The joy of being able to work anywhere (and a very big coffee)

Over the last two years, since deciding to stop working and studying at the university where I took my MA, I have been slowly building the sort of working life I had dreamed about for years.

Developing a sustainable way of working

It is a working life that needs first and foremost to be sustainable and that can take into account the fluctuations in my energy levels due to my health. That has largely been my aim for the last two years. I’ve learnt that the work I do needs as far as possible not to be based around other people’s deadlines. I have to be able to work at my own pace, and where I can build up a reserve of work (and money!) to allow for the times when I’m not well enough to work full-time, or even at all.

By and large I’ve had a relatively conventional self-employed working life for the last two years. In essence I’ve been exchanging my time for money, mostly quoting clients an hourly rate and working on projects for them. I’ve always told clients at the beginning of a project about my energy limitations and fluctuations to take the pressure off to some degree.

I’m VERY lucky

I’ve loved a lot about working this way. I can largely decide my own schedule, and best of all I can work where (and when) I like. The illustration and design work I’ve been doing means I really only need my (small) laptop, my (very old) graphics tablet and (usually) an Internet connection. I love working in cafes and often set up my studio in bed. I feel so lucky that I can work this way.

The other day it was brought home to me just how lucky I am, when I ordered a large coffee in one of my favourite cafes and was given a complimentary one (possibly the largest I have every seen!) for being a regular visitor in the place!

Developing an even more sustainable way of working

As grateful as I have been for the clients that come to me (and their understanding of my energy limitations) I’ve increasingly realised that exchanging my time for money in this way is far from ideal. Leaving aside the limitations that working for an hourly rate creates (there are only so many hours in a day even a completely healthy person can work), working this way relies heavily on finding clients who are willing to accept my likely unpredictability.

Moreover it means I have to stay very aware of my own tendency to want to please and therefore overdoing things even if someone else says I don’t need to. Also, the reality of this sort of freelance work is that there are deadlines, sometimes quite tight deadlines, and as understanding as someone says there are, their wish to see their work done is bound to have an impact on their patience.

Over the last few months I’ve been slowly trying to change the way I make my money. My aim has been to completely stop exchanging my time for money and instead bring in income in other completely deadline free ways. I’ve been helped enormously by the growing popularity of my blog (thank you so much for reading!) and becoming more and more focused on writing about sustainable creativity (it feels like a mini-miracle to me that by writing about sustainable creativity I am becoming more and more sustainably creative!).

Taking a leap

A few days ago I decided to take a leap and to completely stop exchanging my time for money. This feels a very positive way to start the year (if a little scary!). I’m going the way of some of my heroes, Chris Guillebeau, Leo Babauta and Tammy Strobel and will be relying on book sales (and new digital products) to support myself. This is so exciting as it means I can be completely in charge of my schedule. I’ll still need to be careful with how I use my energy (and not get too carried away with the excitement of this new way of working), but how and when and where I work will be completely up to me.

Onwards into 2011

I have a sustainable number of projects planned for 2011 and will be getting underway with the launch of the expanded and updated version of my new ebook, Sustainable Creativity, at the end on this month (the first warts and all edition is still available and anyone buying it for the reduced cover price will automatically received the updated version for free as soon as it is released. Details are here if you’re interested and would like to help support the book’s development).

All this feels very exciting, but for now I think I need a nap and a cup of tea…