veronicamakes

[veronicamakes]

Today was an off day

Dealing with anxiety is an on going process. It ebbs and flows. I’ve done a lot of work on myself this past year to help maintain a balance mentally, emotionally, even physically. I’m happy to say that most days I feel good. I feel in control of my state of mind but-like most things in life…somedays are just out of our control. I feel irritated, anxious, moody and I usually can’t explain it because there was no catalyst. No cause. No event that set me off.

These days use to happen more frequently and I would beat myself into the ground about it. Desperately wanting an answer to the question that I would assume many in this state ask themselves, “what’s wrong with me? Why do I feel this way?”

I have learned that, it’s ok. It’s ok to feel “off” it’s how I handle it from that point on that matters most. Being sedentary for me, only feeds my anxiety.  I’ve learned that movement is the best way for me to settle the anxiety running ramped in my mind. If I can, my first instinct is to grab my headphones, my phone and head for the door to get outside into the fresh, albeit at the moment, much colder air; and start walking. I have found that an hour long walk is perfect, roughly about 3 miles. In a pinch a brisk 20min. walk/jog will often do the trick.

Today however, it was pouring rain, and while a slight drizzle or even mild snow fall doesn’t bother me-I just didn’t think heading out in the down poor only to come back soaked and freezing was going to help me at all. I’m not going to lie, this only added to my irritation in the moment. Instead, I opted for a home workout. You can find some great home workouts that really get you moving, the blood flowing and heart pounding on Youtube and I have a few bookmarked for just such an occasion.

After doing a fast paced 7min. calorie burner, I was ready for more, and tacked on a 30min yoga strength training. Here’s the thing, when I’m feeling “off” I don’t want to move, the last thing I want to exercise. I would much rather sit, staring at a screen and wallowing, or curling up in a ball, under a blanket to sleep. Simply put, I want to just check-out for the rest of the day and not move until it’s time for me to brag myself to the bed in the hopes that tomorrow will be better.

But, I make myself move because I know it works for me. It doesn’t have to be long, it doesn’t have to be in a gym or a studio. I prefer being outdoors but when that just isn’t an option any quick workout routine will work. It gets me going. Yes, sometimes I have to trick myself into doing it, which is why I start small. I mean seven minutes, it’s less than ten. Plus I always picture the guy from Something About Mary touting the 7min. abs spiel. Remember that guy?!

The trick is to get myself moving because once those seven minutes are up, I notice I feel better. The anxiety begins to subside and that feeling encourages me to do a little more until I’m exhausted and all I’m thinking about is slowing my breath. So today was an off day and I didn’t get much done, instead I spent the day feeling it, living with it, working through it, resting, eating a healthy meal, drinking lots of water and getting to bed on time.  

#anxiety mental health

[veronicamakes]

Some of my favorite creators often share the things they are “digging” at the moment, usually in a newsletter and I enjoy them. Heck, I‘ve discovered a lot of great books, music, and products through them.  Over the weekend after reading one such email I ended up doodling one of my own just for the fun and thought I would go ahead and share it here.

Thirty Seconds To Mars: America

Lost & Founder

SOLO

Tomago (traditional Japanese breakfast) of rice and raw egg, however, I do cook my egg over-easy. It is delicious, you should try it.

Zequenz this notebook just feels incredible to hold.

#sketch #sketchnewsletter #doodle

[veronicamakes]

It’s All About Choices

Life is a series of mistakes and mishaps, chances and choices because life rarely happens the way we foolishly attempt to plan it all out. We can plan until our heart's content and life will swoop in and just do whatever it damn well pleases, regardless of our plans.

And our lives become a giant game of chess, countering the moves life has tossed at us still trying to fight for some semblance of illusional control. Now, I’m not saying we have absolutely no choices in our lives because we absolutely do. What I am saying is that the choices life often has to offer us are not the choices we planned on having. We always have a choice and life will present the path to the things we want in the most unexpected ways. It will throw up roadblocks to those things we think are our heart's desire; be it people, jobs, homes, cars, money or whatever and we can either listen to the universe or fight it and attempt to force it and bend to our will.

Or we can see it for what it is, the universe telling us that we aren’t ready for that thing in our life yet or that, that particular dream was never really meant for us in the first place. We always have a choice.

This is something I have been wrestling with for the past five months. Something from my past came back into my life recently. Something that was left unfinished and something that I have often wondered about. Wondered what went wrong, how could this thing have been different knowing then what I know now? It was something that in my early twenties I had no idea how to even begin to comprehend how to navigate. At a time when I was technically an “adult” and thought I knew what life was all about, I now know that in fact, I knew absolutely nothing, and though I had technically been alive for 20+ years I was only now in my early twenties, truly learning how to live. Learning how to navigate the world with no supervision. No one there to guide me in making better decisions, no one there to gut check my limited and often short-sighted thinking.

And so, I did what most people do in those situations when they don’t know what to do with what life has presented us with. I took the easy way out and let the chips fall where they may. Because the choices I was left with, were not those that I wanted. I let myself off the hook and walked away. Now to be fair, I did try to fix it. I tried and I failed. But I understand now that I didn’t listen to what the universe was trying to tell me. I didn’t choose from the options I was presented with, I tried to force it to my will and the universe responded in kind, leaving me with things unfinished.

Now as I look back, I understand better. This thing that I thought I wanted was never meant for me. That life…a life that would have been wonderful in its own right but would have also lead me down a completely different path. It was a path I was simply not meant to go down at that time in my life and maybe it will never be a path I will ever get the opportunity to explore or maybe it was simply left unfinished because I wasn’t ready for it yet.

It’s all about choices and paying attention to those choices that life presents to us at various stages. They will not always be the choices we want or the choices we hope for but if you trust that life will find a way, if only you pay attention to it, those things that you do not fully comprehend now will often times make more sense farther down the path of your life.

Now before you hit me with the inevitable “life is not predetermined, you make your own destiny…” That is not what I’m talking about, I’m talking about the choices life offers you and how your choices lead you to where you are,  and the where you end up. It’s about how the grand scheme of our lives are determined by the good and the bad choices we make. Choices that are only unfolded before us in the proper time and in the proper place and what we do with those choices can make things seem as though suddenly everything is falling into place and all the tough events we had to face to get here suddenly seem as though they were meant to be. Leading us to this place, with this outcome or just the opposite, leaving us wondering what went wrong.

#life #lessons #choices #thoughts

[veronicamakes]

Sleep is NOT a Luxury

As freelancers we live by the gentle blue glow of our computers, the lights in the room around us are dim, but that doesn’t matter because we have all the light we need emanating out of our screens, encouraging us to push more just a little longer.

You do a quick glance at the clock; 8:15 PM great! I can get in a few hours on this project before bed. Music blaring in your headphones because, you know, the kids are sleeping… eyes feeling weary now you glance up expecting to see a 10 in front of the time stamp now…instead you see what appears to be a one, one!? Does that must be an 11 right? Nope.

Crap! It’s 1 AM, where did the time go? Sure you finished what you set out to do but at what cost? And how much of it will you have to re-do tomorrow? You sigh, push yourself away from your desk and shuffle to bed, forgoing a change into pajamas and opting only to brush your teeth because now you are to tired to care and don’t wanting to waste any more of the few precious minutes you have left before your alarm jolts you out of bed in just a few short hours.

Sound familiar?

It’s a reality that as a freelancer if you haven’t experienced this yet, at some point you probably will and it can quickly become a vicious cycle.

We will all have moments where we have to push through to get the work done. Whether by our own doing because we procrastinated too much or because of a client's bad decisions to make some hefty changes at the eleventh hour, but has promised to reward you mightily with a few extra bucks. Whatever the reason, it’s a slippery slope that anyone who works from home is likely to fall into.

The habit of overlooking sleep…

We’ve all heard the old adage “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” but what they fail to tell you is that you are more likely to die sooner if you don’t get enough sleep now. Science has proven that those of us who are poor sleepers have a much greater risk of heart disease and stroke.

Sleep is something I have struggled with for as long as I can remember. For me in particular, it’s falling asleep. This is actually a form of insomnia, called Sleep-Onset Insomnia. This means I have a very difficult time calming my mind enough to relax and fall asleep. This is something many women are prone to suffer from simply because of how our brains work. However, once I’m asleep, I can sleep like a rock.

Then to top it off, I also happen to be a night owl by nature, so I can very easily stay up way too late just unwinding and veg-out watching some random Netflix show just to enjoy some mindless quite time where I don’t have to think, plan or cater to tiny humans. Or working a few extra hours late into the night to get caught up. For some of us, after-hours are prime working hours simply because everyone else is asleep.

I get it, I've been there. There are a lot of reasons we feel the need to sacrifice sleep, life is busy for all of us and we often feel like there just aren’t enough hours in a single day to accomplish everything we need to accomplish.  

It seems the easiest place to steal hours from naturally are our sleeping hours. So we sacrifice an hour or two here and there, then before you know it’s every night.

But this year I set out to finally get my sleep under control. I’ve read books on sleep, I have taken low doses of melatonin before bed, I have tried quiet time, which means no screens of any kind; no computer, no phone, and no TV. I tried listening to classical music, reading books, taken baths and so on.

Yet, it hasn’t been until the last few months that I have been getting restful sleep on much more regular bases, in fact, this may be the most regular sleep I have ever gotten in my entire life. And best of all I’m asleep within ten minutes or so of laying down. It’s been glorious! So what changed? I sat down and started looking at what I was doing differently…

I walk daily. In March I started walking my kids to school every morning and walking to pick them up every afternoon. I did it because they asked me too, but the benefits I have found in it are amazing…

1. Getting my body moving first thing in the morning has been energizing, which is important especially for those of us who sit at a desk for hours and hours a day.

2. It allows my mind to wonder and think freely before sitting down to focus on work, this has helped to take away some of the distractions in my thought process.

3. I get to be outside and soak up some vitamin D. I have always loved being outdoors, camping, hiking, and exploring it has always been my favorite way to destress and because of that, this is a great way to start my day.

This has become a much-needed part of my day and I notice the difference in my mood and my productivity on the days when I don’t get a walk in, either because of weather or schedules. I make it a priority now to get a walk in every day that I can and I try really hard never go two days in a row without a walk.

Consistent bedtime. Knowing I have to be up at a certain time every morning to get myself and my kids ready for the day I know what time I need to be in bed. I start my night time routine around 10:15pm I get my clothes out for the next day and have my nightly shower. I have found that a hot shower before bed helps my body and my mind whined down and start relaxing more so than a hot bath for some reason.

In honor of full transparency, I only realized keeping the time constant was an important piece of the puzzle. This week my nighttime routine has been a bit off, and a few nights I start my nightly routine about an hour later than usual and it took me about 30 to 45 minutes to fall asleep.

So for me, keeping to a consistent time frame is important, though it’s not always easy.

The Lesson…

I use to worry that getting more sleep meant I was sacrificing “getting things done”, but I can unequivocally say that I am more productive throughout my day when I’m well rested. My focus is sharper and my thoughts clearer and best of all I find myself not having to go back and re-work the things I did the night before. Bonus, I have also noticed a decrees in my anxiety of feeling like I don’t have enough time. I generally feel much calmer though out my day and more in control.

I no longer view getting enough sleep as a luxury, as something to be earned after the hard work and the hustle is complete. Rather I see it now as my secret weapon to being able to get the important work done. On those nights when I don’t sleep well––usually because the kids are not sleeping well, I absolutely allow myself a nap the next day if I can fit one in.

If you are scarfing sleep to get the work “done” I challenge you to put restful sleep at the top of your priority list for one week and see if it improves not only the way you work, but the quality of your work, your mood, and your focus. If you need suffer from insomnia, try adding in a regular walk, run, or bike ride. Get outside if you can and set a schedule you can reasonably stick to.

Best of luck!

#freelance #health #sleep #business

[veronicamakes]

A Day Of Rest

The Sundays of my youth were for family, resting, picnics and just slowing down in general. The city, for the most part, would actually shut down; with the exception of grocery stores, restaurants, and of course any emergency facilities. There was no running down to Wal-Mart at 9 p.m. to pick up any last minute items for work or school and certainly, no last-minute gifts were going to be purchased.

I remember a simpler time; maybe because it was or maybe because it just felt that way back when our lives weren’t technology driven and run 24/7. One Sunday; in the early evening, my mom and I walked down the road to our local grocers. It was a cool night in early Spring, the kind of cool that required a light jacket to ward off the ever so slight chill in the air as the sun was beginning its descent. My mom often enjoying Sunday walks; looking back now I think it was because the roads were so much quieter though it was something I didn’t take much notice to back then.

Grocery shopping was never my favorite thing to do when it came to running errands with my mom, but on this particular trip I wasn’t going because I wanted to go shopping with my mom, rather I was looking forward to putting some of my hard earned allowance money to good use in the one place most kids could be found while the moms took care of the weekly grocery shopping––the toy aisle.

I remember being completely unaware that on Sundays the only purchases you were allowed to make were of the food variety.  It was probably because we never tried to go shopping on Sundays as far as I can remember.

Aside from the occasional grocery trip of course; being reminded in that moment that toys were not allowed to be purchased on Sundays (a little fact of life never bothered me much, but of course, I was seven and I would have rather been playing anyway).

Since being in Japan for the last few months, I am reminded of those slow Sundays, not because things are closed on Sunday’s here but because the city, in general, shuts down early every night. Even on base the few stores that are here close around 7 p.m. with exception to a few restaurants. Off base, shops close early and in the sleepy hours past 10 p.m. the busy main roads that are two-lane, one-way roads become two-way streets. For the most part, the streets are quiet and much more interesting to walk. You start to notice all the little nuances of the buildings themselves that you tend to miss during busy shopping hours.

Things just feel slower but in a calming way. Coming from the States where the excitement is just getting started after 10 p.m. it’s a change that has grown on me, even in the short time we’ve been here. And though I often forget and still find myself ready to hop in the car for a quick, last-minute run up to the grocery store at 8 o’clock at night; only after the girls are in bed and the chaos has stopped just long enough for my mind to start working again. That’s about the time I realize we are out of bread or milk. But we make due and the following day I make it a point to get to the store usually just after lunch.

I have often wondered over the years why they did away with Sunday’s being honored as God’s day and a day of rest. I’m sure it has to do with the corporate hubris of big business and some data guys crunching the numbers and realizing how much more money they would make if people were allowed to shop on Sundays, but at what cost? I can’t help but wonder how much better the world just might be if we were forced to take a day off. A day to spend with family and friends or just enjoying the outdoors. A day to relax and really rest up for the week ahead. Maybe people wouldn’t be so agitated all the time, always in a rush to get from here to there and always so self-absorbed.

#rest #life #slowliving

[veronicamakes]

Let It Be Awful, Let It Suck

Learning is messy. Starting anything new is messy. But you have to start somewhere.

When I started designing; it sucked. It's supposed to suck when you’re learning. It’s a time for you try and fail, to make mistakes to design bad.

Embrace the fact that you will suck at design or whatever it is you are learning in the beginning.

I have lived in Texas my whole life where we don’t get much snow (ok, we get no snow) and I never grew up skiing or snowboarding. We now live in a place where there is more than enough snow and plenty of mountains to ski. I have always been envious of those who grew up with snow sports, so when we moved this was my chance to finally learn.

I decided I would take up snowboarding, I grew up knowing how to skateboard so I thought I had the concept down and it would make it that much easier to pick it up quickly––I was wrong.

I suck at snowboarding. I fall and it is by no means graceful. It’s downright painful and ugly. I didn’t just take a few falls, I wipe-out hard, so hard my head was actually ringing and I’m still recuperating right now from the weekends' mountain adventures.

Learning is hard and messy. But it's supposed to be. I was afraid of the messy part, I was afraid to take a hard fall. Luckily I had someone there to point this out to me and to give me some really good advice. I was playing it safe out of fear and I got called out on it.

He told me what I needed to hear, he said: “there is no better way for you to practice than to go up on the gondola and ride the green slope down.” He said, “You just gotta do it if you really want to learn.” He was right I had a nearly endless run to practice on. Start at the top of the mountain, fall, get up and do it again. Over and over until you make it to the bottom.

I was exhausted, I was in pain and I was glad to have made it to the bottom. But more than anything; I felt accomplished. I took my licks and I learned from them. I learned I needed to push past the fear of falling because I did it and while it hurt, I was fine. I also learned what I still need to work on. I need to bend my knees more and I need to work on my balance when I’m on the toe edge of my board.

The only thing that’s going to make me better is practice, practice, practice and I’m guessing a lot more falling to go with it. So start learning that thing you want to learn and just know you are going to suck at it for a little while. But the more you practice the better you’ll get, I promise.

#learn #practice #life #start

[veronicamakes]

It’s Not All About The Grand Vision

“Small things get big overtime.” –– Austin Kleon

We all want the big work, the big clients with the monster pay outs and we want them right out of the gate. We see our heroes, our idols, those we admire most in our industry working on big scale projects and we want it too.

Yet we haven’t done the real work required to earn them. It’s easy to look at a project after it’s been done and say “I could have done that.” But if you’re being honest with yourself––could you really have done what they did?

What you haven’t seen are the years and countless hours of work that came before. Those are the years they gained experience, acquired the knowledge; the stuff you can’t be taught, this is the stuff you can only learn by doing. They take all those things and utilize them to solve the problem. You can’t get to where they are without the years they spend toiling away on the little stuff. Working their butts off on the projects no one really cares about, except them and the client.

Because these aren’t the fancy jobs with the Tesla’s and Googles of the world. We all start from the bottom up, yet so many of us want to skip the beginning and go right to the top.

We all have to start small. Work on as many small projects as you can, do your best, learn and earn your stripes. Learn everything you can from them, and keep doing it. If you’re lucky it may only take you ten years before your effort even begin to pay off.

No one gets to the Grand Vision without sitting down every single day and doing the work, whether it’s writing, design, painting, illustration, code or photography. You have to put in the hours to even be considered worthy of the big jobs.

#business #learning

[veronicamakes]

If You Love What You Do...

There’s a quote that says “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” -Marc Anthony

I would disagree. I think when you love what you do it’s a labor of love. It’s hard work but you enjoy putting forth the efforts. You aren’t clock watching or doing the bare minimum.

When you truly love what you do; it encompasses you fully and completely. Even when you are not working on it, it is always on your mind. Subconsciously you always looking for the answer to the problem you are trying to solve. It will find it’s way into everything you do without you even realizing it.

But make no mistake, if you want to be really good that this thing you love be it; music, art, writing, design, construction, culinary, accounting, or whatever––it takes work. It will be the hardest work you will ever do mentally and maybe even physically.

I love what I do, I could not imagine doing anything else with the rest of my life. It may change forms and it may shift around a bit, but it will always be related to design. And yet not every aspect of what I do is enjoyable. Sure, I love everything about creating a new design from concept to completion. I love the problem solving and helping my clients find new ways to communicate and help their customers.  But I hate the bookkeeping, I hate the time tracking and sometimes the deadlines are unreasonable.

No matter how much you love what you do, if you want to be any good at it you will have to work hard at it. And no matter how much you love it, there will always be aspects associated with it that you may not like at all, but it’s part of the job so you suck it up and do it anyways.

So don’t look for the thing that doesn’t feel like work, look for the thing that you love to do so much that you are willing; even eager to put in the long hours and hard work to achieve.

#doingthework #life #career

[veronicamakes]

It’s True What They Say About Reading

“Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.” 

- Bell Hooks

As I was going through the mail an Inc. magazine was among the reminisce of opened letters, updates on service and of course bills. I had initially tossed it aside as I had no plans on reading it in the moment. I took my would be pile of recycle with me into the kitchen to place it in that spot where I lay most of the items that need to go out to the recycle bin. Then I walked over to grab my still warm coffee that I forgot about briefly in my efforts to clear the clutter.

As I stood there in the kitchen, enjoying my coffee I glanced over and saw the magazine again. This time I picked it up with the intent to flip through its pages to see if anything caught my eye. My favorite thing to do with magazines is to read all the featured story synopsis on the cover to get an idea of what the focus of the issue is.

I read stuff like “Productivity Toolkit” “Meet Mailchimp, Inc.’s Co. of the year” and “The Ultimate Startup Guide”. I found my way to the first big story on Startups, I got one paragraph in and I had an idea for an article. Boom. Just like that. As I started writing it in my head I ran upstairs to my office so that I could begin typing it out.

Now, it’s not complete; yet. But it is a great start that needs an ending and maybe a little research to beef it up. But more importantly––it’s one more article to put in my que for an upcoming project I have been working on and hope to launch soon.

JUST READ

Sometimes people say, “I can’t read books. I just don’t have the patience” or “I have a hard time with the follow through of finishing a book once I start.”

Reading is a skill, and like any skill it takes practice. You also have to make sure you are reading things you are actually interested in. If you pick up the latest bestseller merely because it’s the book everyone is reading and talking about in this moment but you have zero interest in the subject matter; you won’t read it.

Comics are a gateway drug to literacy. —Art Spiegelman

Trying to read something you just don’t care about becomes a chore and even if you do force yourself to read it, you just aren’t going to get that much out of it. Maybe your a fan of the Walking Dead and you want to start with a Graphic Novel. Do it. The great thing about reading is there is no right way to do it. Read what you want. Whatever will get you started and the more you read the more your interest will grow and you will find the more ideas are born from it.

YES; AUDIOBOOKS COUNT

For some reason, people think if you consume a book in an audio format it’s not “reading”. Are you actually physical reading the book? No, but it doesn’t mean you aren’t consuming the word, ideas, and information. Besides, it’s no different than when you were a kid and someone reads to you. Your imagination still gets plenty to work with and the best part is if you are busy and just don’t have the luxury of time to sit down and read a book for a few hours; audiobooks allow you to read on the go. That was why I started buying audiobooks and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

I love to read physical books. I love the feel and texture of holding a book, yet I still listen to audiobooks regularly as well, like while I go for my walks, when I’m cleaning or get stuck in the car for a while on a commute.

Ideas are out there just waiting to be found. I picked up a magazine that sparked an idea for a full-length article to be used in an upcoming project. The realization of that leads me to write this quick observation for my daily blog.

#reading #books #ideas #knowledge

[veronicamakes]

Walking Through The World Looking For Confirmation

“Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong because you will always find it.” – Brene Brown

We are so hung up on finding confirmation in everything we do. Confirmation of our art, design, our writing, our skills, our abilities to do almost anything.

And why not? It’s ingrained in us. Social media only feeds it, it amplifies our need for acceptance. Seeking acceptance starts early––my six-year-old is constantly seeking it from my husband and me.

“I did it, mommy, I read it! Did I do good?!”

“Daddy, I rode the sled down the hill by myself! Did you see?! Are you proud of me?”

“Mommy, I listened and I didn’t whine about putting my clothes away. Are you happy at me?”

She seeks it even when we affirm her good behavior before she can ask. I know she can’t help it, we all do it. Grown-ups seek it through social media sharing our work and our photos waiting for the likes and the hearts; the rare comments of “Nice work!” or “Great Feed.” and when we don’t get it we feel like we have somehow failed. We feel like our photo isn’t good enough and by association ‘we aren’t good enough’. We may even delete it from our feed or just become encouraged to stop sharing altogether.

Why is doing things just for us, for our own enjoyment so hard to do? If you seek confirmation that you don’t belong you will always find it and you will find it quicker than you will find confirmation that you belong.

Let’s try to do more for ourselves and less for strangers we will never meet. Less for the haters that love to hate. The haters will always find you, they are all to willing to tell you, you suck and your work does too. But chances are if you create for you, others will find you. The right kind of others––your kindred social spirit. They will encourage you and feed your creativity. And if you have that now, hold onto it, nurture it and give back.

#confirmation #life #social media

[veronicamakes]

Fragments Of Time

I used to be opposed to having any type of schedule. I wanted to wake up when I wanted, start work when I felt like it and work as long or as little as I was being productive.

After all, different types of work require deferent schedules. I wasn’t working on anyone else’s timeline. My work didn’t require me to be at a desk answering phones or showing up on a job site to harness the light of day so that I can see what is being constructed.

Now, some creatives love and live by the freedom of not having a schedule, often allowing chaos to take over their day and consider it “part of the process”. This was appealing to me for as well, for many reasons but mostly because by nature I tend to be a night owl. I’ve always loved the quite that settles over a home (especially if you have kids) in the wee hours of the night. Think about it, in the wee hours when everyone else is sleeping the phone doesn’t ring, buzz or binging at you with a constant wave of endless incoming messages from various apps. The emails aren’t multiplying as you delete them and no outside interruptions are encroaching on your time (solicitors).

It has always been a time of focus for me, I could allow myself to completely get lost in my work––in my projects and not worry about stopping to make a phone call before the end of business day or watching the clock to leave for a meeting. No. From the hours of 10pm until 7am was my time.

This is what I did, without living by a schedule; and I thought it was working well for me. Until a few years ago, on a whim, I decided to start tracking my sleep and it wasn’t good (surprise). I had been reading up on how important sleep was for nearly every function of your body, not just mental, but clarity, focus, weight loss, keeping diseases at bay and healing body injuries quicker. But that may be a topic for another day.

I found that by managing my sleep better mornings became prime time for my productivity. Making sure I was getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep a night I was aking up feeling refreshed in a way I had not before. I was much more focused and my ideas flowed much more rapidly. What would happen then, if I could harness that alertness before my kids woke up?! I began waking up at 5am so that I could have 3-4 solid hours of uninterrupted work, and it was amazing.  

Having a morning schedule made my days more productive and I loved it. I found that I could accomplish just as much in those four, early morning hours as I was doing in an entire day of fragmented time. Most people fight against schedules; creative types more than most, because it can easily start to feel like you have no control over it. Chucks of your time and calendar start filling up with obligations; meetings that others have demanded and various activities that you could care less about.

In setting a schedule I have also built in permitters to fight against feeling like I was losing control over my time. Things like no morning meetings; be it in person, Skype, FaceTime or any other form of video service. It’s only the imperative, can’t miss meetings that can break this rule and let me tell you there just aren’t that many of them that come up.

Mornings are when I get the bulk of my best work done so I guard those hours with my life. Late afternoons are much more relaxed and open and often vary from day-to-day. I’m constantly tweaking this process but I find that in general, my days feel much less fragmented than working with no schedule in place.

Do you use a schedule? What does it look like?

#time #productivity #schedules

[veronicamakes]

Are You Charging What It’s Worth, Or What It Cost?

When you buy a product whether it’s clothing, music, or a gadget you are not paying for what it cost to make that product.

It cost less than .10¢ to create an audio file be it a book or music but when was the last time you paid that for an audiobook? You will pay nearly as much for an audiobook as you pay for a printed book that has more cost associated with it. Why?

Because a book by James Patterson is valued at $30 just to for the pleasure of hearing his crafted words spun into an amazing and entertaining story for your imagination to enjoy.

People will pay hundreds of dollars for a pair of jeans that fit like they were tailored and are made to last for years. Yet it only cost about $4 in material and depending on where they are made less than .50¢ in labor to cut and stitch. Even for a cheap pair of jeans, you are paying way more than the cost to produce them.

What about coffee? We love our coffee and have no problem paying $5 for a cup (some pay this daily on their commutes to work). The most expensive part of the coffee is the coffee beans -- 64 cents worth. The cup it comes in cost 13 cents, and the lid an additional 3 cents. An average cup also has 4 cents worth of sugar and takes 33 cents worth of labor to make for a total cost of $1.17. That’s  nearly a 400% increase. And we aren’t talking the fancier pour-over with a wide range of beans and a variety of roasts to choose from.

So, if no one is paying cost prices for anything we buy from products to service but are happy to pay the value price of the products because they think it is worth it––why would you charge only what it cost you in time for your work? The next time you are pitching or estimating the cost of your freelance work I hope you will think about this. Think about what the work you do is worth. What problems are you solving for your clients, in what ways are you helping beyond just visual because chances are you are helping them greatly and in ways, they have not yet taken into consideration?

When, and I say “when” because at some point one or more of your clients will question why you are charging what you are charging, because they don’t fully understand the value of your service or freelance work in general. So, when they ask you why the cost is so high. Understand that they perceive it as high because they don’t yet understand the value. Help them understand that what they are getting is far beyond just words or pretty pictures, explain the problems you are solving for them, the people you will reach far beyond what they are doing now and if that fails, use a few of the examples from about to help put the cost of value/worth into perspective for them.

#worth #freelance #value #price

[veronicamakes]

Life Happens

As you may know, the goal of this little corner of the web is for me to post something daily (weekends excluded, cause that time is reserved for my family). If you look back I have done fairly well; until we got into February that is. 

This has been a very busy month so far. The first week of the month we took a road trip down to Tokoyo both for fun as well as to see off and help get some of our dearest friends back to the States. We squeezed in as much fun as we could before then––taking in some sights and taking all the kids to Tokoyo Disney; which was pretty amazing! We continued the sightseeing stopping in Sendai for a few day on our trek back home.

Needless to say, as it goes with most vacations of this sort, I needed a few days to recover once we got home. Amongst the usual loads of laundry that needed to be done in the following days, I was also preparing for our household goods to be delivered. 

If you have ever been in the military or civil servant in the military and been shipped overseas then you know what I’m talking about. If you have not I’ll give you a quick rundown. When you (or your spouse in my case) get assigned a job overseas, you pack up your entire life, everything you own and it either goes into storage (until you return) or it gets packed up to be shipped out with you. You are allotted a certain weight that the government will pay for, which is nice. 

However, your belongings will arrive well after you have; typical two to three months. Which isn’t that bad considering it is coming by freighter ship across the ocean. Our household items arrived Friday, February 9th at 8am sharp. One thing about the Japanese is they are always on time (which I love) and they are super efficient. Our FMO (loaner furniture) was hauled off and two truck packed with ten giant crates carrying everything from our sectional couch and beds to old photographs and crap I can’t believe got packed; were waiting in line and unloaded with beds and sectional put together for us all by noon! It was very impressive.

The weekend has been spent unpacking and attempting to fit our belonging into our new house trying to make it feel more like home. It has been overwhelming, to say the least. While we have made a significant dent there is still so much to do. So many boxed to sort through and so much we simply need to let go of. 

Needless to say, I have not simply been putting off this tiny site, I have actually missed my daily mussing here. I just had other priorities in life that needed my immediate attention. I needed to find some sort of order in my home before I could even think about shifting my thoughts to writing again.

#life #moving #overseas #japan #unclutter

[veronicamakes]

Put a little YouTube time-lapse video out of the creation of this little illustration. Why? Because I have always wanted to do an illustration time-lapse and I actually remembered to try it out this time. 

You can check it out here if you’d like. 

#youtube #illustration #vector #time-lapse

[veronicamakes]

Are You Charging What It’s Worth, Or What It Cost?

This one is for all my fellow freelancers...

Charing is one of the most difficult aspects of freelancing, no doubt. But think about this; when you buy a product whether it’s clothing, music, or a gadget you are NOT paying for what it cost to make that product. You are paying what that item is Valued at by its creator.

Let's take a look at the actual cost of a few items. It cost less than .10¢ to create an audio file be it a book or music but when was the last time you paid that for an audiobook? You will pay nearly as much for an audiobook as you pay for a printed book that has more cost associated with it. Why?

Because a book by James Patterson is valued at $30 just to for the pleasure of hearing his crafted words spun into an amazing and entertaining story for your entertainment. You are not simply paying for the creation of that file, you are paying for the talents of the author, the creator.

People will pay hundreds of dollars for a pair of jeans that fit like they were tailored and are built to last for years. Yet it only cost about $4 in material and depending on where they are made less than .50¢ in labor to cut and stitch. Even for a cheap pair of jeans, you are paying way more than the cost to produce them.

What about coffee? We love our coffee and have no problem paying $5 for a cup (some pay this daily on their commutes to work). The most expensive part of the coffee is the coffee beans -- 64 cents worth. The cup cost 13 cents, and the lid was 3 cents. An average cup also has 4 cents worth of sugar and takes 33 cents worth of labor to make for a total cost of$1.17. That’s  nearly a 400% increase.

So, if you no one is paying cost prices for anything we buy from products to service but are happy to pay the valued price of the products because they think it is worth it––why would you charge only what it cost you in time for your work? The next time you are pitching or estimating the cost of your freelance work I hope you will think about this. Think about what the work you do is worth, beyond the time it takes you to create it. What problems are you solving for your clients, in what ways are you helping beyond just visual because chances are you are helping them greatly and in ways, they have not yet taken into consideration.

When, and I say “when” because at some point one or more of your clients will question why you are charging what you are charging, because they don’t fully understand the value of your service or freelance work in general. So, when they ask you why the cost is so high. Understand that they perceive it as high because don’t yet understand the value of what you are providing. Help them understand that what they are getting is far beyond just words or pretty pictures; explain the problems you are solving for them, the people you will reach far beyond what they are doing on their own and if that fails, use a few of the examples about. Often times it helps to put the cost of value/worth into perspective for them.

#freelance #pricing #value #worth

[veronicamakes]

Books, On Books, On Books

I love books. I have loved to read since I was a kid and as a kid, I read mostly fiction books with a few classics mixed in for good measure. I also throw some audiobooks into the mix cause I never know when I will get a chance to sit down and dedicate time to read or if I need to be able to read (listen) on the go.

Why so many books to read, you may be asking––or maybe not. Either way, I’ll tell you. I have a tendency to read two to three books at a time, a habit I got into in college. I found it helped to keep my interest and when one book, usually a biography or non-fiction book was feeling too heavy I would switch it up to something else entirely. 

Tobias Van Schneider wrote up a great article a few years ago on “How To Read A Book” where he talks about this same technique and why it works so well. 

A couple years ago I always struggled to finish books, as we all do. I had this set concept in my head on how I’m supposed to read a book. One after one, from start to finish. We think we have to honor a book as a work of art and follow it’s pages in order as we learned in school.

This mindset is outdated and often hinders us to read a book at all. In the age of blogs & twitter our reading behavior has changed to an extent that we established a fear of books. But there is no reason to follow the old rules.

#books #reading #learning #ideas

[veronicamakes]

It’s About Aligning Work With Life

“How we spend our days is, how we spend our lives" - Annie Dillard'

I’ve been giving the work/life balance thing a lot of thought lately. It’s the word balance that has been irking me. The word balance implies equal. So be balanced, 8 hours a day at work would equal to 8 hours a day at home with family. But that just isn’t how our lives work.

Most families today are constantly on the go; especially if you have kids. There’s school functions like; plays, sports, school projects, fundraiser, and so on. Even at work you have social events; dinners, networking, client pitches and so on. One is always bleeding into the other making it impossible to separate.

Especially if like me, you love your work, your job. I have a passion for designing and it is unequivocally a huge part of who I am. It dictates what I enjoy to read, watch, and even listen too (podcasts, audio books). It would be impossible to turn that part of myself off simple because I’m with my family at dinner or a birthday party. Rather than shutting it off it’s about being mindful where my focus lyes and when.

There have countless times when my kids see me doodling in my sketchbook and they are intrigued by what I’m doing. They will sit there and just watch, asking question like “how did you do that?” Yes, I could send them away and tell them “mommy’s working right now, go play.” But it’s much more fun to seize those moments and ask them if they want to draw with me. It’s fun to see their eyes light up as they see it as spending time with mommy. Sometimes we go far beyond pulling out stacks of paper and markers and go big with canvases and paint; which is one of their favorites and mine too.

It’s more about aligning work with life than anything else. It’s about making room for life to happen when we can,, to embrace those moments and have fun... It’s about life off devices and computers constantly looking for the next “thing” or next idea.

One thing I have found to always be true is that letting life happen and to be more relaxed about work at home is to be ok with stepping away from it to go outside a play in the snow with my kids or to take a break and play kitchen—those are the moments' ideas happen.

#life #balance #moments #alignment