Scheduling Your Days

Some people may envision life as a freelancer as lazy days spent in pajamas, working here and there when you want to. It's a nice vision, but any freelancer knows that it is far from the truth.

In order to be a successful freelancer, you must be disciplined and extremely self motivated. Working from home means that you have double the distractions compared to someone who works in a traditional office environment. When working from home, a schedule is a must have. Not every schedule will work for every freelancer though.

Some people manage well with a simple to do list. Simply listing everything that they must accomplish on any given day gives them the ability to buckle down and get it done. Others need a more formal schedule, listing each hour of the day and what needs to be done during that time.

If one way of scheduling your day doesn't work, try an alternative and keep on trying different ways until you find the one that works. Staying well organized will make the difference between succeeding or failing as a freelancer.

What do you do to stay on track?

Update :)

I am slacking on posting, and for that I apologize. It is really difficult to find time in the day to take care of all the kids needs and write what I need to each day to reach my goal. So far, I am doing it but it doesn't leave much time for anything else!

I am trying to work out a schedule that will make the day easier on all of us and allow me to accomplish more. I haven't accomplished it yet, lol, but I am making progress!

So far I have managed to write 4 articles each day except for Saturday and Sunday. I wrote nothing over the weekend, but that's okay. I am still on target. $240 of $1200 done. I can do this!

Goal time!!

Tomorrow is the start of a brand new month, so it's time to start a new monthly goal! I love goals, even if I don't hit them they still serve to motivate me to try a little harder.

I am shooting low on this months goal because I am losing my help. One week from today, my husband is starting classes at the local college to obtain his CDL's. The class is only 7 weeks long, but after it's over he will hopefully be going to work! Since he has been out of work for almost a year now, I have really depended on him to keep the kids out of my hair and keep the house running somewhat smoothly while I work. Soon, it will be just me most of the week, and if he goes over the road once he graduates it will be just me most of the time.

I am going to be seriously outnumbered around here. :(

My monthly writing goal for this month is going to be $1200, mainly with Demand Studios although I am going to count income from any other clients in as well. I am going to be really limited in the time I can write and most of my work will have to be done at night and on the weekends.

I also want to add at least 10,000 words to my book this month, but that is a secondary goal. The writing that pays me right away is what is most important right now.

I would love some company on this months goal, so if you want to set your own goal as well, please do! I will be happy to share the journey with other writers through emails, instant messages or just right here on this blog, so leave me a comment and let's hit these goals!!

My April Goal

I mentioned in a previous post about setting a goal to make a certain amount of money in the month of April. I have been giving serious thought to what that goal should be. I want it to be something that I can accomplish without killing myself, but I also don't want it to be an easy goal. If I can do it without trying hard, its not really a challenge.

And I had to consider the fact that I will not have a lot of help around, and will have a 3 year old at home. Hubby has been really busy with his fire department lately, and may be going back to work soon. If he does, he will be working 12 hour days, so no help from that direction.

I have decided to set a goal to earn $2000 in the month of April, with just one company. That company is Demand Studios, and I have made that amount in one month with them before. But only a few times, and only when hubby was home and doing pretty much all the kid stuff and cooking. To do it next month, with everything else that is going on, will be difficult. But hopefully not impossible. And if I get to stressed out about it, I can always go walk in our woods....



I love our woods, just me and my faithful canine sidekick in blissful silence, surrounded by trees. It is heaven on earth. Sometimes I walk, and sometimes I just find a comfortable log and sit....pondering life, love or nothing at all. I want a little shack back there, with nothing but a comfy chair and a notebook. The things I could write in a little hideaway like that! Until I got my first visit from a snake, then I wouldn't like my hideout anymore. Country life does have its downfalls.

And, I would miss out on this....



My littlest munchkin is snoozing on my lap as I type this. Moments like this make motherhood worth every minute.

Motivation...or lack of it

Every freelancer knows about motivation. It keeps you pushing forward to meet that deadline or complete that assignment so that you can keep the dollars rolling in. It's something we have to have.

I lost mine at some point today. One of the companies I write for has had technical issues for the past week or so, and I have watched my bank account suffer because of it. But I persevered and they eventually got it all fixed. Now that I don't have to battle to submit every article, I seem to have lost my drive. I just do not want to write. I need to write, the people who send me those lovely bills each month are not going to be happy if I try to tell them they will have to wait because I am just not feeling it this week. Logically, I know I need to write, write and write some more. Yet I sit here and stare at the screen.

I have written today, I wrote a few things that were due today and tomorrow, and I worked on a short story I have been playing around with. And of course, I am writing this blog. But I really need to write several more articles before I call it a day. I just can't seem to get the words from my brain to the keyboard. There is a short somewhere.

I know other freelancers know what I mean, and I would love to hear how you conquer a lack of motivation. That is if anyone is actually reading this thing! Hello...anyone out there? :)

What is freelancing?

The dictionary defines a freelancer as a person who works as a writer, designer, performer, or the like, selling work or services by the hour, day, job, etc., rather than working on a regular salary basis for one employer.

Any freelancer will tell you that it is so much more than that. A successful freelancer must be very disciplined with time because it is extremely easy to get sidetracked when you do not have a boss watching out to make sure you are doing your job. And if you are a parent as well as a freelancer, that becomes twice as hard. Kids don't understand deadlines! I once attempted to explain to my three year old that we could not go outside to play because I had to meet a deadline. That went over really well.....it ended with my sweet baby having a complete melt down and me feeling like the worst mom in the world. The poor little guy was bored, he is here alone with no other kids all day. Mom looks like a perfect substitute, but mom won't leave the computer and go push him on the swing. A deadline means nothing in the face of boredom.

Organization is another key. If you have multiple clients, you have to keep very close track of what you are doing for each one, as well as when it needs to be done. As a writer, I have let a client slip my mind, only to find that five articles are due....tonight. It's not a nice feeling to know that I will be burning the midnight oil once again.

I cannot tell you how many people have come to me and said, : I want to work at home too, hook me up!" Yeah, right.....a few weeks later I hear about how you can't make money working at home, it's all a scam. I do not help anyone get started freelancing any longer. This so called "scam" work pays my bills quite well. It has even kept us living the way we are used to when my husband has been out of work for over 6 months. But I work hard for the money I make. I not only put in a lot of hours producing quality work to ensure that my clients will continue to want my services, I also balance this around my home and my family. It would be so much easier to go to a quiet office each day, work my 8 hours and go home at the end of the day. Freelancing is not easy, not even close. But last week when the school called because one of my children was running a high fever, I didn't have to clear it with a boss, or worry about missed hours on my paycheck. I just simply saved what I was working on and headed out the door. For me, that makes it all worth it.

This is not how it was supposed to start!

I created this blog several weeks ago, with the intention of posting brilliant thoughts and information about the two things I know best, parenting and freelancing.

Somehow making that first post eluded me. I started it, but got sidetracked and finally deleted it to post this. What ever point I was trying to make in my original first post has long been lost.

So, I will start with a rather unconventional first post which will have little to do with freelancing or parenting, unless you consider hand raising a litter of puppies to be parenting. I spend a lot of my free time...all two minutes a week....on rescuing animals. Mainly dogs, and my husband is a huge help in this endeavor, although to say he is enthusiastic would be pure fiction. This is what has kept me from blogging, sleeping and sometimes eating for the past 10 days. This sweet, lovable mama dog was way to old to be having babies and she died when the pups were just a few days old. The actual diagnosis was milk fever, which can quickly kill a young, healthy dog. She never stood a chance.

Now I am a foster mom to four little ink black balls of fluff. Long after my days of midnight feedings are over, I find myself once again waking up several times a night to make bottles and feed hungry little mouths. At the moment, it is a little after 4 am, the kids have to be up in a little more than an hour and I am sitting here waiting for a plastic tote full of squirmy, whiny critters to drift back off to sleep so that I can do the same. Their tummies have been filled, their bedding changed and now it will take at least 30 minutes for them to arrange themselves in a perfect pile and wander off to puppy dreamland.

Tomorrow is a new day, and I will be back to post all those brilliant thoughts about freelancing. Right after I get all the kids off to school, get the little one settled down so I can work, and hit a few deadlines that are staring me in the face. And of course, feed the piglets....I mean the puppies :)