Have Work? Will Travel!

I currently freelance through an agency because I want to get out of debt before I completely destabilize myself, but I dream of one day freelancing on my own. This is partially because I hate offices, and partially because I really hate having a 9 to 5 schedule, but mostly because it means I could work anywhere. I blame Neil Gaiman for this dream. I've been reading Neil's blog (which I highly recommend) for years, and listening him talk publicly for much longer than that, and he's always talking about popping off to remote corners so that he can write without distraction. I've never forgotten the story where he tells his agent that he doesn't care where it is, he just wants to go somewhere orange (as in warm -- he currently lives in Minnesota). I'd like to be able to pop off to somewhere orange, or just somewhere quiet, whenever I'd like. It would make me very happy.

At any rate, although I don't plan to strike out independently for many years, I keep it in mind and I try to keep my workspace portable. I try to keep my 'office' as virtual as possible by using online applications whenever possible (preferably ones that also work with the iPhone -- I'm really looking forward to the third party apps) and keeping track of it all with iGoogle.

Freelance Switch recently posted a 4-part series called Becoming a Freelance Web Worker on the whys and hows of going freelance, and working anywhere was just covered in the 4th and final chapter. I'm happy that I've at least got the going-mobile part down, but Skellie points out something important in Part 3, The Working Day: "Technology won’t magically make you more productive. In fact, I think a lot of web workers fall into the trap of spending more time reading about productivity and learning to use new productivity tools than they do actually being productive!" So true! While I've been helped immensely by learning about productivity tools and by adopting an organizational system, it's still the doing the counts.

“There is no tonic out there for productivity like actually doing something.” -- Merlin Mann, 43 Folders

Although it's statements like this that actually make me feel much better:

“It’s so painfully ironic to be a disorganized personwho’s supposed to be really organized. It hurts.” -- Merlin Mann, MacBreak Weekly #18