Comments on: Freelance Writing Opportunities for June 18 & 19, 2009

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:50:49 +0000

Hi,

Thanks for the job leads Deb. I appreciate all your work and this website very much!

As I am currently living in a different country to all my friends and family, my biggest distraction is chatting online . . . constantly! I also try the reward system, but unfortunately I will quite often reward myself the wrong way around, telling myself “just one more chat/game/tv show/etc and THEN I’ll do my work”. I don’t call it prochristination for nothing!

By: T. W. Anderson

T. W. Anderson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:36:02 +0000

I don’t have a problem with distractions. I have an agenda, and I always get it done. But I also don’t just sit here and go balls-out all day long. Usually I’ll work for an hour, then take a 15 min break, then work another hour, take another 15, so on and so forth.

My work day is spread out over the course of the entire day, lately. It all depends on the project I have underway. Normally I get up, do my morning stuff, then write for an hour while I’m drinking my pot of coffee. Then I take a break to make myself a small breakfast, work for another hour, then I break to do my morning workout and shower, which takes about an hour. Then I do another hour’s worth of work, which usually wraps up my daily quota by noonish.

Then in the afternoon I do whatever I want. We walk to the park every day, head to the market every 2-3 days (we make sure to only buy fresh produce and small quantities of everything so we don’t waste), and we also watch several shows, read books, I work on my fiction writing, blogging, forum-whoring, etc.

We’ll see how July and August work out. I’ve been working part-time since December, with my highest work-load being the last week of May, when I bumped up to 5 hour days from 3. I just recently requested full-time work from my content provider, and my only goals for July and August are to work as many hours/articles as I possibly can in a month, with a minimum of 6-7 hours a day, and see how much money I can make in 2 months. I’m hoping I can break 8k, but we’ll see. It looks like it will work on paper, and the clients have the work lined up for me, so I think it will work out well.

My wife works 5-6 hour days at her job, so it’s perfect for me. I just do my work while she’s out. Then when she gets off, we do our walk, our shopping, then she gets home and we do a bit of crafting, cooking, gaming (LOTRO atm), and whatever else.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:26:49 +0000

What Brandon said.

It’s a constant battle between wanting to spend as much good time as possible with the kids and writing. We also co-homeschool our older child, and I’m distracted even when my husband is teaching (he keeps winding up back at the computer for 45 minutes on end while our son is petting the cats and generally doing bupkus).

Also distracting:

this blog

clutter and dirty clothes

my husband, with whom I share an office

details of daily life (setting up summer camp, vacations, dentists)

marketing. I don’t REALLY need to spend that much time reading through want ads every single day!!

Lisa

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:19:21 +0000

Just a caveat to those searching the listings– #36 “Freelance Writing for Legal Network” states in their ad that the purpose of their advertised job is to provide legal advice to consumers on certain topics. This sounds benign, but it is actually highly illegal to give legal advice to anyone without being an attorney in good standing with the Bar.

Just thought I’d pass it along. I emailed the poster and flagged the ad as well.

By: Kenna

Kenna — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:27:42 +0000

I don’t know if I would call these distractions or priorities. My eight year old daughter loves to share interests. Usually, her imagination takes off and she plays or reads while I work. Sometimes we have to negotiate computer and DVDs. I try to keep her away from screen time but it is not always easy. Luckily, my husband gets her ready for bed and makes her lunches.

I have a pet project, forming a private school, that takes more time than I ever excepted; but feel it’s also a priority. Proper education of children is very important to me. I have great respect for excellent teachers, but our US educational system needs revamping.

Have a great weekend everyone!!! Happy Father’s Day!!!

By: dsoliver

dsoliver — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:16:05 +0000

I’m new to Twitter and Facebook and realizing that I need to limit my time on them. Time-limits are also how I deal with distractions. I say to myself, “OK, I’m working on this for two hours. Then I can do something else.” The right music, fish oil supplements (no kidding!), ginkgo, and blue-green algae help (whatever works, and I can’t do caffeine anymore). Deadlines, I find, marvelously concentrate the mind.

By: Jonathan Cohen

Jonathan Cohen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:31:32 +0000

I don’t have any distractions – I consider them necessary breaks while I’m writing.

My brain multitasks and requires so much stimulation that I’ll often switch away for a second to look at a headline (literally about 10 seconds), then return back to my freelance writing work.

It also provides information about trends and news, and broadens my horizons. If I find I’m doing a lot of that, and deliberately not doing a difficult project, then I’ll set an hour limit or so to plow through as much work as possible, then take another news/chat/parental hug break

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:23:15 +0000

My kids, mainly. I’d rather spend time with them, especially since I’m acutely aware that the time they’re going to want to spend with me is swiftly coming to an end (my oldest is 12, and his sister’s not far behind at 9). They’re pretty good at letting Dad work, but in the summer especially, there’s always something they want to show me or tell me or play with me, and on deadline…well, Dad is occasionally grumpy. There’s a myriad of other distractions, too, but they’re secondary trifles.

By: Alik

Alik — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:30:27 +0000

My biggest distractions are Facebook and daytime TV. I still need to work on a way to combat them.

By: WotV

WotV — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:24:24 +0000

Hey, Deb,

Where do you get those fabulous coffee pics??