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Sickdays? What are those?

Woke up this morning and felt like I wanted to pull to covers over my head and fall back asleep... for the entire day. Alas, as a freelancer, I don't get the benefit of sick days. I rolled myself out of bed and came to the point of acceptance that 'yes', I have to work today. I decided to limit my tasks for the day as to not overwelm my already exhausted self.

Much to my surprise, I was actually getting things accomplished. I was foccusing in on the tasks that just took time, rather than time and brainpower. By noon, I felt like the fog had lifted and I might have a chance to salvage the day. So I decided to start again, like hitting the reset button on the day. I made sure to start again from the beginning.

I rolled myself back into bed and closed my eyses, but just for a moment. This time I decided to spring out of bed, and turn the shower on nice and hot (to steam away whatever was left of the fog in my head). Once I was dressed (yes, previous to this point I was still in my PJ's... come on, I'm a freelancer, of course I work in my PJ's.) I went straight to the espresso machine in the kitchen and made myself a good strong drink. Then I sat down at my desk like it was 9am and I was starting all over again... to bad it was really 1pm.

Sure I can take a day off from time to time, call it a personal day, or me time... or simply just a day off. Today however, was not that day. I ended up being really productive through to the end of the day, even signed a new SEO contract. How is that for a sick day?

Twitter is my office

Twitter is starting to feel like an office place for me. There are so many advantages in using twitter as a freelance web designer / developer. Including the instant collaboration that can occur between groups of designers, the local lunchtime and after hours events with "co-workers", as well as the standard business building. All three of these things occur daily in office buildings across the world, but can be few and far between for the lonely freelancer.

I spend most of my days by myself. I don't have a boss watching my every move, and I don't have employees asking how high they can jump for me. This isn't such a bad thing though, as it means company meetings always end when I want them too. However, this can be a major disadvantage when it comes to creative collaboration. I don’t think I realized how powerful my followers could be until I announced the relaunch of my site. Not only did I get the standard praise, I also received numerous DM’s about ways to make my site better (including lots of my spelling and grammar mistakes).

In spending most of my days by myself you can imaging what lunch times are like. Lunch is typically a solitary event that often occurs right here at my desk. That is, if I even have lunch. Since twitter, I spend a few lunches a week out with people that I have met or simply communicated with. From official tweet-lunches, to the business meetings that happen over lunch, or just coffee for that matter. Then there are the happy hour tweet ups that are becoming a regular occurrence around here.

I could probably spend an entire post on business building on twitter, but I’ll keep this short. I’ve been lucky enough to use twitter to get meetings with some of the top design agencies here in town. The results have been incredible with most of my new business is coming from people I met directly on twitter. There are even talks occurring with companies outside my local area, so it’s safe to say that my twitter business building will go nationwide in the next 6-9 months.

Twitter supplies a lot of the white noise that can occur in an office setting as well. My water cooler has 450 people around it, but unlike an office setting... I can turn the conversations off when I need to. Twitter has more uses than I can count, but I know how I use it. I use twitter like an office.

Work to a beat

Some people work in the quiet depths of their own minds. I don't. I need music on when I work. Some people call the noise a distraction. Not me. I find a rhythm in the music.

I often times find myself typing on the keyboard to the rhythm of what's playing. Yes, most of what I listen to is upbeat so the lines of code can start flying once I get going. When I'm really in a zone I usually have my earbuds in and I'm separated from the world around me. It's a really good place to be in when your working, no matter how you get there.

I used to know a guy who would always have a movie on, screen completely minimized, and he would just listen to it while he worked. That was how he got into his rhythm. Now, I couldn't see myself listening to a movie while I worked, and he couldn't imaging himself listening to music. We are both extremely productive individuals, even with our self inflicted distractions.

That rhythm, even if it comes in silence, find it. Find the rhythm. Work to a beat.