About two months ago, I decided “enough was enough”, I was carrying a few stone in excess weight (we’ll call it three) and I decided to kick my office diet into touch.

Working as a web and graphic designer, I spend an awful lot of time sitting down, as I’m sure many of you do. The serious lack of movement, coupled with the long hours involved in work, running a business and crazy eating habits (no breakfast, hot wrap or roll at 11, fizzy minerals in the afternoon, chocolate, crisps, supposed “high energy” foods, craving for that “bit of sugar” to get me from 3pm to 5pm…) had taken their toll on me.

January 2008

I was tired in the afternoon, tired again in the evening, my sleep was interrupted which would leave me cranky on certain mornings. The tiredness was having an impact on my work, on how I earn a living. Being tired in the morning meant it took longer to settle into the day. Being tired in the afternoon could have an impact on my day-to-day office work. Being tired in the evening meant that any freelance opportunities or hobby work would suffer.

March 2008

Flash foward two months and I’ve dropped two of the three stone being carried (still with a month to run to tackle the third one - like any project, I set myself a deadline or a goal date). I’m also eating a breakfast - a simple bowl of cereal and a vitamin C drink (tablet dissolved in water, slow release over the day) so I’m that bit perkier in the morning and I can work through to lunch time with great ease.

At lunch time I shut off for a half hour to actually have a lunch. I feel it’s important to actually sit down and enjoy your lunch, rather than wolf it into you while pouring over code (or like I mentioned here in trying to get some freelance work done). A fresh lunch will see me through to 6pm with no probelm. Top it off with a decent home-cooked meal and I’m set to go for the evening (to the extent I found myself putting in two nights at the weekend to 5:30am and 4:45am respectively without batting an eyelid).

Things You Can Change To Boost Your Energy In Work

• If you’re a heavy coffee or tea drinker, try cut down a cup or two. Better still, why not switch to green tea? It’s pure, has a surprisingly great taste and it’s also good for the digestive system.
• Leave the junkfood behind. For the first two years of working for myself, I had recycle bins full to the brim with Diet Coke cans or Coke Zero cans, any fizzy mineral. Now I’ve got a bin full of empty water bottles.
• Ditch the sugar, ditch the salt. There’s little taste difference between a packet of regular sweets and sugar-free sweets (think Polo mints), or between regular milk and skimmed milk, full fat yoghurts and low fat yoghurts… you get the picture.
• Take breaks! No client is worth killing yourself over to get a job done. If you take regular breaks (10 minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon - outside of your lunch) you’ll find the brief down time can awaken your senses a bit and recharge your vital batteries.

They’re only small things and you’ll be surprised at the ease which you can make changes to your diet - even the smallest of changes can give you an energy boost during the day!

Think about it - you’re saving money by not stocking up on junk food, you’re eating healthier, you’re sleeping better at night, you can work more hours in the day (or get more work done in your work hours during the day) and ultimately you’ll earn more money as a result!

Update April 1st: Welcome to all Stumbleupon visitors! If you want to see what I’ve done with my eating habits since January, why not stop by Weight Nation to see what I’ve eaten and changed in order to get more energy at work.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Rule number one for me - don’t freelance when you’re at work. By that I mean, if you’re gainfully employed and working a full-time or part-time job, don’t be doing freelance work while you’re on the job.

For starters, it’s just bad form. You’re taking advantage of your employer and resources. Look at the situation with the shoe on the other foot - if your freelancing leads you to start a business, and you take on  an assistant or staff member, would you be happy seeing them tinker around on jobs unrelated to what they’re supposed to be doing?

Secondly, it gets in the way of your actual primary task at hand. If you have the time to freelance while you’re at work then you’re either in the wrong job or you should consider taking your freelancing full-time.

Doing freelance jobs while at work can get messy. Sure enough, you may have the resources at your disposal - computers, necessary software - but do you really have the time? Trying to squeeze in changes to a web site on your lunch break, or taking ten minutes in the afternoon to review a logo you’ll hand to a client some evening this week? How productive can that really be?

I’ve tried it - it doesn’t work. At least for me anyway.

If you’re in a job in order to support your love of freelancing and working for yourself in the evenings you might find that failure to deliver your main tasks will, in the worst case scenario, cost you said job. Anyway, you’ll get a lot more done in an uninterrupted 30-minute stint in the evening than you would while trying to squeeze a sandwich, a coffee and a flash template into a 30-minute lunch break, don’t you think?

Popularity: 10% [?]

The Toronto-based team behind FreshBooks (online invoicing tool useful for freelancers) have today released their version 4.4 upgrade.

I’ve been a FreshBooks user for a few months now, keeping the number of clients on the service (you’re allowed a few clients on their free service) low before deciding to move over to their service for full-time billing and invoicing. The thing is, I’ve decided I’ll be making the move but the procrastinator in me is holding out to finish off invoicing matters with existing clients.

However, new clients as they arrive are being moved onto FreshBooks.

If you’re on the lookout for an easy-to-use online invoicing and time management tool, you have my recommendation. Invoices you create and email out to clients generate online access accounts for your clients to allow them log in, view outstanding payments or make payments online (credit card, PayPal etc.).

They’ve also gone and released (with version 4.4) a handy time tracker widget for the OSX Dashboard.

While the free account limits you to using just three clients, you can upgrade to 25 clients from just $14 p/m, great value if you’re living and working within the European market. There’s also plenty to choose from in customising your own console, branding your own electronic invoices (or snail mail options if you choose to go postal), issuing recurring invoices, tracking billed and unbilled hours and lots more besides.

If you haven’t yet tried FreshBooks and you’re looking for an invoicing tool to help keep track of your freelance work then go no further.

Popularity: 17% [?]

WELCOME TO Pro Freelance Blogger, a place where you can

• Get news and updates from the world of freelancing
• Pick up freelancing tips and advice
• Grab a few hints and tips on blogging and working online
• Find out how to make money from blogging and freelancing online

Hopefully you will enjoy what you find amongst the pages and posts to come on Pro Freelance Blogger. If you have experiences you would like to share, would like to exchange links or contribute a guest post in the future, please do contact me.

Ken

Popularity: 12% [?]