A Day In The Life Of Yours Truly...

People believe that a freelancer is living the dream life and is able to effortlessly balance work and life. Doesn't quiet work that way. It is a tough balancing act but at the end of the day it is totally worth it because it is still better than working in office the entire day. Just like in a corporate or a regular job, freelancing also demands that you do things which you are not particularly fond of.

Here's what my typical day looks like:
5.45 am - 6 am: Alarm goes off and I start my day. Prepare tiffin for our daughter if it is a week day or just talk with husband if it is a weekend. Most days I do yoga for almost an hour. Sometimes, if I have slept very late the previous night,  I decide to give it a miss. I do try to do Suryanamaskar at least 10 times even if I don't have time to do the other yoga asanas/exercises. I totally love Suryanamaskar and what it does to me...

8.00 am: Time for a quick breakfast, which is usually cornflakes (I know, boring...) on weekdays. I continue to read tweets, stories from websites I like to visit all this time. Earlier I was a regular newspaper reader but not so now. Sometimes I just glance through newspapers but mostly the reading about current affairs is now on laptop or phone.

8.30 am: Work finally starts. Mostly I create a to-do list before hitting the bed the previous day. I generally like to schedule interviews in the first half of the day. Thanks to technology most of the interviews now happen on phone or email, though I do prefer a face-to-face meeting. I also check linkedin, facebook, twitter for any relevant update. Recently I have got a few assignments through Linkedin, so I am not taking that lightly. Usually mornings are for regular work like, invoices, pitching and whatever time is left, for writing. Many a times I would call up my freelancing friends or others during this time period to break the monotony.

1.30 pm: time to get ready to bring the daughter home. I take a good two hour break around this time to eat, talk, watch television and other assorted things. If daughter is in good mood, we would laugh and joke around otherwise we argue....travails of a teenager's mother :D.

3.15 pm-3.30: I am back on my table to continue where I left. I work on assignments which have deadlines staring at them. It is obvious but nevertheless I will say it...as a freelancer, you have to be extremely particular about deadlines and the kind of work you are dishing out. You can survive in a regular job by doing shoddy work but not as a freelancer. To survive (and hopefully, to thrive) you need to take your work seriously, which means deadline and quality of work is a serious matter.

But of course with daughter at home the second part of the day is not as productive as the first half...

6.00 pm: Time for a walk...Pedometer keeps me going for at least two miles if not more. This is also the time I call up people, family and indulge in general chit chat. Also listen to music...nowadays I find I really enjoy Saxophone instrumental and Shillong Choir music.

7.30 pm: Time for dinner. Yeah, I take dinner at 7.30 nowadays. I started doing it about two months back and now it is part of daily routine. The rest of the family has dinner later. Post dinner it is time for pitter patter at home; talking to the daughter and the husband and generally chilling out.

8.30 pm: watching television or reading a book...usually the former nowadays. Love Brooklyn Nine Nine...

10.00 pm: It required I work otherwise time to hit the bed or maybe social media. Mostly though I work for around two hours around this time...