More On The Home Office Revolution

“Already the writers are complaining that there is too much freedom. They need some pressure. The worse your daily life, the better your art. If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds.”
–Tatyana Tolstaya, Russian author

In This Issue:

More On The Home Office Revolution
by Monica Day

As I read Krista’s column for last week, I had to laugh…so I wouldn’t cry! You see, I’ve been in Krista’s office – and her home – and I can tell you firsthand: It’s a paragon of peace and calm. If she has clutter, I’ve never seen it. If she has dust bunnies in the corners, they are extremely well-behaved around company.

Meanwhile, true to our differences, my home and office is usually in a state of flux. Especially since I haven’t had a break from the incessant wave of transitions and changes in my life during the last 18 months. Just as I got my office together after I moved into my new house, I had to move everything up to my bedroom for my recovery period from surgery. And just as that was working pretty well…it’s time to move back.

And the piles I’ve accumulated along the way! Oy vay…

But I’m determined to get back in the game and not let them sit around too long this time and get truly out of control. So here’s my attack plan:

Find A Place For Everything: One of the main stumbling blocks to putting things away is that they don’t have a permanent home. You need enough bookshelves for books, filing cabinets for files, closet space for supplies, plastic bins for swipe files, etc. Any organizing effort should start with a session of sorting and tossing. Once the bags of trash are removed, you can better assess what you need to adequately store the keepers.

Only Keep What You Need: There are many levels of filing and storage. For taxes, you need to keep quite a few years of records, especially when you’re self-employed. But there’s no need to have them accessible all the time. Same with client files. After five years, I’m inundated with files from past projects. At least once a year, move things you don’t need to touch everyday to a longer-term storage area, like the garage or attic…or even the trash.

Make The Time: No, the fairies really aren’t going to show up. Whether you schedule an hour or two a day…or clear the deck for a weekend, you’re going to have to make the time to get it right. Of all the things you CAN delegate, I’ve found that organizing your office isn’t one of them. It defeats the purpose of knowing where to find everything when you aren’t the one to put it away in the first place.

You Need More Than Just Order: Once you beat everything into submission, you have one more step to take. You have to make the place FEEL good. For Krista it’s her fountain and flood of natural light. I’ve heard legendary stories of other copywriter décor – from guitars to wet bars to a personal gym, to a fulltime view of a prized sports car. What makes you happy? Whatever it is, keep it around your office as a daily reminder of who you are and why you’re working so hard to live a life of freedom.

Keep It Up: The cycle of order and chaos is just as detrimental to your career as the cycle of feast and famine in your workload. Maintenance is key. Once you get your office in order…keep it up! Pardon me for a minute while I indulge the financial writer-geek in me that loves crunching numbers…but think about this:

If you spend 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for 50 weeks keeping up with your office organization, you’ll only spend 2.6 days a year on this task. But if you’re more like me and you let it go, you’re likely to need to spend at least one 8-hour day a quarter, maybe two. That’s anywhere from 4 to 8 days organizing. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure I have better ways to spend my time.

Resource Referral: The Nuts and Bolts Matter

When you’re starting a new venture, it’s hard to know exactly how to organize it. You haven’t established patterns for how to do things yet, so it’s hard to put systems into place that will work. The resources I’m recommending to you today will help you get started as a freelancer on the right foot. Most of them weren’t available just a couple of years ago when I was starting out – I wish they had been. It took me two years to figure out on my own some of the things you’ll discover plainly spelled out on these pages:

The Writer’s Tax Guide for Freelancers: A Money-Saving Manual for Travel Writers and Other Freelancers: There are numerous tax breaks and benefits available to small business owners – but it’s up to you to claim them. Find out how with this handy guide.

Business In A Box: The A-Z of running your freelance business the right way from day one. It will save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars if you start out with these systems, rather than wing it.

AWAI’s Computer Basics: While this one isn’t geared towards managing your business per se, being efficient on your computer is another important way to be effective in your business. You should be able to manage your files, use shortcuts for routinely performed tasks, and keep your work backed up and safe. Your computer is the backbone of your business – know how to use it!

Organizing From The Inside Out by Julie Morganstern
This has been a very helpful book to me in my efforts to get organized. If you don’t have the kind of brain that easily compartmentalizes things, or easily sorts and streamlines…or if you have heart palpitations when you look at an unsorted pile of junk, Julie will lead you out of the woods!

Organizing for the Creative Person: Right-Brain Styles for Conquering Clutter, Mastering Time, and Reaching Your Goals by Dorothy Lehmkuhl
When I first wrote about this I had just ordered it from Amazon myself. I was hoping it would fill in some of the gaps in Julie’s book – and it did. If you’re the creative and yet hopelessly scattered type, this could be just what you need to get on track.

Quick Copywriting Tip: Working Backwards

I’ve noticed lately that I’m doing everything backwards. When I’m writing a promotion, I start with the offer and then go up to the headline and lead. When I write this column, I start with the tip and work my way up to the main essay. As I’m planning my deadlines, I’m starting with the due date, and planning in little milestones of completion along the way. When planning my day, I block out all the times I know I can’t work – whether I have kid duty or physical therapy or phone calls. Then, I’m merciless about the time in between, drilling my to-do list down to 15 minute increments. (In fact, as I’m writing you today, I’m being motivated by the hot date and cosmopolitan that’s waiting for me at the end of it. You can’t imagine how quickly I’m flying through everything on my list!)

Best of all – I’ve planned a vacation. It’s not until the end of the year. And if I’m going to be able to take it, I have MAJOR goals I have to hit along the way. Financial, personal, business –every area of my life. So I’m planning all that backwards too. Somehow, keeping my eyes focused on the prize at the end of the year is helping me get through what feels like a daunting list much, much faster.

Try it yourself. Start with your vision of the perfect – anything – promotion, day, week, life. And then work backwards and think of all the steps it will take to achieve that vision. See if you don’t feel a surge of energy to tackle the hard stuff along the way.