Today I spent most of the day trying to get organized. Not just my office and our house, but my work life as well. My boyfriends sister has hired me to babysit her two youngster's and thats all great and dandy, but with my business, it isn't all that simple to schedule projects and babysitting into one day. I decided to take on the babysitting gig as a favor to her (a paid favor) when my work flow had began to become slower than turtle's natural pace. Last week business picked up and I had already scheduled the babysitting gig. I didn't make it back to my house in time to get the project completed and submitted. I only had time to cancel it before the deadline. That was bad, but also good. I still have this client and this week a full schedule of work along with three nine hour days of babysitting. I don't yet have children of my own, so you can just imagine me someone who isn't around kids very often jumping in with both feet to babysit a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Yep, at the same time.By the time the day is over, the only thing I can manage to do is drive home (slowly), check some e-mails, and scavenge through the fridge looking for leftovers or sandwich foods. I'm always beat.
My business is my priority, no matter what it comes first. I just feel like now I'm obligated to watch her kids (and I could use the extra $$$) because she's family and going through a tough time with finding childcare and only working a few days a week. In some ways I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. No one really understands how a freelance writers life really is. We work when the work is there. And projects can become available at any moment. If we're not there to accept them, the client moves on to someone else and we miss out. Many people (my family and friends who are not writers) think that I do nothing on a daily basis. I work from home so to them it means I have a ton of free time and nothing else to do.
I have so much to do around the house when I'm not writing or waiting on projects and just like my work, the house is under a deadline as well with the remodel. It's almost completed, but with only 15 days left to get 3 rooms to be sanded and primed, 4 rooms painted, 1 room tiled, 3 rooms carpeted, and 20+ cabinets in the kitchen to be primed and painted; time is running out. It would be different if the kids came here to be watched, but with the house being unfinished, I don't feel comfortable with them being in here. It's really dusty from the sanding and organized - so I go to her house.
So, today I've spend the day trying to get projects in, organized, and deadlines agreed upon that will fit around my three nine hour days this week. So far I have figured out my schedule for today, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I don't know what will be for Thursday and Friday I'll be babysitting, so hopefully there will be no tight deadlines I will miss out on or just miss completely.
Sorry the venting, but you are all writers for the most part, and you understand where I'm coming from. :)
4 comments:
Good luck. When it comes to organization, I am the absolute WORST!! :-)
Wow, you got way more done today than I did. I cleaned out the minivan. Maybe that's why I couldn't get much else done, haha.
You sound super-organised to me! I'm impressed.
I know what you mean about working at home; my family and friends often call when I'm working and don't understand why I can't just stop and talk for half an hour even though my boss isn't there to monitor what I'm doing. But you sound really organized; good luck with your deadlines!
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