Songpairing
*** This plays in my head, amidst my daily dillydally dawdle dance. ***
QUESTION: If you work for yourself, how do you structure and manage your time?
It’s been approximately three months since I last stepped foot into an office as an employee.
When I was working for someone else, I knew that I had to finish recording my demo between 1pm and 3pm on Sunday, for example. I knew that I had three hours between zoom meetings to write this newsletter on Wednesday afternoon. I knew that picking up my sweaters from the dry cleaners would necessitate driving by the grocery store and the Goodwill so I would infallibly kill many birds with maximum efficiency every time I left the house.
I managed my time with the elegance and skill of a freakin’ neurosurgeon.
Because I had so little of it to work with.
I work for myself now, on my own terms and times. I manage to chip away at my daily to-dos, but with the efficiency of a bloated government agency.
This morning, while dropping off my kids at school, I thought-up a plan to get home and write here until my 11am logistics call with a local recording studio.
Tick, tick.
However, when I got home at 8am I tidied the kitchen. Then, I rearranged and freshened a bouquet of flowers that was starting to droop. When I finally sat down in front of the computer, my brain interjected that it had been a while since I posted on Instagram. Of course, I needed to do that urgently since I have a release coming out. TikTok too. Then I remembered the wet clothes in the washer!
Now I am finally writing, but with half of the time I allotted.
Scattermind: /ˈskadər mīnd/ noun
where everyday is some form of this scenario:
Me <trying to do one thing>
My mind: Dammit I forgot to journal. I need to meditate, I need to send in my kid’s immunization form for summer camp. I need to rehearse my set for Monday’s show, book my son’s birthday party at the play place, chip away at the online course I bought months ago, get back to the nonfiction books I’m reading, touch up my roots, respond to comments, fold the laundry that is piled up, finish the song lyrics, arrange a lunch date, respond to texts, schedule a meeting with my son’s teacher, work out.
And in everything I do, even amidst the mindchatter, there is an undercurrent of “QUICK! HURRY! YOU’RE WASTING TIME!”
Oh no, it’s 2:15 pm! School is over at 2:45pm and the bus comes between 3:05 and 3:30 pm. I must not lose track of time. I can’t miss the arrival of the bus or they will not let my kid off of it. They will drive my kid past our house, far away and I will never see him again. And QUICK HURRY! School’s almost out! The day is almost over! FOCUS. But check your phone every 3 seconds— the bus might be coming!
Tarry tarry. Fritter fritter. I love to hone. Why can’t I hone?
What’s making it really hard for me, and I’m sure there are other creatives who are in a similar spot, is that I don’t really know what I’m doing, or how to do it.
I’ve only ever worked for other people, after all. This is my first rodeo.
I have trouble even making a comprehensive to-do list because when I sit down to write it, I remember nothing.
It only comes flooding in when I’m trying to focus on something else.
I am not fully paralyzed by the pulls, but between the task overwhelm and the distracted dithering, my efficiency is [forgets to finish sentence].
I think I need a better plan. Or maybe just a plan…
Which is why I am coming to you for guidance.
What the hell happened to my focus and precision? Why is there seemingly less time when there is more time?
I would love it if my fellow freelancers would chime in with their advice in how to streamline and structure working for yourself.
Particularly, if and how you approach using social media as tool for growth, rather than a tool for interminable distraction.
I thank you, greatly.
Hey! Thank you for reading! I do not charge for this substack, and currently have no intention to do so. Free subscribers welcomed and encouraged! However, if you feel so inclined to throw me a few bucks, I will not stop you because that would be silly!
This Week’s Fascinating Cultural Miscellany:
I love hearing perspectives from other cultures, and as an Dutch expat living in Italy, Jane regularly gives me two or more!
If you like laughing at historical scoundrels, I will now direct you to Allison Epstein. Here is a taste— the subtitle here is: “Friedrich Nietzsche, The Weirdo Philosopher Whose Unhinged Edgelord Nonsense Was Rivaled Only By The Wingspan Of His Tremendous Mustache”
Parenting small children is not hard, it’s just hard to get anything else done while you’re doing it.
I break free from the chains of time when I'm in my head dreaming. Thing is, I can do this even when I'm engaged in daily chores that require me to be "present". I dunno, maybe it's a gift from the universe...😉
To start, I deleted the social media apps from my phone. This forced me to do “that work” on my computer, which was a bit more friction, so I didn’t tend to lose an hour or two at a time to scrolling.
I also use a virtual co-working service called Flown. I’m on there every weekday for my day job stuff, just for the “drop in” options, to see other people working on their stuff, which makes my brain go “okay, now we should work!”
And ALSO - I use a digital kitchen timer to track my ACTUAL working hours. This way when I see the timer clicking away, I tend to keep working on the task at hand.