Juggling Jobs

Finally, my work situation seems to be calming down to a dull roar. It was utterly crazy for a while, trying to ramp up several new freelance opportunities at the same time. Starting a new job always takes more time and energy than actually doing that job once you settle into it. Now imagine starting three new jobs at the same time, and that’s pretty much what I was up to last month.

January was a mad dash to give these places the answers they wanted as quickly as possible so that I might have a chance of landing that gig. That mad dash paid off, though. I did end up landing everything I was trying to get. My role at ADVRider has slightly expanded, though not nearly as much as my editor or I had hoped it would due to budget constraints. But I’m in for a certain amount of work each month. That same editor brought me over to ATV.com, a sister site about… well, ATVs. I have a small quota of monthly work over there, as well as editorial work for UTV Sports. Finally, I landed a sizeable freelance editor gig at WikiMotive doing similar work as my last job, editing articles about cars. Between all of these, I think I’m going to be okay.

None of that includes income from any of my personal projects. At the moment, none of them makes me any money. Aside from a few Lister calendars, this website hasn’t made me anything. My YouTube channel is slowly growing, but still far away from being able to monetize, and making videos is a lot of work. I’ve never been under any illusions that I’d be able to make a living on the road about my adventures on the road. A few people make it work, but they’re the rare exceptions. I have a couple other ideas floating around in my head as well, but I’m not quite ready to share them yet.

Every day is a bit different. They start with me waking up, making coffee, and sitting down with the laptop to get some work done. The work itself varies from day to day. WikiMotive is a constant, a pace of editing about two articles a day to meet my monthly quota. In addition to that, I might edit a piece for UTV Sports, or write a news article for ADVRider or ATV.com, or work on a longer article like an equipment review (I have two that I’m working on right now). I might shoot or edit a video, or take a few minutes to whip up a post on this site. The jobs I’ve enjoyed most in my life are the ones where every day is different, and I’ve arranged that for myself here. In fact, I find I work all my jobs better if I’m able to switch things up throughout the day. I might edit one WikiMotive article, then go write about some new ATV to break things up a bit before editing a second WikiMotive article. Or, if I’m editing a longer piece that needs multiple passes, I might go write something else in the middle of it, then come back with a fresh set of eyes to finish it and catch mistakes I didn’t catch before.

On top of all that, my scheduling throughout the day is my choice, not anyone else’s. I don’t have a boss looking over my shoulder, upset that I had a pleasant half-hour chat with one of my neighbors instead of keeping my nose to the grindstone. (The job that just laid me off wasn’t like that at all, which I appreciated, but I probably wasn’t going to get this kind of flexibility at any new full-time job, especially in the beginning.) As long as I produce the agreed-upon work at the agreed-upon time, I’m free to do it any way I want. Yesterday I spent my morning doing laundry and errands in Quartzsite. But while waiting for the washer and dryer to run, I edited an article about the Corvette Stingray. I can work on weekends if I want to, or I can take time off during the week, as long as I hit my deadlines.

It’s quite a juggling act to keep all these balls in the air, and to make enough regular progress so that I don’t find myself coming up short at the end of a month. But as all these gigs continue to settle into a routine, I think I’m figuring out the right balance.