A freelancer's
journal.
Short notes on independent work.
Once or twice a month, when I have something to say.
The first significant late payment left me paralysed for two weeks. I didn't want to upset a client I'd had a good relationship with. So I waited. Meanwhile, the invoice stayed unpaid. Here's the simple protocol I now follow - without exception.
Everyone talks about the benefits of freelancing - freedom, flexibility, autonomy. What rarely gets mentioned is the invisible weight you carry alone in return. The unpaid invoice. The ambiguous email. Next month still empty...
Notion, Todoist, Excel, TeuxDeux, Google Calendar. Each tool did its job well. Together, they added up to nothing coherent. The real problem wasn't a lack of discipline — it was the cognitive cost of maintaining five systems at once.
Sticky notes everywhere, emails to myself, a spreadsheet for hours. Five tools that didn't talk to each other.