Freelance Tips of the Week: Margin, Real Weekends, and Learning:Doing Ratio

Build margin into everything you do

It will take you two or three or four or five times as long as you expect (longer if it's something you've never done… like invoicing, balancing your accounting books, sending a quote, etc.). When you are planning your day, don't expect to be able to do all the things.

The first week I didn’t have to “go into work” for my 40 hour a week job, I thought I’d be able to tackle everything on my to do list, no problem. I remembered quickly that I need to expect to get a few important things done each day and not get upset that it didn’t feel massively productive. Three most important things a day builds serious momentum.

Schedule breaks (and sometimes real weekends!)

Something I have struggled with since going freelance has been building in guilt free play time. It's important to get free time on the schedule. You're not doing yourself, your business or your clients any service if you are burnt out.

This past weekend was my first "real weekend" that I allowed myself to take. It was difficult not to feel a bit guilty, but for the most part, I hung out with family, lead a book club and ran a half marathon relay without feeling like I was wasting my time.

1:3 Learning:Doing Ratio

While learning is great, and I would even say it's one of my favorite things, it doesn't hold a candle to doing. You don't watch tutorials all day to become a great motion designer.

Put three times as much time and effort into applying things you've learned.

You may be asking yourself, "Is this an arbitrary number that Austin pulled out of thin air?"

The answer is yes. Yes it is.

That's besides the point. You should still be making more than you are consuming. All of the great tutorials and books out there will do you no good if you bounce from one to the next and never do the thing you learned.

Those are my tips for the week. You have the power to make your day awesome. Don't let your environment determine your happiness or satisfaction.

Go make something move :D