Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Productivity
How To Use Downtime Between Projects as a Freelancer
August 16, 2023
Freelancers dread dry spells. The moment a client project is finished, we feel a void that can only be filled by a new project. Every day not spent working on client projects feels unproductive. It makes us anxious and stressed. Does it really have to be this way?
After a decade of freelancing, I’ve been through it all. I’ve been overworked, underworked, evenly worked, and oddly worked. ...
How To Avoid Burnout as a Freelancer: The 70-30 Rule
March 22, 2023
Have you ever pushed yourself so hard for so long that you woke up one morning and found yourself unable to work?
If the answer is yes, you’ve experienced burnout - something that many live through, but far too few talk about. The consequences of burning out can be dire. To name a few horrifying ones: sleep disorders, aimlessness, depression, social isolation, and even diminished ...
How To Effectively Use Twitter as a Freelancer
February 8, 2023
Social media is notoriously bad for your focus, your productivity, and, ultimately, your mental health.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Used properly, social media can be a valuable tool in your arsenal.
Freelancers who master their social media presence rarely lack work. Their problem changes from “how do I find clients” to “how do I scale my business to keep up with ...
The Top Five Traits of a Successful Freelancer
May 18, 2022
How do you imagine the freelance lifestyle? If you’re like most people, you think it’s a frantic life full of project-hopping, pitching, meeting deadlines, and oversleeping team meetings because you got drunk on a beach in Bali the previous night. The stereotypical freelancer is chaotic and makes up for his ...
How I Landed a $100k Freelance Client
February 2, 2022
Freelance success rarely comes easy. If it did, a lot more people would be writing blog posts like this one.
I spent a lot of time in the trenches before I started getting quality freelance work.
Starting in 2011, I spent about a year on Freelancer.com doing mainly small Javascript/CSS projects. Then I switched to Upwork in September 2012 because the opportunities were much better there. ...
Why So Many Freelancers Fail To Achieve Independence
July 8, 2021
Many people go into freelancing with great expectations. They envision themselves sitting on a tropical beach, laptop and all, with an exotic cocktail in one hand and a coconut in the other, while an endless stream of money flows relentlessly into their bank account. Half of their laptop screen is devoted to the job, and the other half to an itinerary for their upcoming trip to Machu ...
5 Unexpected Indicators of a Great Team Member
April 16, 2021
There’s a never-ending debate around selecting and interviewing candidates. Hire based on experience. Hire based on knowledge. Hire based on education. Hire based on a technical interview.
All these criteria have merits, but have you considered hiring based on whether a person plays chess, or based on how they take a joke?
Here are 5 unexpected ways to identify potential great team ...
Six Ways Emotions Can Make You Fail as an Entrepreneur
March 19, 2021
Entrepreneurs talk a lot about common problems: building a product, reaching customers, getting funding, and hiring the right people.
On the other hand, there is little talk about the things going on within the entrepreneur’s own mind that can make or break their plans.
Here are some ways psychology can stand in the way of success. Being prepared for potential problems is half the cure. ...
The 4 Most Important Lessons I Learned Growing My Business in 2020
December 31, 2020
This was an eventful year for the world, to say the least. For me, it was an echo of the immortal words of Charles Dickens: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the year I started creating content in addition to my regular freelancing work. I wrote close to 40 articles and published my first course on Udemy.
It was also the year of lockdowns, Covid-19, and frustrating ...
The Evolution of My Productivity as a Freelancer
December 13, 2020
Those of you who have been following my work know that I have been freelancing for 9 years . During that time, my productivity has improved dramatically. How?
Through trial-and-error, as well as by reading many books on the subject, I have evolved a series of rules and principles that I adhere to on a daily basis. I am sharing ...
How a Single Freelancer Outperforms a Whole Team
December 7, 2020
Companies that want to hire you will often use an argument consisting of two logical fallacies, wrapped in a veneer of condescension. Specifically, they will tell you that you have to choose between security and freedom (false dichotomy fallacy). They will base their pitch on the presupposition that working in a team is more productive and more secure, and then proceed to ask you whether ...
What Web Development Agencies Get Wrong
October 2, 2020
If somebody wants to pay you to build a wooden cottage for them, what do you do? Do you:
Name a price for building a wooden cottage.
Offer to build them a mansion with a swimming pool, solar panels, garage, alarm system, and an exotic garden, then try to bill them for that.
Common sense says that everyone should choose the former option. Yet, web development agencies routinely choose ...
Applying Lessons From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to Your Business
June 17, 2020
One doesn’t need to be a literary expert to understand one thing — if a literary work survives for millennia, there is value in it that is intrinsic and timeless. There are messages within that have found application to the lives of people across centuries and continents. Thus, such works must not be ignored by anyone seeking to educate themselves.
The Art of War isn’t merely a ...
How I Made Over $150k on Upwork
February 4, 2020
Just so we’re all clear that I’m not making this up, you can visit my Upwork profile here. Once there, you will find out two things:
I am not making anything up.
I did not make that money by writing.
Most of the earnings came from software development projects, with a bit of consulting here and there. But, I do invite writers and marketers to go through the points below — most of ...
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