What motivates you to work? What do you do if you don’t feel like working and you would prefer to lie in bed, stay in your pyjamas and watch television or scroll on your phone all day long? What gets you up in the morning? What keeps you motivated to work when you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck checking up on you every five minutes? How do you keep motivated when you are the boss and everything is down to you, from marketing, bookkeeping, dealing with technical issues, that’s even before you start what you are meant to be working on, which is the stuff that you get paid to do.
Here is my list of five things that motivate me to be a freelance indexer and proofreader.
1. Pets.
I have one dog and two cats. The dog needs to go outside first thing in the morning, and he also needs to be walked. Even though it is only a 10-minute walk, I am up and out with the dog in all weathers, be it rainy, snowy, windy or sunny. Mind you, where I live it is rarely sunny or snowy, it is usually cool and rainy. Getting out for a short walk in the morning sets me up for the day and I can start work fresh as if I had a daily commute to work, even though I work at home.
2. Deadlines.
I find deadlines helpful for keeping myself focused on the job I have to complete. If I didn’t have a deadline I would keep on tinkering with the indexes forever. When I get the files for a job, I read the brief carefully and I note the deadline date. I make out a schedule working backwards from the date and assign so many hours/pages/tasks to each day. Every day I feel a sense of achievement to get that day’s task done and it helps me to meet the deadline without too much stress.
3. Money.
Money motivates me. If I don’t complete an index, I won’t be paid and I need
money to pay bills, buy food, and to keep a roof over my head. However, in recent years, the budgets available to freelance editorial staff have been squeezed and it seems the time taken to complete a good job is not rewarded adequately. This situation is demoralizing, so I try to work smarter not harder when doing indexes.
4. Learning something new.
With every book I index, I learn something new. I am an expert on obscure topics for a couple of weeks when working on an index. Then, when I get a new book to index, I instantly forget everything that I read in the previous books. This year I am trying to learn how to use my indexing software efficiently. Last year I completed a course on marking up PDF proofs and another course on proofreading for companies. Technology keeps changing and we have to keep up to date with the tools of the trade. To paraphrase Aristotle, I find that the more I read and learn, the more I realise I know nothing and there is so much more to learn.
5. Work–life Balance
I have two quotes pinned up in my workspace:
“You can’t do a good job if your job is all you do”
and
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”.
I find it is difficult to find a work–life balance because it is isolating being a freelance indexer who works at home and only sees family and the pets every day. It is very easy to get into a rut and just work and stay at home. It can take a huge effort to get out of the house to meet people. I created my own work–life balance over the years by joining various clubs, classes, volunteering and coffee morning groups. These are great ways to meet people and build a network.
So there are my five motivators: pets, deadlines, money, learning and work–life balance. I will leave with this picture:
For anyone writing a book which needs a proofread or an index, hire a professional from AFEPI (Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers of Ireland) , the Society of Indexers, or CIEP (Charter Institute of Editing and Proofreading) to lighten your load.