I’ve had a very busy week, but it’s been a good one. I’ve been working at a desk in the corner of the living room away from distractions on the computer, such as the internet, Facebook, playing games, etc.
A while ago I turned off email notifications on my mobile phone. At first I was still checking it every 5 minutes, but now I’m checking it in my Pomodoro breaks instead. It’s amazing how much time I save just by doing this one thing.
More recently I’ve been restricting Facebook and game-playing to my Pomodoro breaks as well. This also releases a lot of time.
The Pomodoro timer came out this week too. It took me ages to finish a job that finally went in last Friday, and because I’d spent so much time on that one, I had No Money coming in from any other work.
So on Monday, I moved to the desk in the corner of the living room, I found a new timer on my Kindle so I could have that running if the mobile phone rang (my clockwork timer is on the phone), and I’ve concentrated on just one job all week.
The upshot is, I finished that job today. So not only did a nice invoice go off last week, but another went off today. I have to wait 2 weeks for payment for each one, but it’s a start.
Other work happened as well. For example, I finished reading another writer’s guide this week and wrote up the review for here and for Amazon. I was surprised that Amazon let me do the review as I didn’t buy it from them. It was a present off the poet. But the review was accepted, and it’s up there now.
Another thing I did was create 2 new fiction templates on Scrivener, one for a short story and one for a novel. Then I started work on a novel to see how it went.
I was also in negotiation for a new job that could lead to some ghost-writing work. However, when I had a look at it, I decided it wasn’t worth what they were willing to pay for it – this is the proofreading, not the ghost-writing. I also wasn’t prepared to make it my priority work, which they seemed to want as well.
Having already explained that I don’t work at the weekends, due to other commitments, I was told that if the work came in on a Friday, then I *had* to do it at the weekend …
Red rag to a bull …
I didn’t give up the rat race to be told when I could work, and anyway, they’re not paying anywhere near enough for it to be worth my while let alone working at the weekend. So I politely (I hope!) declined and let another similar existing client know that I was all his next week.
Actually, I do have another job in from another client, but they’ve said there’s no rush on that one. In fact, she asked me to wait a while as she wasn’t ready for it back yet. At least I had that to do if the other client didn’t have any work, but I now have an 83,000-word historical novel to proofread next week.
If I wanted to, I’d bet he’d be happy to give me a whirl at ghost-writing one of them too. As it is, he’s said he has more work to follow this one for me, which is great.
And, actually, I *do* work at weekends when I have to or when I want to, but it’s on *my* choosing, not anyone else.
I’ve done my diary for next week with this new work scheduled until Thursday. Then on Friday I’m writing 2 new book proposals as follow-ups to the Cadbury book. I’ll do what other writing I can in between. If no new work comes in the week after, I’ll crack on with the other proofreading job I have in and then I’ll do some of my own writing.
We were going to visit my mom this evening, but the weather isn’t great. We only have sleet at the moment, and so do they, but in between, there’s heavy snow forecast. Also, we’ve been out for the past 2 nights and we’re out again at the weekend, so we’re staying in tonight.
Have a great weekend! I’ll have my nose pressed to the window looking for SNOW!
