It didn’t take long before I got the itch to write tech articles again.
It was either that or finally start some serious decluttering. Which would you choose? 🤣🤣🤣
No, not really.
Well, maybe a little.
But it ended up that while I didn’t miss “having a job” or a professional identity as much as I feared, I did miss writing articles that tell people about cool (to me) technology. And it started feeling like I had some time and space for that.
Partly, that’s because I’m still Covid cautious (or, as we like to call ourselves, “Covid aware”). So as the weather gets worse, I spend more time home inside, as opposed to a lot of visits with friends or going out to eat. And while inside recently, I started spending more time on tech social media. I sometimes posted multiple times a day about interesting things I encountered. And, to “introduce” myself after signing up at the Bluesky social network, I also began posting links to some of my old how-to articles on InfoWorld.
And I realized that I missed having new published tech advice for people.
I like writing about cool computer programming things. I enjoy helping people discover new ways of writing code and getting things done. I can’t say that I like doing those things more than having fun outside over the summer. But sometimes, it can be as good as curling up with a book on a raw windy day. It depends on how good the book and the technology are.
So, I pitched a couple of article ideas to my former colleagues. They accepted, and I ended up writing three articles over the past few weeks. I finished all three last week. In fact, I worked what was close to a full-time schedule last week for the first time since July. Soon I’ll be getting the edited versions back from my editors, going over comments to answer questions and make changes, and sending revised versions back.
It was a surprising turn of events, at least for me. My husband, who is happily doing some part-time consulting work in retirement, wasn’t surprised at all. “I was expecting this,” he said.
There’s an adrenaline rush of crafting an idea into a story, and then working with an editor to see that story come to life. On deadline. And seeing the fruits of that labor out in the wild (I’m still waiting for that part). I enjoyed that a lot. My work was never all bad; I was just ready to move on to a new stage of life.
So far, this freelancing is quite different from having a full-time job – even on the days I worked a typical full-time schedule. There were no unexpected requests to make me put aside a task I most wanted to be working on for what someone else needed. Also, I didn’t have meetings, and I wasn’t slogging through a hundred or more work-related emails. In short, I had a lot more control over my own time. And, I was able to pick the tasks I most enjoy.
But there’s also a mental change involved in doing this kind of work. I start looking for other ideas I might pitch. What begins as research for personal hobby projects can turn into note-taking for a possible future article. I can sense the risk of slipping back into an always-in-work-mode state of mind.
Can I balance occasional freelancing with keeping my more relaxed, retirement mindset? If so, what would the right amount of “part time work” look like – besides restricting it to bad-weather months when I don’t plan to travel?
To be determined . . . .
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