Sarah's Archives

an archive of content from ≈ 2005 - 2015, relating to international business, translation, freelancing, and working online.

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The Blushing Translator…

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I went along to a talk on becoming a Chartered Linguist this week, which was run by the London Regional Group of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI). It was good timing for me and I thought it would be a great way to speak to those involved in developing the application process to get answers to a couple of questions I had about it all.

I hadn’t been to an event organised by the London Regional Group for well over a year. The venue was a cosy bar in Chinatown and the room upstairs was literally bursting at the seams. There were lots of familiar faces from various stages of my working life over the past 5 years. It was great to see quite a few of the more newly-established translators too, in addition to the more experienced crowd. I was all set for a long-overdue evening of talking shop. Or so I thought. When I got home, I realised I’d spent the entire evening with my flies undone… nice!

Oh, the talk was very interesting, and I’ll post some of my notes soon 🙂

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An outtage doesn't have to leave you down and out

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I love thinking of different ways to be more mobile (or “location independent“) as a translator. One of the ways I do this is by trialling different web-based applications to see which best suit my needs. For example, I’m currently using Backpack, an organiser with a calendar, to do lists, notes, etc. to help me stay on top of both work and personal tasks.

So you can imagine how I felt last Friday when I logged in see to this (read from the bottom up):

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Thankfully, I hadn’t been left high and dry. I’ve been using Backpack with PackRat, an application which works with Backpack, but which stores all your information on your computer like any other application. This meant I was able to access my information as usual, with no excuse not to get cracking on my to-do list. Phew.

So why is this remotely blog-worthy? This experience probably confirms the worst fears of a whole lot of people, but it hasn’t put me off using web-based tools and I’m convinced that it shouldn’t deter anyone else either.

Even before Friday, I was never seriously worried about my data being irretrievably lost. I’ve carried out my due diligence and I figure that the makers of Backpack are no more likely to lose my data than I am (and even less likely than the UK government, by all accounts). Nor am I excessively concerned about my personal data being “held” and potentially used for sinister commercial reasons – I don’t particularly like the idea, but I don’t buy the misinformed conspiracy theories either. I view it the same way I do my accounts with eBay, Amazon, Hotmail, or any other wonder of the internet age. Anything that important, or that confidential, is backed up and/or not uploaded in the first place. (I’m not using Backpack to store translations or client documents, for example.)

Most of all, there really is no excuse for not backing up regularly, especially as a professional with responsibility to your clients. Backpack’s outtage just emphazises that moving data server-side doesn’t relieve us of this responsibility. We can’t control when the technology is going to fail, we only know that it will; so shame on us if we’re caught out. It’s an oldie, but a goodie.

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Why being your own boss is not as hard as you think

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working from home

I often hear people comment that they are not motivated enough to work for themselves.

They imply the temptations of tellie, tea and comfy slippers would be too great. As if, somehow, the kind of willpower and discipline required to resist these delights are the preserve of a lucky, very motivated few.

This idea seemed to be re-enforced during a discussion following an interesting but unrelated post over at Employee Evolution. An artist aspiring to self-employment asked:

…since you are working for yourself how do you avoid the temptation to sleep in on rainy days and get daily motivation? … I fear the “oh I’ll do it later” mentality and being secluded, which I feel would get lonely…

To which another commenter suggested that working for a small company might better suit this person’s “mindset”.

It’s good to see people offering suggestions and support to others within an encouraging environment. But I’m concerned that comments like this lack vision.

Mindsets are just that – minds which have been set in a certain way. But it does not mean they are set in stone.

I don’t consider myself to have a lot of willpower. I’m not especially disciplined either, and, as I’ve explained before, I sometimes have to work hard to motivate myself to work. I’d bet these factors alone would see me fail many of the ubiquitous online quizzes offering to assess my suitability to be my own boss.

So how have I done it?

I suggest aspiring freelancers turn their fears around and ask themselves, “what do I need to do to ensure that I don’t feel secluded / lack motivation / [insert any other concerns here]?”. This technique really helped me when I was starting out, and still does today.

Greg Hollings over at Location Independent Living did a great job of showing how he overcame his freelancing fears in an excellent post called Three Fears I Had About Leaving The Rat Race That Came True (And How I Overcame Them). Best of all, he prompted some really useful and empowering suggestions from other freelancers in the comments section.

Properly thinking through the answers to these kinds of questions will offer you a more realistic insight into whether self-employment is a step you are truly willing and able to take.

Ultimately, it’s about creating new habits and a new mindset for yourself.

I’m not for a minute underestimating the skills required to work for yourself, or the complex combination of other internal and external factors. But I can’t help thinking that if I can work for myself, then there’s a lot more people out there who could too – if they really wanted to.

All of this shows that if you’re seriously considering whether you can cut it on your own, feeling afraid and unsure of yourself should not be reasons in themselves to deter you.

Instead, you can use your fear as fuel to feed your likelihood of success.

What fears do you have about freelancing? How can you turn them around?

My Personal Productivity Nirvana

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One of the biggest problems I face as a home-working freelancer is maintaining my motivation levels. I’ve found that one of the best ways to do this is to ensure I feel organised, productive and ultimately, on top of things. But believe it or not(!), this is something I have to work very, very hard at. Flagging energy is probably something all workers face, but there’s nothing like having your income based on your output to ensure that it’s not something that gets swept under the carpet for too long.

I’m certain that my situation is not helped by a natural tendency towards ill-discipline and blissful chaos 🙂 However, given the proliferation of personal productivity blogs maintained by home-working marketeers, writers and techies of every programming persuasion, I’m inclined to think that dips in output are common to many home-workers.

Luckily, I learned ways of keeping my scattered side more or less in check long before I went freelance. Working part-time while also studying part-time for my Masters was a great exercise in self-management. Once I got into the swing of things, I found I thrived on the demands of these very different environments. (In fact, I consider this to be one of the most productive portfolio periods of my life.)

But I have the short-term memory of a goldfish, and if I don’t record it, I don’t remember it. That’s a lot of recording, and it’s probably why I’m such a sucker for anything promising personal-productivity nirvana. And if the stairs to heaven are paved with a limited number of easy-to-follow steps, then all the better. So, here’s my list of some of the personal productivity tools I have tried and discarded, either wholly or partially, over the last year alone.*

Electronic tools

  • Microsoft Office Outlook: my default organisation system for some time now, a legacy from my office-working days. Undoubtedly a one-stop-shop, but long overdue a change, not least because I’m tired of looking at its dull interface and overflowing inbox. More cubicle-dweller than freelancer, I’m afraid.
  • 37 Signal’s Backpack: a free web-based information manager. I’m enjoying this a lot at the moment. I use it with InfiniteNIL’s Packrat for offline working too. Nice to look at, which is always a bonus, but you need a system of some kind to get the most from it.
  • MindjetMindManager: a mind-mapping application. I loved the idea of this, but my mind just doesn’t work in this way so it never felt intuitive. And I really don’t need another excuse for not being organised – one for the more visually-stimulated amongst us.
  • Blackberry Pearl 8100: I normally prefer my phone without the whistles and bells, but I really like getting my emails on my phone. It means I can go about my day without worrying about missing a job offer if I’m not in front of the computer. This year I set up filters so I only receive my clients’ work-offer emails (everything else I check from my regular email programme), and it’s even better!
  • Tiddlywiki: a free, non-linear personal web notebook. This is an amazing tool and I’m sure it will be perfect for something I do, some day. For now though, it’s just not what I’m looking for – again, I just don’t seem to organise my thoughts in this way. But I had some pretty geeky fun playing around with it for a couple of days! It’s true what they say, the best things in life are free.
  • Omni Group’s OmniOutliner: this application came free with my Mac. It’s offers what the outline view of Microsoft Word offers, only more features, more easily organisable and more pleasing to the eye. Guess what – this does seem to suit the way my mind works, and I’m hooked.

Paper-based tools

  • Russell and Hazel‘s 3-ring binder planner system: a stationary marvel, really and truly, and a joy to use, but it’s just too bulky to carry around with me. I need to have my info to hand if I’m working out of office. Plus, I prefer something a little further along the electronic spectrum for easy updating.
  • Moleskin 18 month pocket-sized calendar: currently my favourite calendar. Can’t beat it for portability AND ease of use. And I’m a sucker for the soft covers, mmmm.
  • Black’n’Red A5 wirebound notebooks: I started using these in a former office job and they’re still my favourite for general notes and lists. They’re just the right size, the wire means the cover folds back neatly and I like the paper quality too.

And for variety, here’s a selection of some of the books I’ve read on the topic.

  • Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, by Mark Forster: This gets my productivity book of 2007 award, and it was the best value too at only £2.97 on Amazon. It has some very realistic but thought-provoking ideas on effectively managing your workload, including how to decide what kind of tasks to take on in the first place. Most of these ideas are particularly suited to being freelance. Best of all, it’s the ONLY book I’ve read that clearly states that there is only finite number of hours in the day, and if you’re not getting everything done then you may just be doing too much. Revolutionary!!
  • Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity, by David Allen: I’d heard a lot about this book before I actually read it. It’s essential reading in the sphere of life hacks and personal productivity, but I’m suspicious of systems with as many fanatical followers as this. The full GTD system is not for me, but there are some useful techniques in there, all the same. If nothing else, you’ll at least understand the lengths people are prepared to go to get organised.
  • The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More, by Bill Jensen: I bought this on a recommendation I saw on another blog, but it wasn’t for me. The author is a strong proponent of keeping things simple (which we like), but this book verged very heavily on the side of complete dumbing down. I found the whacky use of different font sizes really annoying, and it’s clearly aimed at people building their careers in hierarchical, corporate companies. I’d say give it a miss.

Finally, some blogs on personal productivity from my RSS reader. These are especially relevant to freelance workers.

  • David Seah: has developed his own productivity system called the Printable CEO System. Oh yes, forgot to mention I’ve dabbled with this too 😉
  • GoogleTutor: productivity 101 – ensure you are using your most frequently referred-to tools as efficiently as possible.
  • Lifehacker: making computers more productive. Because let’s face it, they’re not really.
  • Pimp Your Work: mostly, I love the name, but it has some fun tips too.
  • Adventures in home working: even I find productivity boring after a while, but this blogger keeps me coming back for more as he covers that and so much more. Plus, he’s based on this side of the pond, which is always refreshing.
  • Tim Ferriss’s blog: this guy is a bit of a productivity ninja, the ultimate portfolio worker and the author of a book called The Four-Hour Workweek. His book has a lot of buzz about at it the moment (inciting controversy and compliments in not-so-equal measure). Love him or hate him, he seems to be doing something right.
  • WebWorkerDaily: good for a heads-up on new (and often free) bits of software, which are often relevant to freelance workers.
  • Contract Worker: The blurb sums it up nicely and is also pretty funny: “A lot of people still have a wrong impression of contract work or freelancing, thinking it only involves selling your skills to the highest bidder; in short, turning your expertise into a prostitute for money (thus the F-word). I’ll show why this isn’t so, by presenting freelancing as a legitimately lucrative career option that allows improvement and growth.”


Who knows, one day I may stumble across the holy grail of personal productivity (you’ll be the first to hear about it if I do). Until then, I’ll continue to spend more time revving up my motivation levels by testing the latest hair-brained tools than actually Getting Anything Done.

*disclaimer: I receive no incentives for any of these links

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These are a few of my favourite things

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Lucy Kellaway speaks about the joys of fresh stationary, gossip and lattees in her FT.com management podcast dated 7.10.07. I thought it was funny because in listing the small but important pleasures of office life, she mentions many of the things I consciously try to recreate here in my home office – to varying degrees of success. Sure, the coffee’s better here at home, but the thrill of playing a bit part in a mini soap-opera is just not the same when the only other actors are Pat the Postman, Ed the Electricity Meter Reader and Chu the local Shop Keeper.

Lucy’s full list includes:

* enjoying lattees with lids and eating danish pastries at your desk
* doing email in the morning before anyone gets into the office
* a really comfortable chair at just the right angle and height
* a new packet of paper for the printer
* a fully stocked stationary cupboard, with just the kind of pens and battery sizes you need
* playing a bit part in your very own office soap-opera
* air conditioning in summer
* IT helpdesks
* doing the supermarket shop during work (much more satisfying than on the computer at home)
* ego boosters from colleagues, including generally being noticed by other people

I think it’s a great idea to make a list of the little things that bring pleasure to your working day. Mainly because it’s good to know what you like in life, generally. But also because these small pleasures are often transferrable, so can be re-created or maintained should you ever face of period of transition. After all, why throw the baby out with the bathwater, or indeed waste your energy re-inventing the wheel?

But if you find your morning routine includes getting fully suited and booted before kissing your partner and/or cat goodbye, only to take a walk around the block and return to work at your home office or kitchen table, I’d suggest you re-consider whether homeworking is really the thing for you.

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Join the translation neighbourhood watch

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Originally published in December 2007

When I first started freelancing, it took me a long time before I felt like a Proper Translator. This was not because I lacked the confidence or even the workload to use the title (I was lucky enough to have a full book of well paid, satisfying work after about 3 months). It was because I just wasn’t doing the kind of work I thought I *should* be doing.

Looking back, my expectations were as realistic as they could have been at that point. I had spent two years carefully preparing for my freelance career. I had spoken to lots of supportive professionals, completed work placements in two different translation companies and dabbled in a reasonable number of small, paid translation jobs. I certainly didn’t have a pie-in-the-sky ideal of sitting around sucking on the end of a quill, or dashing through the corridors of the UN à la a translator-version of the film The Interpreter. But where were the translation jobs I was expecting? Where were the texts, the documents, the written words awaiting my careful rendering?

I eventually realised that that’s just a tiny part of how the translation world works these days. A whole raft of ancillary work has sprung up around the field of translation. Experienced translator Hugh Morgan summed it up perfectly in his paper at the 2007 Portsmouth Conference when he referred to these “other” kinds of work as near-neighbours of translation – neighbours that get looked down upon often and very unfairly. Proofreading, editing and revising are the usual suspects, but there’s so much more out there, including summary writing, semantic audits, analyses and a whole raft of other things that I probably haven’t heard of yet.

So here’s my list of top 5 things I think all new translators should know about Near Neighbours Of Translation (or NNOTrans):

1. By looking down on NNOTrans, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

NNOTrans don’t get the air-time they deserve because too many translators think that anything less than “pure” translation is a waste of their skills. As an eager newcomer to the profession, I found this difficult to get my head around at first. I was embarrassed and didn’t know if I could call myself a translator, when I wasn’t doing what many translators seem to mean when they refer to translation. I’m glad I got over myself and got on with it, and I’d advise other newcomers to do the same. If you like what you do and you’re drawing on your translation skills, no matter how remotely, where’s the problem? Instead, feel excited about being at the forefront of industry changes.

2. NNOTrans are the way to go to ensure career longevity.

I don’t know about you but I certainly don’t want to spend my whole career looking over my shoulder, afraid of being replaced by a machine or another professional working in a country where the cost of living is lower than the UK (i.e. most countries, then). Two ways to avoid this are be fussy about the kind of work you take on, and specialise. Translators are skilled at pulling together different threads of communication from a range of specialist fields, and that’s even before they bring a second language into the mix. There aren’t many professionals who can lay claim to these kind of skills, so let’s forget about restrictive job titles and use this to our advantage.

3. NNOTrans often pay better than per-word translation.

Hugh put it beautifully when he said this kind of work has “a more generous margin”. I say, unless you translate in a highly specialised field and/or are lucky enough to have a portfolio of top-dollar direct clients, you’ll probably find you earn more per hour for a NNOTrans project than a traditional “source-word in, target-word out” translation. There’s more to consider than “just” the money, of course, as few of us go freelance for the fame and fortune. But think about how these other sources of work can give you the breathing space you need in those heady first days of freelancing, to enable you to hold out for the kind of translation work you really want to spend your time on.

4. NNOTrans can be more more enjoyable than “pure” translation.

When I first started out, I saw NNOTrans as a good way to pay my bills, while also getting my foot in the door with work providers. I thought once the “real” translation work started rolling in, I’d drop them and move on to greener pastures. The real translation work did start coming in, but in the meantime I’d found my NNOTrans projects had evolved. My professional expertise was being requested on a range of projects and I was booked well in advance, so my time was respected and I was well compensated. No stressful deadlines, unreasonable demands or lowly rates. What’s not to love about that? I love translating, but I enjoy jobs which involve near-neighbours of translation too.

5. Use NNOTrans to make you a better translator

NNOTrans projects can be a great source of cross-fertilisation, a way to gain new perspectives, skills and ideas. You could even use them as a way to hone some of the sub-skills of translation – writing, analysis, proofreading, listening skills, applied linguistics, etc. Look at the bigger picture of how this kind of work can get you to where you want to be.

So check out those translation neighbours – you may surprise yourself and make friends for life.

Professional development through blogging. Or: Reflecting on self-reflection…

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A recent talk I attended, which specifically addressed the transition from student to professional translator, helped me answer many questions I had about progression in my own career. When I really thought about it, it raised as many questions as it answered – always a promising sign, in my books. For example, at first I was excited about applying what I had learnt to my ideas on blogging. But as I read a bit more around the subject, I started to wonder about the real value of blogging in the process of professional self-reflection. After all, just how honest can you really be when you are writing for an audience, especially one made up of peers and colleagues?

There’s no doubt that thinking about my readership affects what and how I write my blog. In fact, it was fear of this imagined readership that made me blog anonymously when I first started out, and which even now cripples me as I grapple with the idea of posting something which is less than perfectly polished (that would be most of my posts then!).

But I’ve also learnt that having a real “live” readership motivates me and makes me more disciplined in a way that writing to a private journal never would. Perhaps it’s the exhibitionist in me 🙂 I also like being held accountable for what I write. Here at home, I am King of the Castle and it’s all too easy to form grand ideas and sweeping opinions on all I survey from my lofty perch. It does me no harm at all to be confronted with the idea of having to defend my opinions to real people, and ones I admire and who are potentially far more knowledgeable than I am, too.

It’s true that all this introduces a certain degree of self-censorship to my postings, and therefore too, my reflection process. But I feel that’s precisely what I need, as someone who works alone and with such a high degree of autonomy for most of the day. In fact, I feel that this healthy dose of reality (via the virtual) introduces an element of truth that might not otherwise break through for me in a private journal.

Of course, self-reflection is all very well, but you have to do something with this body of reflection too of course. I can’t bring myself to properly review my archives just yet, but I’ll be blogging one year in February so it’s in the back of my mind that I’ll do some kind of review then. I’ll be interested to see whether the blog’s actual development reflects my perception of how it has evolved, and whether it brings any hitherto unnoticed issues to my attention (no comments about my grammar or punctuation, please… my blog is not quite an exercise in perfect writing!)

It was clear from Janet’s talk that the transition from student to professional is not automatic, but rather a process of negotiating a jungle. Any stage of career transition deserves an equally careful and considered approach, and I’ll be bearing this in mind as I negotiate my current phase of career change.

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Step away from the red pen…

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Translation proofreading, checking, revising or whatever you chose to call it, seems to me to be one of those areas that sends some translators into a frenzy of indignation, rushing around and around in dizzying circles after their own tails. Now, there’s nothing like a frenzy of indignation to make the rest of us tune out and resolve to never again broach a subject so I, for one, was excited by the possibilities opened up to me when I heard a fresh perspective on the matter during Spencer Allman’s talk on Negotiating Translation Revision this weekend.

The intricacies of defining translation checking are frequently debated within the profession, both online and off (indeed, a more impertinent observer might say it’s been discussed ad nauseam…). This made Allman’s perspective all the more refreshing.

The basis of his talk was a quote from Brian Mossop: Do not ask whether a sentence can be improved, but whether it needs to be improved. The most groundbreaking suggestion was a point that I have very, very rarely heard proposed in this area: Once you have agreed to accept a translation checking job, start with the assumption that the first translator was as experienced, educated and competent as you.

How very refreshing.

It seems to me that working on this basis has two very useful benefits:

1. you don’t make changes unless you have a very good reason to do so
2. you take responsibility for your role the translation process. In other words, you are responsible for the part you have played in accepting the job in the first place, and the implied guarantee that you can do a good job within the client’s time, and therefore, cost constraints.

In an ideal world, of course, when it comes to translation checking, clients and translators would be always singing from the same hymn sheet. But in reality, it’s not always clear what is being asked of the checker.

==By way of a bit of background for the uninitiated: translation agencies typically contact their freelancers with a checking job, stating the number of source and target language words, a broad indication of the subject area and crucially (given this kind of work tends to be paid at an hourly rate), the number of hours they expect the job to take. Fine. But the problems start when the client and the checker just assume they have the same definition of what is meant by checking (or proofing, or revising, or whatever your preferred term). And as the occasionally perceptive Mr D says, “When you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME”. Quite.==

So Allman proposed the following three steps to help navigate these murky waters:

1. Before accepting a checking job, always ask the following questions:

* Is the translator experienced?
* Are they a native speaker of English, or have equivalent language skills?
* Do they have domain experience?

The answers to these questions offer a quick and easy way to assess where on the checking – re-writing scale a particular job is likely to fall, the length of time it is likely to take and whether this is a job worth taking, in line with your personal job criteria. After all, there is little point in agreeing to a three hour checking job if it is more likely to involve eight hours of tortuous back translating and substantial re-writing (especially if your client is not prepared to pay for this).

2. Once a job has been accepted, use the following to establish what is required:

SAFE AREAS

* accuracy, reliability, consistency
* typos, errors, omissions
* enhancements to style

Unless instructed otherwise, he knows these are within his remit as a checker.

GREY AREAS

* terminology
* layout
* eliminating factual errors

Allman suggests that these kinds of changes are up for negotiation. Automatically assuming they are “safe” can lead to more errors being introduced. For example, maybe the client has preferred terminology, a particularly historical perspective or other style preferences that you don’t know about. Again, this stems from the assumption that your first translator has had a good reason for making their translation decisions.

3. Finally, beware of:

* under-revision: missing errors, typos or omissions. You have not been thorough enough in your checking.
* over-revision: messing about with elements that don’t need to be messed with. Resist at all costs.
* hyper-revision: making so many changes that you introduce new errors. Unforgivable.

Even if your experience of proofreading has been slightly different to Allman’s, there’s something useful to be gleaned from his suggestions. Personally, I’d include slightly different elements in my “Safe” and “Grey” categories, depending on the text type and/or client. For example, when I’m checking technical manuals, my clients specifically request that I not make changes to style without very good reason. These documents often have only minor updates from previous versions and the client is perfectly happy with the style – a checker on a mission upsets their whole document work flow process by introducing unnecessary inconsistencies between versions and throwing out their translation memory matches for future updates. These clients have usually provided me with a list of accepted terminology too, so I’m expected to ensure this is consistent and to make any changes as necessary.

I’d even go a step further and suggest another useful technique to curb the perfectly normal, but sometimes uncontrollable human instinct to meddle. Keep a separate document with a list of each change made, along a short justification – and “just because it sounds better” really doesn’t cut it. I like this simple tool because it forces me to really think about what I am doing. This means I’m clear in my own mind about the reasoning behind my decisions, which is also useful should the client comes back with a query. Sometimes, I use this document to make note of a particularly good translation technique too, and this to me is the biggest benefit of taking on a checking job. Incidentally, I rarely send this document to the client unless I’ve specifically factored additional time into the job. It’s a document for my personal use and as such, is not what I would consider “client-ready” 😉

To sum up, translation checking jobs provide freelance translators with plenty of opportunities to learn on the job, can be an excellent way to build up your reputation with translation agencies and if you’re pricing yourself correctly, can be the bread-and-butter work that pays your bills above and beyond that tricky start-up period.

Just make sure you resist the urge to use checking as a sneaky means of implying, intentionally or otherwise, that your colleagues are useless. It’s unprofessional, and does not by extension, lead clients to think that you are wonderful.

27.11.07: edited for clarity

Confessions of a Translating Treehugger

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Apparently, there is only one translation and interpreting company in the world that complies with the ISO 14001 standards for Environmental Management*. The issue of the environment has only recently been briefly addressed on Proz, with Niraja Nanjundan’s article Are You A Green Translator? Does this represent apathy on behalf of the translation industry towards environmental issues? I don’t think so.

As a freelancing homeworker, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of blending my professional and personal lives at every level, and this holds true for my impact on the environment too. Our industry is largely made up of small businesses and sole traders, so my hunch is I’m not the only one punching above my weight on green issues.


So I don’t think I really have anything new, exciting or inspiring to offer translators on this. In fact, while I’m sufficiently proud of my green credentials not to feel like I have to list all the wonderful things I do to save the planet, I still possess a suitable degree of embarrassment about the things that I don’t do. So in the spirit of not putting anyone off, I thought I might list some of the quick and easy things I know I should do, but have found difficult to implement for a range of silly and inexcusable reasons. True confessions style – I guess my Irish Catholic upbringing is coming through here 🙂

  • Turning off the lights when I leave a room. It’s creepy being home alone in winter. I don’t need every Tom, Dick and Harry in Tooting to know too.
  • Using a coffee mug instead of disposable. OK, this applies more to when I was a cubicle dweller. But sometimes, when my collection of mouldy cups had gotten really big and I was gasping for a cup of tea but still couldn’t bring myself to wash up, I’d use a disposable cup instead. (Nowadays I just buy extra mugs and pat myself on the back for saving water.)
  • Skipping the foil and plastic wrap. See above – but replace mouldy lunch boxes for cups.
  • Leaving a place a little cleaner than when I got there by picking up some rubbish. Ew, no way. I live in London. Most shamefully of all, in my darkest hours I have been known to neatly tuck an empty coffee cup (a disposable one of course) in a corner of the tube. Before you rush to judge me, remember there are no bins on the underground.
  • Lowering my thermostat. I really dislike the cold. And don’t tell me to layer up, I’ve heard it from my Dad already.
  • Washing my clothes in cold water. It doesn’t work for me. It really doesn’t.
  • Using environmentally friendly washing powder. I tried it for a while, and with a range of different products, but finally decided that wearing stained and smelly clothes was doing nothing for my already crumpled freelance image.
  • Using bleach-free cleaning products. Yes, I also tried this for a while. I even went down the lemon juice/ white wine vinegar, baking powder and good old elbow grease route for a few especially enthusastic months. But life is too short, and my stained loo and limescale covered shower really started to gross me out after a while. Plus, work started coming in 😉
  • Recycling. I’m quite good at this BUT it’s easy as our local council just collects all cans, plastics, clothes, paper and glass in one bag separate to the rest of our waste. Here comes the confesison: I know they just sell this on to other companies to dump in landfill somewhere else, but I still haven’t bothered to make alternative arrangements for my waste collection…
  • Switching to a carbon neutral ISP. last time I checked, they weren’t compatible with my Mac (how selfish is that?!) Besides, I’m suspicious about this whole carbon neutral thing.
  • Unplugging appliances. I’m just really, really lazy about this. Even though it could save me money.
  • Buying less bottled water. I drink a LOT of water, and even though I’ve bought a funky water carrier to fill from my tap at home for when I’m out, I just don’t always feel like carrying it…
  • Working out my carbon footprint. I’m convinced quizes like this are rigged to make even the most poverty stricken, non-consumerist, non-electricity using, hermit dwelling hippy look bad, much to the delight of their smug, far-from-perfect programmers. I ran for class president on a passionate and heart-felt “Vote Sarah for a Greener World” campaign when I was 11 years old, I’m well aware of the horrifying, irreversible effects my very existance is having on the planet. (For those of you interested in the political leanings of Irish pre-teenagers in the early 1990s, I should add that I limped in at last place… I could never compete with class cool guy David Wall, who captured hearts and minds with his catchy “vote for Wall, he’s on the ball” rap) [rant over]

So there you go, laid bare yet again. I’m green with plenty of room for improvement, but I’m proud.

By the way, I’ve used the excellent 50 quick and painless ways you can help the environment today post over at Blog Action Day to help me with my confession. Have a look if you’re searching for inspiration.

* they’ve posted waste-reducing tips for other translation companies here, if you’re interested.

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Why dabbling in short-term contracts is good for your freelance career

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I’ve taken some short-term contract work which means I’m back to 9 to 5 this week. Michelle Goodman over at The Anti 9-to-5 Guide gives her run-down on the pros and cons of this:

Pros:

  • Steady money
  • Priceless experience that helps flesh out your resume
  • Contacts you can use when you do go freelance later (or try to land a staff
    job with the company you’re temping at)
  • Not having to attend most employee meetings or perform other maddening
    employee tasks (annual reviews, feigned enthusiasm for special projects)
    […]

Cons:

  • Commuting
  • Dealing with office politics
  • Commuting
  • Getting treated like a second-class citizen because you’re not a “real”
    employee
  • Commuting
  • Being expected to hit the ground running, sans training (because you’re not
    a “real” employee)
  • Commuting

I largely agree with her pros, but she’s probably missed out my main one:

short-term contracts are fun!

They let you try on another working identity for a bit, with very little risk. You can also use them as an opportunity to learn more about a particular industry, or observe people at the very top of their game.

But my cons would probably be different. For example, I’m not so bothered about not having training as I tend to learn best by getting stuck in. In fact, I like to think my hitting the ground running impresses those around me (granted, expectations can be pretty low) and gives me an air of mystery (i.e. “Wow! Who is that girl?!”). Especially as most of us like to think our job is much harder/more complicated than anyone else’s.

I don’t feel like I have to deal with office politics either as everyone knows I’m only on a flying visit – so when I invariably put my foot in it, I’m excused 🙂 (of course, they don’t need to know I’d do that regardless of how long I’d been there). Plus, office ins and outs are SO much more interesting from with a bird’s eye view, and I notice the kinds of things that would probably pass me by if I were there everyday.

So, my revised cons list would be as follows:

  • Commuting
  • Losing my autonomy and flexibility, i.e. having to be at my desk for 9am, having to wear proper shoes, not really being able to dash outside whenever I fancy some fresh air, etc.
    Commuting
  • Having to pretend all the time, i.e. that I’m bovvered about things that bore me senseless, that I’m not bovvered about things that I find pointless
  • Commuting
  • Not being able to talk out loud to myself (a thinking tactic I didn’t realise I’d become quite so dependant on…)
  • Commuting

Like the true grindhopper I am, I still don’t know if I want to freelance forever. But thanks to my recent foray into the 9-to-5 marketplace, Tuesday will see me returning to my little home office with renewed enthusiasm and energy.

Bring it on!