Back to the grind

Today is my first day back at work -- my nanny work, that is.  I did work both days over the weekend, and of course I had freelance work all week, but somehow being back to work at the nanny job -- the five-days-a-week, fairly demanding (especially since it's summer) job -- feels more like work than either the freelancing or the babysitting over the weekend.

I had a good vacation, but I do have some regrets.

My vacation week in review

Since today is the last day of full-on vacation (I don't go back to my nanny job until Monday, but I work both days this weekend), I thought it would be a good time to review the week.  I had a good vacation week, but it seemed altogether too short, and I'm afraid in some respects I wasn't as productive as I wanted -- even though I have to be fair to myself and admit that (as usual) I was overly optimistic about what I could achieve.

My writing vacation

All the writing work I've done this week -- client work, writing for my own blogs, and working on my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo -- has made me ponder why it is that I consider time to write to be vacation time.  It would be more understandable if I were spending the time just working on my fiction, or at least my own projects, but I'm not: I've spent quite a bit of my vacation week working on freelance work.

Success!

It took me a little while yesterday, but I finally did find my motivation.  In the end, I wrote three blog posts for my own blogs, a handful of posts for a client, and worked on my novel for a solid hour and a half.

ISO: My motivation

I don't know what it is about today --if I'm rebounding from my busy summer so far, or if it's because I know I'm on vacation, or both -- but today I woke up without my motivation.

I had planned to spend today on client work, novel writing, and some cleaning and other projects around the house.  When I woke up, however, I felt so blah that I ended up just turning on the TV for a little bit (something I rarely do).  After a couple hours (!), I made myself turn it off and work on some of my client work.

Commence vacation week!

This week I'm on vacation from my nanny job -- actually, from most of my jobs, since two of the families I babysit for are out of town, as well.  I don't have any work -- other than taking care of my primary employers' dog while they are out of town -- until the weekend.

Except for writing work, of course.

The science of breaks

Yesterday there was an article going around Facebook about how taking smartphone breaks at work can make you feel more positive about your workday.  It's something a lot of us freelancers already know: We are more productive when we allow ourselves breaks in between focused working sessions.

Writing for me vs. writing for them

I haven't always made a ton of progress on my fiction over the past two and a half years, but I have definitely had more time to work on it after I backed off on freelancing and started working as a nanny part-time, back in November 2011.  Before that, when I was freelancing full-time, it was as though I felt I couldn't work on my own projects while I always had client work waiting in the wings.

Since I took the nanny job, however, I have been freelancing less and less.  I started out intending to freelance part-time, so I kept on a few clients.  I didn't do any marketing, though, and they slowly fizzled out.

Hump week

This week marks the halfway point through summer, if you don't count the week off I have while the family I work for is on vacation.  And boy, am I feeling it!  Just like on "hump day" halfway between Monday and Friday, I'm dragging.  I've been working a lot of hours this week, and although the weeks go quickly in retrospect, I feel like I'm too busy.  I have that feeling like I'm just treading water and waiting for summer to end, so I can get on with the business of swimming.