Someone shared a post in a freelance membership group I’m in, about their podcast which they do as a side thing alongside their main thing. They have a theme that weaves its way into all the content, in the same way that I have now for this blog.
And that made me wonder – how do other people find time for their side projects? And how do they keep them manageable versus their paid work?
So I asked these questions to the same group (Doing It For The Kids), because the other members always have useful things to say.
I was asked a couple of questions in return – which I’ll answer below. AND my question was then featured as the question of the week on the Doing It For The Kids podcast – you can hear Frankie and Steve’s thoughts here.
Now back to those questions…
Why do I write on this blog?
This blog is my creative outlet. I get to choose a topic (or sometimes the topic chooses me), I write some thoughts, I find an image to go with it, and I publish it. Then I create a blog graphic for it, and I share the post in a few places. I enjoy creating the posts. I enjoy the the flow of my thoughts around the idea. And as I usually write on a Friday morning after a walk, I enjoy the whole process.
What would I want this blog and my activities around it to look like if I had no time constraints?
I had a sense when I saw this question that I wanted my blog to be more than it is. To reach more people. To become a thing in its own right, part of a movement or discussions around the subject of everyday joy. To allow me to interview people about joy, and to connect with others. To get paid for writing for magazines or websites. To turn into the book that I’ve been thinking about writing for a couple of years now. So quite a few things, some of which are quite ambitious and would be time consuming!
I do find it frustrating when I don’t have enough time for it. I write on a Friday, a day I keep free of client work for that purpose. So if my Friday gets hijacked by something else (necessary appointments, child being off school for some reason, lack of inspiration which happens every few weeks) then I feel like I’m failing and it’s all pointless. And that’s when I start asking questions of others about how they manage things.
And some thoughts prompted by the podcast…
The podcast episode helped me see that actually I do get what I need from this blog, and maybe I don’t need it to instantly be more than it is. I get my creative outlet. I get to share some glimpses into the things I’m interested in, and the types of clients I’d love to work with and why that is. People do read it and sometimes they also comment on it.
It could be more, and maybe it will evolve if I just relax and let it evolve naturally.
And actually what I need to first is to take ownership of this blog as a side project. My first step in doing that is to add it to my LinkedIn profile as a role, not just as a project hidden at the bottom. And to tell people that’s what I do on a Friday.
I need to continue sharing the posts. People won’t read it if they don’t know it exists.
And I need to connect with people who have an interest in the topics I write about on here – to share my posts with them, to hear what they have to say about similar subjects, to get inspiration and to learn from them.
Summary
So that’s it really. A community post about a podcast inspired my question about my blog, which led to a podcast episode and this blog post. Ha ha. And above are my thoughts.
Do check out the podcast episode, and if you have any comments on having side projects as a freelancer, leave them below or on the social media post you found this article through.
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