How to Juggle Your Full Time Work and Your Freelancing Career

How do I stay sane and happy while working two jobs? Here’s what I do.

1. Define your time availability. When a client asks how many hours I can commit, I tell them the truth. I can usually commit about 20 hours each week. But don’t just stop there. Be sure to tell them when you are most available. For example 2 hours every morning on weekdays and as much as 5 hours over the weekend. Not only that, let them know how much output you can produce, say, in a time frame of 24 hours.  And finally, if you have a full time job, do not forget to tell them about it.  Why am I giving you this tip?  By defining your time availability, you are setting clear limits and at the same time, you are also setting the right expectations with the client.

2. Pick your projects and freelance clients wisely. Never ever pick the projects that you cannot do and don’t bid on too many projects.  Why?  Because it will ruin three things: your schedule, the quality of your work, and last but not the least, your reputation.  As for choosing clients, it pays to take the time to go for an interview.  What does the client want done?  What are his expectations?  Are his expectations and timelines realistic?  It’s also recommended to do a little bit of research.  Find out if there was ever a time that they have not paid someone on time or if there was anybody who wasn’t paid at all.  By becoming selective about your projects and clients, you don’t end up wasting your time and you’re also saving yourself from stress.

3. Never forget to take care of yourself! Every weekend, I can still manage to get a massage or foot spa, have my nails done, and go shopping.  I never ever forget to take care of myself again because if I don’t, I’ll end up hating my job and my freelance career.  And that’s something I don’t want to ever happen.  And besides, I work to live.  What’s the point of working two jobs when I can’t even enjoy the fruits of my labor?  And oh, before I forget, get some sleep!  You can’t be as effective if you only have 4 hours of sleep everyday.  If you only have 4 -6 hours of sleep each day, you’ll end up with a cranky mood, huge eyebags, poor skin, or worse, you can get sickly, too.

4. Keep your full time job and freelancing career separate. We don’t want anybody to get fired because of doing freelance tasks during work hours.  It’s illegal and unethical.  The trick is to focus on your full time job during your designated work hours.  Start on time, leave on time.  Personally, that’s what I do.  I arrive on time, do what I’m supposed to do, and leave on the dot.  I have a schedule and I stick to it.  If I don’t, it will definitely ruin the time I’ve allocated for my freelance work.  So, use your time wisely and stay out of trouble.

5. Respect the deadlines. I don’t like missing deadlines but don’t get me wrong, I’ve missed deadlines in the past and it wasn’t very good.  Here’s what I learned, if you think you are going to miss the deadline, tell your client right away.  Right away means, while discussing the project and you think that the timeframe given to accomplish it is too tight, let your client know.  Right away doesn’t mean letting the clients know 30 minutes before the deadline. So what’s the trick?  Apply buffers.  Every task that you do, always apply time buffers.  If you finish the task early, then good for you.  Better be early than late.

To be honest, I didn’t learn this balancing act overnight.  I also had my share of mistakes and had to learn the hard way.  But as you get the hang of it, you’ll learn more and figure out what technique will work best for you.

Blogging Can Be Demanding

Don’t get me wrong. I love to blog. It just gets a little bit demanding sometimes especially if you are also a full-time employee like me. There will be those days when you’ll run out of topics to post, sometimes you have to “recycle” an article. And sometimes, you’re just too tired to blog. So what to do in times like these?

1. Never stop writing while the creative juices are flowing. There are just those days when you have gazillions of ideas popping out of your head. Take advantage of the situation and save these articles for later.

2. Optimize. You’ll hear this word from SEO experts. If you know which words you should write about, this should help you think of what topics to write about.

3. Invite a guest writer! This is good especially if you belong to a great support community online. No other best time to use your networking skills. You might also learn a thing or two from your guest blogger!

4. Keep an idea notebook. Ideas could sometimes come to you at the most random times or places. Just to make sure you wouldn’t forget about it, make sure you have a pen and paper handy.

These are just some of my ideas on how to beat the stress of keeping a blog. Hope these helps. If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear about it.

So You Were Unfollowed, Relax!

People unfollow people on Twitter all the time.  And I totally agree that people shouldn’t take it personally.  People are on Twitter for so many different reasons.  Personally, I am on Twitter to get more exposure for my blog and to possibly meet new clients (though I still really haven’t figured out how).  Anyway, from time to time, I unfollow and get unfollowed and I thought it’s fine.  But there’s always the possibility for others to take it personally.

So I Googled my way in finding out what others think about being unfollowed and here’s what I found:

Get over it!  

my point is this – Twitter is opt in.  As a user you blurt out whatever you think is interesting.  As a consumer, you decide who you want to listen to by “following” them.  And here’s the fun part, if you don’t like it you can stop listening to them by doing the unthinkable: unfollow them… Online relationships are different (good ones are ones that you integrate and blend in with your offline “IRL” relationships though – but that’s a whole different blog post). So we all need to get used to it… You *can’t* be offended if someone unfollows you. You don’t really know how that person is using Twitter. They might only be looking for good recipes or something. And if you’re not talking about your favorite butterscotch chip maple brownie recipe then dammit, they *should* stop following you… So, remember, it’s not about you. Twitter works because it’s all about who you follow. It’s a self managing system. And to be a good Twittizen you should ease up and not freak out when people unfollow you. In fact, why don’t you go take a look at your network right now and see if you’re getting out of it what you want. You’re time is valuable!

Don’t take it personally.

[Being unfollowed] is no real loss to you!  So, to put a twist on the words of George Costanza, “It’s not you, it’s them. It’s really, REALLY them!”

Why do you care?

accept that you’re going to be followed by the most relevant people with the nearest interests and that this group will always be fairly liquid.  Enjoy them while they hang around and don’t sweat it when they move on.

Now, what to do?

1. Acknowledge the Persons Decision and Ask for Constructive Feedback
2. Assess the Feedback
3. Don’t Take it Personally
4. Release Them Graciously
5. Don’t Buy Into Personal Attack
6. Keep Perspective

These are really great tips and I couldn’t agree more.  I personally think that it’s normal and not offensive to unfollow people on Twitter.  They have their own reasons why they click the unfollow button.  What I’m more interested to know is, what exactly is the reason why people feel offended if they were unfollowed?  I just want to understand where they’re coming from. That’s all.  I want to know your thoughts, too.  Feel free to comment.