lwidmer | Words on the Page

Want Work? Go Away.

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I’m baaaaack! Miss me? My never-fail system for pulling in tons of work – go away on vacation. While I was gone, two more projects hit my in box and a potential third one is looming. That’s added to the ones that came in right before I left. Again, we all know that projects are…

File it Under Just Plain Nuts

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Some incidents are, well, just plain nuts. As I reel in the big fish this week, I’m resurrecting some of my favorites: I’m Pretty Sure I’m Right This Time Return of the Sham Job Offers Weird Client Tricks

It’s Wednesday – Have You Marketed This Week?

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Ah, caught you napping! Well, that’s projection. You caught me napping. I’m hopeful that by the time you read this, I’ll be sleeping in and being utterly lazy. I did get another potential project late Friday, so I’m content to jump ship knowing I can let the marketing slide this week. And you? How’s your…

His Job Makes Him Sing

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A little traveling humor for you as I cast and reel in this week:

Gone Fishing

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Yes, I’m still gone (in more ways than one). Here’s one of my favorite videos. What do you think of it? Happy Monday!

So Long, Farewell, Au Weidersen, Goodbye….

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Wouldn’t you know it? I’m leaving tomorrow. I get a call around quitting time yesterday from an existing client – he has a project for me. Great! I’m happy to oblige, but it really must wait a week. There’s the project I was hoping would be waiting when I return. Amen. Spent a very long…

I Can See the Exit…

Posted on by lwidmer

After I’d alerted the parents to my impending visit, the work came piling in. I’m not saying one or two projects – try six. At once. All due – this week. Luckily a few of them took less time than I expected, though they were still required detailed work and some lengthy hours. It’s a…

Technology and Your Brand

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Thanks again to Bob Calandra for his insights and advice on how to create value and repeat business in a shaky economy. Again, if you want to pick up his book (and I highly recommend it), you can find it at Amazon.com. One of the book’s tips is “Add Technology to Your Brand.” That begs…

Keeping Your Freelance Job

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When good friend and former colleague Bob Calandra told me he was publishing his newest book How to Keep Your Job in a Tough Competitive Market (available at Amazon.com), my first thought was it’s about time. That’s for two reasons: 1) the topic is as timely as it’s ever going to get, and 2) Bob…

Working for the Weekend

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Now that I’ve planted that ear worm firmly… Because things were slow, I decided to head off to spend some quality time with the parents, the husband, and the fish I’m about to catch (there’s confidence for you!). And because I made that decision, the work came rolling in. I mean, where last week there…

devonellington

I RARELY work for business clients on the weekends, unless I've been on an out-of-town gig that puts me behind on one of their projects.

If I work on weekends, it's fiction and articles.

No editing (of client projects). No business writing, unless I'm making up for time taken during the week. But I still don't send it until normal business hours roll around again. I don't want them to get into the habit of thinking I'm available to them on weekends without time and a half.

Remember, I spent many years on Broadway. WE ALWAYS work weekends and holidays. It took me awhile to figure out what I was willing to do on those days outside of theatre, and how much to charge.

Krista

I typically keep very regular business hours. I only work weekends when it's absolutely unavoidable, as in, I have 100 hours of work to do in the next seven days. I will, however, answer emails on the weekend and schedule tasks for the upcoming week. If things are slow, I'll also spend an hour or so Saturday morning looking for new opportunities.

Paula

Like Devon and Krista, when needed I'll squeeze in a little work on weekends. But I try not to make it a habit.

Yesterday I had an idea for my column, so I wrote it Sunday afternoon (after a marathon day of yard work, which I detest)instead of waiting for Monday morning. And last night I was hit with an idea for a humorous essay and hand wrote a couple hundred words while watching TV.

When I have piles of interviews to transcribe I find it easier to do those on weekends when I generally have fewer interruptions.

As much as I relish weekends when I don't even look at the computer, right now I'd love to be so flooded with work that I'd have to work weekends and evenings to get it all done.

Joseph Hayes

Spent the weekend, yes, working. It's that never-ending fear that if I don't accept and bull through every job, I'll never get another one. Fortunately, right now I have enough to be able to work through a holiday weekend, so there ya go.

Lori, I posted a link to your "Clients Primer" post on Inked-In; I know several fellow members have come back here to read it, so … you're welcome!

Gabriella F.

I, too, try to fence off weekends.

It usually works, but if I run into a jam, there's not much I can do about it. So I mostly don't work weekends, but, alas, sometimes I must.

Lori

Thanks, Joseph! I've had little time to go anywhere on the Internet, so I do appreciate spreading the word and the camraderie! 🙂

Katharine Swan

I'll admit, I'm one of those who usually ends up working the weekends. It allows me to spend morre time during the week with me horse, so it's worth it to me. The work I do on the weekend is usually done late at night or while my husband does homework, so that it doesn't interfere with our weekend plans too much.

Kirk Petersen

Thanks for the plug, Lori!

My work hours are very irregular — and recently they've been very sparse. This style isn't working for me, I need to start setting short-term and long-term goals for myself and have more discipline about working a certain number of hours every day, or maybe every week.

I work very hard when I have actual assignments, but when the only thing scheduled is to send out more inquiries and job apps that I expect to be fruitless… I have a harder time getting on my game face.

That said, my lovely wife and I spent virtually the entire three-day weekend holed up in our home offices. I've filed a motion, I got my ex-wife's cross-motion on Thursday, and my reply certificate is due this week. So I was cranking hard — for a "break," I posted on my blog.

There's potentially a lot of money at stake, and I feel good about where we are with our reply, so I'm glad I put in the time. The beautiful weather was very welcome, even though we experienced it primarily through our open windows.

TMI? Ah, whatever. Thanks again for the mention Lori.

Lori

Knowing your story from nearly the start, Kirk, never TMI. Good luck with that!

hugh.c.mcbride

After about 14 months of working primarily from my home office, I find that I've been far from successful in my efforts to establish "regular working hours."

Knowing that I'm much more productive post-noon, I've finally stopped getting overly angst-y at my relative lack of morning accomplishments, but I still find myself working way too late at night & too often on weekends.

Back when I worked for the military, the operative term for this phenomenon was "mission creep" — even the smallest tasks morphing into larger & more time-consuming activities.

Suffice it to say that I consider myself more than sufficiently mission-creeped 🙂

Cheryl B

Having the choice to work on weekends, early mornings or late evenings is what I like about freelancing.

I can usually accomplish my writing and editing assignments during "usual" office hours, but as long as I meet deadlines, I can choose to work evenings.

I also work as an administrative assistant for a building contractor 700 miles from here. Because of the nature of his work, often early mornings, evenings and weekends are the only times he has to take care of office work. My flexibility as a freelancer is the reason I've worked for him for about 15 years.

That said, I'm always striving for better management of my time.

Amie

I try very hard not to work on weekends, but sometimes . . . when it's unavoidable . . . I will. But I don't think I've ever worked on a holiday. If my clients get to enjoy the day off, so should I!

Lori

Hugh, that's the second time this short week I've seen the term "mission creep." That must mean I'm meant to finish that article in The Atlantic. 🙂

Because I have a wonderful spouse who works days, that's when I choose to work. Also, the clients I deal with are more or less corporates – again, they work weekdays.

I remember having one client who hinted quite a lot about my working through a long holiday weekend. If I were being paid extra, sure. But because the lack of planning on that side was the cause – sorry. I'll accommodate you when I can. My long weekends are "me" time.