(Click for bigger. I’m redesigning to accommodate 900px-wide photos soon, I swear.)
Last Week
I finished writing up my Backlog Plan (read more about that here) and promptly came down with the flu, or an evil cold of evil, or something. I wasn’t going to take a break but then my body took it for me. I was in bed for a good thirty-six hours with two breaks to pee and hydrate. I managed to pay rent through a pounding headache, went to bed at 8 AM at least twice and pulled two all-nighters.
The flu went like: pounding headache and congestion (Sunday) > full-on am-I-dying-I-want-my-mommy-here (Monday) > blocked airways and headache (Tuesday) > uncontrollable painful coughing and headache (Wednesday) > uncontrollable snot monster coughing (Thursday & Friday) > occasional headache and milder snot monster coughing (Saturday). Yesterday — er, Saturday, I started feeling a little better, so I sent out some emails. Cut off some inches of my hair. (Stay tuned for that post.) Stayed up all night because I couldn’t sleep, and in the morning I wasn’t coherent enough to do anything involving other people, so I tidied/reorganized my room so I could shoot some stuff. Which I did. Shoot stuff. And then I edited the pics at Starbucks.
It didn’t make my photography backlog plan any smaller, but it didn’t make it any bigger by getting to those photos straight away. And hey, my backlog plan is trifold: photography AND design AND blog — so I get to strike quite a few things off the list. And have material for a number of posts ready.
Now if I could just make a proper schedule and stick to it. I made one for last week and accomplished Weekly Wishes; Harassment and Coercion in the Creative Industry for Marielle and Kiersten‘s The F Word link-up; a portion of a post I’ve been kicking around my head featuring paper bits that make me happy, this one on my Printrbook; and… I shared photography, which wasn’t on the list, but can never hurt. Fashion/outfit pictures with Leigh from Fox and Feather, and photos from a walk around Crouch End in June — many available to purchase as prints on Etsy now. I love sharing my work here and I want to do more of it, especially with the design stuff.
Today
I was hoping to have this post up a little earlier today, but my sleep schedule had other plans. Which I probably knew about before I went to sleep, because I always oversleep, and I always oversleep harder if I didn’t sleep the night before.
Anyway, I’m here now. At Starbucks, taking advantage of the hour and a half before closing I was up for, sipping on a warm latte because my throat needed something substantial and hot. I may have to switch back from decaf cappuccino to normal coffee and milk like I had for breakfast in Spain. It always set my throat right.
I woke up to a bit of a shake — someone asking for a refund I wouldn’t be able to dispute if they went for it, a reminder that I need to pay the remainder on my hosting plan asap, and the people of Shooting Beauty reminding me that I’m several months past due. I signed a 12-month contract and regretted it immediately, and I just… don’t have the money. I can pay rent today and I may be able to make enough for bills on Friday — have to, somehow, not sure how yet — and then I’m dry. And I need to pay rent again on Monday.
And I need a coat shipped to me as soon as humanly possible, because the weather’s just said fuck it and gone straight into cold. At least I have good central heating.
It’s the money woes you’re here for, right? You come in for the pretty pics and stay for the money woes. I know. My mess of a financial life is fascinating. (That was all sarcasm, but I’m sure some people do find it interesting, and I share because I need to and for awareness — I am this poor. Really. I have no disposable income. Really.)
Weekly Wishes
[1] Well — see the photo above? That’s two pages of a three-page photography backlog to-do list. Then there’s a page of design backlog, and two of blogging backlog. Then miscellaneous stuff. I also used the notebook in between those pages to hash out the new categories for my blog — I’m happy with what I’ve come up with, and I’m already starting to instate them, to an extent.
[2] I just need to redesign the blog. I’ve been compiling ideas…
[3] Content-wise, I resolve to share:
1 outfit
1 piece of design work
this week.
[4] I received my final website (for new readers or people who don’t commit the random crap I spout off to memory: I won a giveaway for a website back in April, when I’d just moved to London) on Friday, and I was so sick that I had a major freakout that I wasn’t going to get it to look like I wanted and oh god oh god oh fuck, but now I’m feeling better and willing to put in the work. With them. Like, with them as I go. They have training specialists and whatnot, I will be fine, but I need to be handheld for this.
The thing is that even if the final result isn’t my ideal website, it will be a lot better than not having a website. It will allow me to sell things on my own terms, without listing fees, and it will allow me to sell stock photography. The team behind AmeriCommerce did a lot of work and, although it took forever and it would have been much quicker if I’d known the person I was working with was just doing mock-ups without much of an eye towards development, because then I would have designed the thing myself, we got there. And it really is a mammoth of a site.
[5] I’d like to put together an ideal income and various ways to achieve it every month. I’ve been kicking that idea around in my head for a while and it’s time to make it happen. I also got YNAB (You Need A Budget) off Stephanie and I’m LOVING it, though the whole ‘oh, you didn’t budget for this, you’re over budget’ thing bugs me a bit because yeah, okay, I know, I don’t get a massive paycheck, I live small sale to small sale. But the goal is to live on last month’s income, and what do you know, that is my goal too! Also it doesn’t crash when you enter expense info like Excel does. Basically, I’m into it and committed to using it every day. Thanks, Steph!
I’m also determined to get back to some people, and write two (2) articles for Photodoto. And, of course, keep playing catch-up on that backlog.
Wish me luck!
What do you do when you fall behind on something? Do you have a system in place, do you tackle it straight on, take it step by step? What’s worked for you in the past?
And of course, how was your week, and what are your plans for the new one?