Greater than 2 minutes, my friend!
A Freelance Translator’s New Year Resolutions
Getting started
I have been planning on beginning to blog on translation and freelancing topics for a long time now. I have probably already told you about it privately. Or publicly. Many times. So here we are! And this is, I guess, a good way to get started.
On the brink of 2016, I would like to share with you the list of things I have tried to accomplish for a couple of years now, and I have actually made good progress! So do not get discouraged if you, like me, have not been able to keep all the hopeful resolutions you made in past years. Make new ones. Make better ones. And try to keep them for good.
A Freelance Translator’s New Year’s Resolutions
1. I will try and invest in my knowledge. I will get training in areas within or without my field of expertise that I feel will help my business or my degree of comfort with the type of projects I want to be working on.
2. I will try and differentiate myself from the rest, offering one or more types of services that go beyond the traditional translation/proofreading scheme. For that, I will need to think outside the box.
3. I will try and set a price for my services that is consistent with the value my clients are getting in return for their money, a price below which I would rather do something else for a living.
4. I will try and define my target market as accurately as possible. If I am being asked to lower my rates on every single job, I may be targeting the wrong clients.
5. Within reason, I will try and set my own standards as to how much work I can consistently translate/back-translate/proof/quality manage per hour/day.
6. I will try and learn to say “No”. “No” to lowering my rates. “No” to accepting projects or deadlines I am not comfortable with. “No” to working with people who do not respect me or my work.
7. I will try and eat right— I will try and say “No” to eating in front of the computer, “No” to grabbing a quick bite of anything handy while hurrying to get a rush job done, “No” to drinking excessive amounts of coffee to keep me going through the night.
8. I will try and get enough rest on a regular basis. Because of a heavy family/work burden, I know I am unable to sleep 8 hours non-stop, so I will try and take a couple of short naps sometime over the day.
9. I will try and take a weekend off every now and then, and a decent, unplugged vacation once a year. I will try and say “No” to vacationing with a notebook, cables, extra batteries, a diary book, dictionaries, terminology lists, or the like.
10. I will try to keep, and build on, the above resolutions. And I am serious about it.
What about you?
Have you made any resolutions of your own for the coming year? Are they very different from mine?
Audra De Falco 
Pieter Beens 
Sherif Abuzid 
Hi, Nora!
Thank you for sharing your resolutions with The Open Mic community! It’s a great way to encourage others to work hard on their own resolutions or draft some if they haven’t yet, and at the same time, to help yourself keep yours in mind.
Last year I told myself I had to stop working weekends and I did fairly well. I learnt to say “No” to 80% of the projects that required me to work during weekends and it felt great!
One of my goals for this year is to try and write more blog posts for my blog on Language Editing (link to themagicpenedits.weebly.com), because I usually managed to write only one post every month last year. Maybe I won’t be able to write five posts every month, but two would make a difference for me personally. =D
I’ve already done my research and subscribed to your blog! I highly recommend: link to translartisan.wordpress.com
Cheers to our list of New Year Resolutions!!
Hi Delfina!
Many thanks for your insightful comments. As you say, sharing my resolutions has actually helped me stick with them, and I hope it has helped/will help others with their own!
Re. your resolutions, I find stopping working weekends is actually one of the most significant sore spots for many translators (and most freelancers, for that matter), and something most of us need to work on. It should be the exception rather than the rule, but it often takes many years before an established freelancer feels ‘free’ to say no to accepting jobs Friday evening for delivery Monday first thing in the morning. Something that usually helps me say no to these types of projects is picturing the client/PM/etc. logging out and picking up their things, getting ready for the weekend, with a big smile on their face, while I get stuck with the job and ‘under mouse arrest’ over the weekend 😀 BUT there are jobs/clients/PMs that, for one reason or another, may be worth the hassle; that’s for each one to decide.
Writing is another issue for me as well. Actually not writing (I LOVE it!), but finding the time to get down to it. I hope you can meet or exceed your goal in 2016!
And thank you for taking the time to browse my blog (very new, only two posts so far!) and for recommending the post on relationships with translation agencies/project managers!
Cheers!
Nora
No problem!! =)
Really good resolutions! I wish I can follow your steps and make progress! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Chiara!
I’m very glad to hear you agree with these resolutions, and I do hope you can follow these, or perhaps better yet, make your own! And I don’t like to repeat myself, but it actually works to share them, make them public. Your commitment to them will definitely be stronger!
Till soon!
Nora
Great post, Nora! I think my biggest challenge is to get some rest. I have a 9 to 5 job and then the extra time I spend studying and writing in my blog, cleaning the house, keeping a minimum social life, and that’s it. But I feel that resting is a waste of time and I need to overcome that.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Patricia!
Resting properly is actually one of the most important pillars of our well-being, but it is perhaps one of the things we freelancers neglect the most. Most of us need to work on taking better care of ourselves!
Thanks again and hopefully till soon!
Nora
Hi Nora,
1-. Very good, each of us need to study, somebody told me that a translator needs to know a little bit of everything, but my favorite one is “sólo sé que no sé nada”
2-. As above and for the rest of your resolutions go ahead. Otherwise you will need to fully stop, as in my case. Now fully resting, just keeping my mind busy, reading four newspapers per day in different languages, speaking three or four different languages every single day but not translating.
Thanks
Hi Maurizio!
After working for more than 30 years, first as an in-house and then as a freelance translator, I cannot agree more with the idea that we know nothing! Our thirst and need for learning more is fueled by a profession in which we deal with countless subjects in diverse fields of knowledge. And even when we often learn by doing, and the Internet is definitely here to help, I strongly believe we need ongoing training in our specific fields of specialization, in spite of the little free time we end up with.
And this leads me to the other topic you raise, the one of resting and taking good care of ourselves. And I cannot agree more with you in that respect either!
Thank you for your thoughtful comments and for sharing your personal experience,
Nora
Wow!! This is my exact list! Lol. I already fulfilled item 1, and the other ones have been part of my philosophy for a while now. I think the one I always have more difficulties with is item 7, LOL. Eating properly is never easy if you have no help, but I’m serious about this one, so this year I will accomplish this as well.
Greetings!!
Hi Giovanna!
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I agee that eating right is not easy, but it’s actually of the essence. I’m just talking about eating healthy and taking some time, even if very short, away from your work and computer to enjoy a quiet meal.
Re. item #1, we translators are never done learning and specializing 🙂
Thanks again and greetings!
Nora
A good motivation for development. Thanks.
Hi Sercan!
I’m happy to hear you find motivation in these resolutions. It actually makes me feel I achieved my goal with this post.
Thank you! I look forward to ‘reading’ you soon!
Nora