General

Working from a home office means not having to worry so much about a business wardrobe.  But, even when spending all day in the office, what you wear makes a difference.

I have always dressed up in nice clothes to go for article interviews, client meetings or teaching classes.  On days I don’t leave the office, though, what I wear doesn’t matter as much.  Clients, interview subjects, editors and students can’t see me over the phone or through e-mail.

I learned early on, though, that I really am what I wear.  On days that I stay in my pajamas until noon, I am a bit more lackadaisical about my work.  On days I get dressed and do my hair and makeup right after breakfast, I seem more productive.  Somehow what I wear makes a difference.  I take my work seriously all the time.  Getting dressed for it, makes it even more serious to me.

And, of course, working from home doesn’t require me to wear shoes.  Another trick I learned has been that on days when my motivation is lacking, I put on a pair of shoes.  When I’m wearing shoes I’m more likely to keep my feet on the floor rather than have one tucked under me.  Sitting more formally and less casually also helps keep me going.

I think the whole thing boils down to how I feel about myself.  While I am comfortable in my PJs, I don’t feel like I’m at my best.  I wouldn’t want people to see me.  Being more presentable makes me feel better about myself and, in turn, makes me have more energy to do the work I need and love to do!

We all have moments where we do something and find ourselves embarrassed.  And for those of you like me, that embarrassment really does lead to a red face.

Today, I’m taking a jab at myself and the faux pas that I’ve made in the past when trying to be a svelte business person.  We all have them.

My most recent red-face moment happened a couple of months ago.  I was working on a series of articles for my local newspaper.  I was conducting interviews with business owners all over the city.  I headed to a downtown restaurant that is closed for a couple of hours between lunch and dinner.  The owner asked me to come during the downtime.

I entered the closed restaurant, told the employee who I was there to see and he went off to find the owner.  I stood beside the bar, waiting.  A minute later, a well-dressed man came walking through with a purpose.  I assumed he was the owner.  Trying to be assertive and overcome my natural shyness, I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi, I’m Stacey with The Star Press.”  The man kindly took my hand, shook it and responded, “Hi, Stacey.  I’m just passing through.”

I’m not sure what I said, if I even said anything.  I do know my cheeks turned bright red, though.  Now, it’s quite funny.  It was a bit funny then, but it was definitely more embarrassing.

And of course smaller embarrassments happen as well.  I have a small digital voice recorder that I often use for in-person interviews.  Combine that with my clumsiness and the formula for disaster is quite apparent.  I was interviewing a local school principal for an article when the recorder flew out of my hand and hit the floor.  Like everything I own, I’ve dropped this recorder numerous times, but somehow this time it hit just right and the cover flew off and the batteries rolled out.  Yeah, I’m a professional…  Definitely worth a good laugh now, though!

Even though it isn’t a work-related incident, I have one more red-in-the-face moment to share with you.  I suppose sharing my shame is cathartic!  Not so long ago, my husband and I were working around our house.  He needed to make a quick trip to the home improvement store.  I decided to tag along.  Since we’d been working, I had on old clothes and ran inside to change quickly into something more presentable.

I grabbed a green V-neck T-shirt from my closet and threw it on with some clean jeans.  We headed to the store.  I never looked in the mirror.  As we were walking in, I realized I was getting a breeze on my back.  Yep, I’d put my shirt on backward.  I looked down and realized the size information was on the front.  Not only was it backward, but it was also inside-out.  I was already embarrassed.

Fast forward to paying for our items.  The cashier looked at me a minute and said, “You’re shirt is on inside out.”  I mumbled something about how I knew that.  Then he said, “And it’s backwards.”  Yeah, thanks for pointing out my incompetence!  I was definitely red-faced over that one.

No matter what happens to embarrass us, at the end of the day we are at least left with good stories and good laughs.  We are left with lessons learned.  I know make sure to find out who is walking toward me before I introduce myself.  I am still working to clutch tighter to my recorder and not drop it.  And I most definitely check my clothes to make sure they are right-side out before I put them on.

Feel free to share your red-in-the-face moments so that I don’t feel quite so alone…

Part of this blog is to share with you the ins and outs of freelancing.  While I’ve listed the drawbacks of being a freelancer on here before, I also felt it was important to share some of the tasks I dread.  Though these are tasks that I personally dread, I know they aren’t dread-worthy for everyone.  Perhaps I just needed to vent them!

Updating my clips. I love what I do.  I love having articles published, but I hate organizing my clips once I have them.  Right now I have a pile in my office of clips that need to be organized.  I started by cutting out each article, pasting it on black card stock and inserting it into a sleeve in my portfolio.  I’ve stopped doing that for all articles because I have too many.  But, I still try to do that for my big articles that I’m most excited about and want to really showcase.  I also will scan clips to have the electronically for my Web site.  However, I put it off.  This task is especially easy to put off because I can justify that doing paying work takes precedence over non-paid work.  The downside is that I end up with older clips than I’d like to have on my Web site, too, which could inhibit my paying work.

Processing income. I also love getting paid for what I do.  But as a self-employed person, it’s up to me to track every check that comes across my desk for paying taxes.  I also have to track them to ensure I’m getting paid for the work I do.  I tend to let check stubs pile up until there are a few to process at a time.  I’m not sure why I put that off, but I do.

Processing expenses. This is pretty much the same as above.  I tend to wait until I have a few expenses to track, like mileage, office supplies, etc., before I knuckle down and just process the information.  All I have to do is enter it into a spreadsheet, file receipts and make sure my business check register is updated, but I still put it off many times.

Filing. This kind of goes along with processing expenses, but filing is another task I just don’t enjoy.  I’ll let the aforementioned receipts stack up a bit before filing them.  I’ll have a pile on my desk of papers that need to be filed somewhere in my office that I also let stack up.  I just put it off.

I guess that’s my top list of tasks that aren’t fun.  They are all part of my work, but I’d much rather be researching and writing than conquering these tasks.  Since none of them directly result in income, I find it all too easy to make excuses for putting them off.

What tasks do you avoid doing?

If you’ve searched for information online, then you’ve surely come across Wikipedia.  It’s user generated and regulated — meaning anyone can edit the information.  And information can be found on a broad range of topics from diseases to celebrities to televisions.  Pretty much anything.

But is it trustworthy?  That’s where the debate starts.  And the debate is important.  For example, New Scientist recently reported that 50 percent of medical doctors are using Wikipedia for information.  Its trustworthiness goes beyond whether an article we’re writing is accurate.  It affects our lives.

The theory on Wikipedia that I employ and teach my students to employ is that it’s a good starting point, but any information found on the site needs to be confirmed by a more solid source.  That’s what I hope is happening with doctor’s using Wikipedia to look up information on certain prescription drugs or conditions.

In the end, the Wikipedia debate comes down to whether the information is reliable.  Because it is user generated information it is both reliable and unreliable.  My very tech-savvy husband falls more to the reliable side of the debate.  His argument is that with so many people editing it, the information is bound to be accurate.  Someone who knows better isn’t going to let a mistake go uncorrected.  The New Scientist article even points out that no factual mistakes were found.  That’s a decent track record.  And we can surely all agree that multiple heads are better than one for catching mistakes.

However, I fall more on the unreliable side of the debate, especially for article writing.  I feel as a journalist that I have a responsibility to my readers to dig deeper than the general, user-generated information on Wikipedia.  Does that mean I never visit the site?  No.  Does that mean that I may start with the site to get an idea for what kind of sources and information to look for?  Sometimes, especially if it’s a new article topic I’m not familiar with.

All that said, I also need to point out that Wikipedia articles include references for where the information is coming from.  That means the information has to have some credibility to it.  I would say, though, instead of using the Wikipedia page as a source to go to the actual sources quoted.  First, you can confirm what is written on Wikipedia is true.  And second, you’ve just found a primary source.

Primary sources are those who were/are directly involved in the event or topic being covered.  Secondary sources are people outside of the event/topic reporting on it.  For example, I originally found the New Scientist article through another Web site.  But, to use it as a source and credit it, I went back to the actual article.  I even checked the information the article references for accuracy.  I’ve long been a fan of the Pew Internet & American Life project for data, so I made sure what New Scientist reported was actually what Pew found.  I didn’t want to quote a secondary source even in my blog.

Wikipedia seems, to me, to fall into that secondary source category.  Sure, some of those editing the posts may be directly involved, but we don’t know that.  My biggest problem with Wikipedia is that very fact — we don’t know who is behind the information.  Since it’s such a large collaboration, knowing who specifically said what is impossible anyway.  How do you quote that?  At least going to the primary sources at the bottom of each Wikipedia page gives you a more primary source to reference.

At the end of the day, credibility is most important.  Wikipedia is credible to an extent.  But, it’s a secondary source that has no place being quoted or referenced in articles.  Too many other sources exist to draw information from if you’re willing to take the time to look for them.

How do you feel about Wikipedia?

I love my work.  I make no secret about it, but even in loving my work, I struggle to stay motivated 100 percent of the time.  As I’ve written in this blog before, external things like deadlines can keep me motivated.  But, sometimes I have fewer deadlines and more time to work on pursuing new projects or do paperwork and my motivation lacks.  Here are a few tricks I’ve learned to keep myself motivated when I don’t necessarily feel like working.

Set your own deadlines. I learned this trick while working as an assistant historian for the History Program of the National Model Aviation Museum during graduate school.  My biggest task was to compile biographies of model aviation enthusiasts.   It was an ongoing project that had no deadline or end in sight.  I would set deadlines to have so many biographies or certain biographies completed by certain dates.  I also knew that I had to schedule other tasks to keep myself from burning out, so I also set deadlines to create things like a writing guide for the biographies, a form for modelers to use, etc.   I employ the same tactic today in setting deadlines for non-deadline tasks, like updating business finances, pitching new projects, etc.

Know when to switch tasks. This is part of what I mentioned in the first tip.  Some tasks just don’t hold our interest for long.  If I have a task that I dread doing, like updating business finances, then I reward myself with a task that I like to do.  Knowing that as soon as I’m finished with the dreaded task that I can start on something more fun helps keep me motivated to keep plugging away.  For larger tasks, sometimes that can mean breaking it up over a couple of days to avoid getting burned out.

Find someone to keep you accountable. A little while back I wrote about how Twitter can keep me accountable.  That’s one option, but sometimes I need a bit more interaction with someone.  I have another writer who lives across the country from me that I’ve discussed this with.  Sometimes we e-mail each other and encourage the other to keep going.  I also use my family support when needed.  I’ll tell my husband about a project I’m working on, and as he asks me about how it’s going, I want to have answers, so I stay motivated.

Understand that sometimes you just need a break. I’ve also learned along the way that sometimes to maintain my motivation and drive I need some time away.  When I’m working on more technical aspects of writing and less creative ones, I will sometimes need to take a creativity break.  Just spending 30 minutes playing the piano can refresh me to return to my task more motivated.  I also take breaks sometimes just to throw the ball for my dog in the backyard or chat with a friend on the phone.  Whether it’s a five minute break or an hour break, it’s sometimes just the thing I need to refresh myself and my motivation.

Work through the drudge. Another tip I have for now is working through the lackadaisical feelings.  Sometimes I find I get the most done by simply applying my backside to my chair and working when I don’t feel like it.  Usually by the time I’m 20 minutes in (or sometimes less!), I forget that I was even dreading work.

Music as a motivator. My final tip is to use music as a motivator.  I love music.  It’s part of everything I do.  I’ve written a bit about this before as well.  When I’m feeling least motivated, I can put on the right music to keep me going.  For times I am struggling to write, I turn to the soundtrack from “Riverdance.”  For times that I’m feeling sleepy and need to do some design work, I turn to peppy tunes that make me happy.  I’ve been known to jam to old M.C. Hammer tunes or Broadway scores when I need some pep.  It works for me.

What do you find helps you to maintain motivation on days/times when you feel like doing anything except working?

I enjoy working from a home office — most days.  However, that’s now.  When I first started freelancing full-time from home, I had a few obstacles to overcome.  I needed a space where I could be organized and do my work.  And I needed respect for that space.  Here are some things that have worked for me in maintaining a mostly professional home office.

A dedicated room or space

When I first started freelancing full-time, we were living in a 900-square foot apartment.  I didn’t have the space to dedicate an entire room to my office.  I started with a corner.  It was the same corner where my desk was set up in the back of the living room, so it made sense.  I had a bookshelf and a computer desk with my computer and printer.  I spent my days sitting in that corner.

A year later we moved into a house with just over 1,600 square feet, so I finally had the space to dedicate an entire room to my office.  I picked a room in the back of the house with an attached half bathroom, door leading to the outside, two walls of built-in bookshelves and plenty of windows looking into the backyard.  It is perfect for me.

No matter where you find, make it your dedicated space.  It should be where you can go to do work.  It should be separate from the rest of your household.  True, I have a shelf and a couple of files in my office where I keep personal finance information, but at least 80 percent of the space is dedicated solely to work.  If I were too overwhelmed with household or personal things, I would never be able to concentrate on my work.

By the same token, having a dedicated work area means that you can leave it behind at the end of the day.  I don’t spend much time in my office during non-work hours.  I have a laptop and if I need to do something on my computer, usually I will take the laptop to another room when I’m not working.  That way I am actually getting away from it.  Otherwise, I start to get burned out.

Office hours

In order to take yourself seriously and have others follow suit, you need set office hours.  In general, I try to be behind my desk at least by 9 a.m. every day.  I try to be finished for the day by 4:30 p.m.  I take an hour for lunch.  Of course I have both shorter and longer days, but these hours are my guide.  Oh, and I work Monday through Friday.  Yes, I have worked weekends, but I don’t make a regular practice of it.

The nice thing about a home office is you really can make the hours work best for you.  I do my best work during the morning and day-time.  I know others, however, who work better at night.  Pick hours that work for you.  If I waited to start work until 7 p.m., I’d be dozing at my keyboard within a couple of hours.  I’m far from a night owl!

Another bonus to having hours is that you can let those around you know.  When I first started, I would often get phone calls during the day from family members wanting to chat.  After telling them time and again that I was working, it sunk in.  Now I seldom get chitchat calls during the day.  Or if I do, they ask if I have time to talk, just like if I were in an office outside of my home.

Letting others know also helps keep you accountable in some ways.  On the days my husband works from home, we both give each other space.  I almost feel guilty if I am not working like I know I should be because someone else is around to see that.

Caller ID, voicemail and long distance calling

A variety of tools can help you maintain a professional office, but caller ID is one of the most important and perhaps most overlooked.  I love caller ID.  When I first started, I couldn’t afford my own office line.  Caller ID told me when I needed to answer the phone professionally (as in “Hi, this is Stacey”) versus casually (as in “Hello?”).

Caller ID also told me when it was a personal phone call that I could let go to voicemail if I was busy or on the other line conducting an interview.  That said, when I am on the phone conducting an interview or client meeting, I never click over and answer the other line.  Caller ID shows who called, even if they don’t leave voicemail.

Voicemail is also crucial.  An answering machine can’t pick up when you are on the other line.  Voicemail can.  I, personally, use Vonage for phone service.  I get an e-mail with voicemail messages attached.  I can also forward the phone to my cell phone when I am expecting a call and need to make a quick trip to the post office or something.

Another benefit to Vonage is free, unlimited long distance throughout the United States and Canada.  When I started free-lancing, Vonage didn’t exist.  I had a regular phone company phone plan.  I paid through the nose for long distance.  Sometimes I was reimbursed; sometimes I wasn’t.  And when I was reimbursed, it was usually months after the phone bill was due.  Unlimited long distance keeps me from worrying.  It’s vital to a home office for a free-lancer.

One more option I’m going to mention is Vonage’s virtual phone number feature.  For a while I actually maintained two phone lines.  Now I opt for a virtual phone number for around $5 a month.  I still have the same two phone numbers, but they ring in on the same line.  Again, caller ID lets me know when it’s a business call or when it’s a personal call so I answer the phone accordingly.

I could go on and on about maintaining a professional home office and the tools needed, but I’m going to stop here for now before this gets too long.  I guess to summarize, I would say maintain an air of professionalism and that will follow through.  I literally had days near the beginning where I’d put on shoes just to feel like I was going to work and feel more professional.  Whatever it takes!

As you read this (if you’re reading it the day it’s posted), I am enjoying some vacation time relaxing in my favorite vacation spot in Tennessee.  The photos throughout my blog are from this very spot.  It’s my favorite place on earth.

And though I’m actually writing this a week ahead of time to post while I’m gone, I can tell you that I am fully relaxing.  Plans for vacation include sleeping, eating, reading and fishing.  And that’s about it.  We might drive to a nearby city to watch a movie, but that’s the most scheduled activity planned.

While work is important, downtime is also important.  Working without downtime leads to burnout.  I struggle sometimes to take downtime and not just check one more e-mail.  I’m fortunate to have a husband who helps keep me accountable.  He knows that I tend to overdo it sometimes and leave myself exhausted and ready to throw in the towel.  I get that way, and I love my work.

As a Christian, I go back to God’s plan for things.  He worked for six days and then rested.  That’s a good reminder that I need rest and downtime, too.  When I get done with rest and downtime, I also find that I feel refreshed and a renewed sense of purpose in my work.

A week of vacation doing nearly nothing beside a lake is definitely great for downtime, but smaller ways exist to get downtime, too. Sometimes I work from other locations.  Not necessarily downtime, per se, but sitting on a couch on a sunporch can be enough change of scenery that I don’t feel so bogged down.  Going for a drive is good.  Even just 20 minutes away can be refreshing.  I also love to read or watch a favorite television program.  Playing with my dog or taking him for a walk can also rejuvenate my spirits.

What do you do for downtime in major and minor ways?

If I were to be completely honest about myself, I would tell you that I can stress out over the small stuff — contrary to what those books tell us to do.  I tend to be a perfectionist and not all that fond of change.  For that reason, when I decided to major in journalism all those years ago, my older brother was concerned I couldn’t handle the pressure and stress of deadlines.  In journalism classes professors would sometimes give short deadlines to simulate the real world and he had friends who had dealt with that.  He didn’t think I would do well with that.

While his concerns were definitely well founded, I discovered in college and since that I actually thrive on and love deadlines.  Sometimes they are short and stressful.  Sometimes they are longer and let me plan, but I enjoy them.  As a freelancer, deadlines keep me on task.  They give me a goal to work toward.  I know that by this certain day this project or article will be completed.

In graduate school, I had a part-time job where I was working on a huge and unending project.  I enjoyed the work, but it never had a sense of finality to it.  So, I set deadlines for myself to complete certain tasks and give me not only a goal to work toward but also a sense of accomplishment when the goal was reached.

Without deadlines these days, it’s too easy for a task to get pushed to the back-burner.  Project deadlines help me prioritize and organize my workload.  They keep me motivated and on task.  I would definitely say deadlines are bliss, even when it makes working late or working weekends; deadlines keep me going.

How do you feel about deadlines?

This has been a different week for me.  Usually, I am working in my office five days a week (sometimes more).  This week, though, I’ve been working outside of the office.  I left Monday afternoon for a urology conference about four hours away to cover it for a publication.  I spent two days going to a couple of different sessions relating to the topic I’d been assigned to.  It was still work, but it was definitely out of the ordinary.  A change of pace is nice.

Though I have come away from the conference tired, I have also come away with a renewed sense of purpose in some ways.  The topic I’m covering is one I feel passionately about.  I liked being reminded that other people feel passionately about it, too.  That will certainly help when I’m putting together the article.

I also feel a bit refreshed beneath the tiredness.  Sometimes just getting out of the daily grind is just what I need.  I love my work, as I have often said in this blog, but everyone gets bogged down after a while.

I enjoyed the time away from the office.  Today I’m back here, though, playing a bit of catch-up and getting back to a sense of normalcy with renewed vigor.  What recharges your batteries?

I was recently asked through a writer’s group I belong to what I would say to myself back when I was first starting to write as a freelancer.  It made me stop and think.  In 2003 I was fresh out of graduate school and decided to quit my work as an assistant historian to freelance full-time.  It was scary and exhilarating all at once.  I’ve learned a few lessons along the way.  Here’s a bit of what I would say to the past Stacey.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. I think perhaps we are all our worst enemies.  I tend to be a perfectionist.  And I tend to over-criticize myself.  Especially back when I first started, I thought everything I wrote was horrible and I’d never get a paying job again.  Seriously.  I try to share this with my students when I teach writing.  Writers struggle with confidence so very much.  But, at the end of the day, you get points just for showing up and working and trying your hardest.  No need to continually berate yourself along the way.

Don’t take things so personally. Yeah, I still struggle with this.  I have long since gotten over taking edits to my writing personally.  By the end of two degrees in journalism, I learned that lesson a long time ago.  I’m talking about the times when people just aren’t happy.  I’ve run into a few clients along the way who think I’m a mind reader and aren’t at all happy when I write what they told me.  I want to make them happy, so it’s hard not to feel bad when they’re not.  It’s even harder when they aren’t nice about it, which has happened a time or two.  I try to remind myself of all the good feedback I get, which far outnumbers the bad.  Funny, though, how it never seems to outweigh the negative feedback.

Enjoy slow times. When I first started with freelance, I thought every time my work load was light that meant I was failing (goes back to the first point a bit).  I thought it meant I’d never get any more work.  Just like so many other businesses, freelance writing has an ebb and flow to it.  Some times are busier than others.  Last week, for example, I was so crazy busy I had no time to blog and worked late a few nights.  I remember those times when I am able to work half days or even take a workday off when it’s slower.

Be grateful you get to work at your passion. Above all, this is the most important piece of advice I’d give to the past Stacey.  Freelance writing is my dream.  Some days I forget that.  Early on, I beat myself up over not having a grand income.  I missed the point that I was blessed to be able to do what I feel passionately about.  I love researching, writing and editing.  If I remain focused on that blessing every day, then I am a much happier Stacey.  That’s a reminder I definitely need — for past Stacey, present Stacey and future Stacey.

What would you go back and tell yourself?