Greg pointed out that I’ve been relatively quiet on the blog about the fact that Friday was my last day working for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and today is my first day of self-employment!
I’ve always anticipated that after being at a job for almost nine years, the first thing I would do after I left would be to go on a trip, lounge around all week or sleep and become a lump for a few days. Instead, I’ve actually been quite busy today, and have already taken a meeting, sent out a project, scheduled a few more this week and am getting ready to do some proposal writing. I’m really excited, and I hope I continue to keep busy this way.
The long-term goal is to have my own space and design shop. I was already pointing out all these cute fixtures on our last IKEA trip that would look perfect in my imaginary firm. Look for Red Velvet Design coming soon. My website, branding and portfolio are my first projects. In the meantime, if anyone knows of any freelance design projects at all, please, send them my way! Contact me at selena@selenarobleto.com.
Speaking from the Land of the Unemployed, let me share with you some of the wisdom that has come to me with oceans of open time on my hands:
1. Stay on schedule. Sure, now I wake up at 8:00 instead of 6:00 but I get up, shower, dress, everything that I would do normally. I know I would sleep all day if given the option. Don’t do that. Well, not too often. : )
2. Structure your time. I have a morning block of time, lunch, and an afternoon block for all my “work” that I need to do: job hunting, networking, writing, interview prep, Legion duties, sewing, housework, etc. I kick off at 5:00 like the rest of the working world (or earlier, on occasion).
3. Take a day off each week. I usually take Friday, but it can be any day to run errands, grocery shop, hit the hardware store or the post office. First of all, there’s no one there during the week (because everyone else is at work) and secondly, you get all those errands out of the way for your weekends! I love going to Pentagon City to shop on Wednesdays after 2:00. You miss the lunch crowd and the place is a relative ghost town.
4. Visit people (local). First of all, you don’t want to become a hermit crab and get cabin fever. That will surely drive you nuts. Go in town for networking events or to get coffee with other unemployed friends or meet people for their lunch hours.
4. Visit people (distant). If you don’t mind leaving Greg alone for a couple days or if he can get the time (and if it’s financially feasible), go visit people you’ve been meaning to see but never had the time to. You’ve got the time now! I took an extended Memorial Day weekend to go home because, well, because I could.
Hope this helps. I’ll add more pearls of wisdom as I think of them.
And congrats on moving into the independent world!!!
I’m so proud of you, really. I think one day you’ll look back on this as the best decision you ever made, work-wise. (Marrying Greg and joining a book club that enjoys lesbian-undercurrent-fiction would be your best decisions ever, of course.)
Alicia’s tips are all really good. I’m a ready partner in crime anytime you wanna do lunch!!!
Thanks for all the advice guys! This is really fantastic. I did realize that going grocery shopping today and just being out and about made me feel productive!
It’s not a job, but my Congressional Affairs Officer just sent me info on this design contest for Congressman Honda (who he says is a cool guy):
http://www.crowdspring.com/projects/website_design/small_website_uncoded/congressman_seeks_innovative_redesign_of_website/details
Since the contest closes in a week and they have no entries, I’d guess your chances are pretty good, and it’d be a great attention-getter!