I used to think about freelance work in terms of seasons. These days, I think less about seasons and more about modes - and the hard part isn't choosing which one to be in, it's noticing which one you're actually in.
Back in my early freelancing days, I had a client who'd email me four times in one afternoon about the same project. Four! Each one slightly more urgent than the last, despite nothing actually changing between messages.
The first was perfectly reasonable: "Hi Tom, just wondering about...
Every evening, I take the dog on a post-dinner walk around the block. He's a bit of a fuss pot when it comes to doing his business in our little garden, so we have to venture out for a proper sniff around the neighbourhood.
On the corner of...
This, Not That
Ah, scope creep. The unwelcome guest that sidles into your project without an invitation, helps itself to your time, and somehow convinces everyone it was meant to be there all along.
It's called "creep" for good reason. It doesn't knock politely....
As I’ve hinted in my last couple of emails, I’ve been up in London a lot recently. A close family member had surgery planned, so I was splitting time between work and hospital visits. They’re home now and recovering well. Praise, thanks and love to the NHS....
When I first went freelance, I was still tethered to my old job. Not by a contract or a desk, but in my head.
Every decision went through an imaginary sign-off.
Would Kevin from HR think this project made sense?
Would my old design director nod approvingly?
Would it look...
I was having coffee with another freelance designer last week when they started telling me about their latest project drama. Not client drama, the self inflicted kind.
The kind where you find yourself still up at 2am, obsessing over the information architecture for a checkout flow that was probably fine...
I live up on one of the many hills in Brighton. Most mornings, I take the dog round one of the parks near me. Sometimes just a short walk, sometimes the longer route if he's feeling particularly energetic (he rarely is).
After this I'll often go...
There's a bit of classic advice that floats around in freelance circles, isn't there? You can feel it coming before someone says it, like when someone's about to suggest you really ought to try that new place everyone's been talking about.
"...
