Safetygoat

Why don’t I have time?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

I’ve recently starting working for myself.  I absolutely love it– I love the projects, I love the work environment (right now I’m in my bed, with my cup of tea), the commute is tolerable (at some point I’ll have to migrate over to my desk) and I absolutely love having control over things.

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!