Working While Pregnant

Our staff meeting occurs regularly every other week. As I am currently 35 weeks pregnant, I asked if anyone was sick before committing to sitting in a small meeting room. Two of our five staff members were. I sat close to the door and on the opposite side of the room.

Boss lady pointed out that I shouldn't come to work if it's detrimental to my health. Ah... but there's the rub. She's not a fan of me working from home either so that puts me in a spot where my coworkers' courtesy in taking care of themselves dictates when I take my time off :-p My very valuable time off.

Well, at least I have my job and don't have to quit after 6 months preggo like my aunt and countless other people did "back in the day!"

The Habits of a Freelancer

Many of these habits are also the downfall of effective creatives: in-house designers, agency workers, media folks, or even the pencil pusher with an internet tendency. Wasted time that trickles away can really nag at project deadlines when you're not as motivated as usual. Be it low company/dept morale, pay cuts, hiring freezes, increased workload for less pay, or even lack of feeling valued in this harsh economy, a creative tends to seek inspiration outside of their office, including via the internet. The following 7 Bad Habits are ones that I am trying to stay on top of while battling the list of reasons to mope above. 

So far I've cleared off my desk, altered my morning routine away from checking mail, promised more realistic deadlines, and I've tuned into my jazz channel on Pandora to tune out the din of coworkers. I think progress is being made! - CM

Excerpted by a blog entry of 7 Habits to Kick as a Freelancer  by Samar Owais
1. Excessive Social Networking, Instant Messaging And Internet Browsing
This has been written and told so many times that you’d think it would be engraved in people’s head by now. Even if you’re super careful and watch your time, social networking and browsing have a habit of sneaking up on you and making you ignore the clock.

Stop Stumbling, Digging, or going through your RSS reader for an unscheduled period of time. If there’s work on your desk that’s being ignored in favor of it then you’re wasting time and momentum.

2. Email Obsession
Ah yes. We all have the email bug. Here’s how you ditch the habit.
1. Turn off the notification sound
2. Shut off your inbox
3. Check every two hours or any (reasonable) time period of your choice.
4. Rinse and repeat

You could also check email as a reward. Completed an article? Check email. Met a deadline? Omg, I so deserve to check my email now!

Yes you’ll go crazy, but your work will thank you for it!. Think of the happy clients and stress free pace of work as you’re free from the anxiety of having things added to your to-do list with every email.

3. The “Yes, Right Away” Attitude
A quick clarification: I’m not asking you to ditch the “Yes, I can” attitude. What kind of a freelancer would I be if I told you to ditch the secret behind your success? I’m telling you to ditch the “Yes, right away” attitude. There’s a difference.

As freelancers and web workers, we tend to think that if we don’t act immediately, we’ll lose out. That’s the wrong attitude. Not everything requires your immediate attention.
Prioritize:

Make the distinction between clients who’ll appreciate and reward the quick response and those to whom it wouldn’t make a difference if you replied a few hours later or the next day.

If you’re replying to emails as they come in your inbox, you’ll spend your entire day dealing with them and get no work done. Ever wondered where your day went when you haven’t taken a break all morning?

Nine times out of ten, your day went to your inbox.

4. Information Overload
Sometimes I think ‘freelancer‘ is a synonym for ‘continuous learning‘. We read or at least scan everything that comes in front of our eyes, we bookmark religiously, download e-books like we’re obsessed and research is our middle name.

All this leads to information overload.

I’ll be the first to say that we never know when we’ll need something. However, short circuiting our brain trying to cram everything ruins our work. Not to mention the headache it brings on.

5. Clutter
That desk of yours? It has to be cleaned. Your papers need to be filed, pens need to be set in their holder and you need to pick up the trash. Even your desktop needs to be organized.

And no, dumping everything in your drawer is not called de-cluttering.

Very few people thrive in clutter. Organized chaos is fine but the minute you spend more than 15 seconds looking for something, it’s not organized anymore.

So ditch the clutter and organize.

6. Distractions
Distractions come in many forms. Every freelancer has their own set of distractions. It could be unnecessary phone calls, the neighbor’s noisy dog or even your own children.
Respect your work time and figure out ways to eliminate these distractions. Get a baby sitter for your kids or get them involved in extra-curricular activities. Dealing with your neighbor’s dog could be easy or you may have to be a little uhh… innovative.

Whatever your distractions, they can be eliminated. Turn the force of your “can do” attitude on your distractions and watch them melt away.

7. Extremes
Moderation is the name of the game. Don’t waste your time getting distracted or procrastinating but don’t become obsessed with productivity either.
Set goals and meet them. That’s the definition of a successful and productive day. If you don’t meet them every now and then, it’s ok. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to fail.

Safety on the Commute

After a near miss with a pile up, I home everyone is more vigilant about keeping back the appropriate distance from the car in front of you at ALL TIMES! Stop tailgating, the world will wait for you.

Student Blogs Rock!

Working for a University with student bloggers, there is so much that we can capture because the students are just being themselves! Adults attempting to accomplish the same task would not be given the clear perspective of life on campus RIGHT NOW, unfiltered, slightly censored, and free from the burden of "this is an assignment."

I'm following a handful of blogs on my Google Reader and I bundled them together for easy reference. I welcome you to take a peek and subscribe!

We're close to 2 weeks until the end of the semester wraps up with finals!
Cheers and enjoy the perspectives!
CM

Recipes for Creative Stimulation

Every day, I begin the work day by opening a new browser window with my umpteen tabs. By the time I've worked through them, I know what's going on in the world around me and far away. I've seen some neat creative work from other people and I've checked in with life in general.

Here's my list of links that get me going, in their order- feel free to bookmark!

News and Life
www.CNN.com
www.iGoogle.com (my email, calendar and LIFE)
hootsuite.com/dashboard - to control my social media life (a little)
www.wired.com - there's always something crazy cool I didn't know about
www.wzpl.com - Local Indy morning radio show, stream it!
www.indystar.com - For bigger local news
www.aroundindy.com/today.php - Indy events and free stuff
www.idsnews.com/news/headline.aspx - Student news for the town I work in
woot.com - Deal of the Day, sometimes dumb

Web Comics
xkcd.com - brainy & witty
marriedtothesea.com - witty & obscure
toothpastefordinner.com - wry & obscure but dead on
www.cad-comic.com/cad - for the illustrations & occasional story
www.wulffmorgenthaler.com/default.aspx - hilarious, obscure, rude & produced in Denmark
dilbert.com/strips - classic, fitting, & I understand it more every day

Creativity
freshbump.com - interesting, creative, and user content driven
quotesondesign.com - inspiring, inconsistently deep
www.flickr.com - My photo account to check stats and seek creative inspiration

Enjoy!

Typography and April Fools History

From the article "Top 100 April Fool's Jokes"

#5 San Serriffe 1977:
The British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Only a few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.

Design nerds and the uninitiated alike commented back and forth on this post.
What a delightful prank. I would love to visit Lower Caisse!

CM

Design That Makes Me Sad

I got an internal email about a diversity walk. It looked like this...

Here's a closer look:

What does this image say about diversity? I asked my coworkers...

"What happened?"

"It gives the feeling that diversity is scary or messy or sketchy."

It looks like it was blasted with a shotgun. Is it just me or does that seem totally wrong for a “diversity” event???"

"My thoughts exactly, and it appears to have been developed on a red background and pulled off of it…"

"Best guess is that someone’s secretary was asked to do it."

I tell ya, some days, it's not worth chewing through the restraints. Other days, if you can catch bad design before it's public, there's a lot of collaboration and teamwork that can come of it!

CM

Save Public Schools using Licensing Programs

A response to the IndyStar article by Andy Gammill, "Educators: Only cuts left are ones that will hurt kids. Indiana schools are struggling to trim budgets 4.5 percent"

Why Not Save Public Schools using Licensing Programs...
Could a hoodie sweatshirt be a step towards saving the art teacher's salary? Or a foam finger to keep the football coach? What about a bumper sticker to retain the orchestra director?

Both colleges and high schools, the latter on a smaller scale, have benefited monetarily from licensing programs, relying on them for academic funding and scholarship generation. Putting on my licensing hat, I whole-heartedly believe that this model can be applied in a smaller capacity to schools of the public youngster variety for proportionate benefits.

Harnessing the power of licensed merchandise can assist many school employees, including those at elementary and middle schools. A PTA sweatshirt here, a bumper sticker there, cups at sporting events, school spirit pom poms- each use of a branded or "official" product that has been produced through a licensing program generates a small percentage of royalty that is reinvested back into the school or program it is representing. Depending on contracts, colleges can garner 7-12% or more of an item's price in stores or from direct to consumer sales. Licensing also increases the visibility of a school's brand and makes higher quality products available, or at least products that meet set standards.

While licensing has upfront costs for establishing brand standards, enforcing them and consulting experts, it can be a consistent way to produce revenue long term. Students, parents, faculty, staff, and the community are all customers of the school's brand and more than likely they already own something splashed with school affiliated insignia. T-shirts are the best money maker and the most common purchase annually. Just think, for every science club t-shirt created for a junior high, fifty to seventy five cents of it could wind up going back to the school to help support keeping qualified science teachers on staff, allowing them to continue sparking the interest of the future chemists, engineers, and explorers of the world. Every annual marching band show shirt produced with the school name on it could kick back more money to the visual and performing arts departments to make sure rehearsals continue with a talented music educator at the helm, increasing students' potential to succeed in all areas of academia.

Marketing can help where state dollars fail. Partnering more aggressively with sponsors for events, performances and even portions of the school's inner workings, like the library, can create a win/win situation for education and local vendors. Sure, the idea of a Pepsi Basketball Court at ABC Junior High School sounds significantly invasive to the uninitiated, but it's what can save after-school sports without sacrificing salaries. And big companies are looking for ways to gain positive visibility in communities both big and small. Take a look at the fire hydrant and extinguisher initiative by KFC, and an Indy.com article "KFC pays Indiana cities for 'fiery' ad space"!


(photo: from Indy.com)
While there are plenty of arguments that the challenges of starting an elementary school or middle school licensing program will overshadow the early results, you can't deny the potential success modeled off of higher education implementation. While the neighborhood middle school may not have the same die hard alumni as a Big Ten college, all of those college graduates had to start somewhere. And if you can get them to relate to their middle school even remotely as enthusiastically as they do to their collegiate alma mater, they may be open to supporting the school through buying licensed products or sponsoring a sports team. They may bite at the idea, especially if it means ensuring that the same opportunities they had as children, if not more, will continue to be available to current students.

School by school, district by district, show choir by show choir, a tailored licensing program, large or small, will benefit schools in need of supplemental funding. With no funds to start the efforts or attract talent for marketing, this may have the distinct aroma of a non-profit calling. But aren't our nation's children the ultimate for-profit investment?

Caitlin McCready is a product of arts education and believes that dance, choir, band, and art opportunities in middle and high school are the foundations her successful, happy, and grounded creative marketing career. Her husband is a band director with degrees in Music Education - Wind Conducting and Chemistry, and was told as a teenager that music is not a reliable career. Caitlin recieved similar coaching regarding a degree in art yet both have, with effort, beaten the "odds" so far.

Can you MENTALLY handle your Facebook friends?

From two articles I stumbled upon this weekend, a UK Times article and a Mashable blog entry, my brain is spinning. The articles reference research by Robin Dunbar, relating to how we socially maintain friendships. I've considered, for a while now, creating an open invitation for no-hard-feelings unfriending from Facebook. I'm fascinated by the idea of making yourself vulnerable to the potential dismissal of life long to fleeting relationships via this social network. It would be odd to see who chooses to break the tie. Will it be mutually understood? Will my sister still want to be my FFriend? Thinking about how you'd feel if someone removed a connection to you, what goes through your head? It's a self esteem cliff for some people. It's validation for others (or a misread sign that their friends ignore them anyway.)

From the Sun article:
"WE may be able to amass 5,000 friends on Facebook but humans’ brains are capable of managing a maximum of only 150 friendships, a study has found.

Robin Dunbar, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, has conducted research revealing that while social networking sites allow us to maintain more relationships, the number of meaningful friendships is the same as it has been throughout history.

Dunbar developed a theory known as “Dunbar’s number” in the 1990s which claimed that the size of our neocortex — the part of the brain used for conscious thought and language — limits us to managing social circles of around 150 friends, no matter how sociable we are.

These are relationships in which a person knows how each friend relates to every other friend. They are people you care about and contact at least once a year.

He found that people tended to self-organise in groups of around 150 because social cohesion begins to deteriorate as groups become larger."

I challenge Dunbar's Number as it appears he has never been associated with a marching band (in 4 years, you can interact socially, creating life long friendships with over 600 people...). It intrigues me to ponder what life would be like if I focused only on maintaining relationships with 150 people. Currently I have 1,165 Facebook friends (wait- [confirm] 1,166), 12 Twitter accounts that I maintain, 7 blogs, 2 Flickr accounts, several job finder accounts, a LinkedIn profile and a handful of other media and communication accounts.

Then, there's the fact that not all FFriends are "friends" in the true sense. That woman you met at a business conference or the guy you went to grade school with that found you 2 years ago are not necessarily Active friends. Aquaintances, family, and networking connections come into play as you consider who makes up your social circle in online networking sites.

What do you think? What would an open invitation for your connections to unfriend you mean to you? Would you participate in someone else's open invitation? What have you done in the past when you feel no longer connected to an online relationship?

Thanks for your thoughts- I'll post updates as my brain evolves.

Other interesting correlations: Facebook hurts test scores

Some days...

"Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints."
That was my week. That sums it up. It's been rough for reasons I can't even begin to divulge publicly online, at least not this week. I had personal and professional challenges, defeats, disappointments, harassment, tedium, inspiration and a swallow (or several) of booze the likes of which I've never experienced in such a combination. My husband shared similar mixed feelings for said week. My friends are an invaluable resource of unique support. My supervisor and a few coworkers, along with the hubby, talked me off the ledge, all the while telling me my behavior was justified. Family, work and the time of year convinced me that the restraints felt safe for a day or two. I think I'll be up to chewing away again next week. This 3 day weekend was timed perfectly.