Freelancer's Office

The Beatles sang a song at one time that I liked called Paperback Writer. As I begin work this morning it occurs to me that song is running through my head on a repetitive loop without actually remembering any of the words. The main point is. I want to make money writing.

Now, I am quite lousy at this while still being reasonably successful.

Sounds funny, huh? Let me explain. I have a very poor attention span. I will start to do something, then get distracted and move to something else before I can even fully finish starting the first project. Then I move on again… and again. I can keep going, project to project for a very long time. Trouble is. End of the day. All that multitasking starts back over, some of it on the same things I was working on the day before. Some things get lost, work piles up. Life responsibilities pile up. And in the middle of it all I am standing, my attention being drawn off by the next item.

Now, this is not always the case. I can get focused on just one thing. And when I truly focus, well… It can get just as bad. I’ll forget things and find myself not getting work done and it gets to be an ugly nasty mess all on its own because I look up and the day is gone and all I got done was one thing.

So, I decided that today I would start working on a scheduler to keep me more focused and on track so that I am not getting lost. I am also going to work on a reward system that lets me enjoy a reward for doing stuff that I am supposed to do rather than slacking off on things.

So, I am working out some kind of daily schedule that I hope to be able to stick to that will, with luck, help me keep stuff to a proper schedule and fit everything I have to do into a day, leaving time for the things that I want to do.

Tax season approaches, and this makes me realize that, as a small business owner, I really do need a better way to keep track of my receipts. Especially now that I am going to be running two small businesses from home (three if you count my work as a family caregiver). I need a much better way than to tuck the receipts into a pencil box to be sorted out.

I am not sure just what method I will be using, so am looking for any suggestions anyone might have on how to keep track of work receipts.

I’m not so much interested in advice on the entry into a spreadsheet type of tracking, although I welcome that as well. What I need help with is what to do with the actual physical receipt – particularly in this day and age when the paper that they are printed on fades over time until you can’t make out what is on older receipts.

How do you store your old business receipts?

When I need to take a break from writing, I am working on an applique quilt of the old Progress pattern for the Tree of Life. Being unable to find the pattern for sale anywhere online, I ended up creating my own based on some of the pictures I could find of the pattern (which as far as I can determine is within the public domain now).

I decided that I need to get back into creating quilts I can sell both online and alongside the roads here in Alaska this summer. So I am working on a lap size quilt intended for use in a car or to be spread across the lap of someone sitting in a wheelchair.

This is a picture I took as I copied the pattern from enlarged printouts of the color reference page to freezer paper.

And the picture below is the beginning of the applique work. What you see here is the stem of one of the flowers growing from the ground to the right of the tree. The pattern is sitting sideways.

I’m using the invisible stitch for the project, but have not decided yet rather or not I will go back over the edges of the pieces with decorative embroidery to help hide any stitches that fail to be as invisible as they are intended to be.

If you want to be kept updated on the progress of this quilt as I work on it you can find it over at my www.ooak.biz site

In an effort to assure that my future has some kind of investment into savings, I have been doing a bit of dabbling in the stock market for the past few weeks. One investment that I have been particularly interested in finding a way to add to my portfolio is precious metals.

I was not sure that I it would be possible to buy gold bullion in the same way that stock in a company could be purchased, but I have discovered it is not only possible, but there are several different kinds of metals, including the recently launched Securities Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT) and Physical Palladium Shares (PALL), in which investors can invest.

PPLT and PALL are physically backed exchange-traded funds that allow investors to invest in physically backed holdings that are equal to one share equals one tenth of an ounce of metal. For PPLT and PALL the metals are, respectfully, platinum and palladium.

This post was sponsored by USGoldBureau.com

I have got things sorted out so that my posts to this blog, should be posting short notices of a new post here to twitter when I post a new entry to the blog.

This post is kind of a testing to see if I have things set up properly.