Tips for the novice freelancer
I remember recently a friend asked me for advice about working at home. He wanted to resign from the design studio and become a freelancer, but did not know that he could wait except for free graphics and a comfortable workplace. Having driven him thoroughly through articles and interviews on the freelance website, I still wanted to highlight the main points.
Let's start with the fact that such articles can be found with a good hundred and more than one hundred of them will appear. This is not surprising - every free worker faces classical problems and tries to solve them in his own way. And I am not an exception.
So, my advice to a novice freelancer, built on their own experience.
The more a freelancer sleeps, the less money he gets. It is important to remember this phrase and not to brush off excuses in front of you in the style of “it’s difficult to plan time yourself” or “irregular schedules kill all desire to work”. I remember real reviews from blogs where freelancers complain that TV, a comfortable large sofa and music prevent them from working. Then came the lengthy fabrications that work at home is hard labor and nobody understands them, it is inconvenient to work, everything distracts and so on ...
')
Here you want to ask a reasonable question: what did they actually do to turn the once-home place of rest into a workplace? Interfere with the TV? Turn it off or throw it out! Does music get in the way? Work in silence! That's what I do: during the day I personally am not comfortable working with music, I work in silence. Does the heat interfere? Put an air conditioner, now almost anyone can afford it.
If you refuse TV, entertainment sites, beer with friends and no other desire, then it is necessary to clearly distinguish between time for rest and time for work. The first six months of “free flight” I went to bed at 4 am, and I got up at 11, I felt lousy at the same time, because I could not sleep well. Later, I set myself a condition - to work until midnight at the most, then to put off all work until tomorrow. The efficiency of work at the same time significantly increased.
Same thing with beer, movies and other entertainment. Thanks to the trekkers, you can easily plan your time for viewing the third season of “Lost” or “The Adventures of Mr. Bean”. You can watch movies only after 19:00, read news feeds in the morning and in the evening. The rest of the time to give work. It is very simple and at the same time effective: you will not be able to read the bashorg at the same time and draw the next frontend. Man creation is not multitasking and we should not forget about it.
Working at home, we risk spending little time on our health, although we planned to just relax more and spend less time at the monitor. To work until the morning with poor lighting is not the best idea, as you can quickly spoil your eyesight, and with it your posture, you will have to peer into the image and slouch.
If you spend a lot of time at home, the probability of almost not moving becomes more than real. We just need to make the way from the bed to the workplace and tread the path to the kitchen and another couple of places. But at the same time, isn't this what we love freelancing for so much that we don’t have to go on the subway and in stuffy minibuses, push in lines and eat in the office canteen? And here we are again slipped bored way of life. To avoid this, you need to look for a compromise. Time free from commuting can be used to good advantage, such as running in the morning. No time or, more likely, desire? Then you can restrict at least daily morning exercises. Every morning, you can spend 10 minutes of time to quickly wake up and feel awake all day.
And if there is not enough time to run, no one will forbid to go to the pool, buy a bike, or sign up for a gym.
If you do not forget about health, it will not remind of itself for many years.
Divide and conquer - this phrase perfectly describes the effective work on the project. Any medium or large project can be divided into several small tasks, the implementation of each of which does not require a lot of effort. Thus, we can solve one big task by solving several small ones. Moreover, the solution of such problems is better to start with the simplest ones, gradually getting closer to the most difficult ones.
This technique was suggested to me by Anton Gulega, the guy with whom we, in 2000, began to be interested in design. His example was quite simple: imagine a bunch of leaves that we need to remove. To do this in one fell swoop will not work - it is too big. But as soon as we divide it into several smaller piles, then we have a completely solvable problem.
Now let's complicate the example and determine why it is better to start with small tasks. For example, in the yard there is autumn and a lot of leaves already known to us are scattered on the ground. There are small heaps and there is one more. If we first take on small ones, then at the end we will get a clean yard and one pile of leaves, which will not be difficult to remove. But if we first take up a large pile of leaves, then removing it, we will crush all the other leaves and the result will be more.
The same with the design of the site: first draw icons and icons, select colors and font, and only then begin to create a layout. You need to start with small tasks, moving to more complex ones.
When I started working as a designer, I had to work on a Samsung P28 laptop with 512MB of RAM. It's hard, I tell you. To draw a raster billboard on a laptop is, to put it mildly, impracticable, so I could not take on such orders and it absolutely did not suit me.
Therefore, the first thing, when my finances allowed, I got a good monitor, and then a system analyst. Note that I did not buy a plasma panel or a refrigerator, but bought exactly what will help me in my work. Everything else is in second place.
The same can be said about the table with the chair: if it is inconvenient to work, there will not be any work. It’s very inconvenient for me to work in a regular chair. By ordinary, I mean a chair in which, after two hours of work, my back hurts and cannot be turned or lowered. To address this issue, I bought a great expensive chair. It cost a lot, but now I forgot about the concept of back pain or uncomfortable posture during work.
It is important to first invest a substantial amount in the tools and in the future this money will surely pay off.
No matter how much disputes have arisen about the prepayment for work, I hold the unequivocal opinion - the prepayment must be before the start of all work. For example, if the task is to create a website design, then there should be no “preliminary layouts to determine the style” or “sketch a picture, I will show the director”. To determine the style of work or the level of the employee has his portfolio. Like work? We look at the technical project, we pay and we work. Do not like - goodbye.
It is necessary to remember - all preliminary layouts and design without prepayment is a free work for which you will most likely not receive money. Why should you work for free?
Many programmers or designers at the beginning of free flight neglect such a concept as a job on a technical task. If before the start of the project you can not accurately determine the amount of work, then this is fraught with additional and free work. The end of the previous paragraph makes you think about how to protect yourself from this.
To do this, demand the TK or offer to compile it with the customer and try to describe in it all the points that can be controversial. In TZ, you must specify:
The TOR serves as a document that can be addressed in case of a dispute. When compiling, remember to mention that this is not just a document describing the project and that it should take into account the wishes of both parties. For this, enough attention must be paid to its compilation. Not once convinced of the correctness of the sayings of the Ancient Freelancer: "Properly compiled TK is half the work."
Currently, there are only a few good websites in Runet that offer services for recruiting remote employees and searching for orders. In particular, it is free-lance.ru and weblancer.net. Among other things, they provide the opportunity to place their portfolio there. There is an opinion that the larger the portfolio, the better. Not quite so: if the portfolio contains a lot of works, both of average quality and below average, then it is highly likely that a potential customer will not look through it even to the middle and close it. Therefore, the portfolio should try to lay out only the best work.
If possible, make your personal portfolio site, especially since it does not require any special expenses. If there is no such possibility yet, try to distinguish your portfolio among the rest: think up your own unique design option or some kind of chip.
It will be very useful to choose your specialization. For example, only the design of promotional sites or only programming for CMS. The narrower the specialization, the easier it will be for the customer to find you.
First you work on a portfolio, then it works for you.
Do not forget that many years of wear will not work. Draw designs or spend days and nights in writing new modules sooner or later get bored, and you also need to think about family, children, and so on. Designer profession is very, very exhausting, if you love it and give it to her completely. Any designer sooner or later becomes the art director of the studio, or leaves the design because it exhales.
Working for today, we must not forget about the future. After all, your well-being tomorrow alone depends on you.
Source - Dedushka.org
Let's start with the fact that such articles can be found with a good hundred and more than one hundred of them will appear. This is not surprising - every free worker faces classical problems and tries to solve them in his own way. And I am not an exception.
So, my advice to a novice freelancer, built on their own experience.
Time planning
The more a freelancer sleeps, the less money he gets. It is important to remember this phrase and not to brush off excuses in front of you in the style of “it’s difficult to plan time yourself” or “irregular schedules kill all desire to work”. I remember real reviews from blogs where freelancers complain that TV, a comfortable large sofa and music prevent them from working. Then came the lengthy fabrications that work at home is hard labor and nobody understands them, it is inconvenient to work, everything distracts and so on ...
')
Here you want to ask a reasonable question: what did they actually do to turn the once-home place of rest into a workplace? Interfere with the TV? Turn it off or throw it out! Does music get in the way? Work in silence! That's what I do: during the day I personally am not comfortable working with music, I work in silence. Does the heat interfere? Put an air conditioner, now almost anyone can afford it.
If you refuse TV, entertainment sites, beer with friends and no other desire, then it is necessary to clearly distinguish between time for rest and time for work. The first six months of “free flight” I went to bed at 4 am, and I got up at 11, I felt lousy at the same time, because I could not sleep well. Later, I set myself a condition - to work until midnight at the most, then to put off all work until tomorrow. The efficiency of work at the same time significantly increased.
Same thing with beer, movies and other entertainment. Thanks to the trekkers, you can easily plan your time for viewing the third season of “Lost” or “The Adventures of Mr. Bean”. You can watch movies only after 19:00, read news feeds in the morning and in the evening. The rest of the time to give work. It is very simple and at the same time effective: you will not be able to read the bashorg at the same time and draw the next frontend. Man creation is not multitasking and we should not forget about it.
Health
Working at home, we risk spending little time on our health, although we planned to just relax more and spend less time at the monitor. To work until the morning with poor lighting is not the best idea, as you can quickly spoil your eyesight, and with it your posture, you will have to peer into the image and slouch.
If you spend a lot of time at home, the probability of almost not moving becomes more than real. We just need to make the way from the bed to the workplace and tread the path to the kitchen and another couple of places. But at the same time, isn't this what we love freelancing for so much that we don’t have to go on the subway and in stuffy minibuses, push in lines and eat in the office canteen? And here we are again slipped bored way of life. To avoid this, you need to look for a compromise. Time free from commuting can be used to good advantage, such as running in the morning. No time or, more likely, desire? Then you can restrict at least daily morning exercises. Every morning, you can spend 10 minutes of time to quickly wake up and feel awake all day.
And if there is not enough time to run, no one will forbid to go to the pool, buy a bike, or sign up for a gym.
If you do not forget about health, it will not remind of itself for many years.
Project management
Divide and conquer - this phrase perfectly describes the effective work on the project. Any medium or large project can be divided into several small tasks, the implementation of each of which does not require a lot of effort. Thus, we can solve one big task by solving several small ones. Moreover, the solution of such problems is better to start with the simplest ones, gradually getting closer to the most difficult ones.
This technique was suggested to me by Anton Gulega, the guy with whom we, in 2000, began to be interested in design. His example was quite simple: imagine a bunch of leaves that we need to remove. To do this in one fell swoop will not work - it is too big. But as soon as we divide it into several smaller piles, then we have a completely solvable problem.
Now let's complicate the example and determine why it is better to start with small tasks. For example, in the yard there is autumn and a lot of leaves already known to us are scattered on the ground. There are small heaps and there is one more. If we first take on small ones, then at the end we will get a clean yard and one pile of leaves, which will not be difficult to remove. But if we first take up a large pile of leaves, then removing it, we will crush all the other leaves and the result will be more.
The same with the design of the site: first draw icons and icons, select colors and font, and only then begin to create a layout. You need to start with small tasks, moving to more complex ones.
Workplace
When I started working as a designer, I had to work on a Samsung P28 laptop with 512MB of RAM. It's hard, I tell you. To draw a raster billboard on a laptop is, to put it mildly, impracticable, so I could not take on such orders and it absolutely did not suit me.
Therefore, the first thing, when my finances allowed, I got a good monitor, and then a system analyst. Note that I did not buy a plasma panel or a refrigerator, but bought exactly what will help me in my work. Everything else is in second place.
The same can be said about the table with the chair: if it is inconvenient to work, there will not be any work. It’s very inconvenient for me to work in a regular chair. By ordinary, I mean a chair in which, after two hours of work, my back hurts and cannot be turned or lowered. To address this issue, I bought a great expensive chair. It cost a lot, but now I forgot about the concept of back pain or uncomfortable posture during work.
It is important to first invest a substantial amount in the tools and in the future this money will surely pay off.
Prepayment
No matter how much disputes have arisen about the prepayment for work, I hold the unequivocal opinion - the prepayment must be before the start of all work. For example, if the task is to create a website design, then there should be no “preliminary layouts to determine the style” or “sketch a picture, I will show the director”. To determine the style of work or the level of the employee has his portfolio. Like work? We look at the technical project, we pay and we work. Do not like - goodbye.
It is necessary to remember - all preliminary layouts and design without prepayment is a free work for which you will most likely not receive money. Why should you work for free?
Terms of Reference
Many programmers or designers at the beginning of free flight neglect such a concept as a job on a technical task. If before the start of the project you can not accurately determine the amount of work, then this is fraught with additional and free work. The end of the previous paragraph makes you think about how to protect yourself from this.
To do this, demand the TK or offer to compile it with the customer and try to describe in it all the points that can be controversial. In TZ, you must specify:
- deadlines for project parts and the entire work
- detailed project description
- budget, method and amount of payment
- scope of work
- the number and nature of possible alterations
- responsibility of the parties
The TOR serves as a document that can be addressed in case of a dispute. When compiling, remember to mention that this is not just a document describing the project and that it should take into account the wishes of both parties. For this, enough attention must be paid to its compilation. Not once convinced of the correctness of the sayings of the Ancient Freelancer: "Properly compiled TK is half the work."
Portfolio
Currently, there are only a few good websites in Runet that offer services for recruiting remote employees and searching for orders. In particular, it is free-lance.ru and weblancer.net. Among other things, they provide the opportunity to place their portfolio there. There is an opinion that the larger the portfolio, the better. Not quite so: if the portfolio contains a lot of works, both of average quality and below average, then it is highly likely that a potential customer will not look through it even to the middle and close it. Therefore, the portfolio should try to lay out only the best work.
If possible, make your personal portfolio site, especially since it does not require any special expenses. If there is no such possibility yet, try to distinguish your portfolio among the rest: think up your own unique design option or some kind of chip.
It will be very useful to choose your specialization. For example, only the design of promotional sites or only programming for CMS. The narrower the specialization, the easier it will be for the customer to find you.
First you work on a portfolio, then it works for you.
A look into the future
Do not forget that many years of wear will not work. Draw designs or spend days and nights in writing new modules sooner or later get bored, and you also need to think about family, children, and so on. Designer profession is very, very exhausting, if you love it and give it to her completely. Any designer sooner or later becomes the art director of the studio, or leaves the design because it exhales.
Working for today, we must not forget about the future. After all, your well-being tomorrow alone depends on you.
Source - Dedushka.org
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/37467/
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