all talk and no action
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Seven thoughts on freelancing
I'm just coming to the end of my first week off work while I work on a freelance project. Taking two week's holiday and using it to work wasn't the brightest idea, but I need to give this project more focus than a couple of hours at the end of each day, and I thought it'd be a welcome change from being in the office working on 20 different things at once. It's sort of like Murder, She Wrote without the murder bit (so far, at least).
Here are seven random things I've discovered about the freelance life:
1. Since there's no commute, you can get up later but it's no easier, and not having a train to catch makes it really tempting to hit the snooze button a couple more times.
2. Just because you're working from home doesn't mean you can sit around in your dressing gown. I need to be wearing shoes before I can get into the work mode, for some odd reason. Shave, too - this ain't the freakin' Stanley Cup playoffs, people.
3. Take breaks. And stop at the time you'd normally stop work. I keep finding myself sitting back down to continue working in the evenings and it just means you're more tired the next day.
4. Search in Windows Vista is ace. I have about 30 interviews totalling over 100,000 words to work through, and being able to type a word into the top of a folder window and instantly see every Word document that contains that word is saving me a tonne of time.
5. Using a laptop on a dining table isn't ideal. It's fine for the odd hour or so but after a full day you really begin to appreciate the importance of a good chair, desk and raised monitor.
6. Skype is brilliant. It's really clear and if you've got a headset and mic you won't get a cricked neck while talking and typing as you would with a normal phone.
7. Daytime TV is rubbish. But SomaFM is fantastic.
Here are seven random things I've discovered about the freelance life:
1. Since there's no commute, you can get up later but it's no easier, and not having a train to catch makes it really tempting to hit the snooze button a couple more times.
2. Just because you're working from home doesn't mean you can sit around in your dressing gown. I need to be wearing shoes before I can get into the work mode, for some odd reason. Shave, too - this ain't the freakin' Stanley Cup playoffs, people.
3. Take breaks. And stop at the time you'd normally stop work. I keep finding myself sitting back down to continue working in the evenings and it just means you're more tired the next day.
4. Search in Windows Vista is ace. I have about 30 interviews totalling over 100,000 words to work through, and being able to type a word into the top of a folder window and instantly see every Word document that contains that word is saving me a tonne of time.
5. Using a laptop on a dining table isn't ideal. It's fine for the odd hour or so but after a full day you really begin to appreciate the importance of a good chair, desk and raised monitor.
6. Skype is brilliant. It's really clear and if you've got a headset and mic you won't get a cricked neck while talking and typing as you would with a normal phone.
7. Daytime TV is rubbish. But SomaFM is fantastic.
posted by paul, 6:24 PM
2 Comments:
Of course, everyone's different, so I've had different experiences:
1 - not having an alarm clock means you wake up *really* early. 6, 7am. So you might as well start work.
2 - says who? (currently unshaven and in dressing gown) :)
3 - that's the killer. You've got to stop or you become useless very quickly.
5 - Big danger, that. RSI and freelancing go together like beer and journalism.
6 - It's a pain too. People skype you and ruin your train of thought.
7 - I can't work with any distractions any more. My days of headbanging while writing are, sadly, long gone. Bah.
1 - not having an alarm clock means you wake up *really* early. 6, 7am. So you might as well start work.
2 - says who? (currently unshaven and in dressing gown) :)
3 - that's the killer. You've got to stop or you become useless very quickly.
5 - Big danger, that. RSI and freelancing go together like beer and journalism.
6 - It's a pain too. People skype you and ruin your train of thought.
7 - I can't work with any distractions any more. My days of headbanging while writing are, sadly, long gone. Bah.
Re point 7, you're right. SomaFM is really chilled background music but I've since found that I prefer to work in silence. Which bodes well for me when I go back to the office :)
