Like I’ve mentioned a few times, I’m still a bit new to freelancing.  One of the things that I love about FreelanceSwitch is the interaction and feedback from you, the readers.  No matter what the article, the comments are positive, encouraging, and for the most part – useful!  I probably spend more time reading the comments and checking out your links than I do on actual work.  Maybe I should fix that, but since I’ve decided to skip sleeping, I have much more time to review your awesome sites and portfolios.

Since you are way more interesting than I could ever dream of being, I’ve suggested that we do a feature article on a selected member of the elite Freelanceswitch audience. This week’s victim subject is Mike Vardy, author/editor/productivity specialist:

What kind of freelancer are you?

I am a Freelance comedic/satire writer, and I have created a productivity parody site called Eventualism.com – doing to productivity what Colbert does to politics.  I have been cast as an extra in featured movies, done corporate presentations, written for GTD Times, and most recently, been hired as the editor for WorkAwesome.com – FreelanceSwitch’s sister site, where you can learn how to be awesomer at being more productive at everything you do. Continue Reading

Photo by Paul Worthington.

We’ve all said the words “I’d really like to…” followed by some personal or career ambition that often doesn’t get done. “I’d really like to write a book”, “I’d really like to be able to add illustration to my design skills”, or “I’d really like to learn to cook Thai food.”

And, of course, these statements are almost always followed by “if I had the time.” Here are five really easy things that are guaranteed to get you a lot closer to your ambitions (lets face it, if we didn’t have lofty ambitions we wouldn’t be reading this blog).

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Photo by karindalziel.

You’ve surely heard the term GTD, aka Getting Things Done, coined by David Allen and spawning many dozens of desktop and web applications, not to mention some popular GTD websites. Some freelancers read or scan them religiously.

Personally, I can’t even get through the principles of GTD, let alone apply them. It seems like a ridiculously complex approach for something that could be so much simpler.

I’m not the first to say it, but I feel that GTD is too structured and too restrictive. For example: six levels of focus?! (Even this one-page short version of GTD seems too complex.) Consider that if you’re not getting something done, it’s probably due to one or more of the following reasons:

1. Wanting to over-deliver and give clients a 110% effort and not knowing where to start.
2. Feeling restricted from too much structured planning.
3. Feeling overwhelmed from lack of any planning.
4. Overbooking on client projects.
5. Not really wanting to do it.
6. Poor health, or personal/family distractions.

Out of these reasons, #6 is something that you’ll have to solve separately, and #4-5 are solved by saying “no”. Reasons #1-3 are the ones to watch for: these probably cause most procrastination because you don’t know how to start. These are resolved by taking a simpler starting approach: GTS. Continue Reading