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Tag: guitar

Work spaces and their impact on productivity.

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The work from home situation.

I am currently freelancing from home, from my own office/studio space. A place where I can not only create paid design/production work, but can make music, sculptures, paintings, and models too. It’s a place I enjoy hanging out in. It’s  clean-ish (depending on the needs of the job at hand) and quiet during the day, warm & dry, and the best part is it requires zero commute time to get to. So I don’t mind getting to an item at 6:30am one day, or answering a panicked email at 11:00pm the next day. I can pop laundry in as I walk to the bathroom. I can do a grocery shop over lunch. But best of all I’m here to drop my kids off at school in the morning, and available to pick them up at the end of their day. I don’t have to spend four hours a day, five/six days a week traveling downtown, and then across town, then walking several blocks to a job. I’ve excised that demon.

My topic wasn’t WFH, but the space in which I operate. I’ve worked places with no assigned seating or computers, in an open room on tables, in a bank of cubicles, and in a couple of offices of my own with a door I could shut, an air vent of my own I could manipulate, and my own lighting. Being secluded by myself was always the best for me. Collaboration is great, and loads of fun, but the bulk of my labour required very little of it. As normally my bread & butter item in my workload was production. Retrofitting someone else’s art work to fit new specs. A style guide answers the most basic questions, and it was just a matter of producing enough of the artwork to suit all the different brands, sub brands, and partner brands to stay afloat. I do not miss firing off 115 projects a week, every week, until the new fiscal when planners, and bulk sell sheet orders would come my way, and I’d do double, to nearly triple that. Yikes. My wrist fried out, and my eyes went twitchy, and I was not a very kind person. I don’t miss any of that, except the steady pay cheque.

The cool thing now is that when I have a quiet period, of hours, days, or weeks, I can tackle a DIY project, or build in my wood shop, or paint/sculpt/draw in my office, ready to answer a phone call or email. Some times I can even pick up a guitar and strum along to music for a spell. I’m contract, and freelance so I’m not tied go an eight hour day, with a keyboard counter, or a clock watching supervisor. Thank god!  I’m here and available and you only pay for the hours you use. Works great for all involved.

Hot lunches, and a semi private bathroom, shower and laundry on site. Video games and movies on hand. A gym with weights. What more could a person ask for. Oh yeah – no people though. No external interactions 98% of the time. Ah – PERFECTION!

I tell you what. I could accomplish more at home in 3.5 hrs than I ever did in an office over 8. No walk by’s, no drop ins, no gather rounds or team meetings, no memos or circle the wagon moments. All work, no fluff, and no in office pantomime of walking to talk to all the right people just to be seen, and sound busy. It really is fantastic to drop all of those extra steps and just get to do the work I love. Yes I have to send invoices, and do my own books, and plan around delays in payment or lull periods. But freelancing offers me so much more family time while I have young kids that none of that matters all that much. Glorious. But, I’ve always had a spouse that out earned me by a wide margin, even at my highest paying job, so there is that to consider. It was cheaper in the end for me to take a pay cut, but for us to not have to pay before & after school care costs for two kids, plus sitters for pa days, winter break, and march break, and the whole summer.

How do you have your work space set up? How do you like where you are? What would you change? What are you able to change? Take it easy.

I’m going to do it, I think I’m going to do it, I want to do it, I think I will do it, I feel like I should do it. I’m… not gonna do it. But, I want to do it. I think I’m going to do it… damn.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on I’m going to do it, I think I’m going to do it, I want to do it, I think I will do it, I feel like I should do it. I’m… not gonna do it. But, I want to do it. I think I’m going to do it… damn.

Ah, the endless loop of thinking about making a slightly larger than usual purchase on something for myself. I have been thinking, dreaming, wondering, hoping to learn to play the bass guitar, and now that I have a line on a good used bass amp, and a decently priced slightly above beginner guitar, I feel like I should go and pick them up to make this years long dream a reality. But I’m stressing out about it for some reason.

Probably because it’s a selfish purchase, but on the off chance one of my kids wants to learn an instrument in their teens I have guitars and a bass for them to choose from. Alongside my wife’s clarinet, and our violin, and our keyboard. I hope they decide to pick up an instrument. Hours and hours of fun, and a great way to appreciate personal time, and learn something new. The intrinsic value of picking up new songs is really something special. Playing in a group with like minded friends is also a fantastic experience. I played the trombone in the middle school band, and the orchestra in junior high and it was amazing. Jamming with buddies in high school was wicked as well. Ten stars, do reccomend.

The thing is, I find that when I hit a plateau with guitar playing, I need to shift the focus to a different instrument, and that new way of thinking/executing music teaches me something helpful with my guitar playing, in a round about method. I love to noodle about on my guitar. I love to tickle the ivories on our keyboard, and it all seems to pay off in the end. Plus, ahem. Halfway decent instruments that have been looked after tend to have a 60-70% of retail resale value, if that brand hasn’t exploded in popular culture and doubled, or nearly tripled in price, a la Gibson Les Paul’s, and my random Fender that’s now worth three times what I paid for it. Could also plummet in price too, so don’t take any of this as investment advice ok? Great.

Heading into day three of camp, and so far we’re all smiles and excitement. I have a feeling it’s probably a bit more free wheeling than we might have expected. But last week or summer, we have zero expectations for it, other than our kids remain safe and looked after during the hours of their stay each day. I care not if they choose to focus more on dance, than singing or acting, or if the youngest gets an extra hour to slap paint around with a brush. Like I said, no expectations of new dance routines or a recital of cumulatively learned dance steps. It’s for the best.

In other news the kids gymnastics will start in mid September, so that should be an absolute riot! I think they are gonna love that! Or, conversely hate itvwith every single fiber of their being. Or, third option, my favourite. One will fall in love, and the other will hate it, and we’ll fight every time I have to take them both with me so that one of them can keep doing it, and the other just has to sit for an hour watching the very thing they hated so much. It’s going to be spectacular – for me. I think they have Tae Kwondo to look forward to as well. I wanted jujitsu for the full body usage, grappling and striking. But Tae Kwondo isn’t awful. That’ll help them defend themselves as they get older. Anywho… Ciao Bella !