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    • Category: Business

    FITC gem #1: Find your Flow State

    One of the things that’s really stuck in my mind since FITC Toronto, 2011, was something Mike Creighton said during his speech Harnessing the Abundance.

    He talked about the “Flow State”: when you’re fully immersed in what you’re doing with no awareness of time and surroundings. You’re got a never ending energy and 100% focus on doing what you love.

    I hope most people love their jobs (like I do), but even when you love your job, you’ve probably still got hobbies on the side that are extra special to you, because they’re not connected to anyone else. You decide when you start, finish, how far you want to change it from your original idea and no one has any say or sway in it. It’s 100% yours.

    I decided that I wanted to make a list of Flow State Projects so that when I found myself with some extra time in the evenings, I could look over the list and decide what I felt like working on. For me, I’d say my Flow State Project list will consist of clothes and jewellery I’ve already got some cool ideas about. I always feel extra inspired when I work on a personal project, and that always helps the creativity flow for my client work. Win-win!

    Back to the grind, but this time, it’s more structured.

    The past month and a half I’ve been working contract full time, and it’s time to get back to my freelance life at home.

    While I was working full time, I read a great article about how to structure your week to make sure you don’t put off the “less than fun” tasks that come along with owning your own business.

    Marketing Mondays & 6 Other Days of Fun has really helped me to break down my week.

    Marketing Monday, Billing Tuesday, Website/Blog Wednesday, Networking Thursday and Learning Friday is now in full swing, and I love it. I tweaked Lauren Roberts’ article to suit my needs and I’ve never been more organized and on top of things.

    I spend the first half hour of my day reading emails and whatever RSS has come through Google Reader, and then I’m ready to tackle that day’s “theme” for an hour or two in the morning, and move onto client work.

    Give it a shot, you won’t be disappointed, or disorganized!

    A digital file doesn’t exist if there’s only one copy.

    It’s true. NO, really.

    The very first day of University, this is what they told us. We all thought “Nahhhh, that’s not true”. Then at some point in our first year, a computer broke, a file got accidentally deleted, insert-other-mishap-here.

    My own track record with backups has been iffy, but overall I’ve been lucky. Learned a few hard lessons, but nothing too devastating (*frantically knocks on wooden desk*). I’ve started to build it into my calendar – Fridays are backup days. It takes maybe 10 minutes, I can tidy up while the files transfer over, and I have peace of mind, and am protecting my client’s best interests as well.

    Take a look at this site for tips on how to streamline your backups better.