Creativity + freelancing + notifications = 0️⃣ work done

If you want to reach me when I’m working, you'll have to wait until I check my phone. 👩🏽‍💻

I’ve long had a funny relationship with working in settings where I’m surrounded by others – libraries, coffee shops, even self-organised co-working sessions with other creatives.

When I was a student, I seemed to be one of very few people who didn’t go to my university’s library to cram for exams. I have never been someone who needs peer pressure to get things done, who needs to be in a public space with others to hunker down with a textbook.

However, as readers of the last newsletter will know, I am currently back at school and have spent a lot of time in public study spaces lately, catching up on mandatory readings between classes.

Laptops are allowed in all but one of the classes I’ve taken and I have seen the students around me check Outlook, WhatsApp, iMessage, Google Calendar, Google Sheets and Slack, as world-class professors lectured in front of them.

I saw a student look at an Instagram influencer’s videos; I saw another one play a game on their phone, and my personal favourite, one student was checking flight prices from San Francisco to Brisbane, and later Los Angeles to Brisbane. 👀 The first one was cheaper.

Many, many moons ago, I wrote about the self-discipline that helped me get work done during the pandemic.

My ability to stay focused and to say no to digital distractions is apparently my other superpower. And it’s when I’m working in close proximity to others that realise how rare that is.

At the same time, this kind of deep focus comes at a cost to the people I’m closest with. Being self-employed, being a creative, my livelihood depends on my ability to tune others out.

My personal phone is on silent when I need to focus and my WhatsApp notifications are off, meaning that if you want to reach me when I’m working, you’ll have to wait until I check my phone.

A friend I made here pointed out that they had called me twice since meeting me and that I had failed to pick up both times, the suggestion being that I was not responsive.

This also happened with another new friend I made here. “I called you,” he said. It sounded more like a reproach than a statement of fact.

But I don’t see how I could write stories, or any kind of creative copy, if I were checking my phone every other five minutes (and trust, I do do that, on weekends, on the bus, on the couch, whenever I’m not working). How am I supposed to get into a creative groove if I allow myself to be yanked out of that flow whenever someone else decides to message me just because they have time in that moment?

My ability to focus is deeply tied to the right I have given myself to digitally untether myself from the world, and it is sacred to me.

It’s why most people in my life know better than to call me to shoot the breeze during work hours.

My distaste for casual daytime calls with family and friends is 100% rooted in the fear I have that they will begin to think that freelancing is like being part-time employed or even unemployed. That if I have a long call with a friend on a Tuesday afternoon, everyone around me will slowly start digitally invading my life just because I’m not a salaried worker.

The difference between me and my salaried friends and family is of course that I’m never working on someone else’s time. If I were paid a salary regardless of my output and regardless of whether I responded to five or 15 messages from friends while at work, I would probably check my phone much more frequently during working hours. But that’s not the case, and opening my phone every few minutes simply means delaying work that will need to get done anyway.  

I’d love to hear how you balance digital distractions with creative work. Are your WhatsApp or iMessage notifications on? Are there any hacks you can share or tips for dealing with loved ones who think you are not responsive enough?

Linda

---

What The Friendly Freelancer readers are saying:

Best of luck and go you on that internship! It sounds exciting. If I had my druthers, I'd go join an artist commune (not that I'm really an artist). I figure maybe I could scrounge a book out of the experience and learn to paint while I'm at it.  – Freelance translator Meredith Nikides in response to ‘Can a freelancer's career survive a three-month break?’

---

What The Friendly Freelancer readers are doing:

No less than 62 people subscribed to this newsletter since I sent out the last one. 🥳 And two kind readers supported it with a Ko-fi donation. 💃🏽 Thank you Joeri and Georg, it is so very much appreciated! 💜 💜 💜

---

What The Friendly Freelancer is reading at the moment:

• This dispiriting but unsurprising WSJ article about how working hard is *not* what gets you ahead at work.

• Yours truly has become a regular contributor to the UK magazine The New European 🎉 If you are enjoying this newsletter and are curious about life in Brussels, i.e. my hometown and the seat of the EU institutions (making it Europe’s Washington, D.C. if you will), you’ll probably appreciate these columns too.