Working from home

So, apart from a few last loose ends to tie up, I have finished my studies, had a little cry about it, and taken my first steps into the scary adult world. I have taken the step from being a part-time student/part-time translator, into being a full-time translator, working from home.

I've been really lucky so far in the sense that I've had quite enough to do, so no complaints on that account, and let's hope it lasts. What has been the major problem, as I knew it would be, has been getting up in the morning, getting started, and sticking to it. Last summer, when I had a job to go to, I had no trouble getting up early, getting myself ready and heading to work so that I'd arrive at 8am, even though I had a flexible schedule and most other people wouldn't arrive until 9am, or even later. I just enjoyed finishing at 4pm instead of 5, so I came in early, no problem. Now, however, getting out of bed has become a major struggle, and once I get out of bed, instead of having breakfast, getting dressed, putting my face on and starting work, I hang out in my pyjamas, get stuck on Facebook and various blogs, and don't even remember to make breakfast for the first hour or so.

And then there's of course the issue of productivity during the rest of the day, although I have found that if I manage to get started fairly early, I am also better at handling distractions that come up later in the day. I am, however, hoping to get myself into some sort of normal working rhythm, with days from 8-4 or 9-5, and evenings and weekends off. We'll see how that goes.

But now I wanted to share something with you that a friend shared on FB, and which is very accurate indeed. The full comic can be found here.

(Although, on second thought an alarm clock that sounds like that could solve my main issue...)

(In my case the lingerie models wouldn't be too much of a temptation, but you get the idea)

That last one is especially accurate, as I just finished today's work at around midnight. This is what I'm trying to avoid. Better luck tomorrow!

Ps: If anyone has any good ideas on how to increase productivity when working from home, please share!

Do you know that feeling?

Do you know that feeling?

That feeling of waiting for some potentially life changing news. When you don't want to make plans, but you can't help yourself. When you feel like you may jinx it if you plan too much, but planning is in your nature. When you play out scenarios in your head, but try to focus on the worst case ones, just to reduce the disappointment you fear is inevitable. When you're trying hard not to get carried away, not to let yourself get too excited, and just to keep your feet on the ground - and fail miserably.

I hate that feeling. But oh, how I love it.

What's currently being played to death

As I mentioned in my previous music-related post (and may have done before, as well), I tend to play good songs I find to death. Here's the most recent one, which I found only this weekend:

I rarely watch music videos, but I'm glad I happened to watch this one, as I find it quite inspirational - the song even more so. Definitely a good motivator.

Another one that I've been playing a lot lately (and that I'm very close to tiring of) is this one:

For some reason I watched some of this video as well (really, I almost never watch them, especially since my computer/internet doesn't seem to get along with youtube, and cos I don't really see the point), but only for about a minute, and then gave up. Anyway, I like the song, it's catchy and it's got a good beat - I've been dancing to it around my flat while cleaning (yeah, more dancing than cleaning, unfortunately).

There's also been a couple of Finnish ones I discovered this summer, and "same old" in the shape of Mumford & Sons and Of Monsters and Men. But I think I need to find something new to replace the two top ones soon, before they're damaged beyond repair. Any ideas?

Simple Living and De-cluttering

As can be seen from the title of this post, today I'd like to talk about two concepts I've recently discovered: Simple Living and De-cluttering. I can't remember quite how it happened (maybe it was divine intervention? I'd sure need it!), but the other day, when I was slowly starting to think about and planning for my impending move, I ended up on a blog called Keep It Simple (only in Finnish) and a post about getting rid of the chaos in your home, basically de-cluttering. For those who know me, it comes as no surprise that I need help and advice on exactly that - my home is rarely tidy, and there is usually random stuff lying around. So, this concept of Simple Living that this blog introduced me to inspired me to go and look for more, and I came across an absolute gem for all things related to Simple Living, including de-cluttering, time-management, sorting out your finances, and much, much more. So, this weekend I have spent some time reading some of the many interesting posts in zenhabits, which is a blog by Leo Babauta. For anyone interested in this concept, I recommend going into the Start Here section of his blog, where you can get an overview of the topics he's covered, and find the things that you find useful and interesting. After each post, there are links to related posts, so the information is easily available, and you could spend hours reading through it all.

For me, this is a perfect time to start the process of de-cluttering, since I'll shortly be moving back into my own flat - it makes so much more sense to go through all my boxes of stuff now, and get rid of what I don't need, and then only bring what I actually need back into the flat. Every time I move, I do get rid of a bunch of stuff, but this time I've got my new Simple Living tools at hand, so hopefully that would make the process even more efficient. When sorting through my boxes, I always try to think: Do I really need this? Do I use it? Does it fit? And, most importantly, is there space for this in my flat? I live in a 35m² studio apartment, so there isn't much room for extra stuff. I've also started re-thinking some of my storage solutions, to maximise the benefit I get from every single closet, cupboard and square metre of space.

At the moment, I'm very motivated to start this process, and to keep it up - de-cluttering isn't something you do once, you have to keep doing it. We'll see how well I'll do once I actually get back into my flat - there are loads of bad habits to be broken - but so far, it's been going quite well. Up till now, I've had about ¼ of my clothes in a closet, and the rest in three bags (one large duffel bag and two smaller ones) that have been in storage. Yesterday, I emptied out a large paper bag full of clothes from my closet, and reduced the amount of bags to one small duffel bag. I also dug out my folders of old school and uni papers from my boxes, and got rid of everything (except old report cards and a few essays) - amounting to a ½ metre high pile of paper. In addition, I've thrown out a few handbags and 9 pairs of shoes (yes, it hurt, but it had to be done). Right now, I'm very excited to keep going, so I hope I can keep this up in the future. And once the de-cluttering is properly underway, I want to tackle some of the other aspects of Simple Living that Babauta introduces in his blog.

weheartit

Dust bunnies and other pets

I don't clean very often. I admit it, and everyone who's ever been to my place agrees. It's just not one of my top priorities. Besides, I'm the one who has to live in it, and I'm the only one who's bothered by it, so it's not such a big deal.

I don't like hoovering, mostly because there's usually so much stuff lying around on the floor that I'd have to start by sorting that out. I absolutely hate dusting, mainly for the same reason - it's just too much trouble to move everything around in order to get to the dust. Besides, I used to dust off my shelves once a week, but soon I noticed that they still looked as bad as always, because it's such a small apartment and dust accumulates really quickly, so I gave up (which of course is a solution to the problem, unlike, say, dusting a bit more often).

I know all this dust is probably the reason my nose is always, always running, and it'll probably end up giving me asthma. It's also a bit disgusting. But yesterday when I got home, something happened that gave me a bit more inspiration to clean, but which was hilarious at the same time.

When I'd gone out, I had left my window open, so there was a slight breeze. When I got back and opened the front door, the draught caused a huge dust bunny (ironically enough they're called poodles in Finnish) to glide across the floor to meet me, just like a dog coming to meet its owner! I thought I'd die from laughing so hard! I know, it's disgusting, but definitely hilairous as well!

I always say that one day when I get home, the dishes I've left in the sink for ages will meet me at the door, and clearly, I wasn't too far off!

Better start cleaning...

"I told you so!"

I went to see The King's Speech the other day. I'd been wanting to see it ever since it came out - and that's when I should have gone to see it, because back then I was still in London, where I could have seen it for half the price that I had to pay in Finland, but never mind.

The film was great in many ways, and I could almost feel the words getting stuck in my own throat at times when I watched the king's struggle to get the words out. There was one thing, however, that bothered me a little bit. I was watching the scenes with the (quite creepy) archbishop, and I knew I'd seen him in something else, but I just couldn't place him. I was wondering if he was actually as creepy in that film as I made him out to be, or if I was just remembering him from some other role.

This happens quite often*, and when it does, IMDb is my best friend. Sometimes, like now, I see an actor I know I've seen in something before, but I just can't place them, but at other times I keep thinking about it during the film, and I eventually come up with it, or at least an idea of who it could be. After the film (or during it, if I'm watching it at home) I head straight to IMDb to see if I was right. And oh, what a feeling when I am!

Even if it's just a tiny thing, being able to recognise and actor I've seen in something else, and even if no one else knows of my "accomplishment", there's still this sense of pride, that's really quite disproportionate to the level of achievement. It just feels good to be right. I'm even prouder of myself when I recognise the composer of the soundtrack, but I guess that's a bit more impressive than recognising an actor, anyway...

The same applies to any other bit of trivia, and I'm sure millions of people out there who, like me, just love being right, are praising Wikipedia for its help. When has it ever been easier to check facts (and prove yourself right) than now, in the time of Google, Wikipedia, and all those other useful sites, not to mention the fact that lots of people (including me) now have constant access to these sites from their phones.

I know this isn't a terribly attractive personality trait , but to be fair, most of the time it's just a little game I play by myself - it's not like I go and challenge people to take bets. But yes, I am a person who loves being right, and sometimes I'm a bit of a know-it-all, but we've all got our faults.



*It happens even more often after I started watching Doctor Who - it seems like every British actor's been on it at some point, because I now recognise half the actors in any other British film / TV series. Or maybe there just aren't all that many of them?

Procrastinators unite! - tomorrow...

One of the things about myself that I dislike the most is my tendency to procrastinate. Of course, it can be seen as the stereotypical personality trait of a student, but I think, at least in my case, it goes deeper than that, and it really bothers me. I wish I could be efficient and organised like some people, and actually do things when I'm supposed to, instead of always leaving them to the last minute. There are people like that out there, aren't there? Lucky bastards...

I know some people see me as very organised and efficient, and in some areas of my life I am. When I was in London, for example, I was always the person who organised things we did, looked up locations, booked tables, and so on. I love making lists and schedules for everything, including my studies. The problem is that when it has to do with something unpleasant, such as studying for an exam, I never follow that nice, colourful schedule I've drawn up for myself. I actually spend more time planning than actually doing whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing.

Last spring, I complained that I didn't have enough free time. To be honest, I had plenty of free time - the problem was how I distributed that time. If I had started by doing all the things on my To Do list, I could have relaxed once I'd finish them. What I did, however, was taking the 'relaxation time' first, and leaving the stuff that needed to be done to the last minute. This led to my 'relaxation time' not being very relaxing at all; I was too stressed out by everything that still had to be done, and all the deadlines I had to meet. You'd think this would be a great incentive to make me do the work before taking some time off.
Strangely, it wasn't.

My tendency to procrastinate doesn't only concern my studies, but also things like cleaning and washing the dishes. Studying is clearly at the top of the list, though, because if there's nothing else, I might even clean or do the dishes in order to get out of studying. This habit is something that really annoys me, and I wish I'd find a way to get rid of it. Any hints, anyone?

Not surprisingly, while writing this post, I should really have been doing something else... Wanna take a wild guess?