I guess now is a good time to come clean about what's been going on with me on the last couple of months both personally and professionally. Since April I've been feeling a little burned out and lacking on inspiration. I had some jobs that still needed tending to and deadlines coming in dangerously close. I worked hard at shaking the sillies away but nothing seemed to work for the longest time. Not to mention someone was constantly sick in this house and most of the time it was me.
Being a freelance designer and working from home have proven to be two of the most challenging but rewarding things I've ever had to do. I spend a lot of time by myself which lead to a mayor self-discovery season not too long ago, I had to learn about time management the hard way and most of the time sometimes comparing myself and my work with that of others around the web (both good and bad depending on the way you look at it). I also don't have anyone telling me if what I do is good or not, but then again that IS a good thing. I've been able to find myself and express myself freely, find where my happiness comes from and give back to those that feel connected with what I do.
Creating a routine for me was the hardest part. I get a couple of hours of peace to work in the morning while Amelia goes off to school and once I dropped her off all I wanted to do was to go back to bed, watch a bad movie and pray and hope that whatever sickness I had left my body once and for all. I tell ya... Forcing yourself to get out of bed and dragging your heavy icky body to your computer when you are sick is HARD. I almost felt like quitting.
But I did it. I somehow managed to work even for a couple of hours a day. and it was so rewarding! But then something else happened. My beloved macbook died on me. It just wouldn't start one morning. After two hours of yelling and abusing the power button it turned on. But what I saw it do was really scary: Opening Itunes would make it freeze, photoshop made it restart and Chrome made the screen go black for ten seconds. I had it checked out and the diagnosis was: Nothing to be done. Change computers.
From that moment I had the worst two weeks I've had in a long time. I absolutely hated apologising to customers, turning down projects I would've love to be a part of and refunding money to people when I couldn't meat deadlines. I was miserable. I felt so unprofessional and needless to say I cried every single day.
Fortunately for me I had the opportunity to go out and purchase a new iMac. Hellooooo! My dream come true. I hadn't work on a big screen like this since I was in college. I'm over the moon and was just the type of motivation I needed. I couldn't wait to set it up. Install photoshop and Illustrator and go at it. and that is precisely what I did. I've been feeling so productive and active this past couple of days. Just yesterday I finished two projects. TWO! A couple of months ago that would've taken me two weeks.
My productiveness has also started to show in my personal life as well. I redid my entire office/makeup space in just 3 hours yesterday, organised my work schedule and tackled my inbox in just 2 more. I've also been great at keeping an energy-filled routine: I get up early, get lunch ready for my man to take to work, make breakfast, get the kiddo ready for school, drop her off, come back home and work until noon when I have to go pick her up again. I then manage to have some me time or even more work time while she naps and have lunch ready by the time she gets up. I've been so surprisingly upbeat and happy this week and it feels awesome!
I'm feeling good as new and I can feel deep down that this is going to be the start of great great things for me.
I'm ready to take on the world
So bring it!