How To Plan To Get Your Shit Done

I have trouble finishing things on-schedule. After some self-reflection and contemplation, it comes down to a few things for me.

I tend to overestimate:

1. my ability to get something done
2. the work required to finish a task
   

I tend to underestimate

1. The amount of work to finish
2. The number of delays in a task

I will procrastinate starting a project more if

1. The larger the project is
2. The more ambiguous the project is
   

This is a pattern I have seen over and over again, in school, in favors for friends, etc. But in working for myself, my productivity and quality of my work determines my income.

Before this was a cute, "absentminded scientist", disorganized creative type thing. But now it hurts my relationship with my clients and hurts my income.

So what do I do? Only take on very small projects? Do shoddy work and turn it in 2 weeks after deadline?


But the truth is I want to take on big projects, to do high quality work, to be productive during work time.

So how can I be more of what I want and less of what I don't want? Well, I gotta do the opposite of what is above. Delineated fully, I need to:

Before Executing The Project

1. Begin Outline the Major Parts of the Project (The Day I get Them)
   
2. Clearly Define Measurable Goals of each segment of the project
3. Make the tasks for the project as concrete as possible
   
4. Add in 50% more time than I think I need for unfamiliar parts of the project

When Executing The Project

1. Start Executing As Soon As the Planning is Finished
2. Stay Focused On Completing Concrete Tasks and Measurable Goals
3. Break Down Each Task As Much As Possible, But Keep The Big Picture Clear
   

If I can do that, I will be able to stay out of this "OH SHIT I'M SO BEHIND" and I can just do my things in a consistent, on-time manner :-D

Freelance Math - Calculating What You Need To Earn

Budgeting is very hard for some people...and has been impossible for me. But now I am working for myself, have credit card debt, hiring services, have car payments and credit car payments.

I can no longer stick my head in the sand when it comes to budgeting. In fact, part of the reason I wanted to go into freelancing was so I could learn to budget and manage my money. So here is my first sincere attempt at budgeting.

As you can see above, I have both my personal and business expenses side by side. That is because they are very closely related. For example, when tax time comes, the office space in the house I am renting is write-off-able. So even though the rent is under personal, it's really more like half personal and half business.

An important thing that many freelancers and self-employed individuals forget is to save money for taxes. Being self employed means that you have to pay both halves of your social security tax-instead of your employer paying half. I estimate that I will have a tax rate of about 30%. So once I figure out how much money I need each month to live, I take that number and multiply it by 100/70 or 100/60 if I were expecting a 40% tax rate.

So since I need about 2740 for my personal expenses each month, I need to earn about 3,914 dollars in revenue. But if I need $1,364 each month to run my business, then I only need to earn $1,364 because most business expenses are write-off-able.

This sort of calculation gives me a little cushion in case I run into problems. For example, for every business mile I drive, I get to write off $0.55! So if I drive to LA, which is about 150 miles I will get to write off about $83!! So this calculation allows me to have some extra money in the bank come tax time.

w00t extra $$$$$$$$

Owned By Checking Overdraft Fees

The banks must be loving the bad economy...many more people are overdrawing their checking accounts and the banks are earning money on the juicy profit fees.

Well I wish I could blame my recent overdraft on the economy. But it was 100% based on my ignorance of what a "check card" means. Turns out if you try to make a purchase, it's exactly like writing a check that gets electronically cashed...you won't get denied, even if you can't cover the check.

It's like in that movie blank check...the kid wrote in a check for a million dollars. He could have written a 12 Trillion dollar check if he chose...but it doesn't mean the guy could cover the check.

So my $14, $6, $5 and $2.61 purchases cost me $140 in fees.

Don't be an entrepreNOOB like me...make sure you can cover you checkcard purchases so you don't get owned on fees like me :-D