Life happens. Sometimes work gets busy, clients ask for more than expected, or wildfire evacuations are issued and you have to leave your home (ahem, last summer). It’s frustrating, especially when you’re self-employed.
A snapshot of the evac alert from last summer. Life happens. Wildfires happen.
Other times your baby boy gets sick, and you and your husband must take turns mopping up ungodly amounts of vomit (ahem, yesterday, today, and the foreseeable future).
Baby boy stubbornly refusing his Pedialyte popsicle.
Luckily, my husband and I are both self-employed.
Well, it’s not luck. It’s a decision we made and worked hard to fulfill.
Self-employment means I could crack on with a client project last night after our sick baby boy finally fell asleep.
It means I can write this post on my iPhone while simultaneously force-feeding baby boy a Pedialyte popsicle.
(I’m only winning at one of these two activities. Can you guess which?)
But I can’t work on my laptop while holding baby boy. That would place it in the splash zone, and that’s not okay. My beloved MacBook deserves better than that.
Plus, my arms are too busy delivering cuddles to hold a laptop; an iPhone is the most I can juggle.
Falling short at work
This means the time I’d scheduled to create the Google Sheets version of the writing tracking spreadsheet has disappeared. Vamoosh.
In case you missed it, I recently talked about a new writing tracking spreadsheet I created to monitor my progress through my clients’ books, so I can set better writing goals. I used Apple Numbers to make this beauty (there are some damn good lookin’ formulas in there), but I know many folks don’t use Numbers.
I promised I’d create a Google Sheets version you could use to track your own writing goals. But I haven’t. And I’m frustrated that I’m cleaning up baby puke instead of fulfilling my work promise.
That’s the curse of being self-employed. When you have to step away, there’s no one else to pick up the slack.
But, if you’re a half-decent employee, the same is true in a corporate setting. You call in sick, and the next day you have to make up for the work you missed. So I suppose it’s the curse of doing work you care about, no matter who employs you.
Click here to get your free writing tracking spreadsheet in Apple Numbers format. Google Sheets format still to come.
Get the free tracking spreadsheet
I will have to create the Google Sheets tracking document later. In the meantime, here’s a link to get the free Apple Numbers version, if that works for you.
It sucks that I can’t get all my work done, but my sick baby boy is reminding me why self-employment is so valuable…
I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to stay home and give him cuddles. I can choose how to balance my schedule. The choices aren’t always easy, but they’re mine to make.
Self-employment is worth it
Self-employment is valuable. It’s worth the considerable effort.
If you’re self-employed, I want to encourage you to keep on keeping on.
You won’t always win.
You can’t always deliver the Google Sheets doc you promised, or do all the things all the time. You will fall short on occasion and be frustrated for it.
But if you keep going, you can stay true to your mission, serve people as best you can in the moment, balance your own schedule, and give your sick baby boy all the cuddles.
It’s worth making your business work. Do you agree?
~
P.S. If you scrolled straight down, click here to get the free writing tracking spreadsheet in Apple Numbers format. Google Sheets format still to come. And here’s the key takeaway: Self-employment isn’t always easy, but it is worth it. So keep on keeping on.
P.P.S. I finally won both the blog post and popsicle battles. Here’s photographic proof…!