Category: Freelance Friday
Comparing to the Ideal – Friday Notes 111
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My desk has been bugging me a bit lately. It’s still a productive desk, but I find myself sitting down and fighting my current desk setup. The monitor needs adjustment or the iPad isn’t quite where I want it. Of course this means I started looking at YouTube videos of desk setups and…almost every one…
Your Task Manager Needs to be Default – Friday Notes 110
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[Matt Birchler](https://birchtree.me/blog/offloading-your-brain-is-the-most-powerful-thing/) brought my attention to this excellent post about [offloading your anxiety to your task manager](https://cate.blog/2020/07/22/how-i-offloaded-my-anxiety-to-trello/). Like most people, I’ve been in and out of task management systems for many years. My most recent multi-year stint was with [The Bullet Journal Method](https://curtismchale.ca/2018/11/29/weekly-logging-with-your-bullet-journal) and while I continue to see value in an analogue system, I’m…
What Are You Willing to Sacrifice on the Alter of Your Dream? – Friday Notes 109
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> A novel will take you two years to write. Or three or four or five. > Can you do that? > Can you sustain yourself financially? Emotionally? Can your spouse and children handle it? > Can you maintain your motivation over that length of time? Your self-belief? Your sanity? > If necessary, can you…
Be Prepared for the Whale Client – Friday Notes 108
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One of the things many freelancers advocate is that you should have multiple clients because then one big fish walking away can’t have a huge effect on your business. This is the same thinking you may have when it comes to taking on an employment situation. Yes, you may have a stable paycheque instead of…
Sometimes we Fall off the Wagon – Friday Notes 107
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Every few years I fall off the content wagon. I go from publishing several posts a week to…possibly publishing nothing for a week or a month, or a few months. I used to beat myself up about this because I wasn’t delivering the content I said I’d deliver. As with most people, I’d imagine the…
You Can’t Fill Your Bank Account, or Your Love Account – Friday Notes 106
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Does your bank account ever get ‘too full’? Like you have to open another account so you can keep depositing money? Of course not, that’s silly. You know what else doesn’t get too full? The ‘love’ account your kids or spouse or partner has. The worst thing that can happen is that you fill them…
The Passion Rhetoric is Harmful – Friday Notes 105
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I’m sure you’ve heard that if you can make your passion your work then you’ll never work a day in your life. I mean the sentiment is nice and all, but it’s a load of crap. No matter what you do there is going to be grunt work you don’t enjoy. You’ll have to make…
Two Types of Readers – The Collector and The Connector Friday Notes 104
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Lately I’ve been digging into a new research management application called [Obsidian](https://obsidian). No I don’t plan on leaving DEVONthink, I’m just going to use one to store research and one to keep track of my thoughts on those research items. I’ve been thinking though, that there are two types of note takers. ### Type One:…
Acknowledge Fault to Save Your Mistakes – Friday Notes 103
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> Acknowledgement of fault is powerful. It shows empathy, a willingness to own the problem, and a desire to then fix it. Company of One Page 119 ([Independent Publisher](https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781328972354?aff=curtismchale) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3cU6R8B)) If you’re going to run your own business, you’re going to make mistakes. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been running that business, you’re…
Discussions Must Have the Same Foundation to be Fruitful – Friday Notes 101
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> When feelings mater more than rationality or facts education is a doomed enterprise. Emotion is an unassailable defence against expertise, a moat of anger and resentment in which reason and knowledge quickly drown.[^1]. Do you think that 5G cell towers are going to cause cancer and many other maladies? What about WIFI making your…
