There are little things that I learn in this job almost every single day. Sometimes they’re just handy bits of information or useful resources, other times they’re real eye openers to things I’ve been doing wrong. I thought it might be useful to write some down in case anyone else can find some value in them.
On Rates
Every day I learn something new about what to charge clients and how to do it. In the last 12 months I think I’ve quadrupled my rates, which suggests that I was doing things really wrong to start with. Here’s a handy benchmark: Take what you need to earn in a month to cover your expenses, double it, then divide by 10. Make sure your daily rate isn’t any less than that number.
On Timing
I constantly, constantly underestimate how long things are going to take. It’s so easy to estimate time for something but then fail to take into account that bugs will come up, clients will want revisions, and sometimes everything will go wrong. Nowadays I try to take every time estimate and double it, this tends to be much more reliable.
On Motivation
You can’t control it, it comes and goes. If you aren’t feeling motivated at all but you really need to get work done, I’ve found that the most helpful thing possible is to fully take your mind off everything for 15 minutes. How you do this will be different for everyone, personally I try to get outside of the house and, if possible, chat to someone else on the phone. In fact it was having a good chat to @Japh on the phone just now that gave me the inspiration burst to quickly type up this post.
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