with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
I work in the mornings.
This is just the way I’m wired, for whatever reason, and I’ve learned at 31 years old to embrace this little quirk. I get up, open the laptop, and get to work. When the work is done, the playing can commence.
Except, of course, when it doesn’t work that way.
When I worked out of an office, I took for granted the availability of free office supplies and equipment that made getting my job done easier. When I worked from home, I took for granted how easy it was to work pretty much the same way as I had when I worked from an office. I already had an internet connection, installed an extra phone line, bought a printer, and set up a UPS account with my home address. Now that I work from the road, I’m constantly working to find unique solutions to everyday logistical needs.
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First and foremost: I’m back. The last post I wrote on this blog did not, obviously, turn out to be my final post on this blog. That being said, the writer may be staying the same, but the blog itself is changing to reflect my new work/life situation and a growing trend among working women ever.
While full time work used to mean putting 40 hours in at an office, many of us are now working full time, all the time, because we have no office. We work from our homes, our cars and our travel trailers. Some of us are freelancers, some fortunate employees, and some real-life business owners who realize that office space is so 2005.
This is my last post for the Full Time, All the Time blog. It’s hard to believe that it has been more than two years since I started writing here, but it’s even harder to believe why I’m leaving.
Over two years ago, I took on the role of blogger here when my predecessor Karen Waldron of Chookooloonks stopped working full time in a corporate office and started building her own business from her home. My very first post here was about how I felt guilty watching Karen leave the workforce, but how certain I was that working out of the home was the best choice for me and my family. Two years later, I’m writing my last blog because I, too, have left the traditional workforce behind in exchange for self-employment.
Categories: Uncategorized, break from reality, office life, working mom
I know that there was a time not so long ago when the Internet didn’t exist. And then the Internet did exist, but it was a luxury. And then it came to our homes in dial-up, then cable, then… well, you see where this is going. We’ve come a long way since Al Gore invented the Internet and today we live in a world in which a great majority of our ideas, products and services are exchanged “in the cloud.”
I make my living entirely online. I don’t have an office and every product I make or service I deliver is digital. And yet, I am currently living without reliable Internet for the first time in almost 15 years.
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. My workload is nearly the same as what it was when I was living in a house with 24/7 wifi service, but I’m getting it done in three days a week instead of five or six.
Ironically, a lack of Internet has made me more productive.
I spent the first 15 years of my career working in sales, with a big chunk of that time being devoted to advertising sales. I’m not sure if there is a more competitive work environment than one that is populated by people who live on commission. There’s a very distinct sense that the pie is finite and anything you get represents something I’m not getting.
There wasn’t a lot of building co-workers up going on in our morning meetings and the only people you’d expect to see offering a salesperson guidance was a sales manager. Sales people are tight lipped about their leads and their tricks of the trade because their co-workers are their competition.
Since changing career paths recently, I’ve been surprised to find that this unwillingness to share is not confined to sales. I’ve seen the proprietary hold on trade secrets in writers, editors, and designers. I’ve heard about it among project managers and legal experts. Time and again I see professionals keep a white knuckle grip on their knowledge in a desperate attempt to avoid helping anyone else get unfairly ahead.
What the heck is that about?
There’s a plethora of advice available on how to get ahead in your career. Whether you work for a Fortune 500 company or own your own one-woman-show, you can find tips on every magazine rack about how to climb higher and earn more.
But have you ever stopped to think if you really want to move up in your career?
Has it only been a week since I was whining about the ineffectiveness of business cards?
Ah, yes. And what a difference a week makes.
In that time I have handed out approximately 10 business cards and received exactly 13. As I sit in the airport lounge, not even home from my business trip yet, I have already scanned and saved every card into Evernote. I have also followed up with every single contact in the manner most appropriate for each.
I have never followed up on a business card exchange after a networking event.
Ever.
What made me (and the cards) so much more effective this time around?
Last night, I began the process of making new business cards. (I would have finished the process, but I ran out of printer ink at 10:30 pm. Naturally.)
It pains me to spend the time and resources making new cards, even though my job description has changed significantly over the last few months. I still have well over a hundred perfectly good business cards (except for the outdated job description and really old picture). I have plenty left because I almost never hand them out.
It’s not that I don’t meet new people. I do, often.
But I also use technology to collect, store, and organize contact information. If you have an iPhone, I’ll use the Bump It app to swap details with you. If you’re on twitter, I’ll quickly start following you right from my phone. I rely on Google and Apple to work seamlessly together to keep my contacts organized.
I usually have a lot going on in my life. I’m a mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. I work. I travel and write for fun. I make sure to manage my health with a balanced diet, a little exercise, and adequate rest so as not to sink into the depths of depression. I have been known to cook a meal, wash a load of laundry, and clean a toilet or two when necessary.
No doubt about it; I’m busy.
But, isn’t everyone?
No, really. I’m asking. Because I don’t consider myself anymore busy than most people in today’s society -most of us wear multiple hats and juggle several responsibilities at the same time - and yet I’ve noticed lately that other people comment frequently on how busy I am.
