Don't Forget Playtime in the Freelance Sandbox

One of the biggest problems facing freelancers is burnout. If you're new to the freelancing game, you probably don't believe me. Setting your own hours, being your own boss, working in your pajamas - sounds pretty sweet, right?

I kid you not. When business is good, it's very easy to get lost in work and forget about taking 'you' time. This is particularly true in the first few years, when you're afraid to set limits, or turn down work because who knows when the next contract will come along. No sense looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth and pissing off the gods of freelance fate, right?

It's true. For the first few years, until your reputation is a rock solid monolith, and repeat customers are banging down your door, freelance work is pretty much feast or famine. So it's logical while at the feast to want to gorge 'til you burst because you have no way of judging how long the famine with last. This easily leads to over-extending yourself with long hours that stretch into days and weeks and months. But you're making money, so who cares, right?

That's a dangerous attitude. Downtime needs to be scheduled and treated with as much sanctity and respect as work time, or burnout is inevitable.

Stretch yourself too thin and stupid mistakes are made, the quality of work goes down, and you start feeling just plain miserable. And it's a vicious cycle. This impacts your reputation and forces you to have to work longer and harder before you're firmly established. And more stupid mistakes are made... and so on... and so on...

Burnout sucks.

It's okay to take on a big rush job and work like a maniac. Just know your limits. Know how far your can push yourself before the stupid mistake monster rears its ugly head, and bid on those rush jobs accordingly. Schedule down time and stick to it.

I'm one to talk. Here it is, Sunday, the traditional day of rest, and I'm typing away. But the thing is, we're back to one of the big selling points of freelancing in the first place. You set your own hours. Find your natural rhythm and stick to it. If your workweek is ten days straight, then do it. You choose the when and where of down time. Just don't underestimate its importance or you risk frustration, anger, depression - and ultimately burnout.

All work and no play makes for very miserable freelancers, and that's not good for anybody.

So go have some fun! It will make you more money in the long run.



image by bukutgirl

Freelance Writers - Beware The Time Suckers

As a freelancer, you need to value your time. I can't stress this enough. Every minute you waste is a minute you're not making money, and you'd be shocked at how fast those minutes add up.

If you think checking your email won't cost you that much, think again. A few minutes here, a few there, and very easily you've lost an hour to doing diddlysquat. Sure, you can justify checking Facebook as networking, but at the end of the day, it's money that's not in your pocket.

If you want to be an uber-freelancer, treat your work time as sacred and ditch the distractions. Yes, Facebook is great for networking, and can be a water cooler-type Godsend to writers spending much of their days alone, but leaving it open on your desktop as you work on a project is much like leaving an open bottle of booze next to a recovering addict. Why abuse yourself with temptation? Same goes for Twitter. And triple for email! Who can resist the siren's call of new mail? It may only take you thirty seconds to check it, but add on a minute at either end as you shift focus, and multiply that by ten new mail notices an hour. It all adds up to losing money-making time.

Some less obvious time suckers that are just as bad - spell-checking several times rather than once at the end of the work session, grabbing that second (or third or fourth) cup of coffee, or taking phone calls. Voicemail was invented for a reason. Let it do its job, and return calls once your work time is up.

And a big time sucker that is easily justified but just as bad - checking Elance for new job listings. They'll still be there in an hour. They can wait. Job hunt time needs to be kept separate from work time or it's very easy to spend way too much time and energy on the job hunt without even realizing it. More than an hour a day is too much, and doing it here and there for just a moment or two can morph that hour into half a day. Again, resist the siren's call!

Then there's stuff like refilling your stapler, alphabetizing your underwear drawer, or having an overwhelming need to clean your entire house immediately. These don't fall under the time sucker category. These are procrastination tools and are an entirely different beast that I'll save dissecting for another day.

What more can be said? Time suckers. They suck, and they cost you money. Avoid.



image by Robbert van der Steeg

Just Say No!

Juggling too many projects and having to turn work away is so far off the radar of any new freelance writer that they never give it a second thought.

But sooner than you think, you'll be faced with having to say no. But like a girl with loose morals, saying no is not something most of us are good at. Well it's time you get good, and quick!

I hear you laughing, "Me turn down work?! Never!"

But soon enough you'll land a couple of sweet writing assignments at the same time and be up to your eyeballs in work. And that's when Murphy's Law always rears its ugly head. That is when that third big, amazing project you've been eyeing for weeks will be awarded to you. That is when you'll be faced with having to say no.

You're not a superhero. You can't bend time and space to take on another project. Don't do it!

But you won't listen to my warning. Like every writer before you, you'll take it on and get it done and nearly kill yourself in the process. Your kids may not get fed or bathed, your spouse may start talking about divorce, but you won't notice. You'll be too busy.

And when it's done, you'll swear that you'll never do that to yourself again (and please tell me so I can say, "I told you so!").

So after you've recovered from all that work, here's how to handle it the next time.

Stick with the one's you've already committed to doing. Dropping projects because something better or more interesting comes along is just not cool (and it's a fast way to get some negative feedback and a bad reputation.)

Learn to say no, and turn down projects in a firm but professional manner. And here's the thing - unlike the real world where no means no, in the freelance world, it doesn't have to. Buyers chose you for a reason. They want to work with you. So telling them that you're booked solid for the next two weeks and can't possibly devote any time to their project will very likely result in the buyer agreeing to put off the start date until you're ready to go. If their project is time sensitive, it may not happen, but more often than not, it will.

Whatever you do, don't put yourself through the ringer again. It's hard not to, especially when you know that freelance writing seems to work in a feast or famine type of cycle, but juggling too many projects results in lower quality work on all of them. And this is good for nobody.

Don't overextend yourself, be realistic about the workload you can carry, and communicate with the buyer. This will pay off in the long run. You'll have a solid reputation, and make more money.
But whatever you do, don't let the fear of overextending hold you back from bidding on projects you want! It's better to have too much work and have to learn to say no, than to sit around waiting for that one job you want to maybe come your way.

Bidding on Elance writing projects is like dating. Go for the best, but don't get too serious and tied down to one until they commit. Always keep your options open.

image by BlueCinderella

Contract Deadlines vs. Writer's Block

A reader writes in:

I've been reading your blog and would love your opinion. I've been writing for years and have placed in a few writing contests, but have only just recently considered freelancing. I go through the job postings on Elance and see tons of jobs I'd love to bid on, but I'm scared to take the next step. I'd love to pick up a few contracts to see if I can do this professionally, but every time I think about actually bidding, I get a huge knot in the pit of my stomach. I know my skills are good enough, but I worry about getting halfway through a project and coming down with a bad case of writer's block. Is this a sign that I'm not cut out for the freelancing life?

Thanks,

D.K.

Hi D.K.,
Thanks for writing, and agreeing to let me post the answer.

Writer's block. Yikes! The mere mention of it sends chills down every writer's spine, regardless of what they write. Writer's block doesn't care if you're a technical writer, a fiction writer, an article writer, a dissertation writer, or a poet. It's an equal opportunity jerk.

And it is a valid fear on your part. There are some days when a writer is just empty. The muse has packed up and left without leaving a forwarding address, and the writer is left with nothing but a blank page.

It happens. So instead of worrying about it, let's look at how to deal with it when it rears its ugly head.

Writing for yourself is wonderful. You have the luxury of waiting for the muse to capture you and carry you away, and if that means weeks between pages, then that's okay. Writing for someone else on a deadline is a whole different world where you can't wait for the muse, and if she doesn't show up, you still have to produce quality stuff. Some days it sucks.

So what do you do when that happens? You have a 5 o'clock deadline for ten pages and you're stuck on page one. You can't walk away and wait for inspiration to strike, so you just do it. You write the worst garbage of your entire life. Sheer crap. And you get it done.

Do you hand the crap over to the client? Of course not. But you do write it, and you don't worry about how bad it is (and it will be bad, trust me!). Then you walk away. You leave it for a bit. Go for a walk or soak in the tub, or surf the net, or whatever you do to numb your brain.

Then you go back to it.

And you'll find that it isn't as bad as you thought it was. It's not great, but it's not nearly as awful as you imagined. And it's done. So now what's left to do is edit.

You see the muse never actually leaves. She's always there. It's our brains that get in the way. She's on the pages. She was there all along. And it's so much easier to fix something that's finished and raise it to a solid level than to stare at a blank page because you're expecting perfection to pour onto the keyboard.

So, to get to the heart of your question - does fear of writer's block mean you're not cut out for the freelance life? Not at all. It tells me that you have a good work ethic (worrying about client needs before you even land them), and that you set the bar high for the quality of work you want to deliver. These are the exact traits needed to succeed in the freelance world.

Expect to write tons of crap. Don't fool yourself into thinking you need to be perfect. Embrace your bad writing! Every good writer on the planet turns out mountains of bad pages in their lifetime.

All you need to turn bad writing into good is a little talent and a good red pen.



image by LunaDiRimmel

Troubleshooting: Worst-Case Scenario No.1 Sickness

You don't feel like working today. In fact, you're not sure you can even get out of bed. You're oozing from various orifices, and even your dog won't come anywhere near you.

You, my freelancing friend, are sick.

Denial won't do you any good. You're too weak for that.

But still you drag your sorry self to the computer because YOU HAVE A DEADLINE.

Sometime later, you find yourself face down on the keyboard, drool from your half-open mouth pooling under the 'W' key. You pull yourself back to some semblance of consciousness and finally admit that there is no way in hell you are going to meet your deadline.

WHAT DO YOU DO???

In a freelancing world where reputations are made and broken on your word, being sick is truly one of the worst-case scenarios.

Or is it?

There is a simple fix: contact the buyer and be honest. Set out a new timetable, taking into account a realistic estimate of how long you'll take to be on the mend, and apologize for the inconvenience.

Sounds too easy, right? It really is that simple. Most buyers are reasonable, and all of them have been sick once or twice before. If you have already established good communication, then ninety-nine times out of one hundred, they'll understand.

And if you get that one in one hundred buyer? Well, you're sick. There's nothing you can do about it. I'd recommend that you apologize again then go about the business of getting well. You may get negative feedback, but one negative due to illness is not a career-destroying blow. A professional response to the feedback is all that is needed.

But that's really worst case. Buyers are human and pretty decent most of the time. So if you need to curl up and die for a few days, then go take care of you and do what you need to do.

When it comes to deadlines and sickness, it's better to be honest and work things through with the buyer than to hand in less than amazing work. That is the one thing that can mess with your reputation.




image by Rachel Titiriga