| Tuesday, January 19, 2010 |
| Unstuck |
I need to be very clear about one thing. 99% of the time, this is the way my days go by: People send me work, and I do it. Unless I'm swamped, or if it's an especially time-consuming project, if someone sends me something in the morning, I usually finish it before the end of the day. I have a couple of handwritten notes on my desk that clients have sent me in the past couple of weeks: "I'm so impressed -- and pleased -- with all you've done," says one, and the other, from a long-term (over 8 years!) client, says, "It's always a pleasure doing business with you."
However, there's that other 1% of the time, when, for some reason, I just get stuck. Deer-in-headlights stuck. Inertia sets in. I need to act, but for some reason I can't. And here's the worst part: I obsess over these open loops. Some part of my brain is always thinking about them.* It would make perfect sense for me to just deal with them and get it over with and get on with my life, but I find myself going to bed at night without having done anything about them. Sometimes I wake up and think to myself, "I could deal with them today and it would feel great!" and then another day goes by and I don't.
So I've decided to write about them to see what happens. Maybe if I make my failings public, I'll be able to get unstuck.
1. New project: This person contacted me sometime in the middle of 2009, on behalf of herself and a co-author. I wrote back and never heard anything else, something that happens all the time, so I didn't think too much about it. Then towards the end of the year they popped up again, said they wanted to go ahead, and sent me the material. At the time, I was in the middle of about a zillion other things, and said I'd get back to them; I didn't feel too bad about it, since it had taken them several months to get back to me. But now it's been, like, a month and a half. I need to write back and say, "Hey, I'm ready to work on your project!"
2. Old project: One of my most long-term clients wants a total redesign of her web site, which needs it. I've started it, but keep running into the equivalent of designers' block and have put it off for way too long. I need to stop waiting for inspiration to strike and just come up with some ideas. If I can't, I need to do what I have done with other sites and outsource part of it to a graphic artist, which I've done successfully several times. Immediate action: I should email her and say that I'm ready to work on it now.
3. Interview: This has to do with my Other Blog. A few weeks ago, I requested an email interview with someone and we went back and forth a couple times and then he said to give him a call. That's when I froze, because I have a little bit of phone phobia -- I know that sounds weird, considering that I worked as a journalist for several years, but I actually had to psych myself up before almost every call I made. (I don't have email phobia, fortunately.) I must seem like a huge flake, so I need to either get up the inner strength to call, or email a profuse apology. The interview is still relevant, so I could still do it. I just need to get over my wimpitude.
So that is my confession. Now I need to act.
* From Getting Things Done by David Allen: "You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool your own mind. It knows whether or not you've come to the conclusions you need to, and whether you've put the resulting outcomes and action reminders in a place that can be trusted to resurface appropriately within your conscious mind. If you haven't done those things, it won't quit working overtime... It's a waste of time and energy to keep thinking about something that you make no progress on. And it only adds to your anxieties and what you should be doing and aren't." |
posted by 125records @ 1:39 PM  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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I'm so glad you wrote this. I have only been freelancing since September, and still getting the rhythms and rules down. I get stuck all the time.
One thing I'm grateful for, though, is that, b/c I'm not clocking in at an office, I really do have control over my schedule. So when I get stuck, I try and completely change my activity--go for a run, do laundry, do something useful that doesn't require thought or creativity (or requires another kind of creativity). If it's only 1% of your time, though, I am really impressed!
As for the phone thing--me, too. I'm getting better at it, but I also have to perform a complete voodoo ritual before being ready to phone a client or interview subject. The old trick of standing up while talking helps to alleviate some of the vulnerability. Thank god for cell phones.
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I think we all have this stuck problem in all areas of our lives. We don't get our Christmas thank you notes written, we don't get the new neighbors invited to dinner. My new neighbors have been here almost 2 years.
The phone thing, totally understand. I plan everything before I call with a what if plan.
Missing you at book. I would call, but . . .
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This pretty much sums up my entire unemployment experience so far. I try to focus on the positive things -- the things I can accomplish and do make progress on, but none of them are actually related to getting a job.
One of the self-help books I read said, essentially, "If you continue to not do something, you probably don't actually want to do it." Which is good to know, but I will run out of money someday...
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Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
About Me: Email me: talk at interbridge dot com
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I'm so glad you wrote this. I have only been freelancing since September, and still getting the rhythms and rules down. I get stuck all the time.
One thing I'm grateful for, though, is that, b/c I'm not clocking in at an office, I really do have control over my schedule. So when I get stuck, I try and completely change my activity--go for a run, do laundry, do something useful that doesn't require thought or creativity (or requires another kind of creativity). If it's only 1% of your time, though, I am really impressed!
As for the phone thing--me, too. I'm getting better at it, but I also have to perform a complete voodoo ritual before being ready to phone a client or interview subject. The old trick of standing up while talking helps to alleviate some of the vulnerability. Thank god for cell phones.