Freelance Radio Episode 6
John BrougherThe sixth episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! This episode, Cyan is off working, so we’re sad…but Collis joins us for the first time, and we discuss a number of freelancing issues, including burnout, productivity and more!
Subscriptions to the podcast are available via iTunes and an archive of all podcasts will appear in the podcast section. We hope you enjoy it!
Subscribe to Freelance Radio on iTunes
You can subscribe on other podcast aggregators by using our podcast feed–it’s simply http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreelanceRadio.
The Shownotes:
- Theme of the Episode: Replacing “Money Matters”/”Legalese” and “Word of Mouth” is our new “Theme of the Episode.” Our theme will help guide what we talk about during the episode, though it won’t shackle us. This episode’s theme is productivity, and we all share a few productivity tips for freelancers. Some links we talk about include Moleskine notebooks and Google Reader.
- Fantastic Forum Post and Mailbag: We talk about the problems of finding a place to do distraction-free work and how to deal with burnout.
- Freelance Radio Recommends…: Each panelist recommends a freelancing tool. John goes with The Search, a book about search engines and Google’s rise to power. Dickie suggests boardgame site BSW (http://www.brettspielwelt.de/Spiele/), Collis recommends a black leather folder (John likes zips on such folders) and Kristen proposes Living Out Loud, a book designed to bring out your creative side.
- Outro: This week’s song is by Cara Aley and is called Take Me Away from her album Bend. The song can be obtained by going to the iTunes Music Store.
And that’s the sixth episode! If you like it, please feel free to rate it in iTunes or your favorite podcast aggregator (check us out on Digg at http://www.digg.com/podcasts/Freelance_Radio), and don’t forget to email your questions/comments via the Freelance Radio form. If you’d like to record a question/comment or submit an original outro song, you can upload them via this form!
Mark Abucayon
December 12th, 2007
wow is this the same to the other one posted here..?
Joefrey Mahusay
December 12th, 2007
Hello Collis, Its my first time to hear your voice…Nice Voice and Cool..Wish to see you in personal Collis!
I’m one of your fans Collis. Your Rock!
G
December 12th, 2007
You make me laugh remembering my school days, when I had my (colorful) trapper keeper filled with papers
Great podcast guys!
Congratulations.
G
December 12th, 2007
I forgot to tell you, Trapper Keepers came to Peru too!
(sorry for the double post).
Pablo Matamoros
December 13th, 2007
Hi guys!
Awesome podcast! It might not be the most instructive post, yet the most entertaining.
I completely agree with paper notes, workbooks, etc. Although I am a programmer (lecturer nowadays), I don’t use any of those fancy gadgets that you see around.
Collin, Freelanceswitch rocks! I wasn’t into blogs until I got here. Wish you the best 2008 for you and your team.
Chad
December 13th, 2007
RSS in plain English:
http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english
paul
December 14th, 2007
In general I’ve enjoyed listening to the show, but I’m hoping you’re open to some constructive criticism.
You’ve mentioned trying to keep the show down to a reasonable amount of time, but I’m wondering if you’ve actually gone back and listened to the episodes, to determine where your time is going?
I’m in the process of listening to episode #6 now. I’m about 40 minutes in, and so far you’ve only managed to get through introductions, rss feeds, writing to-dos on paper, and Starbucks. When I list it out like that does it sound like 40 minutes of quality content? No offense, but that “content” isn’t worth 40 minutes of my time. You should have been able to get through that in less than 5 minutes. It’s a little ironic to spend so much time, saying so little, on the subject of productivity and time management. Don’t you think?
John, overall I think you’re a good moderator. But, you have a habit of rephrasing and rehashing everything everyone else says. For complicated topics that can be a good thing, but for simple ones it’s totally unnecessary. If someone says, “I write my to-dos on post-it notes”, you don’t really need to say, “so in other words, you use post-it notes for your to-dos”… and then go on to bring it up 3-5 more times during that segment. We got it the first time. It wasn’t that complicated. Doing this is partially why it takes 40 minutes to get through 5 minutes worth of content.
I hope this doesn’t come across as too harsh. I do enjoy the show, and the site, I just wish you could focus a little more. I personally would rather have a 20 minute show that is packed full of useful information, rather than 20 minutes of useful information wrapped in an hour and a half of babel.
paul
December 14th, 2007
On the topic of taking breaks to do personal chores during the day, I’m reminded of this bit of text from this site…
I admit that I sometimes do non work-related activities during the day in order to get things done, but I will say it’s a slippery slope. Once you start doing that it can really screw with the boundaries between work and home.
John Brougher
December 14th, 2007
@G I’m glad (well, let’s say semi-glad) to hear that Trapper Keepers have made it to Peru!
@paul We really appreciate any and all constructive feedback. We’re trying to strike a deliberate and careful balance between time, chemistry, fun and content. I take full responsibility for the length–I’m a rambler at heart, and it’s something I have to keep under control–it came out a lot during episode 6. You can be sure we’re constantly working to improve the site and the podcast, and tightening up the episodes, bit by bit, is a high priority.
Also @paul I’d say it’s a really tough call–on the one hand, you do want to keep a strict separation between work and home. On the other hand, I think you can make a strong case that part of the reason you freelance full-time is to avoid the nonsensical impositions of a 9-5 job. The answer to “when should I be designing/working/creating/etc.,” at least ideally freelance-wise, is “whenever I’m most productive,” not necessarily “at these certain times” or even “in these certain places.” Just my humble two cents, of course.
Tyler
December 14th, 2007
don’t forget the stussy on those trapper keepers
ok guys, i gotta tell ya… maybe i’m not your target audience, but I thought this podcast had a great start and has be declining.
I loved the advice in the first few episodes, but lately the episodes have been quite shmoozy. There are plenty of spots where you touch on a topic that could be very beneficial to the listener, and ya’ll kinda joke around the topic and then drop it.
Take the “recommendations” section. I can think of hundreds of job board / aggregator recommendations, job finding tools, issue tracking tools, time partitioning guidelines, etc. But honestly… yellow sticky notes? Black binder? Jazz CD? These are all good recommendations from friend to friend, but not from pro to noob. We need meat, true sustenance.
Heck, if you don’t have fresh advice, scrape this site! The articles on this site are golden. Don’t feel like you’d be repeating yourself using content from this site; remember that most of us listen to podcasts because we commute, so it serves as our blog replacement.
What I’d REALLY love to hear is a full rundown, from everyone on the switch, of a job completed from start to finish. Tell us how you found the job (if you used a job board or via personal connections), give us the contract highlights, what was your time frame, what programming environment did you use to design the site (if it was a website job), what project management or issue tracking tools did you use, how much did it pay, etc.
Please no flaming, I don’t mean to insult. This site is a godsend, and its advice has lead to some successful experiences on my part. If I didn’t love ya’ll, I wouldn’t be posting my recommendation
Collis Ta'eed
December 14th, 2007
Hey guys! I gotta tell you it is WEIRD to hear yourself
I’m glad Cyan is coming back on for the podcasts again.
Thanks for having me on there though John, Kristen and Dickie!
Greg
December 17th, 2007
Guys, I really enjoy the show. I find everyone on the panel is knowledgeable and well spoken. My only comment is in regards to John’s side story about his new digital camera. I had a very similar situation, but I think mine was worse. I also ordered a Canon digital camera, photography book, and a compact flash card from Amazon. However, the first item I got was the compact flash card and the camera and book didn’t come for a few more days. So, John, although you may not have been able to save your pictures at least you could turn some knobs and push some buttons. I couldn’t do anything but stare at a boring CF card.
Regarding the length of the show, it is a little too long. I think side stories, like the one I reference above, add a lot of time. I think they are interesting. If you wish to save time, then I’d suggest you all try to stay on the topic at hand.
Random visitor
December 19th, 2007
These podcasts seem great, but there are no download links? I don’t sit in front of my computer listening to podcasts, and I don’t have iTunes. Direct download links would be much appreciated..
Patrick (forcedlogic)
December 19th, 2007
I think the podcast is prefect. Don’t change it. I enjoy the fact that everyone has personality and I really enjoy the fact that sometimes you all don’t agree on things. It’s a very realistic podcast. If people want dry podcast do this, go here, get job here then go find another podcast.
PS. Where is Dickie’s picture? I feel more connected to everyone else because they have pictures up but Dickie is kinda like Neo in the matrix.
Arp
January 28th, 2008
I enjoy your podcasts quite a bit, but Dickie’s website recommendation might make my productivity tank. Oh well - at least I’ve got a fun new way to exercise my mind now
Amiel Martin
February 25th, 2008
Hi, I just listened to episode 6. I’m a bit behind, I hope people still read these comments. Dickie mentioned taking up a hobby to prevent burnout, and I thought I’d share a suggestion. One of my many hobbies is juggling. It’s a great for me because it is active and gets me away from my computer.
Anyway, I highly recommend juggling. You can find lots of information including tutorials, where a juggling club in you area might be, and more at: http://www.jugglingdb.com/
Also, if you are in to sewing, my girlfriend and I made step by step instructions for making fancy juggling balls: http://juggleballs.amielmartin.com/