Getting Started in Freelancing Is Hard, Obviously

Unfortunately, this week has left me with little to discuss on the actual trial I am partaking in right now, but it has got me pondering a series of bad decisions lately.

As a quick overview, I signed up for a freelancing website, upwork.com, set up my account, applied for about 10 positions, and waited. This hasn’t been terrible, just uneventful.

Over the duration of this trial, I hope to try a few different sites and other options for finding work. What I do want to avoid is starting a part-time job. In my opinion, this is completely different from freelancing. I am not looking for additional income, what I am looking for is a level of freedom and choice I can’t get at my day job. A freelancer has more flexibility in hours, projects worked on, contract terms, and rate of pay. This, of course, isn’t to start the myth that a freelancer always gets to choose each of these elements, but I feel he or she has a greater scope of influence on those elements.

Priority and Why It Matters

The English word priority came about in the 15th Century. It essentially means the very first thing. I recently attained this specific knowledge from the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown. When discussing priority he points out a clear problem with our modern use of the word. We pluralized it. How many priorities do you have on your to-do list? Your project plans? Bucket List?

I’ve recently found myself in a particular struggle. Working on too many projects at once has led to exhaustion with little to no results. Trying to manage a day job, several side projects, a social life, and a healthy lifestyle is not viable in the long run. Trying to have it all often leads to having nothing at all, at least nothing of actual importance.

Take a Step Back

For the next few days, I’ll be lucky enough to spend some time back home with family and put some projects on the shelf for a bit. I hope to take a look at some of the projects I’ve started and try set a priority for what I am working on.

I don’t want to come off implying that nothing can be worked on in parallel or there’s no point in starting a new project. I am referring to constantly adding a new “priority” to an ever-expanding list of daily commitments. Giving new projects and ideas a try is essentially what inspired me to start this blog, to write about those experiences. The trouble I’ve run into is trying to do too much all at once.

Starting Essentialism as mentioned above really got me roped into this idea, though it was something on my mind even before I started the book. If you find yourself having trouble with sticking to something and saying yes to new commitments before considering what impact it will have on your current commitments, I definitely recommend this book. Even just the intro chapter got my mind hooked.

Next week, I hope to have a better update on freelancing!