Making Definitive Work Life Changes
After returning from a few days away, I’m mentally recharged. But after a quick email check this morning—the first since I got home—I have to say, I feel all of the old pressures creeping back in.
There are deadlines to be met. Clients who admit they left things on their desks for days but want me to have it done ASAP. Just getting back into the whole pace of it all is a little overwhelming. And since I’m trying to reformat the way I work and the clients I accept, I’m really trying not to fall into old work habits.
Here are some tips for change that I hope will help you even if you’re not coming back from a much-needed vacation…even if you’re just looking to make adjustments in your work life!
Evaluate the need. What do you want to change about your work life? For me, I want to get better-paying clients and stop rushing so much. I’ve cut down on other work to make way for new projects. And when I feel myself getting rushed or overwhelmed, I stop and remind myself that I don’t have to work that way. You can change anything you want about your work life—the key is to identify what you want to change and take small steps in order to change it.
Don’t be who you were. In the case of my client who wants a project done yesterday (and has just told me about the project), I told him I would contact him tomorrow. Heck, if he dragged on the project, I can, too. Besides, I told myself that I would not return to work until tomorrow, and I am sticking to it. I used to be the girl that would rush to do everything exactly when a client wanted it—but not anymore, and I’m grounding myself that belief. I’ll get things done, but I’m not going to rush myself.
If you want to change your work life, you have to change your behaviors, not just allow yourself to be pulled around by clients. I’m not being stubborn for the sake of it, but in my case, I’m sticking to not letting my clients dictate my schedule.
Check in. Even when I’m not feeling besieged, I have in the past—and will continue to—work on asking myself how I am throughout the day. Sometimes I don’t realize that I’m frazzled and need a break until I’m an uptight monster. So making a break to see what I need helps me stay balanced.
So tell me, what changes have you made to your work life? How did you implement them? I’d like to hear what others have to say!
Kristen Fischer is a freelance writer living in New Jersey. Her first book, Creatively Self-Employed: How Writers and Artists Deal with Career Ups and Downs is available at www.creativelyselfemployed.com.
Hey there!
The problem I have been battling with is getting peanuts for my time. I use to underestimate most of my projects in fear that the client might think it’s too expensive and going elsewhere with the job. At the end, I always feel underpaid, and that the whole hassle is not worth it. It’s ironic now having the “Rates Calculator” link right next to this textarea!
For example, one of my latest projects. I did everything from concept, to execution, getting past backend, frontend, and the whole thing in 2 languages. After the thing was done, I looked back, and noticed that my hourly rate for this project was 8€ / hour. That’s a third of my usual price. Just because I was scary about the client telling me “too expensive”.
I really need to change this.
I did the exact same thing to myself. I always pushed myself to meet unreasonable deadlines just because someone else hoped it would be done then. What I realized is that when you stand up and tell the client “no” in a positive way, they are usually understanding and actually respect you for speaking your part. When they are not understanding and still overly demanding it’s time to look for better clients.
It’s just not worth it to live any other way. Life should be about having a good time and that includes the workplace!
Good luck.
Great thoughts on deciding your own pace. Many clients assume that it’s only their work that you are doing. Another nagging thing is, they do things at their own pace at their end then expect you to turn in the assignment ASAP.
Agreed. Set limits. Do things at your own pace. If you can’t control your own time, you might as well work in a cubicle. There is a difference between great customer service and getting walked on.
Chris, what you’re doing to yourself is definitely hurting your business. I always carry the notion that if a client thinks my estimate is too expensive, he’ll tell me. Of course not all of them do that and carry on, but that’s just part of the deal. If you’re honest, you can expect your client to be honest too. If he’s not, then it’s a sign for you to move on. It’s not worth it under-selling yourself just to get that client. A project needs so much time to finish, and if the client is not willing to pay for it, then maybe it’s not meant to be.
And it’s not scary at all, if your client does tell you that it’s too expensive. If that’s the case you can either re-assess the project or lay out in all the glory details the plan you made and the estimations you came up with. That oftentimes helps the client to understand the pricing better.
Kristen, you’re definitely right. Change is a choice, it can be made, but one must be willing to do so. Getting rid of old habits isn’t easy, but life can be so much better with new habits. And work isn’t what life should be about.
The biggest change I’ve made recently is to drop a client. It’s the first time I’ve done anything like that, but it had to be done. I’m still in the midst of dealing with it (the final client meeting is this afternoon), but I already feel good about the decision I’ve made given the client’s response to my departure. Our business arrangement had erroded and certainly wasn’t equitable to both parties.
That’s one of the great things about freelancing…there’s no boss forcing you to work in an unruly situation. I’ve been on my own for a year now, and I just started realizing how much freedom can really mean in my worklife.
Great article, and I enjoy your site!
Schedule “buckets” of time throughout the day to disconnect from “the machine”. I work more effectively and have more creative energy when I give myself permission to disconnect. I generally take short breaks every hour … unless I’m in a flow state.
A very useful article. I’ve been thinking all day and getting nowhere, this time I need to give it a good think and stick to it. Planning and managing is the need of the hour.
Reminds of a sign I see in shops every now and then: “Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two.”
There are so many changes we can make. Like Chris said, he has to change the way he charges clients. For me, I have to manage my workload better:)
Yeah, I’ve gotten better at, lets see, something as simple as closing my email program when I eat or not answering the phone at lunch (except possible emergencies). You’d be surprised how they little things can make your day much better!
My Freelance life is starting to become a very happy life
The main problem for me was the clients. Before I had a very stressed out client that always wanted things NOW, NOW, NOW, as you can imagine I quit, without begging for the last pay check. Now I’m working for a team in San Francisco, from a little island in Spain, Mallorca. My new team is super chilled, I only have to send them an email with a status report and the number of hours worked every day or two, and they pay me weekly. Before, I had to be logged in to AIM from 9-5 New York time, to comply with my clients un-realistic requests. In addition, I charge more, so I make the same amount of money but I only work 25 hours instead of 40, and so, I have plenty of time to play the guitar, soccer and hang out with my peoples.
Freelance Life Forever!!!
First of all, bravo Kristen!
A couple of years back, I kinda got burned out on freelancing, for some of the very reasons you cite. (Clients who don’t respect your time or process; unreasonable deadlines; low profit-margin jobs; etc.) And it’s taken me all this time to get back in the game…
Well, I’m doing things differently now. I still have a handful of ‘family’ clients whom I tend to bend over backwards for. But for the most part, I’ve eliminated that kind of clientele from my business. In fact, I’m exploring other business directions that I enjoy and am good at. And most importantly, I finally have a personal life, these days.
Do you think I will ever go back to doing business the same stressful, counterproductive way as before? Never…
good for you, Terry:)
Ah yes, the dreaded “suppose they think I’m too expensive” syndrome.
I think every freelancer has done it. I did it for years.
Finally, a couple of years ago, I made a couple of realizations.
First, I finally admitted to myself that I am good. Not merely good, but very,very good. That’s a really hard thing to acknowledge, no matter how good you actually are. You don’t want to sound egotistical, conceited, come off as arrogant, etc. Yet the fact is that in my chosen profession I am good and I deserve to be compensated for it.
That was the hardest part.
The second hardest part was setting an acceptable price. What’s an ‘acceptable’ price? That’s a price where you won’t feel too bad if you don’t get the job, but you won’t feel bad if you do get the job. Resentment is a joy killer and doing a job for less than you’re happy with is a sure road to resentment.
I had to realize that not only wasn’t I a failure if I didn’t get the job, but I wasn’t a failure if I walked away from it either.
What flows from that, of course, is the decision to concentrate on the markets where my financial goals are most likely to be met. I’ve always done that to an extent, by specializing in well-paying areas. But now I go after the best paying clients within those areas.
Scary? Oh my word! Is it scary. You can’t imagine how frightening it was to turn down those first few jobs that didn’t meet my requirements. But the funny thing is my income has actually increased this year and I’m a lot less stressed.
So talking to ourselves to keep us sane??? Thats a new one
Deciding what your time is worth is the eternal freelance struggle, I find. I still appreciate the advice I received some time ago, which was to quote high, especially for jobs you’re not keen on for whatever reason. I’ve only ever missed out on one contract that way – and guess what – it wasn’t a job I wanted anyway.
Making your own judgement about what you (and your time) is worth is so important – both for business viability, work/life balance and your own self esteem! I’ve only ever fired one client, and it’s a client I shouldn’t have taken on in the first place – they haggled me down to a price I didn’t think was fair, didn’t brief me properly, then wanted to make constant changes as though I was a staffer on call 24/7. Firing them was the right thing to do.
Thanks for your post – I’m going to link to it from Lifehacker Australia.
Hey Kristen,
Thanks for your thoughts. It is important to realise that, as a freelancer, you are in control of your business.
Recently, I decided that I wanted to earn a bit more money, so went looking for new clients. I found one fairly quickly, and a good client he is, too. But he changed the scope of the project almost straight away, extending the delivery date (I’m a project manager) by nearly two months without increasing my fee.
Now, I felt stressed about this for two days, and then I remembered how I had dealt with a similar problem in the past. A client had asked me to work on a new project for him, then before we had completed arrangements, transferred a rather small sum into my account. I returned it to him, saying my time and expertise were worth more than that, and that I simply couldn’t complete the task for that sum. He appreciated my honesty, and has employed me at my preferred rate for more than three months now.
Armed with confidence from this experience, I emailed my new client with my concerns. I had given him some small pieces of work, and he realised the value I could bring and promptly doubled my fee.
So, my advice is to remember you are in control of your business. Be confident in your skills: I guess that most people who embark on a freelance career really are talented. It is hard to know this at first, but don’t be shy!