I happened upon this through del.icio.us and although I’m not a freelancer and live alone, I’ve just made a decision about returning to work at a place I resigned from only two months ago. This article resonated with me. What happened is, one of my former co-workers is taking three months’ maternity leave, so my old boss asked if I’d come back as a temp for an hourly rate (rather than the annual salary I was getting).

The thing is, the hours are bad and my former boss wastes a lot of time with unproductive three-hour staff meetings and the like. (I remember two long vacations he took as the most productive periods–for myself and the department in general–in the two years I worked there.) But the work isn’t difficult and the other staff are very companionable. In fact, I had lunch with them yesterday, and they pressed me hard to return. My (former) boss was nearly begging, saying I could have whatever schedule I want, take time off, etc.

So here’s what I decided: First, my hours will be 9:30 to 5:30 Mondays through Thursdays. Fridays off so I can volunteer, do some job hunting for after the three months are up, and generally have a life. Second, I want all meetings to have agendas distributed in advance (which we never did before) and no staff meeting should last more than an hour (if I return, I’ll buy a timer for the office). With those boundaries I should be able to do the job in 27 hours a week (allowing one-hour lunches and a weekly one-hour staff meeting) that I used to do in 40.

I’m not sure he’ll go for it, and to be honest I’m not completely certain I want to go back, but if it’s only for three months this will make it bearable. The per-hour rate is actually better this way then when I was on annual salary, though only by a little. Mostly I want to make sure I can be productive in a shorter time. In my wildest dreams, I hope that once the pattern is established, it will continue after I leave and everyone can be more productive in the same (or less) time. As the article so rightly points out, no one can be productive for 80 (or maybe even 70, 60….) hours a week and we all need to stop staring at the computer screen now and then to keep the creative juices flowing.

“Remember that work is your tool to make money, its not your life.”

Although my thoughts certainly are with my work too often I cannot see it as not being my life. I’m a jazz musician and I totally love what I am doing. It’s such a blessing to be able to make music, let creativity flow an (hopefully) bring a short moment of enlightenment to an audience.
So my work is definitely not just a tool to make money. Fortunately I can live from playing music and don’t even have to make artistic sacrifices (like playing in a Top 40 band or background music at receptions and such), but money certainly isn’t my biggest motivator.

Yeah, music is my life. And that’s what makes it so difficult to find a good balance with the “rest of my life”.

But I’m not complaining! Just wanted to share my thoughts on that one particular point.

Cheers,
Yonga Sun