The life of a freelancer and waking up in the morning

I've hit a bit of a lull. But considering that I've been juggling freelance and a full-time job all year, I'm enjoying the down time.

As for the mornings...

Sneed, are you married? My wife works day shift and I just started getting up when she did, making coffee, breakfast et cetera. Then, I just stay up and start whatever's on the agenda for the day.

 

Yeah, I'm married. She gets up around 8, 8:30, for a job that starts at 9. I'm ususally up no later than 9:30, but even then, feels like a lot of the day's gone by. I love the idea of getting up around 5, working awhile in the complete stillness and non-inbox-blinking time of day. So far I've only been able to do it once.

I am working on trying to get the newspaper I freelance for to pick up this series idea I have though. If they accept it and pay for it, I'll join a local triathlon group, train with them January through May, getting up every morning around 5:30 to run/bike/swim for an hour. I'm going to track my progress, write a weekly column, blog about the experience daily, basically making fun of myself while killing myself in the name of fitness, and telling the stories of others in the group. Should be fun. Right?

 

Goals or a dream to become a wealthy author? You must have a patient wife, because mine would be pissed if I didn't work full-time and just covered games for $50 a story.

 

I'm doing a little bit more than that, but yeah, she is pretty awesome.

 

I generally find that the very first thing I do in the morning sets the pace for the day. If the first thing I do is something work related, it ends up being a pretty productive day. But if the first thing I do is log onto this damn crack-like addicting site and start posting stuff it usually ends up being a rather wasteful day.

Also, a huge lumberjack breakfast seems to be a great start for me. Eggs, bacon, toast, cereal, banana, coffee, everything.

 

The thing I've always done whenever I don't have any specific place to go is to create a routine. For me, that starts with setting my alarm, getting up, taking my shower, shaving, getting dressed and getting out of the house.

I usually go to the library for a few hours and then go somewhere to eat lunch, then it's back to another library or to a computer lab or the one-stop career center.

It's been helpful for me to do that especially when I've gone from not having anyplace to go to having temporary assignments and then suddenly having to get up at a certain time. Of course, I'm a creature of routine to the extreme. Your mileage may vary.

 

Yeah, I'm working on that routine-developing thing. Right now I'm sitting in a Java Dog coffee shop. Dude, they let dogs just chill in here! And they have a bowl full of free dog treats! I could bring my wife's Jack Russell in here if I wanted. Of course, then he'd probably poop on the floor and I'd never be allowed back in, but hey, it's a fun idea.

It helps me to get out of the house. Naturally, I discover this a few months after spending much of my graduation money on a really nice desk. (Of course, by "really nice" I just mean a fancied-up $300 thing that came with a free hutch. But it looks really epic in my tiny little home office.)

Anyway, yeah, routines are good.

Back to work.