shoulders without the jacket’s enhancement.  Neckties are too silly (and phallic) for my tastes.  I generally dislike shoes and hold particular animosity toward dress shoes.  I dislike them on an almost visceral level.  They conjure up feelings of conformity, caste and rigidity.

Unless I’m at a wedding, a funeral or taking the stand in my own defense, I really don’t want to wear a suit.  I don’t like them.

Then a question occurred to me.

Why would someone who hates suits make an effort to run his business as if he’s wearing one?

In what turned out to be a happy coincidence, my websites and email accounts were serving as a playground for a few Russian hackers while I was standing in front of the mirror.  When I returned home and surveyed the damage, I decided to burn things to the ground instead of repairing them and to start anew.

Authenticity and a Liberating Integration Casserole…

On a superficial level, this switch freed me to blog about things like the death of Jose Lima, my status as a victim of Exploding Head Syndrome and Kalae All Day–things I usually would’ve avoided because they didn’t match “The Brand”.  It allowed me to tweet about the lapse in sanity exhibited by Royals third base coach Eddie Rodriguez last weekend and to dial back the formality of my client communication.

We talk the authenticity talk more than we walk the walk, I think.  At least I did.  Not any more.  I’m retiring from thinking about being authentic.  I’m just doing it.

That has included embracing my inability to maintain traditional, set hours and all of the other stuff that usually goes along with separating work from the rest of one’s life.

I’m not separating anything anymore.  It’s all just one big crazy, gorgeous, wacky, depraved, enlightened, messy, tasty casserole.  Yum.

It’s been a liberating experience.  I’m bobbing between work and parenting.  I’m weaving between being a husband and making a living.  I’m cool with a two-hour client call on a Sunday and I’m just as happy to tell someone that I’m too busy buying diapers and freezer pops to take a call on a Wednesday afternoon.

Interestingly, this new outlook isn’t creating waves with clients.  It’s allowing us to float closer to one another.  It’s breaking down barriers and encouraging more human connections.  It’s as if we’re all actually having fun for a change.

I’m sure someone will find this kind of authenticity worrisome.  Discovering a blog post that includes a piece of Haiku about a baby kicking my ass may very well dissuade someone from doing business with me.  There are traditionalists who want appreciate that sort of thing.  I can accept that.

It’s a small price to pay, really.  Besides, who knows how many ultra-cool people might actually like it?

An Alternative to the War of Separation…

If you’re fighting and losing a bloody war of attrition in the effort to defend or establish a dividing line between work and home, consider waving the white flag and walking away from it.  It may not be the right fight.  Consider integration instead of separation.

It’s okay if your peas touch your meat, folks.  That’s true whether you hate shoes like me or if the idea of dressing like a corporate bigwig gives you a thrill.

At least that’s my experience.

What’s yours?  Are you having a great time keeping your freelancing career and your personal life separate or do you feel like a struggle?  If it is tough, do you think it’s a fight worth having?  Can you imagine surrendering to overlap and to integration?

I’d love to know.  I see many people writing about keeping things clearly delineated and very few, if any, advocating wholesale integration.  It probably won’t change my perspective, but I’d like to know if I’m a nut-case.

One of my challenges as a work at home mom is in making sure my son is happy and not neglected while fulfilling all my business obligations. From the beginning of September to late June I have eight to ten hours in which to get all my work done each day. In the summer, I have the same amount of work, but now a child is home and there are places to go and people to meet. Though my son is old enough to play on his own and enjoy the company of friends without my hovering, it’s not like I can work a full undisturbed day. As any parent knows, finding blocks of time to work is truly a challenge.

Even more challenging than finding time to work is ensuring my son is having a good time. I don’t want his summer to suck because Mom or Dad has work to do. He should be out swimming in our pool, playing with his friends and enjoying all that the warm weather brings.

Fortunately there are a few ways to ensure both. I’m going to share a few of my favorites with you today:

1. Day Camp

Day camp is a popular options for working moms. They keep kids busy and entertained with summer fun so we don’t have to worry that they’re not enjoying themselves. My biggest problem is that many of the day camps around here are so expensive. The specialized camps are several thousand dollars per summer. However, the YMCA, Catholic Charities and local Parks and Rec all offer affordable summer camp programs, usually for under $600 – $800 for the summer. The more expensive programs usually have a designated camp building complete with buildings, meeting halls and swimming pools. The town and city run programs are generally held at the school and include games, sports, trips to beaches, movies and the local college for the swimming pool.

2. Babysitter or Parent’s Helper

Work at home parents can also hire someone to come to the house and help keep the kids happy while you’re working. The benefit to this is that you don’t have to commit to a whole day. They’re only necessary for the hours you work, plus you’re sort of home to “supervise” if the helper is a teen.

3. Switch Off With Other Parents

One of my favorite ways to get things done during summer is to switch off with other parents. My son has several close friends all living within a couple of blocks. One day, one of the parents will drop off the kids and I’ll sit on the deck and work or join them as they play in the pool or run around in the backyard. The next day I will drop off my son, complete with lunch, at the other parent’s house. When several parents switch off this way it means we all get stuff done over the summer.

4. Temporarily Change Your Business Hours

I’m a firm believer in having regular business hours but I guess it goes without saying that many of us have to change things up a bit in the summer to make it all work. In the summer I’ll get up earlier while my son sleeps later. I’ll also work evenings if I want to spend the day at the beach or maybe I’ll find more time to work on weekends. This is where freelancers rock the flexibility.

5. Get a Smart Phone, Netbook, iPad or Laptop

Having both a laptop and smartphone has tremendously increased my productivity. it enables me to work at the library and the parks that offer free WiFi and stay on top of emails and small tasks that can be handled at any time. The only thing better than being flexible is to be portable.

6. Take Advantage of Free WiFi Hotspots

As mentioned above, portability is necessary for freelancing parents. It enables us to take a vacation, spend the day at the beach (though I’m not a fan of sand in the laptop) and work out on the back deck. National Parks, hotels, restaurants, and even some beaches offer free WiFi. When on a deadline, plan your outings around places you can work while kids play, especially if there’s another adult available to help out.

7. Cut Down On Your Workload

OK, so the kids are keeping you from working and you have no extra time, we’ve all been there. Probably the solution is to temporarily decrease your workload. This isn’t easy, especially in today’s economy where every penny counts. However, sometimes it’s better for the entire family’s sanity to take a little break.

So that’s how I balance my summers. I rearrange my time, take the smart phone to handle emails and other small tasks and switch off with other parents. How do you balance summer, family and work?

Today’s topic for discussion at the Freelance Writing Jobs Facebook Group is  how our family, friends and neighbors perceive us. It’s interesting because no matter how hard we work, there are some who feel that because we have no regular employer, we don’t actually have a job. Often times, having flexibility sometimes means people doubt you work very hard. It also means some folks feel you’re available any time of the day or night.

I remember receiving a very innocent email from my son’s teacher asking me to come in and help with a classroom event because she knows I’m always home and available to help. Part of me is happy to be available to participate in school when I’m needed because that’s very important.  However, part of me also thought, “but wait, just because I’m home doesn’t mean I’m always available.”

It’s all in how others perceive us.

My mother worked at home as an instructional designer. She had a flexible schedule but still had a deadline oriented job. She knows exactly what it’s like to work full time from home because she did it herself. On the other hand, my mother in law, knows I do some work at home, but she wonders why I don’t have more time for cleaning. I jokingly ask my husband if he runs a vacuum during his lunch hour and why I should be expected to do the same, but the truth is, when you work at home people don’t understand why you don’t dust every day or why a bed might be unmade from time to time.

It’s how others perceive the work at home lifestyle.

I’m happy to be there to help my son with school work, be a class mom or den mom or just have afternoons in the park. Sometimes though, I wish my flexibility didn’t give certain others the impression that I don’t work at all. I think it’s one of the reasons I keep a schedule. Having set “office hours” helps others to respect my time more.  Still, there are some who can’t grasp the difference between “stay at home” and “work at home.”

What are your thoughts on freelancing and how others perceive us? Is this ever an issue for you?

For example, I just left a doctor’s appointment—one that I had scheduled during regular work hours.  When I headed back out to the car, it struck me that rather than picking up some fast-food fare and eating at my desk, I really wanted to go to this one particular restaurant.  These two events are not unrelated, by the way.  The appointment was with my OB, and the restaurant serves a spectacular broccoli-cheddar soup that I seem to be craving with some regularity during this pregnancy.

“But, I need to be responsible,” I chided myself.  “I need to get some work done.”

“Sooooooouuuup,” pregnant me responded the way a zombie would plead for brains.

“All right, all right,” I started to relent.  “Let me at least look at my schedule.”  I sat in the parking lot at the doctor’s office and fired up my laptop.

“Aha!” cried soup-deprived me.  “There’s something right there that doesn’t require Internet access.  I can sit at the table and work on that while waiting for my soooooooouuup.”

I double-checked my to-do list and made a few calculations regarding the number of hours available before I have to go relieve the babysitter in comparison with the number of hours worth of work I need to accomplish in that timeframe.  Hungry, pregnant me tried not to gloat as I realized that there was, in fact, at least one small project I could work on in the quiet restaurant.

“OK,” I conceded, “but there are two conditions.  One:  You have to order a salad, too, to make up for that basket of fried stuff you had for dinner.”

“You got it.”

“And two:  If you’re going to make writing a blog post into an excuse for eating out, you’d better at least be funny.”

I used to say that I absolutely detested reality TV.  I’d probably still be saying it, if I hadn’t recently made a list of the shows I actually watch and realized that the majority of them would fall into the genre I’ve long claimed to despise.  Project Runway, Top Chef, My Life on the D List, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, Intervention, Hoarders, Undercover Boss, What Not to Wear, and my recent addition:  The Biggest Loser.

No, I don’t watch all of these shows every week.  I do actually have a family, a business, and…you know…a life.

It kind of makes me wonder, though, how interesting would someone else find that life?  If I had my own reality show, would people watch it, or would I go the way of The Osbornes?  No, I don’t think I’m nearly as interesting as the Osbornes.  Not even the dog that kept pooping on the floor, really.  But, I do have my moments, and with a little creative editing, a freelance writer’s life could make kind of a cool reality show.

So, in the spirit of Jordan Baker of one of my favorite blogs (Dealing in Subterfuges), here’s this week’s episode recap.

Morning!  At around 7 a.m., Lorna rolls over and begs the toddler to go back to sleep.  Her compressed and pleading bladder reminds her that she’s pregnant, so she sneaks off to the bathroom, bribing the little one to stay in bed by promising to return with a bottle of “cow milk.”  She returns, and tries not to breathe too loudly as the baby falls back asleep.

10 a.m.  There’s no getting around it.  We’ve just got to get up.  More begging ensues as Lorna tries to convince the toddler that M&Ms are not a reasonable breakfast.  Guiltily, she checks email and Facebook while Sesame Street softens the blow for the kid.  Every few days Lorna gets to experience a shower (after begging again) if there’s a particularly riveting Elmo segment being shown.  During sweeps week, the shower door will be thrown open by a tiny person, either scaring the stuffing out of Lorna or simply causing her to sigh and admit yet another bathing defeat.

Cleaning flurry!  After asking the toddler what she’d like to do today (the answer is always “play toys,” by the way), Lorna finds creative ways to convince the kiddo that we’re playing when we’re actually cleaning.

Cut to a montage of mom running the big vacuum and baby running the little one, mom loading the dishwasher and warning (begging) the baby not to play with the knives in the silverware holder, and the two of them making a game of scrubbing spots off of the linoleum with diaper wipes.

Next comes begging the kid to get out of pajamas and into real clothes.  Some days go better than others.  At the end of this episode, the little one very well may still be happily wearing pjs from the night before.  If clothes were part of the day’s agenda, then a little outside play may be in order.  Nice weather means long walks with the stroller, which are really just guided tours as the toddler points out every cat slinking, strutting, or lounging around the neighborhood…otherwise, it’s books and dancing and possibly a bit of terrorizing the family cats just to stay in good form.

12:30 p.m.  The Mother’s Helper arrives.  Lorna packs up the laptop and heads downtown to the office, stopping at some fast-food joint or another along the way.  Yes, Big Macs and Soft Tacos Supreme are my personal shame.  Tasty, tasty, shame.

After about an hour of work, Lorna remembers again that she is pregnant, as the couch in her office grows more and more enticing.  But, there’s website copy to write, blog posts to research, and white papers to develop.  By 5:15, she’s ready to pack the laptop back up and head home.

5:30 p.m.  Baby’s “Mama’s Home” radar magically goes off, and she wakes from her nap, pitifully requesting to nurse and likely rambling wildly and unintelligibly about whatever she happened to be dreaming.  (Animals seem to be a common theme.)  No, there will be no napping for Lorna yet again.

6:15 p.m.  Husband arrives home from work.  Because Lorna is a kept woman, she continues to entertain the little one as her husband solicits dinner requests.  After ten hours at work, he cooks dinner and attempts to feign interest in the less-than-fascinating details of his wife’s day.  (Sort of like you’re doing now, if you’re still actually reading this.)  Both parents join forces in begging the toddler to please eat.

At 8:30, husband and baby take a bath, and Lorna usually rushes to try to finish up a client project during this half hour to herself.  To be honest, this may very well happen while a reality show plays on the television in the background.  Next is getting the kiddo dressed in pajamas that she’ll likely wear all day tomorrow, and once again begging her to eat something…anything.

After some bartering and bargaining, Lorna usually gets the kid to sleep by about 11:30 p.m. and then spends the next two hours taking care of any upcoming projects that she can get started and/or finished while utterly exhausted, but appreciative of the fact that she has a job that lets her spend this much time doing all the boring things outlined here.  This can be substantiated by checking the time stamps on many of the posts on this blog.

Between 1 and 2 a.m., I make my way to bed.  With the husband’s snoring, the cat’s whining, the little one waking to nurse, and the bun in the oven requiring constant bathroom trips, she will basically take a series of short naps until about 7 a.m. when she will once again beg the toddler to please, oh, please go back to sleep for a while.

So, I discovered about a quarter of the way through this post that my life is really not reality-show worthy, but I was already committed to writing the entire post.  My apologies to Jordan Baker who would have been way more snarky and interesting.  (In my defense, I really do think I’m funnier when I swear a lot.)

Besides, I realized recently that there’s really no need to pitch my life to the network execs.  After all, I have a Facebook account and a Flip video camera.  It’s like having my own reality show, only instead of having producers who edit me to look ridiculous, I can do it all on my own!

You may already know some or all of these sites, but they’re worth checking out every once in a while. Pretend it’s research or something.

1.  http://icanhascheezburger.com/:  Lol Cats are hilarious and adorable.  There’s even sort of a whole reality over there, with Ceiling Cat, Basement Cat, and a variety of other inside jokes that will make sense after you’ve sacrificed most of your morning to deciphering the captions.

2.  http://cuteoverload.com/:  Aw, man.  I forgot until just now that Cute Overload existed.  That means there are months and months worth of adorable baby animals doing insanely precious things for me to catch up on.

3. http://failbooking.com/:  I have been pretty much addicted to Facebook for more than a year now.  Recently, I compounded my habit by adding daily visits to Failbooking.

4.  http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/:  NSFW.  This site makes me cringe in fear for the future because I assume at least some of the text messages featured there are written by drunk, sex-crazed young people who will eventually become drunk, sex-crazed government officials.

5.  http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/:  Just when you thought your family was a trashy as it gets, here comes the People of WalMart site.  My mouth has literally dropped open upon viewing some of the outfits people will wear out in public.

6.  http://postsecret.blogspot.com/:  People from all over the world anonymously write and illustrate their biggest secrets on post cards, hoping that they will be published on this website.  (All the cards are changed once a week.)

7. http://jordanbaker.blogspot.com/:  Dealing in Subterfuges is the blog of some lady in the DC area that I don’t know.  She writes on several topics, but I read it just for the snarky Project Runway and Top Chef reviews.  It’s a time suck, because she gets really detailed with the reviews, but her humor keeps me coming back.  In fact, when I watch the shows, I often wonder if she’s noticing the same things I am.  Crazy, eh?

8.  http://www.youtube.com/:  Personally, I don’t spend a lot of time on You Tube, but there’s no doubting that it’s an extremely entertaining way to suck away your work hours.  Just ask Michael Scott.

9.  http://failblog.org/:  FAIL Blog is one of my very favorite websites on the entire Internet.  People take and send in pictures of ridiculous things they see, apparently for my personal amusement.  When something goes wrong, there’s someone with a camera phone ready to PhotoShop the word “Fail” on it.

10.  http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/:  From oddly posed to strangely candid, the photos on this site often make you go, “What the heck were they thinking?”  Fun stuff, and again, it’ll suck away a couple of hours of your life.

Bonus sites:

11.  http://thisisphotobomb.com/:  Photobomb is a new site to me, but I’m guessing it’ll be getting some traffic from my IP address now that I know it exists.  You know how your kid brother can’t help giving everyone “bunny ears” in family photos?  This takes it to a whole different level.

12.  http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/:  From the “thanks a lot for eating my sandwich out of the work fridge” to the truly, truly passive-AGGRESSIVE, this site is another where people snap pictures and send them in for me to enjoy.

13.  http://emailsfromcrazypeople.com/:  It’s pretty much what it sounds like.  Crazy, ranty emails that make you feel like you’re totally normal because you don’t send people stuff like that.

I’m tempted to blame the fact that I wasn’t born into old money or even enough new money to hang out with old money, but I think my parents more than compensated for that shortcoming in a number of other ways, so I left that off my list and opted to isolate a singular cause for my lack of a massive fortune.

It’s because I have an amazing ability to mismanage time.  I’ve been relatively successful in beating back that particular weakness by sheer force of will.  I’ve built up a massive sleep deficit in the process.

However, tenacity will only get one so far.  At some point, one must realize the truly awesome power of time and its management.  After studying my own habits with some care recently, I’ve concluded that I’m doing a horrific job with time.

Unfortunately, I’ve been trying to beat time to a pulp instead of living within it.  That’s a  fool’s errand.  I know that physicists have all sorts of ways to explain relativity and the theoretical means by which one can bend time, but your average (or even above-average) Joe or Jane can’t turn seconds into hours.

Time is time and it’s kicking everyone’s ass one second at a time.

You can get by with that when someone else is writing your paycheck.  The only good thing I can think about when it comes to being an employee is the fact that one gets paid for the countless hours spent doing nothing in particular.  Even employers realize that they’re paying for idle time; they accept it as part of the cost of doing business.  Very few people really work all day at their jobs and those who do…  Well, I hope they find better jobs or are duly compensated.

Things change when you own your shop.  If you don’t work, you don’t earn.  Yes, there are “passive income” pseudo-exceptions, but we don’t really need to muddy the waters with that conversation right now.  The fact of the matter is that if you want to make money, you must earn money and that generally means creating and pushing out product while you manage lining up additional opportunities.

You can compensate for unyielding nature of time by doing things that bring in more cash per unit of time.  I think I do pretty well in that regard.  On the far end of the spectrum (and for those with more limited earnings goals), that might be enough.  Not so for most of us.  And even when that is enough, it requires properly utilizing time in the first place in order to do that.

So, that leaves me with a burning professional question.  How am I going to make better use of my time?

This really is an exceptionally important question, too.  I don’t want to get too serious here, but we’re all going to die.  Time runs out.  We need to do our best to maximize its value.  We need to protect it for our families and passions and to improve the yield of the portion set aside for our professional endeavors.

I’m guessing that Deb expected me to provide some helpful hints when she asked me to contribute these posts.  However, this time I’m going to try to use this pulpit as an opportunity to get your wisdom.

What are you doing to turn eight hours into the equivalent of ten, twelve, or sixteen?  What massive time-wasters have plagued you and how did you fight back (or have you)?

What is your top time management trick?

I’ve discovered that my favorite just doesn’t work any more.  For years, I’ve relied upon sleep deprivation as a means of making up for time management blunders.  Now that the big 4-0 approaches, I’m realizing that my ability and willingness to greet the sun on a regular basis without the benefit of sleep is waning.

That’s why I’m working on systematizing some aspects of my professional life that I’ve been managing on an ad hoc basis.  That’s also why I’m trying to resist the siren song of some of my favorite time-wasters.

So, readers, lay it on me.  What are your time-sucks?  How are you beating them?  What have you done to make your days seem longer or to boost your productivity?  Did you find a great way to tame the email monster?  A solution to feed overload?  A cure for your Twitter addiction that didn’t require a 12-step program?  The intestinal fortitude to not watch the Tivo’ed episode of your favorite program?

As Red Green says, “We’re all in this together.”  Do share.

The truth of the matter is that is sort of freaking me out.  Maybe it’s because I’m used to always being freaked out about having too much to do (how am I going to make all those deadlines?) or about not having enough to do (how am I going to pay the bills?), but I can’t seem to just sit back and appreciate a situation where I have precisely the amount of work I can do in exactly the number of hours I have available to do it.

Oh, and at good rates, too.

To be honest, I prefer to have too much on my plate because then I have the opportunity to pass work on to other members of our team.  BUT.  This isn’t so bad, either.  I mean, it really beats the end of December when I was thinking, “Oh my god, I’m messing around on Facebook and I’m not putting off any work to do it.”  (That is a scary feeling, my friends.)

But, something just feels off.  I don’t think I know how to survive without that perpetual terror nagging at me.  As far as I can tell, I’ve really got nothing to be worried about right now, and I’m obsessing over that instead.  I’ve heard people say that all writers are at least a little bit crazy, and I once again find myself lining up like a lemming to throw myself off the cliff of self-inflicted angst.

Maybe I should go bid on some jobs or something.

If I had to pick one of the most difficult aspects of freelancing, it would have to be building a freelance writing business while still working full time at my day job. I did this for two years, from 2000 to 2002, and also in 2008 and 2009 when I had a full time social media job. As much as I love to write, sometimes the last thing I wanted to do after a full day of work was to come home and work again. Plus, many clients want to talk on the phone during business hours, something I couldn’t always give them.  I had to find some balance and a way to make it work, especially if I wanted to freelance full time.

You can freelance and work full time and still make it work. Maybe some of these tips will help you achieve some balance too:

Only take as many clients as you can handle

You might be tempted to take as many opportunities as you can in order to build up a client base and save enough money to leave your day job for good.  Before you do, make sure you can handle the work load. Also consider how all your spare time will be spent writing. No TV. No reading. No family game night…just work. However, if you take one opportunity at a time until you know how many hours of your time you can devote each evening or weekend, you might find a more doable solution for you and your family.  Try one client at a time to start and adjust as necessary.

Set aside time to communicate with clients

Not everyone can call freelance writing clients or handle emails from their days jobs. You might have to handle communication during your lunch hour. You might even have to make those calls from your cell phone from the local deli.  The last thing you want is for your moonlighting to interfere with your day job but you can find a workable solution. Not all clients come from 9 to 5 businesses either. Find out whether or not they can talk to you in the evenings or on weekends. You’ll find many are flexible and willing to work with you.

Set a realistic schedule

Working late into the night or rising early in the morning is how many of us found the time to write when we were still working full time. I can’t speak for all the other writers who did this, but I can tell you I was always tired and cranky from rising at 4:00 a.m.  If you’re dead tired throughout the day, you won’t be able to focus on your work at night. Set a realistic schedule and don’t let your desire to freelance full time get in the way of everything else you do.

It’s possible

Having a full time job while building a freelance writing business is absolutely doable, but try not to make the mistake of biting off more than you can chew. A common mistake among aspiring freelancers is to keep accepting gigs even if it means sacrificing precious sleeping time.  Be careful not to over do it. Start out small and grow as you go.

Of course, I know what’ll happen as soon as the sun comes out. I’ll hole up in my house or office, trying not to sweat to death and wishing it was just a little cooler. It happens every year, and it makes me feel like a whiny, bratty baby just as often.

When I first started working from home, I had these grand ideas of how I would sit out in my yard in the summer, sipping cold drinks and tap-tap-tapping away on my laptop while surrounded by the smells of summer flowers in the garden and the sounds of birds chirping in the trees. What I discovered, instead, was that it’s far too bright to see the screen outside, my cold drink gets warm really quickly, and I have a yellow jacket infestation in my backyard.

Still, I’m pretty sure that I’m ready for spring. I know the days are already getting longer, which is definitely nice. Whether or not that translates into a less cranky and mopey Lorna still remains to be seen. In the meantime, I’m going to sit around in my boots and long underwear and fantasize about how much better I’ll feel when summer comes.

Until summer comes and I get all cranky and mopey from being too hot.

Dear Freelance Writer,

A couple of years ago you told all of your clients you were taking time off for the holidays. They couldn’t wait for your return so they looked for another freelance writer and hired me. They weren’t my only clients during this time, either. I landed several clients who needed someone to pick up the slack while their regular writers were decking the halls and going a-wassailing.  They needed writers and I needed Christmas money. It was a match made in holiday heaven.

I enjoyed the holidays too though. I woke up earlier in the morning and worked for a few hours before doing my holiday baking or shopping. I stayed up a little later in the evenings too, just so I could get some work done. I visited Santa, decorated the tree and had some nice family visits. I also continued to earn.

It worked the same way when you were on vacation. You turned off your computer and vowed to stay unplugged for two weeks. I went on vacation too, but while my family was sleeping in, I worked.  Most of the time though, I enjoyed myself. I swam and hiked. I sipped Mojitos while sitting on a torchlit deck overlooking the Hudson River. I stayed up an hour or two later than everyone else so I could update my blog or handle a client’s project.

This is why you’ll always catch me touching base on Twitter or checking the job boards, even during my down time. I don’t get paid vacation days and clients are fickle. I don’t want the people who I work for or network with to forget me and go with someone else in my absence. This is why I always update my blog, even while on vacation. There are always people who want a good read or continue to look for work. I don’t want to lose them.

I don’t believe we have to give up life to achieve our goals, but I don’t believe we should give up our goals to have a life, either. There’s a reason most businesses don’t close their doors to enjoy the holidays or take a vacation. It’s because their clients still need them.

I hope you have a merry Christmas, freelance writer. Enjoy the time spent with your family and friends. I wish you nothing but success. Please don’t be angry with me or other freelance writers for keeping my business going while you didn’t. We had different goals and different visions.

It’s nothing personal. It’s business.

Sincerely,

Me

Disclaimer: Enough with the hate mail and the comments, people. I’m not really stealing your clients. However, it happens and this post was only meant to illustrate a point. I’m not condoning client theft. However, it’s important to note that sometimes clients need writers and their writers aren’t available. Thus, they have to make the decision to go with someone else. If you’re planning on taking time off, discuss your clients’ needs with them first to avoid this very situation.

Dang.