Self employment: A New Direction

I’ve been wanting to write a blog post about the differences between self employment and employment for a while now.

I’m certainly no expert in this space but I feel like I am really starting to get an idea of what my day-to-day and week-to-week looks like now.

Of course, then I tried writing a blog post about this topic and realised it just isn’t possible. It’s a massive topic and I’ve got a lot of thoughts and opinions on it to boot.

So, awesomely, this thought-process represented the start of this blog taking a more consistent direction. I know I went a bit off track with some of my earlier posts because I didn’t really know what to write about or how to structure a blog! On that note… 

Self employment observation one: Structure

I have always been a fan of structure. I thought that one of the more difficult parts of the self-employment journey would be the relative lack of structure I’d have. Largely due to the fact that there isn’t a consistent amount of work each week. 

I am fortunate because I have never struggled to motivate myself. In light of my concerns about how I would structure my time, I approached this journey by actively looking for things to occupy myself and create structure around. It turns out there is no end of work to do out there. Bizarrely, I’ve had to actively remind myself not to structure all of my time, all of the time. It turns out I need unstructured time as much as I need structure! Not sure how I didn’t realise this until now.

Putting chaos to good use!

Yes, I’ve found that using a combination of structure and ‘chaos’ is working really well for me in the self-employment life. Chaos is written in inverted commas because it’s not really chaos – more just the absence of complete structure. I’ve found that I have thrived in the chaos and so I’ve been encouraging myself to foster these moments. I have created structure where needed because I know there are certain tasks that I need to dedicate time to. Then I use the unstructured/chaotic times to say yes to random opportunities as they pop up. As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, saying YES more frequently has been a huge change of mindset that I am employing this year.

I have found that I can use the following methodology to plan my time:

• Create a list of jobs, tasks, projects etc. that I need to dedicate time to, and
• Allocate time to allow me to focus on completing these tasks, and 
• Trust myself to use free/semi-chaotic time in the way that is best for me. This could be; online education/webinars, meeting new people, networking sessions, exercising or relaxing – whatever works!)

Question to you:

How do other self-employed people manage their time? I’m particularly interested in others who are on a similar journey to me (or who have been on that journey previously!).

As a reminder: My journey consists of me wearing multiple hats as a co-founder of a B2C business, working as an independent consultant (B2B), being an Airbnb host, and serving as a board member for a small charity. 

AND

On top of that, we’re getting a puppy (with the white crest on her head). Exciting times in the Jamieson/Boon household!

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