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Category: Careers

Home Category: Careers (Page 11)

How to balance a lot of major projects (AKA how to do everything you want)

February 22, 20169 commentsLauren Orsini

how-to-balance-major-projects

I have a lot on my plate right now, as I’m fond of blogging this 2016. “So busy!” about half of my Otaku Links posts seem to have begun. I’m a journalist at Forbes, a reviewer at Anime News Network, an affiliate blogger at Gunpla 101 and at least three other sites, a freelance web designer for practically anyone who will have me, and now a WordPress developer for a DC think tank. All that’s on top of life things, like taking Japanese language classes, shopping around my latest book idea to publishers, and occasionally doing the laundry.

It’s a far cry from the way my husband makes money, as we realize anew every year around tax time, when he collects his single W2 from a job he’s worked for five years and counting, and I juggle a pile of 1099-MISC files from ten or more companies. And while my income is a lot more variable, we often end up bringing comparable amounts to the table. But while I work seven days a week for it, his workday almost always ends at 5 PM.

It works for him (and for many other people!) but, to me, full time employment doesn’t equal security—it means somebody else is calling the shots in my career. So for the last five years, I’ve cobbled together my living out of a lot of different things. You could say I have trust issues, but the bottom line is this: I am not one to put all my eggs in one basket.  I don’t expect one employer, or one project, to keep me afloat for life, even if business is good right now.

So instead of one job, I think of my career as a rotation of long-term projects. If one falls through, I still have all the others. That’s why I do it; now I want to tell you how.

Look at the big picture

From middle school until graduate school, I used a weekly planner to stay organized. It was hard enough getting through one week; I didn’t need or want to look further ahead.

Now, that’s all I do. Planning starts on December 31, when I set major goals for the year ahead. I usually set twelve and dedicate each month to one project. For example, January was dedicated to writing my new affiliate guide, this month I’m building a PHP/MySQL database site, and next month is scheduled as a “catch-up” for ongoing projects before I go to Japan.

balance_color

My planner structure also matches this twelve-month visualization. I now use monthly planners so I can see how the month’s goal is coming together amid all the chaos. I got my current planner at Muji Times Square for $1.50 and it’s a bargain. This January 2016 layout leaves a lot to be desired; like I ought to have written down my dedicated affiliate guide writing days, but instead I just made room for it in the gaps. I like to think I’ve improved since then.

Work in bite-sized bits

Of course, looking at life 30 days at a time can be pretty overwhelming. That’s why I’ve had to make peace with the idea that I can only do a little at a time. I can’t fill my Forbes monthly quota today, but I can write just one article. I can’t write an entire book this evening, but I can write an entire outline and get started on Chapter One.

This has been harder than you’d think. I used to be all about the checklist. A day where I can’t check off a project felt like a day in stagnation. I still have checklists now, but they consist of smaller bits of larger projects. I use Evernote’s checklist feature to make a note for each of my ongoing projects that consists of a checklist of smaller tasks. Then, every evening when I am creating a to-do list for the following day, I put those tasks on my master checklist for every day.

I truly believe this shift in my thinking about accomplishments is what has allowed me to write books. I used to be too overwhelmed by the idea of a writing project I couldn’t finish in one day. But by thinking of it as a group of much smaller writing projects made it possible.

Know your limits

I want this to be a guide about how you can do every single thing you’ve ever aspired to. But there’s a caveat—you can’t do it all at one time. You need to set a realistic schedule.

When you work seven days a week, burnout can be a risk. I keep it at bay by scheduling breaks as seriously as I schedule tasks. I’m certain I come across as pretty lazy, because sometimes you can find me watching anime on a Wednesday morning. Being able to occasionally goof off on weekdays is one of the freedoms of setting my own schedule, and taking full advantage of that reminds me that I’m not an overworked masochist. I could get more done if I took fewer breaks, but I’ve been there and I’ve seen the raw, red-eyed extent of that burnout.

Life is supposed to be enjoyable, and I don’t want to get my only enjoyment through the rush of finishing a major project. I don’t want to work all the time, and neither do you.

Reassess monthly

Sometimes the projects I set for myself in December don’t resonate anymore in September. That’s OK. It’s all part of my end-of-the-month reassessment, where I ask myself, “Are these still the projects I want to be spending my energy on?” That’s when I weigh the sacrifice each of my projects require over the amount of value they bring to my career.

Take my WordPress development job. I know if I got rid of it I could free up my schedule to create two or even three new projects per month. But I also have to consider which projects are bringing in the most value for me, in this case, in the form of regular income and building significantly on my coding skills. In exchange for that value, it’s a job that takes up a chunk of my time and no small amount of mental energy. Right now, it’s totally worth it. A year from now, who knows? I consider everything temporary, so it can wait for my next reassessment.

The most important thing is that I never want to feel like I’m indebted to a project because the boss is nice, or more than 75% of my income comes from there (I don’t want to be in that situation, period). I always want to look at projects as worth my time while they provide value to me in the form of money or exposure or experience, and say goodbye when they don’t.

A lot of my thinking on this modular style of career comes from Jen Dziura of Get Bullish (whom you may remember as the publisher of my affiliate linking guide) and while her advice has a feminist bent, I assure you it’s for everyone who has a job.

Would you call your career a modular one or a 9-to-5? If you’re interested in making money off of your geeky interests, do you see that as a side hustle or an eventual full-time gig?

How the Otaku Journalist became a web developer

November 23, 20158 commentsLauren Orsini

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On my second day at the office, I decided to tidy up my cubicle.

Into the trash went the half-used Chapsticks; into the recycling went the cryptic scrap paper scrawls. I found a full crate of beer under the desk and gifted it to a coworker. Into the newly cleared space I put my Kuroneko and Elsie nendoroids and my pink office stationery. A small, bright oasis in the monitor-lit cave we call the Web Tech Team.

For the first time in five years, I am working at an office. I got a part time job as a Web developer for a local think tank. I couldn’t tell you in depth about the think tank’s political views, but just get me started on their cutting-edge development environment. This is a team of WordPress devotees who’ve mastered many open-source softwares I used to cover as a technology reporter, but have always wanted to learn more about.

All week, as I made my short commute to work for four and five-hour snippets, I wondered how I was going to tell Otaku Journalist readers about this. In many subtle ways, I’ve considered cubicle work as the antithesis to my career plan, and now here I am again. I thought it was office life that I despised at 24; maybe it was just the work I was doing that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve made some hard realizations, like maybe I gave up too easily before. Like maybe there are a lot of different ways to be fulfilled in your career, and not all of them are sitting at home in pajamas.

Because actually, I am really enjoying this job. I found out about it offhand from a friend I met on the anime convention circuit, and submitted my application because I love to interview for jobs. (Who doesn’t love to sit and talk about how great they are?) I’ve done this several times, where I go to an interview just to try on a new life, only to decide my freelance life is better. But this one, I couldn’t turn down because it didn’t make me give anything up. I’ve been a little low on work, so a new part time gig will let me continue to work with my existing journalism clients while honing my existing developer skills and picking up some totally new ones, too.

In my first week, I documented detailed walk-throughs of every software I installed and used in the Web Tech Wiki; ravenous for more. My development process is blunted by years of working alone, and even as a journalist whose job it was to discover and report on new technologies, I’ve become set in my own processes. Performing familiar tasks in an unfamiliar way feels a little like going back to college. Everything is a learning experience. The first thing I noticed when I came on board is that there wasn’t really a protocol for how to install software and adapt it to the company’s unique legacy development environment. I couldn’t exactly Google it. So I ask and I try and fail and try and succeed, and I write down absolutely everything.

At first, coworkers asked me why a journalist like me wanted this job. But to me, it’s easy to see the parallel between this type of work and niche reporting. I assess my audience—this company. I write my documentation with their needs and skill levels in mind. I write basic explanations like “Why do we use this software?” for people higher up who may re-evaluate our development process. I write brisk troubleshooting workflows for colleagues. Even when I’m writing a computer program, it’s all about the audience. The function has to solve the exact problem the client has, in a way I can explain to him without bogging him down with complexities. The syntax has to match the programming style guide so other developers can instantly grasp what it’s about, and add their own additions for years to come. Web development, like journalism, is about the people it serves.

Throughout the six years I have blogged at Otaku Journalist, I have had a lot of different roles aside from journalist. Student, intern, college professor, traditional author, self-published author, Web designer, graphic designer, anime con volunteer. It’s odd that this is the first role to really make me question my identity. I’ve always instructed readers to create a career niche for themselves that they won’t grow out of—so what do I do now that I have?

When I was 11, I wrote in my diary that, when I grew up, I wanted to be either a writer or a computer programmer. “Why not both?” my adult self replies. While this is an expansion of the specific niche I’ve previously shared with the world on this blog, my old diary reminds me that it’s who I’ve been all along. Only my narrative has changed.

Photo via Unsplash

Watch my webinar replay until midnight!

November 9, 2015Lauren Orsini

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My webinar with Steven Savage went down this Sunday morning and I think it went great! Thanks to everyone who showed up; it wouldn’t have been as good without all of your questions.

If you couldn’t make it for any reason, good news: we have a webinar replay up until Monday at midnight Eastern Time. At an hour and ten minutes runtime, Steven and I got through quite a bit of advice. We gave attendees a free worksheet PDF to use for note-taking, which I’m making available to everyone now:

Get the worksheet

Also, for the first time, Steven and I are offering our complete combined oeuvre of geek career advice in one heavily discounted bundle. Get our nine books in multiple formats (23 files total) for just $40. It’s certainly the cheapest we’ll ever offer them for. But hurry—the bundle is only available as long as the webinar replay is, until midnight tonight.

Get the bundle

I can’t stress how important it is to have mentors in your geeky career. When I saw Steven doing with his life what I wanted to do with mine, it made it clear to me that it was possible. Even during this webinar, I was still learning new things from him.

One more thing—I previously mentioned that I’d be announcing a new course during this webinar. I didn’t. I’m going to keep working on it until I have something really good to share. As always, if you have any feedback about what you’d like to learn from my next course, it’s very welcome.

Why I tell beginning writers to work for exposure

November 2, 20151 commentLauren Orsini

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Last week, geek hero Wil Wheaton made a wonderful point about payment vs. exposure. The Huffington Post contacted Wheaton in order to re-publish one of his posts for free. Instead, the site offered “exposure,” like a famous actor would need something like that.

I’m glad that Wheaton’s experience has brought this important reminder to creatives everywhere—you are never, ever obligated to give away your work for free.

That said, Wheaton’s post also acknowledged that unpaid exposure can be valuable to some writers: “If I’d offered this to Huffington Post for nothing, because I hoped they’d publish it, that would be an entirely different thing, because it was my choice,” he added.

I want to tell you about the times I have chosen to work for free.

I got my start as a professional anime blogger by writing for free. I staffed at Japanator in 2010 where I wrote anime reviews and Japanese pop culture stories in exchange for exposure. That same year, I interned at Kotaku and wrote about video games. I got some school credit for my trouble, but the most important part, honestly, was the exposure. The last time I wrote for free was In 2012, when I pitched a story about Homestuck to CNN. Even though I worked at the Daily Dot and regularly got paid for my writing, it wasn’t worth it to CNN—too many people wanted their name associated with a big site like that. Judge me if you like, but I accepted anyway, and wrote what is perhaps the most widely-read article I’ve ever written.

Today I wouldn’t dream of writing “for exposure.” Now that there are places willing to pay me for my anime stories, like Anime News Network and Forbes, I don’t value it anymore. Even Otaku Journalist gets 30,000 unique visitors a month—more reach than some places I once wrote for to get my name out there. But five years ago, when the only commenter on Otaku Journalist was John, and nobody in the anime blogging world had heard of Lauren Orsini, exposure was something that motivated me as much as monetary compensation motivates me today.

As your writing career grows, you will need to constantly be weighing your values the way Wil did. In the beginning, as it was for me, exposure was worth it. It was worth so much to me that I treated my chance to attract a larger audience as seriously as if it were my job. It’s this, not talent or anything like that, that made it possible for me to work as a professional today. Nobody would hire me with zero experience. My unpaid clips led to paying work.

It’s easy to feel resentful about working for exposure. But nobody is making you do it—it’s simply what worked for me. I wholeheartedly agree that if you’re a talented writer who puts a lot of effort into improving your skills, writing for exposure IS beneath you, but that’s the indignity of starting a niche writing career, especially in a niche like anime where there are very few ways to get noticed other than writing for free.

You should never think of unpaid writing as the end goal, but as a stepping stone toward better opportunities. Treat it like a job as long as the job benefits you. As long as exposure is valuable to you, stay. I recommend staying for up to six months to build up clips and learn the ropes of working with an editor, but no longer than that, and one-time essays are even better. Furthermore, be sure you really are gaining exposure! If you’re putting your posts up on some no-name blog and nobody reads them, it’s time to try a larger site. I recommend Anime Talk Amongst Yourselves, The Artifice, Yattatachi, and of course, Japanator. That said, always go by your own terms. If it leaves a bad taste in your mouth to write for free for somebody else, start your own blog and promote the hell out of it on social media.

When it’s time to go, ask for a recommendation from your editor (which they should be thrilled to provide in return for your professionalism), and add your clips to your portfolio. Don’t ever feel guilty about leaving—editorial blogs that aren’t paying contributors were lucky to have you providing any content at all, and they know it.

While Wil Wheaton certainly doesn’t need to get his name out there, beginning bloggers do. There will be a time when exposure doesn’t matter to you. But as long as you’re getting something you value in return, even if that’s not money, treat it like a job.


P.S. Building up a writing portfolio takes time. Want some advice on how to build a geek career that earns money now? Attend my webinar with Steven Savage this Sunday.

Sign up now!

Photo by Pete O’Shea

Announcing 7 Ways To Build Your Geek Dream Job!

October 26, 20154 commentsLauren Orsini

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A few weeks ago, I did 10 one-on-one consultations with newsletter subscribers. It showed me that there’s only so much you can convey with a blog post. Sometimes the best way to share advice and ideas is actually speaking about them.

But since I’d wear myself out doing endless individual chats, I got together with my geek mentor, Steven Savage, to devise a happy medium. What if we joined forces to share our geek knowledge with a group? During our live webinar, visitors will be able to instant-message us questions in real time.

At 7 Ways To Build Your Geek Dream Job, Steven and I will discuss our seven-module blueprint for turning your hobby into your career—something both of us have done successfully. We come from different generations of geeks, so we’re hoping this webinar proves this is a process that works for all ages.

Sign up now!

The webinar is free, but we’re having people sign up for it since the chat function does have a limit. Reserve your space as soon as you can! When you submit your email, you will also be signed up to hear about a special offering for viewers from Steven and I. Also, that course I’ve been hinting at? Show up to find out more about it.

I decided to follow my otaku journalist dreams while reading Steven’s book, Fan to Pro, during my hour-and-a-half commute to a job I wasn’t that interested in. Just a few years later, Steven wrote the introduction to my first book, Otaku Journalism. There’s nobody out there who has had a bigger effect on my decision to pursue a geeky career than him, and nobody else I’d rather give this webinar with.

Our webinar will be on Sunday, November 8th at 9am Pacific, 12pm Eastern. Hope to see you there!

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