Pitfalls of self-employment

Oh me oh my...

my poor neglected blog. But neglected for good reason I suppose, as previously mentioned, I have recently been forced to go out on my own and forge a living without the security of a monthly paycheck. Eek!

So far, it's been quite the learning experience. And it's been good... and tough at the same time. I certainly won't yet call myself an expert of the self-employed world, but in the few weeks that I've been here I've learned a few tricks and stumbling blocks. Shall I share?

#1 - Get out there - The very first thing I did when my employment fate was given to me was to hit the ground running. I told everybody I knew about my new status. This satisfied the immediate need to open up and talk about it and freak out and bitch - but it also helped to let as many people out there that I was available. I was going to try and not fall into the rut of slowing down and feeling sorry for myself, but instead just let people know I'd do anything and everything. The result? I have been re-donkulously busy with freelance projects that are much more interesting than the day job, which is also why I haven't been adding too much to my blog as of late. Yeah, they're jobs that aren't gonna pay huge money, but in the field of video and editing and multimedia - one thing indefinitely leads to another.

#2- Get out of bed - DO NOT SLEEP IN! It sounds so silly and obvious - but getting up at the normal time for work - say, working by 9:30am - makes the day so much more productive. Especially now that it's winter in Ireland, it's very difficult to get stuck in to work when the sunlight is disappearing. My first week of "working from home" was spent sleeping a lot... perhaps that's also down to the slight depression anyone would get when one loses their job. But needless to say, now that I'm outta that routine, I've gotten a million more things done.

#3 - Shower & Get Dressed. Again, like #2 this seems pretty obvious, but when you don't actually have to meet people face to face - especially in a professional manner - you kinda feel like... meh.... unfortunately just somehow mentally I've found it so so hard to work consistently on work while greasy and in my jim-jams. Also, there are many moments where you realize you do need to pop into town, or at least the shops, and when it's 3pm and you still haven't dressed, these small tasks grow a bit more insurmountable.

More obvious advice moments to come...