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Ran into another freelancer at a laundromat who totally got my sick day struggle
I was at the 24-hour laundromat on Elm Street last Tuesday with a bad cold, trying to fold shirts while coughing into my elbow. A woman named Diane saw me and said 'you look like you're working through the flu, I've been there.' She told me she keeps a backup stash of 3 simple gigs she can email out in 20 minutes on her worst days, so she doesn't lose income when she's down. Has anyone else built a 'sick day safety net' like that, or do you just tough it out?
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knight.uma3mo ago
Backup stash of 3 simple gigs she can email out in 20 minutes" - that's the part that got me. How do those gigs even work? Like are they simple data entry or transcription type stuff, or more like quick edits on a design she's already got templated out? Because I've tried having a "list of quick tasks" before but they always end up needing more brain power than I have when I'm actually sick. Does she literally just hit send on pre-written emails with attachments, or is there actual work involved in those 20 minutes?
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casey2683mo ago
Oh man, the "20 minute gigs" thing is a TRAP. I tried the same thing once, thought I'd have a folder of "easy money" tasks for sick days. @knight.uma nailed it - by the time I'm actually sick, my brain is mush and that "simple" data entry suddenly looks like quantum physics. The key is that she's NOT doing real work, she's just hitting send on pre-done stuff. Mine always ended up being "oh just fix this tiny thing" and then I'd spend an hour on it anyway. So no, I don't think it's a real system unless you're literally mailing out a finished product with zero edits needed.
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