What I’m working on:
Right now I’m doing developmental editing for a book, which I’m very excited about. I’m building out the editing side of my freelance business, which is what I’m practicing saying instead of “I’m looking for freelance editing clients.”
Other than that, I’m a freelancer, which means I work on whatever the heck editors give me. I’m covering the current administration’s effect on science. Currently I’m writing a feature about how scientists with ADHD navigate their careers, which I feel lucky to be working on. I recently reported on why measles is so contagious and why risky play is important for kids’ development.
Where I work:
I work from home in Medford, an inner suburb of Boston. I share an office with my partner and our two chaos cats, Orange (who is not in any way orange) and Caterpillar. On my small desk are a monitor, a light therapy lamp, a bunch of pleasing rocks, a pile of important papers, my dad’s red editing pencil, and sometimes, if I’m lucky, a sleeping Caterpillar. If I’m unlucky, it’s an awake Caterpillar or Orange who’s trying to delete my current draft. I’m also often found working at our dining room table, at my outstanding local library, or at my favorite coffee shops that I have extensively vetted for acceptable tea options and noise levels.
Daily routine:
Ha. Here is where I confess that I can rarely bring myself to read “A Day in the Life” features at The Open Notebook because they stress me out too much. Comparing my routine to others’ is a terrible idea and only mucks up my brain with too much information. It’s very hard for me to get into a routine because I’m an optimizer, always wondering in the back of my mind whether there’s a better routine out there somewhere. And also because as a freelancer and a parent of a kid in the public school system, my days are just not consistent. So I mostly don’t have a routine.
I guess I do have constants: I drink two to four cups of black tea every day (shoutout to Harney & Sons East Frisian and Tapal Danedar from my local Indian grocery store). Whenever possible, I bike to get around, either on my beloved hybrid or our e-cargo bike. I try to get outside and either bike or walk somewhere every day, even if it’s just to the nearest Little Free Library, but I don’t always succeed. Sometimes I work after our kid goes to bed—I usually feel guilty for letting work intrude on that part of my day, but the truth is that I focus well at night because my brain doesn’t have enough surplus energy to be anxious.
Most productive part of my day:
The hour or two before I stop working for the day.
Most essential ritual or habit:
I’ve kept a journal since I was a kid. I don’t write in it every day or on a set schedule, and I think I’ve been able to do it for so long because I don’t put any expectations on myself about it. Also because it always feeds me in a particular way, and has done through the roughest times in my life. I love the physical feeling of pen on paper.
Favorite note-taking techniques/tools:
I take notes on everything—even if I don’t use them later, I need to keep my hands busy and it helps me process information. I used to take all my notes in Evernote, but I’m in a horrible trough between digital note-taking tools because I had to abandon Evernote after they hiked prices and I haven’t yet found a suitable alternative. Please sell me on your favorite!
Stabilo point 88 pens are my favorite—they write beautifully, feel smooth in the hand, make a good fidget, and come in a billion different colors. For notebooks, there’s only one answer and it’s Muji. I use grey Muji A6 lined notebooks for my journal—last time I went to Muji I bought eight of them.
How I keep track of my to-do list:
For my to-do list, I use a physical planner and Trello. Sometimes the planner gets too overwhelming because it has too much information in it, or too many to-do items, and that kills my motivation. So then I switch to a blank 8×11 piece of paper folded in half.
Every few weeks I take a piece of paper or a blank page of my planner and make a four-square grid for my version of an Eisenhower Matrix and write down everything I can think of to try to get it out of my head, like this:
| Important & urgent File Open Notebook story |
Important, long-term/not urgent Watch NASW recording Update website |
| Want to do Check thrift store for monster trucks Pick up hold at library |
Cluttering up my mind Type up notes |
The “Want to do” category is good for me because otherwise these things are bouncing around the back of my brain pretending to be important items and distracting me. Plus, sometimes I need rewards and can’t think of anything, so this gives me a list of them.
I’ve used many different physical planners over the years. Last year it was a Leuchtturm, and now I’m using a blank notebook that I structure myself. I divide each two-page spread into six boxes, five for the days of the week and one for my big three weekly goals and writing down wins at the end of the week.
Writing down wins is key because I have a lot of negative self-talk that it takes constant effort to counteract. It’s especially important as a freelancer without co-workers to give me feedback. I believe that good supervisors actively recognize their employees’ accomplishments, and when I’m my own supervisor I need to do that for myself.
Essential software/apps/productivity tools:
My best productivity tool is a very low-tech green plastic visual timer. When I can remember to use it, it’s great for telling myself I only have to work on something for 15 minutes. Once I’m 15 minutes in, I have usually begun hyperfocusing on my work and often barely notice the timer going off. I’ve tried using digital tools for this, like the Forest app, but it’s much better for me to use something physical without a screen and a billion distractions attached to it.
I also recommend The Anti-Planner, especially for anyone who’s neurodivergent like me. Though I don’t use it every day—it’s too big for me to carry around—it’s fundamentally shifted the way I think about work when I get stuck, in addition to containing useful strategies. The great insight is that it’s organized by how you feel: indecisive, perfectionistic, over-committed, distracted, disorganized, etc. Naming why I’m stuck helps me get unstuck—but a lot of the time I forget to do it. I’m working on it.
Airtable is fantastic and I use a lot of spreadsheets. I am eternally grateful to two journalists for sharing templates that have been indispensable for running my freelance business: Sarah Zielinski for sharing her freelance airtable template, and Reo Eveleth for sharing their freelance Excel template on Twitter way back in the day. I would’ve been lost without it when I started freelancing.
Favorite time waster/procrastination habit:
I have many (so many) procrastination habits, but my favorite one is messaging my friends on Slack. My personal Slacks are an enormous blessing—they’ve given me lifelong friends and sparkling epiphanies, gotten me through pregnancy and the hellacious newborn days of parenthood, or “the thunderdome” as we like to call it, and supported me in ways I never could have predicted. But they’re also a problem, because I’m on my phone way too much. Answering a question from a friend is always going to be one of the most compelling bids for my attention, and I guess I can live with that.
My reading habits:
I read before bed, sometimes at lunch, on weekends, when I’m waiting in line–whenever I can. I prefer to read paper books, but I also read on the Libby app on my phone for convenience. My favorite genres are comics, fantasy, sci-fi, YA, queer romance, nonfiction, and poetry. If you’ve got any poetry recommendations, hit me up (I am recently fully obsessed with Kay Ryan’s collection The Best of It and my longtime favorite is Polish poet Wisława Szymborska). I just read Michael Harriot’s Black AF History and I want to go around shouting about it to everyone—no one can tell a story like Michael Harriot.
Sleep schedule: I try to go to sleep at about 11:00 p.m. and wake up at 7:00 a.m. Sometimes it’s later because I need to finish a story or I don’t want to stop whatever I’m doing. I function very poorly on fewer than eight hours of sleep, though, so that’s always a bad idea.