Freelancing, Me and UFC Makes Three

I talk often here about how freelancing enables us to travel and do lots of exciting activities but there's another benefit that I haven't mentioned. I can mostly arrange my schedule any time I want. This means that I can follow my interests at a time that suits me.

I am a big fan of the UFC and an even bigger fan of pro wrestling. I tend to keep the second one quiet because I am often obliged to defend it if I mention it! Quickly: yes, I know it's fake and no, I am not 12.

The problem with liking these things and not living in the States means that the shows are on at inconvenient times to watch live. Usually they are in the middle of the night on my timezone. When I worked full time I would have to work a full day between the show and my chance to watch it.

This made it difficult to avoid spoilers; there were multiple occasions when a casual mention in conversation, a text message or an accidental glance at a notification spoiled results. Basically, the longer you go between the broadcast and viewing increases the probability of spoilage.

This past week has been busy for my two hobbies:

• My favourite pro wrestler in the world, Shinsuke Nakamura, recently changed companies from New Japan Pro Wrestling to WWE and debuted at their NXT show on April 1st

• The biggest pro wrestling show in the world, WWE Wrestlemania was on April 3rd at AT&T Stadium in Dallas in front of 100,000 fans
• Exciting heavyweight prospect Ben Rothwell faced his biggest challenge to date in Junior Dos Santos on UFC Fight Night 86 on April 10th

Due to being a freelancer I was able to watch these shows as soon as I woke up the day after their broadcast. I can put off my work until later in the day and indulge myself. Guaranteed spoiler free!

Other similar benefits include - going to the Flow House in Bangkok during the day when it's quiet, going to see Batman vs Superman during the day when there are less annoying children and going to do Crossfit first thing in the morning before work because I hate exercising in the evening!

There are lots of good reasons to freelance. This is just a nice little advantage I have seen since I started freelancing. Get in touch if you'd like to know more about how freelancing can support your hobbies.

We've Worked in... Phuket

We are planning to leave Thailand in May so we decided to get out of Bangkok for our final weeks. We found a nice place in Phuket on AirBnB and decided to live the (sort of) island lifestyle for a while.  This is one of the things I love about having a non location specific job!

We've Worked in... Phuket

We came to Phuket with our friends Nick and Ging. Nick and I came to Phuket in 2011 and studied Muay Thai for a month. I had a fight at the end of our training as you can see here:

With a record of 1-0, I retired undefeated from Muay Thai. Not wanting to put that at risk and with absolutely no demand from fans to see me return to the ring I decided to try something new. Agi and I signed up for Crossfit at a new gym in Phuket called Unit 27.

Our new routine during our time in Phuket has been going to Morning Glory sessions, coming home and recovering then starting work. I have heard that doing a workout in the morning gives you energy for the rest of the day. That is not the case in my experience! I feel better for doing more exercise and I am happy to have done it but I generally feel knackered for the rest of the day.

During our time in Phuket we have had a revolving cast of guest stars. 3 different groups of friends came to catch up with us which has been amazing. Eating out and going to the beach has been a real treat. It makes it difficult to fit work in sometimes but it's totally worth it.

We have friends with a young kid so going out partying wasn't an option with them. What's the next best thing after raving? Dinosaur themed mini golf!

I wish we had done more of this sort of thing during our time in Thailand but I'm not complaining. We had a great time in Bangkok but I sometimes forgot that there are other places to go. Today we are leaving for a 4 day liveaboard diving trip in the Similan islands. After that we are going up north to Pai to spend our last few weeks in the mountains. Agi has been begging for mountains for months. Life is good.

Another great trip enabled by freelancing. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Freelancers Don't Have Weekends

Working as a freelancer allows a lot of freedom to create your own schedule. That's great but there is a danger of letting your work take up all of your time. You can end up doing work every day and at all times of day. How can you ensure you have some time to decompress? Do you need a weekend?

One of my favourite things about freelancing is that I don't actually need to work a full time job. I can earn enough money to do everything I want without being trapped working 9-5 every day. Often I do work 8, 9, 10 hours in a day but I don't have to.

I have found though that I work at all hours of the day or 7 days a week without really ever taking a complete day off. I don't work all the time but I do work every day. I'm not sure yet if this is a good or bad thing. Traditional work culture has trained me to believe in a 5 day work week with 2 days off. I have thrown off most of the traditional mode of work so I'm not sure why I still feel like this.

It is sometimes too easy while freelancing to take a long lunch or watch a YouTube video here and there. This can then mean that you have still have work to do at 7pm without having worked all that hard during the day. You still get all of your work done but it feels like you're never truly off the clock.

I have been thinking about this recently and I've decided to try an experiment. When I was working full time I attended a training course on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I really enjoyed the course and there were lots of useful ideas in it but one that really stuck with me is the idea of Big Rocks. Essentially, plan the big tasks that you have to do and everything else will naturally fit around them. If you let the small things lead the way then you'll never get around to the big things. This video demonstrates it really well.

Last Friday I spent 10 minutes marking out time in my calendar for the tasks I need to do. I'm going to try to stick to it even when other things come up. Writing this blog is frequently something that I push aside when client work comes up and I end up doing it at the last minute. However, I marked out an hour from 3-4 today to write this post. I was in the middle of some client work when my calendar notified me that the no9to5 blog session was coming up so I finished what I was doing and changed tasks. Now the post is nearly finished and I can go back to what I was doing.

I'm hoping that doing this will result in me finishing the work I need to do in a reasonable time so I can fully switch off until the next day. I will do a follow up in a month to let you know how the experiment goes. How do you manage your time while freelancing? Let me know.

We've Worked in... Hong Kong

As has been documented on this blog here and here, Agi loves to run. This time she signed up for a 100km ultra marathon across Lantau island in Hong Kong. We weren't alone as the other members of Agi's running club the Bangkok Runners came too. We decided to fit in some sightseeing either side of the race... and of course, it wouldn't be a no9to5 holiday without doing some work!

We've Worked in... Hong Kong

The first day was very quiet as Agi did not want to walk or move much to save energy for the race. We were staying with one of Agi's friends who had recently and conveniently moved from Bangkok to Hong Kong. It's nice having friends around the world! We did some work from his apartment on the 47th floor with an incredible view of Hong Kong bay. I've worked from worse places.

In the evening we took the ferry across to Lantau island. We met up with Agi's friends there and I left them to start their race at 11:30pm! I took the ferry back to Hong Kong and walked from the pier to our apartment. Hong Kong is a beautiful and lively city at night. Lights shine from every building and the streets are full of people. I was tired after my 3km walk but Agi had just started her 100km.

On Saturday I got up and did some work. I had the day to kill so I had found the Hong Kong Tabletop Gaming Group on Meetup. I met them in a nice cafe and we spent a few fun hours playing a role playing game. Agi runs amazing races and I play nerdy games. Afterwards, I went out and roamed the city. Hong Kong is a nice city to walk around as there is so much to see; British shops next to Chinese markets, street art, people practicing Tai Chi in parks. It's a good work out too as there are endless stairs and hills.

Agi finished her 100km trail run in 22h37m. An amazing accomplishment. She spent the night on Lantau island and we met up on Sunday morning for a well deserved (by her) brunch with the Bangkok Runners. Afterwards we went for a walk around the city and took the tram back to our apartment.

Monday was mostly work, again from our office in the clouds! I have worked in some dingy offices in my time and our 47th floor office beat them all hands down. In the evening we walked to the waterfront where there is a music and lights show every night. Spotlights and lasers shine in time to music played over loudspeakers. It's great and totally worth seeing if you visit. We also checked out Comix Home Base, an art gallery / event venue dedicated to comic art. It's free and quite interesting.

Hong Kong was a lovely break from Bangkok if only because it was cold! It was a nice change to wear long trousers without sweating. Another great trip enabled by freelancing. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

What is a Reasonable Expectation?

Since starting work as freelancers this is a question Agi and I have been wrestling with. As a freelancer there is a certain amount of paranoia that a client could potentially end your relationship without any notice. You want to keep your clients happy but how far does this go? When a client asks for something should you drop everything else?

When you work in a salaried position there is (usually) a clear delineation between your work and off time. If someone asks for something that you think is unreasonable you can push back and you probably won't get fired (not legal advice!). You can feel secure if for no other reason than firing people in most countries is quite a lot of hassle. One of the downsides of freelancing is that there are no guarantees. Clients can come and go with very little notice.

I wrote a post recently about working while travelling. I mentioned that we rarely take any extended time off work; choosing instead to maximise our travel time by working as we go. We are both very happy with this situation and we keep our clients informed to avoid surprises. This can lead to difficult situations though.

If you are on the way to the airport and you receive a client email with a request. Should you fire up your mobile hotspot and try to sort it there and then? If you get back from dinner and you're tired but you see an email asking for an urgent task. Should you do it then or wait for the morning?

Essentially, where is the line? What can a client reasonably expect? What do you owe to yourself? These are tough questions and I don't have definite answers but I'll give you some of my thoughts.

At the start of my freelance career I had only one client and I was terrified of losing them. I made myself available whenever they wanted and jumped on any emails like a teenager waiting for a text from the hot girl in class. Now that I have grown my empire(!) I feel more confident in myself. I have a few clients and I don't feel so dependent on any individual one.

Lesson the first: Diversify your client base

I have worked with my current clients for a reasonably long time now. We have got to know each other and how we work. I know that they will not ask for something urgently unless it really is urgent. Equally, they know that I can be relied upon to get stuff done so they don't ask for constant updates.

Lesson the second: Develop relationships with your clients

The final thought is that, as a freelancer you are taking control of your life. Most of us do this because we don't want to be chained down to a single location or company for 40 years. I don't think we should exchange one type of chain for another. Only you know what you are comfortable with and you should get to know your own limits and expectations. I frequently work on things late at night or in an airport waiting room because I know that I can take time off during normal work hours if I want to.

Lesson the third: Find the level that you are comfortable with

The final point to take away is that freelancing is a kind of adventure. Most people do it because they don't fit the mould so, by definition, no 2 people's experiences will be the same. Get started, find a work style that you are comfortable with and build from there. Let me know how you're getting on. I love to hear your feedback.