More home office ideas from HGTV’s Designer Challenge. view all of them here
A home office in the living room.
A small office in a walk in closet
Eclectic style
An art studio. Big enough for my husband and me.
This is just 25% of what I need to do. These lists help me a lot in determining whether I’m productive or just wasted time away online.
1. Convert five newsletter campaigns for three clients. All urgent.
2. Design a header for a Sports Blog. Install top 10 wordpress plugins
3. Real Estate website – changes to the initial mockup. Design the back page / product detail pages
4. Study, study and study.
Offline
1. Take new photos of my husband for his passport.
2. Make sure to walk with my daughter outside when she wakes up. She’s been cooped up inside the house for so long.
3. Take a break and close my eyes even for just five minutes.
Yes, I still find time to read thanks to the power of electronic books. The list of titles that I’ve read (and in Twilight’s case, re-read) in the last couple of weeks:
1. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
2. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
3. Eleven Minutes by Paolo Coehlo
4. Bridget Jones Diary (I can’t believe I never tried to read this before)
5. Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
6. Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (just started)
7. 32 AA by Michelle Cunnah
They are all light reads because I only read them when I’m putting my daughter to sleep or when trying to fall asleep myself. I have no time to read paperbacks now but I most certainly will in one week when we hit the beach. Yeah baby!
Still about my new work. I noticed that even though I’ve been working for three hours straight already, I’m still not close to finishing half of my tasks. I remember when I get about 10-15 tasks from my old company. It will only take me 2-3 hours tops to finish all of them. But now, even if I sacrifice sleep, and even if I am the greatest developer in the whole world, I doubt if I can work like I used to. First, I need to connect via VPN in order to access the files. No matter how fast my computer or Internet is, it will still take about 2-5 minutes for me to download a 30MB psd file. It’s very time consuming.
You’d think I have free time to browse or check old emails while waiting for the files but no. While I’m waiting, I get 3-5 instant messages from co-workers who needed to discuss projects with me before they leave the office. 6AM-9AM is our only chance to meet daily so we make sure to keep in touch. By 10AM, the only thing I’ve done is download/check out files, chat with colleagues and prepare my local for incoming work. By this time, my laptop will give up because of too many browsers and applications open. I will have to restart and open all of them again, eating another 30 minutes or so of my time.
I’ve been away from the blogging world so much. Well, actually it’s just been two days but in my world, that’s already considered months of absence. The reason is I’m very busy with work. I mean REALLY BUSY. I’ve never been actually this busy that I’d have to choose between taking a bathroom break and eating lunch. I haven’t played with my daughter for the last four days. Even if we’re on the same room, I rarely talk to her because I’m doing the best I can to focus on my tasks. Thank God for nannies because I don’t know what I’d do to keep my daughter occupied if it were just the two of us.
But back to my work schedule. I seriously need to come up with a solution on how to manage my time properly. I want to do my best at work but I don’t want to stop blogging. And most importantly, I don’t want to lose more time with my kid. Maybe I should try waking up earlier than 6AM? I honestly don’t think if that’s even possible but I’m willing to give it a try.
Okay, so after reading several telecommuting blogs, I was alarmed to see the number of freelancers being fired. This has been my constant worry ever since I started working from home. Because you’re an independent contractor, you are not protected by laws, including 3 months separation pay, etc. I’m not sure about this so I’ll have to verify. This is why I was so greedy in accepting sideline projects for the last six months. I knew my old company is about to shut down so I’m doing what I can to earn money on the side just in case I get the ax.
Thankfully, another blessing came, my new job. Still, I can’t help but wonder how stable the web/internet industry can be. In my new company alone, they had to let go 30 people because of redundant positions. The reason why I was asked to join the team was because they needed someone to work on the stuff during their night (my day). Plus the fact that I’m so much cheaper compared helped a lot with their decision.
Because it’s 6:30PM and I just woke up from a nap. This isn’t me. I don’t take breaks, let alone naps. But today, I was unbelievably tired and sleepy after hours of designing and writing. I guess the new early schedule is starting to kick in. This is a good thing, though. At least, even if I wake up at 6AM, I can finish early, leaving me plenty of time to play with my daughter. So all I need to do is convince myself that having less than six hours of sleep is worth it. I mean, how hard can it be? I’ve managed to sleep every two hours for the last three years. Just because I’m now used to sleeping 8-9 hours a day doesn’t mean I can’t do it again.
For the love of my job and my daughter (who badly needs my attention by the time 6PM ), I can do this. 
Based on the comments and suggestions on Twitter, Dell Studio 17 is winning on my laptop options. I still have one day to decide though before my coupon expires. Thanks to my client, he will purchase any laptop of my choice using his credit card and bring it with him when he comes home this November. I will pay him in full as agreed. It’s so much cheaper to buy online anyway so I saved a lot of money already.
Now that the subject of laptop is almost over, I’m thinking of upgrading my phone next. I want something with a bigger screen so I could easily read my ebooks. Also, it would be easier to browse websites when I’m lying down on our bed in the middle of the night. With the new laptop, you’d think I’ll have the strength to stand up and browse right? Nah. Night time is for resting. So I’d rather lie down and use my phone (whichever it may be) if I couldn’t fall asleep. While writing all this, I’m beginning to sound like I’m throwing money away. Maybe I should put off buying a new cellphone and just upgrade my micro sd to 8GB? Now that, would be amazing.
As promised, I’m blogging about my options for a new notebook. I originally have five options including a refurbished Macbook Pro but due to budget contraints, I narrowed it down to two.
Dell Studio 17
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
Plum Purple
Memory 3GB Shared Dual Channel
LCD Panel Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440×900)
Video Card 256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 3650 ATI3650
Hard Drive Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Sound Card Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ Advanced HD Software Edition
Wireless Networking Cards Dell 1397 Wireless-G Card
Camera Module Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
Battery Options 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)
$1488 – $471.10 (sale) = $1,016.90
Macbook 13-inch: Black 2.4GHz
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory
250GB hard drive1
Double-layer SuperDrive
$1,499.00
Aren’t they the sweetest? I was planning to treat myself to an LV bag this Christmas but the high that I feel upon the possibility of owning a new laptop doesn’t even come close. Besides, with my new job and all, I really need to upgrade my machine.
I’m hiding from my client. He has been emailing me for weeks and I’m starting to feel like he’s lurking on all my domains. I wanted to cut my professional relationship with him because of trust issues. One, he hates giving downpayments. Two, he pays really late. And when he does, he’ll ask for a detailed list on every dollar spent. That’s okay, it’s a standard practice. But even if I do send an itemized list, he’ll wonder why I did something when he didn’t approve it. So what well do is review each and every email correspondence until I can convince him that he did ask me to work on it.
The headache is so not worth it. Plus the rates that I charge him were my old rates five years ago.
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