Week 2 of self-employment

ante-natal course

I took the morning off.

Like, I have to literally “take leave” from myself. I’m such a bad employer of myself to the extend that I already overworked my mind 2 weeks after my last day – looks like there’re lots to learn for setting the right pace when working alone because it’s so easy to go into overdrive.

Good thing I took the morning off. I ironed some shirts and prepare for next week’s trip to Bali, while spending some time away from MIDI sounding band music and emails in general. And to write this.

At this juncture, I’ve collected some data based on simple metrics I set up earlier. Now my week looks like:

  • 30% actual music arranging / editing / publishing work (i.e. Sibelius time)
  • 30% meeting existing customers, as well as old friend + new people, discovering (and rejecting) opportunities, for the purpose of establishing an additional source of income (including travel time etc.)
  • 20% of family time (including ante-natal classes yay!) – which I think I will hold constant until when baby girl is born
  • 20% of daily chores (making own coffee now!) as well as really bad time management (slacking, gaming, facebook) which some people say is necessary to reset the mind, but I’m not so sure

And that’s bad because the following hasn’t even been scheduled in:

  • Learning / Retooling just in case I ever had to go back to full time employment
  • Exercising – which is like OMG-I-quit-my-job-and-I-still-can’t-find-time-to-go-jogging-ly maddening to me
  • Homey time (which my L!fesparks team is going to kill me)
  • Hobbies and other personal development (including redoing this blog itself to 2014 looks)

Not to mention if there are new opportunities to spend time to explore.

The importance of focus wasn’t forgotten though. Which means I might need to start doubling the number of “no”s I say to people. The first 20% of “no”s are easy, the next 30% I’ve learned to say when I had a job. The subsequent 30% is really tough, when only the last 20% or even 10% is what I should really be doing.

Time is really the most critical resource a freelancer has – and I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon just optimising my time management mindset, processes and tools.

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