I was fully booked in for work this week when I checked my calendar last Friday.  It was a well-paid week.  I am not taking on any new clients, as I’m technically overbooked.  I really love the projects I’m working on right now too.  They’re challenging, interesting, and I like the people.

But, with the exception of regular maintenance stuff, all my booked in projects have been hit with delays.  Most of them are understandable, and I’ve agreed to delay them. So, I’ve gone from a well-paid week, to making practically nothing.

Should you charge?

With clients that constantly change their schedules, I sometimes tell them that if they continue to schedule in time with me, I’ll have to charge them for that time, even if they don’t use it.  My problem is, I feel guilty about this: I’m not working for them then.

But, at the same time, I want them to understand that it’s really inconvenient for me to not be able to depend on the work and be able to organize my time:  I could take on other projects in those days.  This week has been the first time it’s been an issue: usually I’ve got enough projects on the go that I can fill my time and offer them a little flexibility, which works well for everyone.

The question

Do you charge?  How much do you charge?  How do you let them know, to encourage them to be more diligent in their organization?  Or, is it merely the price you pay for being a freelancer?

My attempts at dress making have resulted in haphazardly created dresses, which got an initial 5 second sketch, and were then redesigned as I went, and changed features depending on my patience and (lack of) dressmaking skills.

I lament my quickness sometimes, especially as my career is now web design. Never have I met a bunch of perfectionists, who obsess on every detail, they look at me in horror and, I believe, can’t even comprehend how I could POSSIBLY leave something that is a few pixels out.

I learn fast, I design fast and I code up fast. I am pretty good about doing things semantically correct.  But, if I know that doing it semantically correct would take me another 3 hours, and a slightly non-semantic method is perfect in seconds and I have a deadline, my choice is always clear.

BUT I miss a lot of the tiny details. I’ll do things to get them done to a standard of 90% or so, and then go back and fix them later. When I’m learning a new technology, I’m okay with not knowing the right way of doing things, as long as it doesn’t impede my ability to finish things.

Perfection is a luxury

Most projects are impeded by budgets and often times there’s money for new features, but not for polish.  I know mine are, and while I’ll spend some of my own time (unpaid) to make it look a bit nicer, when you have as many projects on the go as I do, you have to stop somewhere.  Close to perfect has to be “good enough”. When you’re on a small team trying to do a lot, you have to sacrifice absolute perfection for speed sometimes. That suits me just fine (it’s also the theory of shipping by Seth Godin:  sometimes you’ve just got to ’ship’).

This doesn’t mean I go back and strive for perfection.

For example, during every release, I spend some time adding a few minuscule details in (a subtle border, moving things a few pixels or cleaning up some code, for example). Most people won’t notice, but occasionally I’ll hear, “It looks much better (for some reason they can’t put their finger on)”. I think you have to continually refine your front-end code. If you don’t, your code base gets completely unmanageable.

On the other hand, I know web designers who ALWAYS does it the absolutely right way the first time. Their designs are pixel perfect to their mocks. They won’t use hacks, but will spend HOURS figuring out the “proper way” to do something.

That’s okay too.  Different styles work for different projects.  I’m always more keen to get the user flowing through the site smoother, rather than making sure under the hood looks amazing.  Surely that matters more to 99% of the people using the site (1% are the ones that view source)?

I’m not scared

I have no problem with using a hack “just for now”, or if it’s an area I don’t know much about. It also means that I’m not super scared of new technology. It’s just the way I get things done; practical imperfectionism works for me.

Saying that, I am a bit tired of too many projects at one time, and am working harder to give myself enough time to actually think about the details.  Being imperfect is not a goal, just a necessary evil for the busy designer.

Right now, I love all my projects.  I can actually say that I think the ideas, the people and the features are great.  I’ve been able to have lots of creative freedom, there’s been a huge level of mutual trust in skills.  And honestly, I REALLY do like the people I’m working with.

But…

I get a few legitimate offers for new work every week (sorry, everyone, I am not taking on any new work until the end of June!) so how do you know which offers you should pursue and which not to?  Here I’m going to set up a few guidelines that will aide me in the future to make sure I am discerning when I’m speaking to potential clients (and maybe help you too).

Do they match your target industries?

Being a generalist in web design is no good.  You really need to pick an area of expertise.  Do you love customizing wordpress blogs?  Are you a sports nut?  Choosing a maximum of 3 areas and working towards focusing solely on those areas makes you into an industry expert.

I would really like to get involved in more environmental projects, but since I don’t have much experience in that area, I am becoming more attuned to projects with environmental aims.  It’s a cliche, I know, but it’s really true: when you focus on areas you’re passionate about  you’ll produce higher quality work.   It also means when bigger, more interesting, fish comes up, you have the proof that you know their industry.

Do you have enough resource to do a good job?

Often times you have space for a medium size project when a really really big one comes in.  When you can’t drop your other commitments, you’re guaranteed to do less than your best.  Projects should fit your available space: you still need to sleep and occasionally shower, you know.  If you can’t stretch yourself to fit them, you’re not doing anyone any favors.  They feel neglected and you feel frazzled.

What are they like?

Some projects are so cool you want to dive right in, but warning bells often go off.  If they appear to be time wasters or their voice drives you insane during the first meeting, what makes you think they will be pleasant to work with?  Even with the best client there’s moments of tension; if you’re already ready to tear their voice box out of their throat, well, that’s a bad sign.

How to say no

I ALWAYS feel bad when I have to tell someone no.  Here are a few reasons that I say no:

1) Tell them I’m not taking on projects until (x) weeks/months.  Most people want their website yesterday, and those who are willing to wait are often more attuned to how much time projects take and how much money they should cost.

2) If I’m busy, but I have a tiny bit of spare space I could squeeze them into, I often try out a price increase.  If they accept it, I am happy to work on it as sort of an ‘overtime’ fee.  If they don’t go for it, no harm done.

3) Sometimes I’m really not interested in their project.  I’m trying to take on projects that are not just coding, challenging, useful and fit into my ‘passion areas’.  It’s really hard to turn down work, especially if it’s well-paid.  How do you do this?  I’m still learning.  A few months ago I got offered some work to design interfaces for tv.  The man was smart, interesting and would have been great to work with.  I had to tell him that I couldn’t take the job.  I told him that I wanted to focus on web design primarily in education and environment, and didn’t want to take on work that fell too far away from that goal.  It was hard, especially since sometimes people are pushy. The important thing is to stick to you guns and not get manipulated: if they’re desperate for you and pushy to get their way, it’s a sign on how it will be to work with them.

You really have to find things that get you going, that make you want to get up every day and get your blood flowing! What I’d actually like to say sometimes is, “I’m really not interested in your project.”  Anyone out there got some suggestions on how to say no?

This was the final straw: I’ve got my mailbox, tweetie, google reader, adium, skype, dropbox, facebook, linkedin… well, since I have a few contacts, and I’m subscribed to lots of newsletters, I was chronically checking emails, twitter, facebook and more.  I can’t stop.

The problem was, although I was more connected:

1) I wasn’t getting anything done
2) I had nothing to talk about, as I wasn’t accomplishing anything

So, in embracing the Linchpin mentality, I’m focusing.  I need some peace.

I need peace!

Turning off the big interruptors

Step one:  Remove growl

Growl is a great way to be notified if something happens.  If you get a message from someone, it’s there in the top right.  It is great, but is also the biggest distraction I have.  There’s no need to be interrupted every two seconds when someone changes a file (in dropbox), or when someone’s internet kicks in and out and they are signed in and out of skype.  By just removing growl, my interruptions decreased by 50%.

How to remove Growl:

http://growl.info/documentation/growl-package-removal.php

Interruption level: 10 Highest
Estimated time saved: 50 minutes

Step 2: Unsubscribe to every newsletter you legitimately don’t read

I’m interested in a lot, but my time is precious. I’ll often try out a newsletter, but if they don’t offer me value every time their emailing me, they’re causing me to chronically check my emails as I see there’s something new. (If they don’t offer an automatic unsubscribe, shame on them. They also get marked as spam.)

Interruption level: 7 High
Estimated time saved: 30 min per day

Step 3: Reduce your rss reader items to only the BEST items

I feel bad when I see my rss feeder unread number increasing and increasing. I want to make sure I read some things, but I do spend a good amount of time every day going through marking blog posts as read to get this number down. I’ve also unsubscribed to those places that I haven’t read recently, and especially to those places that post 20 times a day, no matter how useful some of their items are.

Interruption level: 7 High
Estimated time saved: 20 min per day

Step 3: Turn off Mail notifications

I love getting new emails, and when I want to distract myself, it’s the first thing I check. I actually love that sound: DING! “Ooooh! Who’s written me?” I think! It’s not that I’m actually going to respond to the email right away or anything. So knowing that I have a new email is an absolute waste of time.

Interruption level: 8 High
Estimated time saved: 40 min per day

Step 4: Quit Adium, googletalk, msn messenger, aim, etc

I turned these off a while ago. Not only was I chronically checking who was online, I was making it easy for others to distract me.

Interruption level: 8 High
Estimated time saved: 50 min per day

Step 4: Turn off most of your skype notifications

Skype makes loads of really fun noises… While it’s great to know exactly when you’re being contacted. But, hearing that someone new has come online, knowing when someone has sent me a message actually drives me to distraction. When I’m on a skype call, receiving loads of skype messages makes it difficult for me to concentrate on what I’m talking about. If you need to keep skype on, train your contacts to only contact you when it’s important, and to send you a text and receive confirmation before calling you. I personally only keep the call notifications on, and put it on ‘busy’ mode when I’m on a call.

Interruption level: 7 High
Estimated time saved: 30 min per day

Step 6: Close down skype, tweetie (twitter applications) and mail whenever you can

Set up specific times to check them and respond to people, as well as specific ‘wasting’ time. This is actually my biggest time waster, even though I’ve reduced my notifications. I find when these are off

Interruption level: 8 High
Estimated time saved: 50 min per day

Step 7: Close down any tabs that you might sit there hitting refresh to see miniscule changes.

This means ebay watching lists, facebook news stream, twitter home, anything analytics.  It also means obsessively browsing through Asos’s website for something I might like (but really don’t need anything),  frantically trying to get my google reader count down to zero unread, and anything else you can do for hours which accomplish NOTHING. These are time wasters, and can easily cause obsession!

Interruption level: 8 High
Estimated time saved: 50 min per day

Step 8: Turn off your internet completely

Nothing gets you in the zone better than turning everything off. I start to feel desperately alone, and often reference the web for development, so this is best when you’re designing. If you’re in the right mind frame, turning off the internet can help you do your best work.

Interruption level: 10 High
Estimated time saved: depends (probably a combination of previous entries)

How much time could I save?

On a really unproductive day, I could easily spend over 5 hours (my estimate, 320 minutes) doing absolutely nothing, designing nothing, and accomplishing nothing. It’s easy, but with a bit of diligence you can reduce the amount of unproductive hours.

p.s. These days, I’ve got still got tweetie and skype open, but with their notifications minified, I find I’m not chronically checking them. By the way, what are you doing wasting your time here?  Get back to work!!

Thinking about the user first also makes working with the client easier.  Because I listen to what they like and what they want to accomplish, we both have their best interests at heart.  When you stop designing for how it will look in your portfolio, it makes the world a whole lot smoother.

“They are so afraid we shall break down, and you know the reputation of the college is at stake, for the question is, can girls get a college degree without injuring their health.”

-Ellen Swallow Richards

My choice for this year is Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911), the first woman to be accepted into MIT, a huge (financial and emotional) component to them accepting women undergraduates within the following 10 years, and a highly successful chemist, whose work in sanitation control forever changed the way we measure water quality.

“The Faculty [of Vassar] do not consider it a mere experiment any longer that girls can be educated as well as boys.”

-Ellen Swallow Richards

Ellen Swallow Richards

I love her story.  From a poor family, she worked hard for years to raise enough money to enter college, where she earned her bachelor’s degree.  When she managed to gain admission into MIT, it was recorded that “it being understood that her admission did not establish a precedent for the general admission of females”.   While Ellen wished to earn her doctorate after earning multiple degrees, MIT wouldn’t dream of allowing her to pursue it (luckily, a few years after, her precedent allowed another woman to do so).

She became an active member of many university associations supporting women entering into universities.  She helped to begin the MIT Women’s Laboratory in 1879, where she worked as a teaching assistant without pay, teaching chemical analysis, industrial chemistry, mineralogy, and applied biology.  In 1883 the lab was closed as MIT began to accept women as general students.  HURRAH!

While it doesn’t seem like a big thing now, but Ellen Swallow Richards was also the founder of modern home economics.  She was very interested in efficient home management,  basically designed to allow her to get her domestic duties finished quickly, so she could get back to the science. I like this: in essence, she was working within the confines of society to make careers a little bit more accessible for the average woman.

“I hope that I am winning a way which others will keep open.”

-Ellen Swallow Richards

Thanks to women like Ellen, if I wanted to learn engineering, mathematics, or any university degree I wanted, I could. She was lucky enough to have a husband and colleagues who supported her ambitions for an equal opportunity for women at MIT. She was all about supporting the next generation, to allow a space for them, if they deserved it. She had high expectations of women as academics when most of society treated women like second class citizens.

So, hats off to Ellen Swallow Richards!

If you want to read more about Ellen:

Wikipedia article on Ellen Swallow Richards

MIT archives on Ellen Swallow Richards

Chemical Achievers: Ellen Swallow Richards

Screenshot of the homepage

Wordpress Table-reloaded

This running website really pushed the boundaries of what I have used wordpress for.  Sure, I’ve used some plugins to pull content onto the homepage, for custom sidebars etc, but what I needed was a content management system that did tables, text, calendars and more.  They wanted to have a way to display race results after they’ve had a timed race night every month.  They wanted to be able to update the results themselves, and they don’t want to look at any code.

Luckily, I found a plugin that looks a lot like an excel spreadsheet, and it has been so easy to integrate it in! I used this plugin to make the race night results easy for them to update themselves.  They’ve only had one race night, so here’s what it looks like now.

The backend interface

It’s a lot like excel, but not as complicated.

Other features

1. -Add multiple tables onto any page with a simple tag onto your page [table id=1 /]
2. -Every second row has an alternating background color.
3. -Highlight a row by changing its background color while the mouse cursor hovers above it.
4. -The first row of your table is the table head (HTML tag th).
5. -The last row of your table is the table footer (HTML tag th).
6. -The Table Name shall be written the table (HTML tag h2).
7. -The Table Description shall be written the table.
8. -Yes, use the “DataTables” JavaScript library with this table.
9. -Style your table with your own custom css (although I couldn’t get it to make entry 1, 2, 3 have different styling, but if I figure out how to override it, will append this post)
10. -You can export your tables
11. -You can decide if you want pagination, if you want to allow them to sort, allow them to search (which works great!)

Reservations

My only issue with this solution is that as not everyone participates in every race night, hitting sort for that day puts the blank entries at the top.  While it’s very customizable, if I had more client resources, I would have spent more time customizing it, but we all know how difficult changing these things can be!

But I thought I would have more time.

More time to set up my own projects, more time to spend blogging, more time to socialize, more time to learn and more time to work on my hobbies.

Except I don’t.

I don’t think I’ve ever worked such long hours.  All my own projects, my pro-bono work, and even just keeping blogging (weekly blogging here sure hasn’t consistently happened) have taken the backseat.  I love my clients, and I’m keeping them on good timelines, but I say I’ll have them something in a week, and I blink, and a week has gone by. Of course we all know that everything in web design takes longer than we expect, and I’m getting better at estimating and managing this, but it’s still a big thing.  I must be doing something wrong, right?

This is a public display

I’ve put off the following things too long.  I’ve been reading a psychology book that says people that go on weightloss programs on tv lose more weight because they are held accountable by more people.  This study said that this works for lots of other things too:  Tell lots of people what you’re planning on doing and you’re more likely to complete them, out of sheer will not to have to try and explain later.  So here it is:  a list of things I don’t get paid for, that I need to finish this month.

-A Smashing Magazine article that I researched in late January

-A pro-bono website for a non-profit learning program for kids that I started in January

-My own professional face, for more serious clients that I’ve been talking about making for months

-Design for an iphone game that my friend has developed that I’ve been toying with for months

Now, hopefully, out of sheer embarrassment, these four things will get done.  Now remind me not to take on any more client work… I need to have fun one of these days too!

P.S. If you want me to berate you for anything, leave it in the comments, and I will make your life a living hell on march 30th!

Don’t worry, I have replaced his head with white snow, and he is happily hanging out in the Great White North!

My snow sculpting leaves a little to be desired... maybe more of a snow llama? Poor safetygoat!

Arty shot. Notice hair peaking in! I had to use my computer covered in a plastic bag to get the shot...

His lifejacket doesn't fit very well! He is a growing boy afterall... Maybe he needs a new one for his birthday!

Here’s my view from my window today: try training for a marathon here.

It's snowing today!

The media in other nations are critical though.  Things aren’t going smoothly.  There’s hilarious, embarrassing, annoying happenings.  Every event has them.  Just because you try hard, doesn’t mean that people can’t criticise you.  People will always complain.  People will always be critical.  People will always joke. Get over it.

I am quietly proud of being a Canadian.  I love our snowy, boring nation.

What I hate is this arrogance.  And the arrogance at being polite and modest.  How can you be declaring yourself modest? How does that make ANY sense?

Skeleton champion belts out Oh Canada. He's got the right idea... he's just absolutely 100% ecstatic about winning.

I’m all for the cheering, singing oh canada, flag waving (who said Canadians don’t wave flags?  I happen to think we have a beautiful flag!), and glorifying the athletes.  We’re going to cheer louder for our countrymen, there’s going to be more of us than other fans, and tell me of a country where this isn’t true.

Canadians aren’t that interesting (with a few notable exceptions).  We are nice, and we’re doing our best, but we should learn how the world works.  We’re not very often in the world media, we don’t get criticism very often because we’re often not a big player.  Now that we’re in the spotlight, we’re boasting with arrogance about our modesty.

These Canadians that are hurt by the criticism, that say we should just focus on the sport, have lost their grip on reality. Grow some thick skin, Canada.  The Olympics are going fine.  They suck at times, they’re great at times.  That’s life.

Speech writers/media content creators:  Your arrogance makes us look bad.

I’m sure most Canadians flinch when someone goes on about how AMAZING we are.  We have a beautiful country, and we’re nice.  Let’s not forget that we usually let people discover this themselves.  We’re not perfect, but I think some of the public data is misrepresenting us.  If we were acting like proper Canadians, we’d be proud, but acknowledge that we’ve made mistakes and things haven’t gone perfectly.  We’d be able to laugh at ourselves.

I also look forward to 2012 in London, where I know cynical Brits will have no problem criticising  their own nation’s attempt at Olympic glory.