Be Still And Know

It happens every Saturday. Toward the end of the week, I build up a big mental list of everything I'm going to get done with all of my copious free time over the weekend. I plan to be a weekend warrior and conquer housework and yard work and craft projects and a massive word count on my novel-in-progress, and all the other stuff I tell myself I don't have time for during the week. I go to bed on Friday night with that To Do list swimming in my head, and I wake up in the morning rarin' to go.

And then I sit down to work on my novel and realize that I'm actually quite exhausted and all I really want to do is sit there and catch up on my shows and my reading. Which I then proceed to do, for the entire day, all the while beating myself up about it.

I've been dealing a lot lately with discouragement and anxiety. Ever since the economy went kerplooey (again... or would that be "kerplooeyer"?) over the summer, my freelance business has slowed way, way down, and since my last regular client was forced to "take a break" from working with me, I've been running around like a frantic chicken, putting irons in the fire and digging ditches to lay the groundwork for income streams, and nothing seems to be panning out. I seem to have it in my head that if I can just stay in motion and prove (to who? I don't even know) what a hard worker I am, eventually it will all pay off and I'll be rewarded for my efforts. But it feels like nothing I do succeeds, and all my hard work is for naught.

I'm also struggling with envy and coveting. I look around and see people with the same talents and skills that I have who are enjoying great success and reaping the fruits of their labor, and I can't help but wonder, what am I missing? What am I doing wrong? What am I not doing enough of?

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:19

I believe that God is my provider. The above promise has been put to the test again and again since I lost my steady job two years ago and embarked on a freelance career. Somehow, some way, we always, always have what we need. Sometimes I have no idea how we're going to make our mortgage or pay all of our bills, but the money has always turned up when we need it, sometimes just in the nick of time. God's provision has never failed, not once.

But if I really believe in God's provision, then why am I constantly busting my rear and wearing myself out trying to do everything by my own might? Why am I always so stressed out about our finances, and anxious about my business? Why am I neglecting my home and my family and time that could be spent in Bible study and prayer and meditation in order to manufacture work for myself under the guise of building my portfolio?

Why am I so worn out at the end of the week when nobody has actually hired me to do anything?

As I've prayed about this recently, I feel like I'm finally starting to get the message that God's been trying to send me for the last couple of years. The Bible is full of promises about God's provision, and of commands to refrain from worry. Seek Him first and all else will be added unto you. Be anxious for nothing. Bring ALL things to Him in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.

The Sabbath isn't just a day off each week. It's an ongoing state of believing and trusting that God is in control, that He cares for us and wants to take care of us, and He wants us to relax and let Him do so.

Growing up, my dad never let us rest. We were always expected to work to earn our keep, to prove our worth. Now that I'm a married adult, my husband does his best to contribute and provide as much as his disability allows him to do so, but as the only totally able-bodied adult in our household, I feel tremendous pressure, mostly from myself, to be the primary breadwinner, and when my efforts fall short, as they so often do, I feel a deep sense of failure.

But I feel like my Heavenly Father is trying to get me to see that He's there, taking care of me, providing for me and my family, and that I don't have to constantly work to earn His care. He gives it freely, simply because He loves me. And he wants me to learn how to rest in that knowledge.

So this is what I'm working on for the moment. I'm going to slow down and enjoy my free time. I'm going to make time for God each day, and for my husband, and to pay some badly needed attention to my house and my poor, raggedy yard. I'm going to make time to take proper care of myself and prepare my body, as well as my heart and mind, for another pregnancy. And I'm going to allow myself to spend time on things I enjoy instead of making work for myself that nobody's paying me for.

And instead of worrying about what will happen when my husband's financial aid for this semester runs out, I'm going to work on trusting that God will open doors for us and that clients, customers and readers will show up when we need them.

Not by my might, Lord, nor by my power, but by YOUR spirit. Here I am, letting go and depending on You. Amen.

365: 9 & 10

Yesterday was BIZ-AY, and so no time to post. So today you get a two-fer, both taken right before my workout.

Here's today:

And yesterday:

Stats:
Weight - 178ish
Mood - brain fried
Bathroom - I don't want to talk about it

Confession: I've been so busy with my Blogging for Business launch that I didn't have time on either day to get dressed until right before my workout ...at 6 PM. It's going to be that way all week. Doing this launch feels exactly like scrambling to get my senior capstone project done in time for graduation. STRESS.

So My Sister Doesn't Send Out A Rescue Expedition

I got a text from my Big Sis all worried about me and Matt, so I guess I'd better post a quick update. Although I'm not sure anybody will actually see it, since I went and screwed up my domain name and all.

We're snowed in. We were stuck here for a while after last week's Snowpocalypse, but then on Saturday I managed to dig out the car and go to the store to re-stock some supplies. Which was a good thing, because then it snowed again, and we've been stuck here all week. We've still got plenty of food, but we're both starting to get cabin fever. It's starting to thaw, though, so I should be able to dig the car out again this weekend.

Meanwhile, I've been busy reorganizing things and developing some products over at The Web Wrangler and laying the groundwork for their marketing campaigns. One of those projects includes a new blog, Coffee & Soft Pants, that will focus on freelancing and working online. This is mainly because I realized that neither of my current blog audiences are really the right target audience for my e-book about how I started my business on a budget of zero dollars, so I need to go out and find that audience. Anyway, if you're interested in my business goings-on, here's a vlog entry I did about it.



I wish I could say that things are moving right along, but they've kind of stalled out this week. I'm not sure if it's because I overworked myself and now I'm a little burnt out, or if it's the cabin fever with a touch of SAD, or a combination of all of the above, but this week I've been struggling with a lack of energy and motivation and a fuzzy-brained feeling that's making it really hard to focus. I've managed to push through it to a certain extent, but mostly all I'm good for lately is lying around and staring at shiny moving pictures. It's a bit frustrating, with so much on my plate, but I guess my body's trying to tell me that I need a break, and I should probably listen.

So that's what's up lately. We're mostly good, albeit a bit frazzled and stir-crazy, and I clearly need to work on the whole work/life balance thing. I think that will get easier once I get these products launched.

And how are you?

Those 2011 Goals Are Starting To Come Along

Lately I've had my head down, hard at work on Goal #1 - making my business more profitable. I wish I could say it's already done, but all of the marketing stuff I've done so far is just the tip of the ice burg, and so far I don't have any new clients or increased web site traffic to show for it. That's a little discouraging. But it's still early, and there's still a lot to do, and I know it's going to take time. I need to stick with it. I know that if I do, by the grace of God, things will take off eventually.

Last week, I got started on Goal #5 - Run a 5K. That should really be renamed to Get My Body Ready To Make a Baby, because that's the true goal. I've been reading up on PCOS, and apparently that condition can be controlled, possibly even eliminated, with a low-glycemic diet and plenty of exercise.

Of course, I haven't been officially diagnosed with PCOS, thanks to my insurance running out before the OB/GYN at the clinic could test me. But I have several of the symptoms, and I just have a gut feeling that it's what caused my miscarriages.

Reading about women who've dieted their way to controlling it and having successful pregnancies has given me a lot of hope, and it's motivating me to get back on/stay on track. I've found that when I'm faced with temptation, I just need to ask myself, do I want a baby, or do I want fill-in-the-blank-temptation? Be lazy and don't exercize, or be able to have a baby? Cake, or Baby? I guess maybe that's not quite as clear-cut a choice for some as cake or death, but for me, it's working.

So I guess that also ties into Goal #2, although I still need to get health insurance. But that comes back around to Goal #1, upon which most of my other goals also rely. And so: I'm keeping my head down, working on making that one happen. So it goes.

Sleepy Jean is ready for the weekend.

You guys, I'm tiiiiired. Did I say that already? Well, I still am. I've been hard at work and hyper-focused for like the last 14 days or so on building up and marketing my Web Wrangler blog, trying to sound like I'm some kind of expert that knows what she's talking about. So far I've succeeded in gathering a lot more Twitter followers, and that seems to be translating into a few more blog readers, but I'm not having a lot of luck signing new subscribers to the newsletter. I guess tons of free info isn't that much of an incentive. Eh, I need to be patient and give it more time.

But I'll give it more time next week, because I'm taking this weekend off. I worked through last weekend and I'm really feeling the lack of rest. So rest is what this weekend is all about. Well, mainly. Apart from a couple loads of laundry and finally hauling the empty Christmas ornament boxes back out to the garage, my plans don't involve much more than sleeping and reading and knitting and sipping hot cocoa and watching Christmas movies and looking at the fun, non-work parts of the Internet. Hopefully this will re-energize me enough to work straight through until Christmas Eve, because I'm taking off Christmas Eve through New Years Weekend, and I've got a lot to get done before then.

And if I've been neglecting you these last few weeks, I will try to touch base with you over the weekend. I mean it.

Have a sneezy, wheezy Christmas

Well, I've been writing my 250 words a day, but it's all been on new web copy and promotional materials for my new web site, The Web Wrangler, which launched today to replace my old Task Wrangler site. You can click here to read all about the change, and while you're there you can sign up to my newsletter to be privy to all kinds of free goodies and special offers.

Man, you guys, I'm pooped. A month of intense writing followed by a week of intense focus on getting the new web site online means I'm living up to my Sleepy Jean namesake. I'm going to have to lighten up and give myself a break soon before I keel right over.

Speaking of sleepy times, the other night I had a dream with a plot that I think would have made a pretty good Angel fanfic, and I'm trying to decide whether it would translate to a non-Whedony world of my own creation. I think I'll just let that one simmer in the incubator for a spell while I focus on finishing all of last year's (and last decade's) works in progress.

In other news, last night I finally tore myself away from my new site long enough to get the Christmas decorations up. Now my living room is festive and holiday-ready, except of course it's also full of empty boxes that I haven't yet had the time or energy to gather up and haul back out to the garage. We went with a real tree again this year, a Noble Fir from Home Depot, and it may or may not be a coincidence that since we brought it home my allergies have been making me want to lie down and not do much else except just lie there and try to breathe. There have just been a couple of days like that, though (and this is one of them), so I don't know if I can really blame the tree specifically, or if it's just Oklahoma's fault in general, as is usually the case. At any rate, something in the air does not agree with my sinuses and respiratory tracts, and I do wish it would go away.

I should get some more work done so I can go get started on that lying down thing. Here's hoping your Monday is cheer-filled and allergy-free.

Believe it or not, this post is not about NaNoWriMo.

I've been thinking about how to re-structure my business to make it more profitable heading into the new year. I'm still at a point where I'm just making ends meet, and that's largely thanks to Matt's disability income and student loans, because I'm definitely not pulling in enough to set aside savings to get us through the lean times when none of my current crop of clients have anything for me. I know I can always write for Demand Studios to get us through those periods, but... ugh. I got so burned out writing for DS last summer that I don't even want to talk about it.

Really, I'm doing pretty well for only having been in business a year and a half. It generally takes most businesses two to three years to start turning a profit, so I figure if I stick with it, things are only going to get better. Part of that lies with me understanding the true value of my skills and expertise, and of the many, many, MANY hours I've put in over many years developing said skills and expertise, and getting over my bashfulness about charging what I'm worth. Because one thing I've learned is that if you charge bargain prices, you're going to attract clients that are looking for a bargain because they can't afford to pay. Whereas if you charge your full worth, you will find people and businesses that think that's perfectly reasonable and are both happy and able to pay that amount for what you can bring to the table. Which makes it a lot easier to afford things like health insurance and babies.

I also need to get over my shyness about marketing myself. I give my clients perfectly good marketing advice, but I never follow it for myself because... I don't know. I guess because it makes me feel like a jerk. A pushy, annoying jerk. And yet I don't think that about the vast majority of people I know who put themselves out there to market their books/products/services/blogs/etc. every single day. Maybe if I figure it out I can write a book or do a seminar on marketing for shy introverts. But that would be one more thing I'd have to market, so... maybe not.

On a related tangent, last night I caught up on this week's America's Next Top Model, and I'm totally on Team Ann. That girl reminds me so much of myself. Not the tall, rail-thin, extremely photogenic part, OBVS, but the shy, awkward, reserved personality part. During the acting class, when in her head she felt like she was screaming her lungs out but in reality she was making barely audible whimpering sounds? That's so me. I used to wonder why people would tell me all the time that I was so quiet and reserved, because in my head I was really putting myself out there and thought there was all kinds of inflection in my voice. But I've got kind of a flat affect, and if I try to sound "normal" I really feel like I'm shouting and acting like a complete fool. I've learned to do it anyway, especially in a business setting, but it feels so unnatural and uncomfortable and forced.

That's how self-marketing makes me feel. But I know that if I ever want to succeed in anything creative I have to get over that and learn to just go ahead and shout it out and be a fool, realizing that it only really feels that way to my miswired brain and that it looks perfectly fine to everybody else.

So I'll be working on that in the coming weeks, and hopefully I'll have a re-designed (again!) web site with all of the new info ready to launch by January. Yes, in addition to finishing my Nano novel and my How To Start a Business e-book and surviving the holidays and everything else. At least I'll be too busy to dwell on the things about this time of year that tend to make me sad.

Lull.

I'm gradually climbing out from under a mountain of work. I let myself get overbooked these last few weeks, a situation I try really hard to avoid because it wreaks havoc with my work/life balance, and hence with my energy levels, my health and my overall mood. But sometimes when my clients all send me work at once I have a hard time telling some of them, "I can't do that this week," and think that I can somehow magically pull extra time out of my butt, and I end up right where I am now. Add to that trying to keep up my NaNo count and this business with my in-laws, and what you have here is a frazzled, weepy Jean who suddenly can't stop coughing.

I'm trying once again to get all of my client work done in the first half of the week so I can devote the second half to writing and family and saving my sanity. But I've hit a lull where all of my projects are on hold while I wait for feedback, so I'm using it to catch up on my writing. And I'm using the break from writing to blog. I thought about blogging a rant about our nation's health care system and how people like my in-laws tend to get screwed over by it, but I like to avoid political rants and debates on my blog (and just in general), so instead here's a Daily Show expose on anti-puppy mill legislation, because it's just like health care reform, OBVIOUSLY (snagged from Dooce).



I wish I could sick Cesar Milan on the jerks that made it so stepdad-in-law couldn't afford his meds and now has to rely on hospital welfare just to stay alive.

Marketing & Miscellany

The Marketing:

I spent much of the weekend polishing up my online presence to appear a little more professional. Most significantly, this included updating my LinkedIn profile, changing my Tumblr blog into a portfolio for personal and practice projects, and launching JMBauhaus(.net), my new central hub which is now the easiest way to keep up with everything I'm doing online if you're inclined to do so (Big Sis).

I was forced to switch from .com to .net thanks to my stupidity in letting my jmbauhaus.com domain expire earlier this year. Dotster then wanted a hundred dollars to renew it; otherwise I had to wait 90 days for it to go back on the market. Which I decided to do, but before I could register it again some domain squatters snatched it up, and there's no telling how much they want for it, but they can just sit on it, because I don't want it badly enough to pay more than $10 for it, and I don't see anybody else wanting it, either. I'm perfectly happy being an $8 .net instead. So enjoy your worthless jmbauhaus.com domain there, squatters!

ANyway. Since I'm so enamored with the service that's hosting my new site, Flavors.me, I'm offering a very affordable Flavors.me customization package.

Another new service I'm offering is through Fiverr.com: $5 Typographical Logos. I enjoy logo design but I don't get a lot of opportunity to practice it, so hopefully this is a way to give me some practice and beef up my portfolio in that area.

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but I'm also running a contest to drum up "fans" for my Facebook business page. I'm offering a free custom Twitter background (a $60 value) to one random winner. All you have to do to enter is "like" my Task Wrangler page on Facebook and leave a comment in the discussion there declaring your entry. Click here for contest details.

So far it's working like a charm... not. Apparently nobody wants their own fancy custom Twitter background badly enough to bother clicking a "Like" button and leaving a comment. Which is to say that if you DO want your own fancy custom Twitter background, your chances of winning at this point are VERY good.

Of course, if nobody enters, that's less work for me to do, so win-win, I guess.

The Miscellany

It's officially fall now, right? Or is that tomorrow? Either way, I'm ready for this late summer we're having to get lost and leave me alone. September started out promisingly enough with a nice reprieve from the ridiculously hot weather we had in July and August, but it's gotten hot again, and I couldn't be more ready for fall weather to get here. I'm just afraid that we'll have a repeat of last year, where it pretty much skipped right over the usual great fall weather and went straight from hot and miserable to cold and crappy. We're starting to gear up for another short camping trip in October, and I've a feeling Matt will want to go no matter what, so I'm really crossing my fingers for it not to be cold and crappy all month. Come on, October. Show me why you were always my favorite month.

To help beat the heat and get myself in a fall state of mine, I've been watching a lot of spooky stuff, i.e. horror movies and Ghost Hunters. I don't know why scary stuff puts me in mind of fall--I guess it's because for me fall = Halloween. At any rate, I'm in the mood these days for safe scares. This will probably come back to bite me when we're camping next month and I find myself having to go out into the darkness by myself in the middle of the night for a potty emergency.

It's also that time of year for me to decide whether I'll be doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, what will I be writing? Right now I'm kind of leaning towards giving it a pass this year. Last year I started out gang-busters, hitting about 20,000 words in the first week before I found out I was pregnant, and all of the baby drama ensued, and my focus went right out the window. If I do it this year I'll either invoke the Zokutou Clause and finish Dominion of the Damned, or challenge myself to write a collection of memoirs and personal essays all month.

If I do the latter, I figure I'll post them here as I go and then maybe collect the good ones into a chap book or see if any of them are good enough for the magazine market. The problem is that I just can't seem to get excited about writing -- which might be all the more reason why I should sign up for 'WriMo. It might also make a good distraction from the fact that baby #2 would've been due the first week of November, which I'm already starting to struggle with a little... which probably explains my current ambivalence toward writing, and toward NaNoWriMo in particular. I remember thinking that there was no way I'd be able to do it this year because I'd be busy taking care of a newborn baby, so the fact that there's really no reason for me not to do it makes me pretty sad.

In less depressing news, these past two weeks I've pretty much had my head down, brushing up on my web design skills and learning new software and new techniques to prepare for a web site overhaul for a new client. I've been learning a lot, but I haven't been doing much else, and the imbalance is starting to wear on me. I'm beginning to feel lethargic and headachey all the time, and I'm already putting the weight back on that I managed to shed over the summer. So starting today I've got to start forcing myself to make time for regular workouts again. Between the new TV season kicking off in full force this week and Matt's recent habit of spending his evenings holed up in the bedroom to study, it should be pretty easy for me to start parking myself on the stationary bike in front of the TV every night.

What about you guys? Are any of you doing 'WriMo this year? If so, do you know what you'll be working on?

Whip It Good

I just had a client have to remind me that this is a holiday weekend when I tried to schedule a conference call for Monday. That might be sad, but not as sad as the fact that what's exciting me most about the prospect of an extended weekend is finally having time to clean my house. Not that I'm such a clean freak that putting the emphasis on the "labor" part of this particular holiday fills me with joy; but our house still hasn't recovered from our camping trip last month, and I can't even remember the last time I vacuumed the carpet. This house needs some serious whipping into shape, and it looks like I'll finally have time to do the whipping.

Of course, I shall have to do it all whilst wearing my new t-shirt.

And if I'm really feeling ambitious I might even tackle the mountain in the garage that represents two years' worth of backed up recycling -- the first step in converting the garage from a big space to throw the crap we don't want to deal with into an organized haven for craft supplies and camping gear. Party on!

This month is shaping up to be a pretty good one, work-wise. It never ceases to amaze me the way freelancing is always feast or famine. Never does it happen that one client needs something one week, and another the next, and so on so that I've got a steady stream of work and nobody's ever competing for my time. Instead it always happens that most -- if not all -- of them have major projects that need done all at the same time, or hardly anybody needs anything from me at all. Right now I'm looking at a feast of web design and VA work, so that's going to be keeping me busy for the next few weeks.

Gotta say I'm relieved, because as much as I appreciate that Demand Studios is there to get me through the famine times, it's definitely not my favorite gig, probably because it's the one that requires the most mentally taxing work for the least pay. After a long day of struggling to focus enough to research and write just a few articles, I'm always too mentally fried to do anything else. I'm feeling energized just thinking about having some truly creative work on my plate again. Even so, I'm going to try to keep doing at least a few DS articles a week, just to ensure I'll have a steady, if small, paycheck to buffer against the unsteady nature of freelance pay.

Somewhere in all this working and cleaning, I've got to be sure to get outside and enjoy this perfect fall-like weather we're having. This would, of course, be a lot easier if Matt would let me take the laptop out on the patio, but he's afraid I'll smash it to bits on the concrete and then we'll have to spend a big chunk of money to replace it. And he does have a point -- I do tend to be accident prone, and I wish I could say that I don't have a history of expensive accidents, but... well, let's just say I don't have solid ground on which to argue in favor of ever leaving the house with my laptop. So if I want to go out I guess I'll just have to leave the computer behind and, like, get some exercise or something. How novel!

How Jeanie Got Her Groove Lack

This has not been the best week for me, productivity-wise. It got off to a rocky start on Monday when we spent over an hour trying to jump-start Matt's truck before finally giving up and deciding it needs a new battery. After that I still had several errands to run, and by the time I finally sat down to work, my focus was shot and I was good for nothing.

Tuesday was better. I spent all day writing articles for Demand Studios, which is pretty much my full-time job until my business picks back up. I wrote enough for a decent day's pay, but I was still frustrated because I could have done more if I didn't have focus issues. I know there are people on there who can hammer out 10 articles or more a day. I've never been able to manage more than five--which is really enough to make ends meet, but wouldn't it be nice if I could write enough to actually make some extra money for a change? Sigh.

Yesterday I actually managed to knock out a couple of articles despite not being home most of the day. Thanks to an online ordering screw-up with the university bookstore, we had to drive to the campus 45 minutes away in my hometown to pick up one of Matt's textbooks so he can study for a test on Friday. And since we were in town we figured we might as well visit my mom, which was lovely, but there went any chance I had of getting more than two articles, or anything else, done that day.

Which brings us to today. And here I am blogging instead of article writing, but I have to figure out how to fit blogging in somehow. I haven't even had time to think about topics for my Task Wrangler blog, which is no way to build up a readership for that one. And don't even get me started on the state of my house, which still looks like a camp site blew up all over it a week and a half after our return. It was great and necessary for us to get away for our little camping holiday, but it totally messed up my groove, and I'm still struggling to get it back. And of course Matt's ready to go camping again as soon as the weather cools off and his schoolwork lightens up a bit, so most likely I'll find my groove again just in time for that to happen, because that's the way these things go. Such is life.

The Task Wrangler Is All New

Well, I was going to say that I would be using my usual Follow Friday slot for some shameless self-promotion, but we're 11 minutes into Saturday as I type this, so it's too late. No Follow Friday for you! But the self-promotion continues apace.

I've been a busy bee lately over at The Task Wrangler, where I finally launched my new web site last week. Earlier this week I also launched a semi-regular newsletter, The Task Wrangler Report, which you can subscribe to right here to keep up with news and special offers in a more timely fashion than waiting for me to get around to talking about it here.

And then tonight, in the final step in my plan for world domination finishing my web site, I launched a blog, where I'll be offering news, how-to tips and advice on blogging, SEO and social networking. Check out my first post, How To Hire a Virtual Assistant, if you've been wondering what exactly that entails.

After all of that, I think I've earned myself a holiday weekend. Good thing there's a holiday conveniently scheduled this Sunday. Too bad that means I have to spend my Saturday cleaning the house I've been neglecting in favor of all this new web site stuff before my mother-in-law comes over to help us commemorate the founding of our nation with a cook-out. Or possibly take-out, depending on the weather.

At any rate, everybody have a good weekend, and a happy 4th!

Ask Me About Online Freelancing

Google's keyword tool suggests that several variations on "work at home opportunities" and "how to make money online" would be good keyword topics for this blog. Mixed in there is "easy money." Ow, Google, you made me laugh so hard I almost burst my spleen.

I do indeed work at home and make my money online. But I'm here to tell ya, it ain't easy. Still, for me, it's preferable to the alternative - forcing my ADD self and my whacked out circadian rhythms to keep a regular eight to five job and sit in one place for eight hours a day was neither good for my health nor my sanity.

I'm sure I'm not the only one for whom this is true. I've been at this for about a year now, and while I'm certainly not an expert, I've definitely learned a few things about starting up and running a moderately successful freelance business, and I have some knowledge to impart. Not just yet -- I'm still doing the Deadline Dance and don't have nearly enough time to get into it with this post. But this isn't a blatant excuse to exploit some key search words to manipulate traffic -- okay, not just an excuse for that. It's also me announcing my intention to write on this topic in a way that's meaningful and possibly helpful to anyone considering taking the freelance plunge.

This is where you come in, dear readers. Do you have any questions for me on the subject? Any questions at all, from how I got started to what resources I use to how I manage my finances to... well, whatever's on your mind. Depending on how many questions I get, this could be either a single post or a whole series. If enough of you interrogate me, I might even turn it into an e-book, and if that happens, everyone who contributes a question will get a free copy. So tell me: what do you want to know about freelancing online?

Six Strategies For Getting Your To Do List Done

It's the end of a long and satisfying day. I got everything done that I wanted to, within reason, and I didn't even have a To Do list for the day, which is sort of the antithesis of this post; but even so, today was productive and satisfyingly balanced: I made headway on two separate client projects, spent some quality time with my mom-in-law, worked on cleaning up storm debris, and helped Matt grill some burgers on the back patio (and then ate them - mmm, chargrilled meat!), and now I'm capping the day off by spending some quality time with the blog (which also happens to kill the writing bird, so yay for that). All of that, despite taking time out to watch American Idol and Glee (Lee DeWyze was awesome! But not as awesome as NPH! Who was in turn not as awesome as the Idina/Lea duet! What can I say? It was a great night to be a fangirl).

As great as today was, the unstructured-yet-productive days are pretty rare for me. Even on structured days I tend to run into problems and don't get as much done as I'd like (as discussed last week, I owe a lot of that to my TV habit). With ADD, I find it difficult to focus and stay on task under the best circumstances. Add to that chronic hay fever clouding my brain and a wonky thyroid and sleep apnea conspiring to sap all of my energy, and keeping my butt in my office chair long enough to get work done without falling asleep (or falling prey to about a zillion different distractions) is just plain hard.

One thing that's (usually - today being a rare exception) essential to getting past all of this and keeping my day on track is the ubiquitous To Do list. But it doesn't really help me to simply write down the things I need (or hope) to get done each day. I've come to realize that there's a strategy to creating a really effective To Do list, one that has every item checked off at the end of the day and leaves you with a smugly satisfying sense of accomplishment and done-ness. Here are some tips to strategizing YOUR To Do list to achieve the best results.

1. Make a "priority list" for the whole week. Be selective and ruthless in your prioritization, leading with firm deadlines, things that MUST get done that week. Follow that with things that it would simply make your life easier to get done that week, and round it out with some personal projects. Then when you make each day's To Do list, you can refer to this list to help ensure that you're not forgetting to take care of the important stuff. Additionally, I also keep ongoing "Must Do" and "Wanna Do" lists to help keep track of both client obligations and personal projects, and I try to pull from both columns when making up my weekly list.

2. Only list the things you need help remembering to do. I used to have a bad habit (which I still haven't entirely broken) of padding my list with the routine things I do every day, bunching them all at the beginning to give myself a "head start" on crossing things off and get that boost from feeling accomplished at the sight of all those check marks. The problem with this is, as the day stretches on and my brain gets tired and starts looking for excuses to quit, seeing all those check marks gives it a false sense that it's worked really hard and deserves to be done for the day - no matter that the only things checked off are "eat breakfast", "get dressed", "brush teeth" and "feed the cats".

3. Keep it short. I read somewhere that seven is the maximum number of items you should have on your To Do list. The reason had something to do with seven being the maximum number of things that the human brain can process or remember without getting overwhelmed (which is why phone numbers are seven digits). I usually do pretty well by sticking to this rule. On days I attend church or am otherwise pressed for time, I'll even cut it down to five.

4. Be selective, and be realistic. Keeping a short list means hitting the priorities and sometimes letting go of the things that aren't as important. This is very important if you have ADD or suffer from "too many irons in the fire" syndrome and have a difficult time deciding what you should be working on at any given time. I have a tendency sometimes to fill up a whole page with things I hope to get done, but there's never enough time in the day to complete those lists. I've found it's better to keep it pared down to the things I actually have a reasonable shot at accomplishing in the time allotted.

5. Work in order. This is also related to the last two items. Only you can decide which order is best, but write down the tasks in the order that you plan to do them, and then stick to that order. This might mean putting the biggest or most tedious chores first to make yourself do them before rewarding yourself with the more enjoyable tasks. For me, since it's a lot easier to force myself to work on something for someone else than for myself, this means putting first the personal projects, like editing my novel or writing this blog, that I would otherwise most likely let slide after I got done with my client projects for the day. Speaking of which...

6. Make a balanced list. Try not to fill it up completely with obligations to others, but to leave a slot or two open for things you want to do for yourself. This is a good way to make sure you nurture yourself, whether it's by spending time doing personal projects, making exercise a daily obligation, or simply keeping your life in order by doing mundane chores around the house.

For me, a daily To Do list usually includes two or three client projects (or one big project broken down into a few manageable tasks if I'm under deadline), a household chore or two, a writing task, a personal or business development task, and some form of exercise. This usually makes for a pretty well-rounded day and leaves me with the feeling that I'm moving forward in every area instead of focusing on just one dimension of my life while the others stagnate. If I'm under tight deadlines, that changes, but I try not to let it become a rut that I get stuck in for very long.

Need more help? Here are Six Free online To Do List and Project Management Tools.

Do you have any strategies to add? What's your biggest obstacle to overcoming distraction and procrastination? Share your insights in the comments.

Writer, Schmiter

I've been out of practice for any kind of writing besides stream-of-conscious personal posts for so long now that I feel like I've forgotten how. I've got some writing projects that are way overdue, and I promised myself that today would be the day I crossed them off of my To Do list; but as I sit here and try to work on them, it's like I just stare at the screen and go "Uh der... me don't know good words." Is it possible to go so long without writing that that part of your brain just breaks down, like a car that sits unused in the driveway for too long? I guess it's more like a muscle, one that needs to be exercised regularly or else it atrophies. My pro writing muscle feels pretty atrophied right now. Probably the best thing to do is find some writing exercises to help get it functioning again.

Sleep would probably also be a good thing. I didn't get much of it last night. I went to bed sufficiently tired, but for some reason, just as I started to drift off, I woke up feeling really anxious and jumpy, and it took forever to get back to sleep. And once I did I never did get into a really deep sleep, until late this morning, right before Pete decided to wake me up to let him outside (why he always decides I'm the designated morning letter-outer, and never Matt, is a secret to be locked up in his tiny little Chihuahua brain forevermore, I suppose). So I am a literal and true Sleepy Jean today, and both I and my writing muscle would probably do well to take a nap.

Also, it's supposed to storm tomorrow, and I can't stop thinking that I should mow my yard before that happens (you already can't tell that I just mowed last Saturday), which is distracting as heck.

All things considered then, I suppose this is how the rest of my day should go: put the writing aside and spend the next couple hours on some of my web site projects instead, eat lunch and take a nap, then go mow. Then tonight, after I'm cleaned up and rested up, practice some intentional writing with lower stakes (i.e. that I'm not getting paid for and therefore it's okay to suck), before taking two Benadryls and getting a good night's sleep. Hopefully this will jump start that writing muscle -- or am I back to the car metaphor again? -- and I can take on the paid copy tomorrow, when my brain feels less broken.

Cross your fingers for me. And if you know of any good writing exercise web sites (focusing on non-fiction right now, but fiction would probably help, too) that might help jump start me, shout 'em out in the comments.

Goal Post & Update

Wow, y'all. Work has been busy. I didn't blog last week because there just wasn't time. This is excellent news for our ability to pay our bills, although this pace is already threatening to burn me out. I haven't been able to touch my novel, either, and any time off I've managed to grab has been spent trying to cram in all of the stuff that has to be done that I don't get paid to do. I am, in a word, tired.

So now that I've got the productivity goal conquered, my goal for this and the upcoming weeks is to work on finding balance and pacing myself. I need to manage that extra eight hours better and give myself a little more time to do things I WANT to do and not just what has to get done. That way, hopefully, lies sanity, and avoidance of that mental energy wall I keep running into by Thursday afternoon.

To that end: it's after 9 PM on Monday night, and instead of working till 11 like I have been, I'm going to go put my feet up and find something to watch on Netflix, and then I shall read until I get sleepy, and it shall be bliss.

What are YOU doing to stop the insanity, my fellow goalies?

ETA: I can't believe I almost forgot! One of the projects that's been keeping my nose so hard-pressed against the grindstone is finished (mostly -- I still have to redo the blog template and revise the video on the home page) and officially launched last night. Check out my handiwork for FutureWave Consulting.

Now if I can just find time to update my portfolio (without burning out my brain)...

Goal Post: Week 5

Well, despite being crazy-busy all week, I didn't finish anything, but that's mostly because of waiting for other people to get back to me before I can continue. I did come within only $40 of my weekly quota, which I don't believe will be too hard to make up. The main thing is that I'm getting more billable work done in the allotted time, and if I can get through a week without any major schedule interruptions, I should get all of my work in just fine.

Last week's class on state taxes was really helpful. After that class I took the rest of the afternoon to do everything I needed to do to make my business official, so say hello to the sole proprietor of J. M. Bauhaus Enterprises. I was scheduled to attend an IRS business workshop on Thursday, but as we were under a Weather Advisory of Doom, I didn't go. Still, the time I would have lost to the class was lost instead to preparing to become a shut-in for days. The big panic was that this storm would rival the ice-pocalypse of 2007 that blacked out half the state, and we'd end up without power for days, if not weeks. But thankfully, it didn't. We didn't lose power, and the roads don't even appear to be that bad, if the sound of traffic whizzing by outside my office window is any indication.

Enough about last week. On to this week's goals: Now that my biggest projects are winding down and I've gotten into a rhythm with my working hours, I'm ready to get back to the novel. So back to trying to revise or write a scene a day until it's done. I wrote a whole new chapter this morning, to replace one I threw out, so that's a good feeling to carry with me through the day.

My personal goal is pretty standard -- exercise more consistently. I always start out pretty good at the beginning of the week, but then by Wednesday I just can't be bothered and then it's Monday before I work out again. No wonder I'm usually stiff and grumpy by the time the weekend rolls around. So I'm going to do my best to get on the stationery bike every day -- and barring that, at least do some stretching exercises every evening to keep this torturous desk chair from crippling me.

Work goals are the same--wrap up these web design projects. I also have a couple of new clients waiting in the wings, so I need to hurry up and clear some space for them on my schedule. And if I can't get that Wordpress blog working properly this week, then I don't know what I'll do. Find somebody with more WP experience than me to subcontract it out to, I guess. But I've got a couple of ideas and suggested fixes to try first, so hopefully it won't come to that.

How about you guys? What dragons do you intend to slay this week?

Goal Post: Week 4

I didn't even have time for a goal update this week, and by the weekend I was too brain-fried to bother. The good news is that for the first time ever last week I earned too much to qualify for an unemployment check -- which is really excellent timing, since my unemployment year expires at the end of this month. I didn't make my "Need to make $X to make ends meet" quota, but I would have if I hadn't spent most of Monday on unpaid hours trying to fix that broken Wordpress blog.

Speaking of which, the bad news is, broken blog is still broken. I found some Wordpress smarties to help me find the problem (thanks to my awesome cousin-in-law -- thanks, Stevie!), but I haven't heard back from them yet. I don't know whether it's because they haven't had time to delve into it yet or because they're as stumped as I am.

Meanwhile, I've got enough on my plate to ensure another profitable week, with end-of-month deadlines keeping me in head-down, git 'er done mode, so you probably won't hear much else from me this week, either. I'm also attending two free Small Business Administration classes, one Tuesday morning and one on Thursday, on business taxes and accounting. Those are each three hours long, so I'm definitely going to have to scramble to make up for the time lost to those, but hopefully they'll teach me what I need to know. If they help me stop stressing out about my taxes, it'll be worth it.

So that's pretty much my only goal for this week - meet my deadlines and get these projects wrapped up by the end of the month, including the broken blog.

Are you also racing the clock this week? Or are your goals a little more leisurely? Tell us all about them in the comments.

Goal Post: Week 3

I'm running behind this week, thanks to an entire day lost to trying to figure out a problem in Wordpress and making no progress. I've actually been trying to figure out for several days now why the blog page I set up only shows the content of a single post, with no title, date, permalinks or comment links. I spent all day on it yesterday, which ended in tears of frustration, and I finally posted the problem on the Wordpress help forums, so hopefully some kind WP guru will come to my rescue. I really need to get this project done so I can wipe this site and get started on another client's Wordpress site that's currently waiting in the wings. And naturally, I didn't earn any money for my troubles, because I refuse to charge the client for time wasted by my own ineptitude. A total waste, that was my Monday. I hope yours was more productive.

Anyhoo, how's about we discuss some goals for this week? Really, my main goal is to fix this broken blog and get this project off of my plate so I can focus on new ones. If I can do that I will consider this week a win.

Otherwise, I need to work on organizing my time better and putting in six to eight hours a day on PAID activity. I don't really understand how this keeps failing to happen, but it does. By my math, eight hours of sleep leaves eight hours each for work and other stuff. It feels like I spend way more than eight hours a day on work, and way less on other stuff, and yet when I check my billable hours at the end of the day I usually haven't put in that many.

Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. I need to spend this week and next figuring out what that wrong thing is and correcting it, because come the end of the month my unemployment year will end I won't have that as a cushion anymore to make up for my slack-arsed ways. I'm going to need a bare minimum of six solid billable hours every weekday in order to make ends meet. I have the work. I just need the time management skills. So that's obviously the priority for the rest of the month, to the detriment of my writing and personal goals.

Except for exercise. I need to make myself make time to get up and move, because my brain needs it as much as my body does. And I haven't been doing so well in that area lately. Which shouldn't be a problem, if I can find those eight hours that should be left over after I'm done with my work.

What's your Goliath this week, my fellow goalies?

State of the Goals - Week 2

It only took two and a half days for the combination of the cats and my uncomfortable office chair to drive me back out to the living room couch. I'm not giving up on the office yet. I think sharing my office with the cats (it's where we keep the litter boxes, so shutting the girls out for more than an hour at a time isn't really an option; and no, we can't figure out a better place to keep them) would probably be more tolerable if I had a chair that didn't give me a backache after only an hour of sitting in it. So "new office chair" is moving to the top of the list of things to buy when we have some cash to burn.

Meanwhile, working in the living room isn't nearly so distracting since Husband's classes started back up and he's spending most of his time in HIS office doing homework instead of out here flipping channels on daytime TV and trying to carry on conversations about current events while I'm trying to work. So there's that. Even so, I'm harboring fantasies of erecting a Tiny House in the backyard to be my office and Quiet Place. That's a more far-off solution than a new chair, but a girl can dream.

About the only goal I've managed to meet consistently all week has been getting up earlier. Even then, my clients have kept me so busy this week that I've still had to work late a few nights, and my share of the housework just isn't happening before the weekend. I wrote a few Demand Studios articles early in the week, but with so many client projects on my slate, I haven't had the time or the need to do any more. And I've had to limit the amount of time spent on my novel in the mornings, so I'm two chapters behind where I wanted to be by now. Still, excepting yesterday when a memorial for my uncle left me with no time for unpaid projects, I've been working on it every day, so that's something to feel good about.

So my scheduling this week might not have worked out exactly as I'd hoped, but all in all it's been a productive and profitable week. What more can a freelancer ask for?

What say you, my fellow Goalies?