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The School Run Blogging Rut: A Day In The Life of a WFH Mum

March 22, 2017 / Writing / 6 Comments

This year has a big one in our family with the little one starting full time kindergarten. I had been thinking this change would actually lead to an increase in my productivity as I’d have two extra days to work, but something quite the opposite has happened.

It turns out that five straight days, week after week, of early mornings and school runs has actually put me into a massive creative rut that I’m struggling to lift myself out of. It’s not that much more than last year, so why the rut?

Last year Cheese was in preschool three days a week, leaving us two days together during the week to sleep in, see friends and family and generally not have to be on a schedule of any kind. Now, suddenly, I find myself chained to a tight schedule again five days out of seven, even though I work from home and don’t have to start work at any particular time. Ironic, is it not, for a remote writer to be chained to a schedule again?

This is what my days look like now that school is in.

6:20am: Alarm 1 goes off. I press snooze and roll back over.

6:30am: Alarm 2 goes off. I peel off the sheets and get out of bed.

6:30-7am: Instagram. Yes, that’s right, I use this half an hour to Instagram. I’ve worked out that the majority of my audience is online at this time so I post and comment to ensure my photos are reaching people at the right time online. This is also why my Instagram posts have a large number of typos. I also drink a lot of caffeine during this time.

7am: Make Cheese’s lunch, lay out her school uniform.

7:15am: Wake Cheese up and give her breakfast (she only eats yoghurt for breakfast so at least it’s easy!).

7:20am: Jump in the shower and get myself ready for the school run.

7:30am: Get Cheese dressed for school.

7:45am: Leave the house and drive Cheese to school.

8:30am: Leave Cheese at school. Drop by Coles and pick up whatever groceries we need and drive home.

9:30am: Home and finally can start the day with a bowl of yoghurt. I see a pattern here. Work until 12pm on anything from replying to emails and writing for blog to pitching and writing freelance assignments or copywriting gigs.

12pm-12:30pm: Lunch! Usually two boiled eggs and maybe some cheese and crackers and an apple.

12:30pm-2pm: Finish up work followed by any other errands that need running like going to the post office, photographing products, editing images and responding to more emails.

2pm-2:15pm: Get ready for school pick up by packing snacks or clothes for swimming.

2:15-3pm: Drive to the school and park.

3pm-5:30pm: Take Cheese to the playground or swimming.

5:30-6:30pm: Home. Clean out the lunch boxes and cook dinner.

6:30pm-7:30pm Eat dinner all together.

7:30pm Cheese has books read to her.

8pm-9:30pm: Attempt to get Cheese to sleep.

9:30pm-9:45pm: A few minutes to relax.

9:45-10pm: Get ready for bed.

10pm-10:15pm asleep.

Rinse and repeat.

Now I’ve broken it down I can see what’s happening and why I’m in such a rut! I spend most of the day either doing domestic chores or childcare, no matter my creativity is zero!

You might be asking where is the husband in this picture? He does one pick up and one drop off a week and we alternate reading books and putting Cheese to bed at night, but honestly it’s a small drop in the ocean of things needing to be done.

Now I’m working from home five days a week I’m starting to feel lonely working all by myself, so that is also contributing to the rut.

Is there an answer to getting out of this rut and getting creativity back? I don’t honestly know. I am going to try to get out more to meet with fellow creatives and try and perhaps break up the morning with working from a cafe near the school before rushing to do more chores and driving back home. Will that help? Why knows?

What about you? Have you been in a creative rut? Do you have any words of advice?

A Day in The Life of a WHF Freelance Writer/Blogger and Mum

May 19, 2016 / Writing / 20 Comments

My excellent friend Jayne at Girl Tweets World recently wrote this hilarious look at a day in the life of a non-travelling travel blogger. I absolutely love peeks into people’s lives, especially when they are as funny as Jayne is.

While Jayne and my jobs are fairly similar (we are both WFH writers/bloggers), thinking about how different a child makes the schedule inspired me to write my own day-in-the-life post.

On Mondays and Tuesdays I am with Cheese all day, and there is zero work time, so this is our schedule Wed, Thur and Fri, which are the days she is in preschool. Some times I have a fabulously exciting media event to attend, or a high tea to review, but this is what the majority of my days look like.

7am: Woken up. Usually by a tiny arm thrown around my neck in a gleeful hug, followed by mushy face kisses. If it’s after 7am I’m thrilled. If it’s before 7am I might throw her a yoghurt pouch and turn on Octonauts and try to catch a few more ZZZs.

7:15am: Pull myself out of bed, stumble towards kitchen and turn on kettle to boil the first strong black tea of the day. Imperative for getting anything done.

7:30am: Get Cheese ready for school. I make her lunch the night before so all I have to do is put the lunch boxes and water bottle in her backpack, and double check I packed her hat and spare outfit.

8am: Try and convince Cheese to stop playing, eat her breakfast, and get dressed for school.

8:20am: Remember I need to shower as well and duck in while Alec gets Cheese to brush her teeth and put her shoes on.

8:30am: Out the door to take Cheese to school. It’s about a half hour drive to get there.

9:30am: Home from the school run and ready to start my day. I spend about 30 mins to an hour answering emails, checking in on social media, posting blog posts or images and a bit of faffing around before I start the real work.

10:30-12pm: Solid work time, where I usually complete freelance writing pieces for clients. This might be copywriting for a business website, or writing an article for a travel or parenting website.

12pm-12:30pm: Lunch time. Once a week or so I might meet up with a friend but I have such limited work time that I don’t do it as often as I’d like. Alec and I both work from home so you’d think we would have lunch together more, but we just can’t find the time. I usually make smashed avocado on sourdough with roasted tomatoes and eggs.

12:30-2pm: I finish off any remaining work I might have, but more often than not I spend the time chasing information I need for work, following up on pitches, replying to new emails or sending out new work pitches. If it’s a particularly slow work week I might spend an hour working on a blog post.

2pm: I finish work for the day and take myself for a walk. I like to listen to podcasts while I work, particularly Being Boss.

2:30pm: I drive to pick up Cheese from school and wonder how the time went so quickly.

3pm: Pick up Cheese right on time. If I’m late she gets upset, so I have to make sure I’m there when the door opens. I’ve also seen her try and bolt out the door so it’s always good to be early so she doesn’t escape.

3:05pm: Catch up with Cheese’s teacher – hopefully get a good report for the day, while Cheese whines about how hungry she is. I ask her if she ate her lunch and she always says “No!”. Gee, what a shocker.

3:30-4:30pm: I like to organise play dates for Cheese with her school buddies at nearby playgrounds to let the kids burn off even more energy and so I can catch up with friends at the same time. When we don’t have a play date we will grab blueberry bagels with cream cheese and either do grocery shopping or head to a playground just the two of us.

4:30pm: I drive us home around this time as it’s getting dark and the traffic gets terrible if I wait any longer.

5:30-6:30pm: I play a bit with Cheese, clean out her lunch boxes, make new lunch for the following day, chat with her about what she got up to and who she played with, and make her dinner which she may or may not eat.

6:30-7:45pm: Bath and books time for Cheese. Alec and I take turns reading to her or sitting with her while she falls asleep. I often do the reading so Alec can spend more quality time with her (AKA doing the bedtime sleep battle).

7:45-8:30pm: I make dinner, clean up after Cheese’s dinner and tidy up her toys and general mess while waiting for Alec to emerge victorious from putting the Cheese to sleep.

8:30-9pm: Alec and I eat dinner together. Some days we chat about what we’ve been doing, or what feedback I had from Cheese’s teacher that day. Some days we are too tired to talk and watch TV instead.

9-10:30pm: I work on my blog, edit images, reply to more emails, post pics to Instagram and watch TV. I love mindless TV shows like The Bachelor as I can write at the same time and not miss the plot.

10:30-11pm: Bed time! I read a few pages of a book and fall asleep pretty quickly, absolutely shattered. If I’m lucky I won’t wake again until 7am, but often little Cheese will come in and wake us up wanting milk, more food or a cuddle.

Get more tips on becoming a digital nomad with kids here.

Four Resources Every Freelancer Needs

January 12, 2016 / Writing / 10 Comments

Being a freelancer is tough, I won’t sugar coat it. With no boss to keep you on track and focussed, I find it hard to be organised and stay motivated. There are a lot of highs and lows that come with being a freelancer – the big wins that feel better than any win at your old job, but then there the lows, that can destroy your self confidence and plant seeds of self doubt.

I find these four resources have really helped me to keep my confidence high, present myself and find work, and manage the limited time that I have more efficiently.

Podcast: Being Boss
Being Boss is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs by Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon. These ladies know their stuff. Thanks to their podcast I’m feeling more confident that I can “make bank” (as they call making money) with a small business. Emily and Katherine have also started a Being Boss Facebook group that is great for inspiration and advice. When do I have time to listen to podcasts? When I’m driving to and from school drop off/pick up, grocery shopping or taking a quick walk by myself.

Freelance website: Contently
I’ve found Contently useful for getting well-paid work with big brand clients, as well as invaluable info on working as a freelancer with their blog. Their article on payment rates was particularly helpful. Their site can be use purely as an easy place display your portfolio in an attractive way, or you can join their freelancer network and get paid jobs.

Career and Business Coach: Lisa Kate
Lisa Kate is a successful entrepreneur, digital strategist and a career coach, who has been giving me invaluable guidance for almost two years. I find it extremely helpful to have an outside person help cut to the quick of what I really want and how to achieve it. If being coached isn’t really your thing, you can still benefit from Lisa’s helpful blog content, such as her free ebook “The Golden Triangle – The 3 key steps to creating a successful online business”.

Organisation: Passion Planner
There are so many amazing planners out there, but I love my Passion Planner. It’s an all-in-one weekly appointment calendar, journal, goal setting guide, and to-do list log all bound together in a pretty cover. I use it to block out time each day and keep myself on track.

What do you find invaluable to your freelance business’s success?

How To Deal With A Crappy Day

November 6, 2015 / Writing / 14 Comments

I usually try to keep this blog upbeat, but I’m not an upbeat person all the time. I’m not overly resilient (although I’d like to be!) and I have my share of crappy days where I just feel like everything is going pear shaped. Particularly work-wise. I find it harder than I’d thought to keep up my spirits when working as a freelancer when I have these types of days as there isn’t the social environment of an office to distract me.

If you’re having a day like this (and I’m having one today!) this is how I deal with them and come out the other side feeling positive again.

Wallow
Own your feelings for a few minutes. Yep you feel like crap, a bit worthless, unemployable, a failure. I love a good wallow. Sometimes wallowing is accompanied by whining or wine. Both are acceptable in small doses.

Work out why
Why is today in particular getting you down? For me it’s often that I’ve had a shocking nights sleep and I’m tired and have a headache. I also feel like this when I have a bit of FOMO – like everyone is doing something awesome or getting great opportunities except me. Which is rubbish, but sometimes it still feels like this.

Do something productive
Once I’ve shaken myself out of the pity party, I try and find a positive way to turn around the bad day. Feeling low because I don’t have work published in a certain magazine? Look up the editor and email them a pitch. Or research other similar sites or publications and pitch to them instead. Feeling lonely? Email a few friends and suggest getting together. Missed out on a media event? Ask someone who went directly who organized the event and email them, introducing yourself and asking to be put on their media list for next time.

Do something to feel better
Getting endorphins flowing helps me when I’m feeling down. I go for a walk, take a barre class, do some yoga in the living room. I try to put all of the worries out of my heard and think about absolutely nothing. On days when I’m too exhausted to do anything else, instead of flogging a dead horse I spend some time taking care of myself like getting a pedicure or reading a book for an hour just to calm my mind.

Get busy
You can’t force creativity. On days like this I can’t write anything useful, it’s all a forced incoherent mess. Instead of wasting time staring at a blank screen I do all the “busywork” I’ve been putting off. Paying bills, processing photos, replying to emails. I feel as though I’ve accomplished something and also freed up some time that can be used in the future for other creative projects.

How about you? How do you deal with crappy day blues?

Linking up with Bron.

Rejection is not a four-letter word

September 4, 2015 / Writing / 8 Comments

Ahhhh rejection, I know you well. We have been close friends for many years now. It’s only in recent times, however, that I’ve learned to stop taking it personally when my ideas are met with a rebuff, or, worse, no response at all.

One of the lovely bloggers in my Aussie Parenting Bloggers Facebook group recently posted that she was feeling down after being rejected a lot, and it made my heart hurt for her. Rejection sucks! It really does. Particularly for a creative person like a writer, when what you’re pitching is really yourself and ideas. Rejection can feel like a stab through the heart – it’s sending a message that you and your words are not good enough.

After a few emails that all have the same generic Dear John “thanks but no thanks” reply to requests for freelance assignments, it’s hard to keep self confidence up.

Maintaining confidence is one of the hardest things about being a freelance anything. Self belief in the face of constantly being told “no, you’re not right for us”. Ouch. It hurts.

I’ve been writing as a freelancer now for about three years. I’ve had more rejection emails than I can count – and I’ve lost track of the number of inquiries I’ve put out there that haven’t been responded to.

I want every other writer just starting out to know that you are not alone. We all face rejection (I get rejected daily. Honestly.).

Each rejection is one step closer to an acceptance. You have to keep trying and putting yourself out there and, as hard as it is, not take rejection personally.

When you get a rejection email (or worse, no response), repeat to yourself, “It’s not about me”. Because it’s not about you. Whatever you were pitching wasn’t a good fit for the publication or the editor was too busy to respond. Neither of these mean that the quality of your ideas or words isn’t good enough to be published.

Everyone who has made anything of themselves has faced similar rejection at some stage. The wonderful children’s author Mem Fox told me in an interview last year that her famous book, Possum Magic, was rejected by published 10 TIMES before it was accepted and published. Just let that sink in.

If Mem had given up after the first few rejections we would not have one of the most famous Australian children’s books ever written.

The next time you get a rejection, remember it’s not you, it’s them. Remember Mem Fox, and have the courage to keep on trying.

Making a Career Change: How I Became a Freelance Writer

April 20, 2015 / Writing / 36 Comments

Like many women I know, after having a baby I wanted to change my career direction. In my pre-baby life I worked at Google Australia in publisher management and digital marketing. It was a wonderful place to work and I learned a great deal about online marketing.

In late 2010, my husband, Alec, was offered the opportunity to work at a startup in New York City – somewhere I’d always wanted to live. The same week, we found out I was pregnant. Alec took the job and a few months later we moved and I quit my job. Moving country and preparing for the baby became my new job, and then motherhood when Baby arrived.

I’d already been blogging casually for about four years at that stage, and when we moved to the US to I started to document our expat experiences, and then my pregnancy and new life as a parent.

Without a job and itching to keep my brain active, I upped my blogging game when Baby came along, starting to take it more seriously. I started working on a site with a friend in NYC on kid-friendly dining that expanded to cover other destinations in Sydney and Singapore. I got active in the local blogger community, attended blogging events and started to connect with brands and other bloggers. At night I read about SEO and stumbled my way through building a self-hosted WordPress site.

I also began to put my digital marketing training into practice, working on growing social media channels and subscribers to increase traffic to my blog. The SEM (search engine marketing) experience at Google really helped me to naturally be able to write well for SEO (search engine optimisation, or how to show up in the search results on Google), and I saw organic search becoming a big source of traffic to the blog.

After a while I felt ready to start working again in a small capacity, so I put together a simple WordPress site as my online writing portfolio and resume to send out to prospective employers. By this time I had written guest posts for a lot of other sites, too, and also had quite a decent amount of published work from my first few jobs in the editorial departments of Australian lifestyle magazines, plus from my work in marketing at Google. All together, it was enough to help me start getting a few freelance writing jobs.

Work started coming through all kinds of sources. People approached me through the blog, and I signed up to Contently.com and received work through that for Fisher Price and Electrolux.

Most of the work I have taken on, however, I’ve had to really put myself out there for. I cold-emailed publications after asking for the editor’s contact details, and then pitched the publication ideas for articles. I also attended events where the speakers worked for brands or sites that I wanted to work for, and approached the people after their talks with a quick elevator pitch and request for their business cards.

After getting the contacts I was after, I’d research their publication and pitch stories. It’s time consuming, and there’s a lot of either no responses or straight out rejection. Some days it’s hard to get past this and keep up my confidence to continue, especially since I’m a bit of an introvert.

What helps keep me going is when the articles I write perform really well, such as getting picked up by other publications like the Huffington Post and going viral.

I also love the blogging communities I’ve joined, both in the US and in Australia. Bloggers are very supportive of each other, so even though I spend most of my work days at home alone with a computer, I feel strongly connected to other people in my field and don’t feel disconnected as a result.

Taking the freelance route does not pay wonderfully well so far, but it’s rewarding in many ways. I make my own hours, and get to spend a lot of time with my daughter, who is now 3.5. I really enjoy what I do, too. I get a lot of joy out of seeing my articles helping people – I feel like what I’m doing now has a lot of meaning.

Are you thinking of making a career change, or trying freelance writing? I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks on tips to break into freelance writing, and other posts on what I’ve learned about digital media. If you have any questions you’d like answered, please email comment below or email me at adventurebabyblog.com.

This post was first published over on Thienlan.me.

Where I Work (AKA How I Manage Being A WFHM)

April 17, 2015 / Writing / 35 Comments

I see a lot of beautiful blog posts from travel bloggers (I’m looking at you here, Girl Tweets World!) who work from exotic locations on a regular basis. I thought today I would share a bit about where I generally work as it’s a lot less, um, fancy and relaxing.

Here is an example of my week and how I get work done while working freelance and also being home with my threenager.

Monday
Monday is ballet day and now that Cheese is in a drop off class, I can sit outside with my laptop and write while she is fluttering away. I set up tethering on my iPhone to give me a bit of internet so I can still get something done while she’s dancing.

Since it’s school holidays, this week she has a special Frozen-themed ballet class, and while I’m trying to write, all I can hear is 15 preschoolers screeching “Let it gooooooooooo!” at the top of their lungs. I’m also sitting on a concrete step, which is getting colder and more uncomfortable by the minute. The rest of the day I put my phone and laptop down and take Cheese to see her grandparents or friends.

Tuesday
Tuesday is swim day for Cheese and I sit on the side of the pool replying to anything urgent on my phone, jotting down article ideas and following up on pitches while simultaneously telling Cheese to put her bottom on the pool step and to stop squirting water out of her mouth at the kid next to her. Tuesday is, obviously, not a work day. After swimming we often go to a playdate, playground or park. I love how in Sydney we can be outdoors all year around, except for the torrential rain days.

Wednesday to Friday
These are my usual work days while Cheese is at preschool 9-3. After a quick gym session (I’m loving the Ballet Barre classes), I work from my living room couch. I do not have a designated workspace as our apartment is just too small. My husband also works from home, so I do have an office mate to bother when I need some companionship, but I generally don’t see many other people except for Jayne from Girl Tweets World, who lives near me and has a similar freelance working schedule as I do.

Weekends and evenings
I do a lot after Cheese goes to sleep, pretty much every night of the week. This is when I work on social media, edit photos, finish up blog posts and reply to blog comments and emails. I try to switch off at around 9:30 and watch a TV show or read a book after that.

Working freelance and from home is great in many ways. The absolute biggest plus is that is gives me so much freedom. I can spend a lot of time with Cheese, and also work towards my own career/business goals at the same time. I also set my own goals and priorities. While I do have clients I answer to for the work I do, I am the one who decides what i think is important to work on for my own progression, rather than having a manager tell me what I should be working on to benefit a company.

On the down side, it doesn’t pay as well as a regular office job, and there is a lot of unpaid work that needs to be done, like pitching work, finding clients, networking to get more work, etc, and it can also get a bit lonely and disheartening if it’s a period of not much success. I find the best way to deal with this is meeting with friends when I can, particularly people who are attempting the same career path as I am.

I’ve been thinking of launching a video or blog series on working as a freelancer, to give tips to anyone thinking of a similar path. I would love to know any questions you have about what I do that I should cover in the series.

Linking up with Grace and Bron.