Freelance Amy

Quality Sleep Solutions for Freelancers: Top 6 Tips

2021-03-17

Woman sitting at her desk but lying down on top fast asleep

A good night’s sleep on the regular is important for your brain and body. That’s why quality sleep solutions, routines, and habits are highly searched-for terms on Google.

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Most of us already know that sleep is important. We have it told to us over and over. But societal norms also repeatedly trump those concerns.

When I had a so-called real job, quality sleep solutions would have come in handy. I was waking up at 6:00 every day just to make it into work by 7:45. I would have just enough time for a quick bathroom stop before grabbing some office-quality coffee and settling into my cubicle by 8:00.

Sometimes, I would have a particularly difficult time finding the right quality sleep solutions for a decent slumber the night before. If I knew I didn’t have the usual crushing workload, I’d guiltily call in “sick” the next morning. Being tired was not the same as being sick, in my mind.

Some sleep scientists would beg to differ, though. We need quality sleep solutions to be dependable, competent employees or consultants. As such, I think more priority needs to be placed on them.

Fortunately for freelancers, we have a bit more freedom to ensure this important health responsibility is fulfilled. Indeed, over the last decade or so, I’ve built up my own toolbox of quality sleep solutions.

So here are my top six quality sleep solutions in no particular order. You know which ones you need to work on the most, I’m sure!

1. Eat lightly in the evening

Evening salad as a quality sleep solution with chopped veggies, light dressing, edamame, and sliced avocado — My dinner salad

Among one of the many quality sleep solutions, make sure to have a light meal for dinner. Avoid snacks after that as well.

Granted, I occasionally break that rule for a celebration or have a small dessert. But I keep to the rule any other day, which ensures I don’t go too overboard when I do indulge.

Try a colorful healthy salad that doesn’t have to be all that boring. Chop up some carrots, red cabbage, celery, cucumber, bell peppers, and black olives like I do.

I then top it with some crumbled feta and a drizzle of homemade honey Dijon dressing. I finish it off with a side of sliced avocado and edamame for a final treat. As another one of my quality sleep solutions, I avoid complex carbs at night. Those are harder on the digestive system.

I encourage you to also cut back on complex carbs at night to avoid what’s called silent reflux. That’s acid reflux without any symptoms, but the acid is still damaging to your stomach and esophagus.

Aside from that, quality sleep solutions do not include making your digestive system work hard at bedtime. It may be counterproductive and cause you to lose an effectively restful night.

2. Limit artificial light after dark

Man standing below multiple light bulbs that are lit up — Image by Klaus Hausmann from Pixabay

It’s hard to avoid artificial light in this technologically advanced world. But if you are aware of the bad effects it has on your sleep, you can use quality sleep solutions to limit it.

Being exposed to light after the sun goes down messes with your sleep rhythms. It initiates signals to your brain that it’s not time to go to sleep yet or even that it’s time to get up. Light hinders the release of melatonin, which is the natural chemical in your system that tells you to go to sleep.

Worst of all are blue light–emitting electronic devices, or LEDs. Researchers have found that people who look at tablet computers for 2 hours before bedtime experience low-quality sleep that can even continue for several nights after they looked at the tablet.

That’s why keeping your phone out of the bedroom is one of my quality sleep solutions. Once you’ve seen the last notification or text, put the phone to charge in another room or far from your reach. That’s also why you should shut off your TV an hour or two before sleep.

I admit that I don’t always follow this rule. But I counter it by having a soft light by the bed. I use the light to read a little before gently getting sleepier.

Matthew Walker, who wrote Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, recommends some other quality sleep solutions like:

dimming lights
yellow tinted glasses to block out the blue light
software to desaturate the blue LED lights on devices as evening approaches

You could also try using blackout curtains as one of your quality sleep solutions if you live in a neighborhood with bright street lights and traffic lights.

3. Lower your thermostat at night

Digital thermostat on wall set to 71 degrees Fahrenheit

Most people’s body temperatures lower at night and that facilitates good sleep. However, because of our extreme habit of using temperature control in our homes, our bodies can’t regulate properly when the temperature is always the same.

As one of many quality sleep solutions, sleep researchers recommend lowering the current thermostat by 3 to 5 degrees at night. The ideal temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 Celsius).

If that seems too cold to you, play around with it. But always make sure to drop it by a few degrees in comparison to the day time. Also, try a quiet fan to move some air around and cool the room down.

4. Keep a notepad and pen by your bed

Notepad with pen as a quality sleep solution for day-time and night-time note taking

Do you have what I call “thinking attacks” at night? Here’s what I mean: You wake up and start thinking about something that seems incredibly important at that moment.

Sometimes it is important, but often it’s just a minor issue. And that minor issue creates a major sleep problem in need of quality sleep solutions, stat!

Keeping a notepad and pen by your bed means that as soon as you have a new idea, you can write the idea down. I have gotten pretty good at writing in the dark myself. But if that’s not easy for you, get yourself a dim soft light just for these moments and don’t look directly at it.

Get everything out of your head! I emphasize this as one my quality sleep solutions in my time management course as well. Getting it out of your head will help it stay out so that you can sleep at night. I also include a notepad as one my top 10 time management tips for freelancers.

5. Try living without an alarm clock/snooze button

Digital alarm clock on a bedside table and set to 6:00

Try living without an alarm clock as one your quality sleep solutions. And for your own sake and that of those who love you, stop using the snooze button!

If you are following a regular sleep schedule, then you should be waking up at the hour that is natural for you. Morning larks, like me, start waking up around 5:30 or 6:00, so I make sure to go to bed by 10:00 each night. Night owls shudder at my schedule and are up until 2:00 and awake at 10:00.

Remember, you’re a freelancer, so you don’t have to report to anyone at their specified time! You do your work on your own schedule, so adjust your workload around your natural sleep patterns for a healthier life with quality sleep solutions.

If alarming your heart, quite literally, were not bad enough, using the snooze feature means that you will repeatedly inflict that cardiovascular assault again and again within a short span of time.”
– Matthew Walker in Why We Sleep, Kindle edition, p. 280

And if you insist on using an alarm clock or you need it for those one-off mornings when you have to be sure to get up at a certain minute, obstruct use of the snooze button by taping a small piece of carboard over it.

6. Limit caffeine and alcohol

Two images side by side: Coffee from a moka pot being poured into a cup; Red wine being poured from a bottle into a glass — Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay; Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

I’m sure you know that caffeine has the power to keep you lively and energetic and wake you up in the mornings. But it also creates another one of those vicious cycles running counter to quality sleep solutions.

You drink your cuppa joe in the morning to wake up, have an afternoon pick-me-up in the afternoon, and sip a little java after dinner. Then you struggle to sleep, wake up groggy, and start the whole thing all over again.

The quality sleep solutions to get out of this cycle are to cut back on caffeine, if not completely, and follow a regular sleep schedule. Coffee substitutes include chicory root tea or Maya nut tea from Blue Zones.

You could also try decaf beverages or ones lower in caffeine like half-caff, or black or green tea. And try herbal tea in the evening; I enjoy a nice combo of chamomile and peppermint.

Some people suggest having a glass of wine at night instead of the after-dinner coffee for a pleasant lethargic effect. However, that effect is just sedative or anesthetic and not really sleep-inducing like your natural melatonin is. Your sleep then ends up fragmented and full of brief awakenings.

I hope these six quality sleep solutions help you begin having an effective sleep routine. If you have any other suggestions, please add them in the comments or share this post on social media using one of the links below.

If you’d like to learn more time management strategies or get some writing tips, check out my courses on Udemy and LearnDesk.

Copyediting and Proofreading: 10 Writing Tips

2021-03-10

A pencil has been sharpened and is lying on its shavings — Photo by **Lisa Fotios** from **Pexels**

Recently, I was reminded just how important copyediting and proofreading are. As a professional copyeditor for well over a decade, I’ve known how crucial the editing process is. However, the evidence can sometimes present itself in creepily humorous ways.

Sidenote 1: Copyediting and proofreading, as concisely explained by my colleague Carly Catt, are two separate processes. In short, copyediting is a more substantial content and grammar edit. Proofreading occurs as a final stage to catch any lingering errors.

Copyediting and Proofreading Are Important!

I re-released my online copyediting and proofreading course earlier this year. At that time, I recalled that I needed to review the captions automatically generated by Udemy. I honestly, and yes, naively, didn’t think it would be such a big deal … until I came across the following subtitle:

Al-Qaeda got into the van and drove away.

With this sentence, I was attempting to provide a quick example of the subject. That is, the subject is the person completing the action. I also wanted to ensure my references were culturally diverse. So I chose the lovely name Aleida for the woman who drives her van away.

Perhaps it’s a minivan that Aleida takes to pick up her kids at soccer practice. Or she just picked up her vehicle from the local mechanic before heading off to meet some friends for lunch. However, Al-Qaeda getting into a van presents a whole other picture!

Sidenote 2: Aleida seems to be a common name in Latin American cultures—Che Guevara’s eldest daughter is named Aleida. But it’s actually Dutch and German in origin, deriving from Adelaide.

Whether you are a self-proclaimed spelling enthusiast or a seemingly lost cause when it comes to grammar, you must make room for copyediting and proofreading as a final quality check.

Doing this will ensure that clients, colleagues, and, in my case, students, take you seriously. As a result, they keep coming back to hire or refer you or even buy or recommend your products.

Quick heads-up:
This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission should you decide to purchase items I recommend via affiliate links.

Spot the Typos (there are six)

However, even copyeditor’s are not immune to making mistakes in their own writing. Have you ever heard of Muphry’s Law? This old adage goes something like:

Whatever can go wrong will go wrong when copyediting and proofreading.

You could be waiting for an important call all day and then your battery dies just as your answering. You could be planning to bake the perfect birthday cake for your sweetheart when you realize you don’t have enough butter and the store just closed.

Or you could be writing a blog post about the impotrance of copyediting and proofreading and forget to do spell check before publishing.

If you are not a professional proofreader or copyeditor, I’d advise you to ask someone to take a final look at your writing before going pubic with it. (In fact, even professionals ask others to check there work!)

Chances are, and especially if you regularly post blogs or are publishing longer content or even a book, you’ll need to hire such a person and build that into your budget.

Sidenote 3: Let me know in the comments what typos you found.

But to keep down such costs should you be running a small operation, consider these 10 tips for copyediting and proofreading your own writing.

1. Wait at least a day before final proofreading.

If possible, don’t proofread the same day you’ve finished drafting your content. I always draft and edit my blog posts in WordPress about a week before publishing.

Letting the post sit alone for a while helps me move my brain on to other tasks. I can then come back to the content with fresh eyes. And that’s when I find errors that should have been glaringly obvious on my previous read!

In addition, proofread at a time of day when you’re most alert and observant. I have more brain power in the mornings, so I never do final proofreads in the afternoon. And I certainly do not proofread in the evening when all that’s on my mind is relaxation and decompression.

2. Identify problem areas you just can’t ever wrap your head around.

For example, I often see people using apostrophes where they are not needed or omitting them where they are. Indeed, many of my clients lament the concept of apostrophes as one they just can’t seem to grasp.

If you struggle with apostrophes or other grammar and punctuation issues, I would recommend joining a Facebook group for writing or editing. Then, when you come across a phrase or sentence you’re unsure of, copy it into a post there and ask what others would recommend.

You will find that many folks will be more than willing to not only provide the correct grammar but also explain why it’s correct. And voilà, a free and targeted grammar course to instantly up your copyediting and proofreading game!

3. Post a cheat sheet of grammar or spelling issues you always have trouble with.

For example, I have a tough time remembering the various tenses for lie vs. lay. When I see these, I refer to a chart by my desk like this one:

Copyediting and proofreading lay vs. lie table. Top header row Base points to “lie” described as intransitive, which means it takes no object. The present tense is “lies,” the present participle is “lying,” past tense is “lay,” and past participle is “lain.” The next Base points to “lay,” which is transitive and takes an object. The present tense is “lays,” present participle is “laying,” past tense is “laid,” and past participle is “laid.”

4. Change the look and feel of the content while copyediting and proofreading.

Seeing the content in a new way will help issues stand out better. Change the font, font size, line spacing, or all three. If you’re sending an email and have drafted it in Word, copy and paste it into your email client and send it to yourself. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find on the other end.

You could also put the whole thing on another platform. For example, if you’re writing web content, do final copyediting and proofreading in a new unpublished post online. Then preview it before publishing. Or you can copy it from Word into a Google Doc.

5. Read aloud one word at a time.

Reading aloud allows you to think about the content in a different way and make unclear writing more obvious. Take it a step further and imagine that you’re reading it to your high school English teacher. Or imagine that your managing editor, whom you may particularly respect, is reviewing it.

What kinds of errors do you think they’ll point out? Will they understand what you have written?

6. Check headings letter by letter while copyediting and proofreading.

You don’t want a typo in a heading. Read that last sentence again. Okay, I’ll write it again: You don’t want a typo in a heading.

However, for some horrible cosmic joke of a reason, headings notoriously attract errors. I think it’s because they are so easy to ignore when you’re the one writing as well as copyediting and proofreading the content.

But once that content is in front of a reader, headings are everything. They help the reader navigate the content and let them know if it’s worth reading. Often, readers will scan the headings first, and if they see a particularly egregious typo, to the back button they will go.

7. Check end punctuation.

It’s super easy to miss a period at the end of a paragraph. It’s also easy to use a question mark when you should be using a period. For me, a quick sweep of the ends of every paragraph and bullet point usually turns up some missing punctuation about 10% of the time.

8. Use spelling and grammar software while copyediting and proofreading.

Even as a professional editor, I still use software to catch issues I may have missed. And I especially use it for a long document I’ve been working on for several days or even weeks. Use the built-in tools in your word processing software and consider investing in an external program as well.

I use PerfectIt , which is very popular among copyeditors. Grammarly is another one gaining popularity, but it has its issues. With that said, you still need to have a basic understanding of grammar and spelling to use these tools.

Always check each suggestion the tools present and don’t just accept every recommendation. I would say about 50–75% of the time, I reject the software’s suggestions. But those other 25–50% have saved me the unpleasantness of an unhappy client or displeased reader.

9. When in doubt, look it up!

A woman is looking up something in a dictionary while copyediting and proofreading — Photo by **Nick Bondarev** from **Pexels**

Look it up! Professional copyeditors live by this standard. It is rare for any of us to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every grammar, style, or obscure spelling rule.

Any time I have just a tiny minuscule of doubt about a word or phrase, I go to the relevant dictionary or style manual (usually online subscriptions) to double check. Much of the time, I’m just getting reassurance. However, I’ve also found out that my first instinct is not always the correct one.

10. Start and use a checklist of errors you make consistently.

For example, if you know you always swap “their” and “they’re,” add this issue to the checklist. Then, right before finalizing or publishing, do a global search of both terms to double check you spelled them correctly.

While copyediting and proofreading, add your most common issues as you notice them. And keep the list somewhere handy to refer to before finalizing your content for publishing. I have my list taped to the wall behind my computer screen so that I can just glance up quickly and efficiently.

I hope these tips on copyediting and proofreading have been as useful to you as they are to me. In fact, these tips make up a procedure I use with every editing, proofreading, writing, and design project I work on for clients or even myself!

If you find you’re consistently missing typos and struggling with grammar and readability, start with these tips to:

get cleaner content,
impress your audience, and
encourage them to keep coming back for more!

To get regular tips on freelancing and editing as well as access to my ebook Quick Guide to Freelancing, sign up for my newsletter. You can also follow me on social media by clicking on one of the links in the sidebar.

If you would like to learn more about copyediting and proofreading and how to write clearly, check out my self-paced course “Editing Skills for Clear Writing,” available on Udemy and LearnDesk.

Rescue Kitty Makes Freelance Amy a Cat Person

2021-03-03

Rescue kitty collage: owner posing in one photo with rescue kitty; cat stretched out next to owner’s laptop; cat resting head on owner’s hand holding a mouse at her desk; cat grabbing owner’s arm as she uses the mouse at her desk — Working from home with Gemma the rescue kitty

About six weeks ago my husband and I got a rescue kitty. The decision to get a cat did not come lightly. I had been debating it with myself—he was on board from the beginning—since we moved to Florida in March 2020.

I grew up with cats, dogs, and various farm animals, but I had never had a pet as an adult. Being self-employed as a freelance copy editor and publication designer made such a commitment difficult.

That’s 20+ years of only being responsible for myself. I don’t have kids and rarely have plants around. Although I did manage to keep an aloe vera plant and a schefflera alive for more than a year. That was until I had to move and couldn’t take them with me.

Craving feline companionship

During that two-decade hiatus, whenever a cat would wander by me on the street, I would respond appropriately by quietly and calmly SHRIEKING with delight.

As I kneeled down, the creature would come to me about 50% of the time. One day, I proclaimed, I would have one of my own, preferably a rescue kitty.

It took so many years because:

I rented until about 2018 and couldn’t have pets due to lease restrictions.
My husband and I moved around a lot since meeting in 2014.

Sign along the highway stating welcome to Florida — Arriving to our new home state—we think we’ll stay a while

We’re both self-employed entrepreneurs who have a reputation for moving to a new place on a dime (figuratively, that is). Finally, in 2020, we started to feel like we had found a home in the Sunshine State.

Adopting a rescue kitty no longer an occasional dream

I would find myself stating again and again “let’s get a cat.” Then the next day I would remember that I would need to:

feed it,
take it to the vet,
clean its litter box,
worry about it when I was away from home,
arrange for someone to check on it while I was out of town,
make sure it didn’t get eaten by a gator/coyote/panther/hawk, and
then watch it get inevitably older and sickly with time.

Finally, after going over the pros and cons with family and friends for months, I realized that dooming myself forever catless was not what I had planned for myself.

So I told my husband in early January that we should get a rescue kitty. BUT let’s wait a month to make sure our finances were in order.

But we don’t wait!

Back story: We had just moved into yet another house in late November and I wanted to be sure we could afford any unexpected expenses. Two days later, I was browsing the local rescue’s inventory, and my husband said, “Let’s get one now. Why are we waiting? We don’t wait!”

That’s true. We don’t wait. When the two of us make a decision, we make the end result just happen. When we chose the house we live in now, we insisted on closing in record time. That turned out to be three weeks from the day we made the offer.

Pizza on a cutting board displayed on a patio table in the author's screened lanai — Moving-day Thanksgiving pizza

We officially moved in on Thanksgiving Day because that was the first night we slept over. We had closed the day before and had already rented a U-Haul that afternoon.

Choosing a rescue kitty

I discovered a gorgeous torti mix, and we went over to C.A.R.E. Animal Shelter the next morning. We waited until the next day because it was already closed. You should have guessed by now that we would have been over there the same day if we could have been.

Unfortunately, we weren’t 100% convinced about the original rescue kitty we visited, so we went back the next day. The volunteers suggested we wait even longer, but you know by now how that sounds to us!

We met with the torti again. However, she just didn’t seem to care about us all that much, being that she was partially feral. (Update: That cat has since been adopted, and I’m so very happy for her!)

On the way out, my husband spotted the kitten room. I had wanted no part in looking at kittens. “Kittens are so much work,” I said! But then he really wanted to look, so I tagged along.

And that’s when we met a rescue kitty named Gemma. The volunteer explained that it was spelled like “gem,” as in gemstone.

Finding our rescue kitty

This sweet gray tabby was hiding in a carpeted tunnel, tentatively reaching out and purring serenely. My husband thought she was awesome. And I marveled at his ability to pick out just the type of cat that would pull at my heartstrings the most.

I mentioned earlier that I had grown up with cats. But I did not mention that, with the exception of the last cat that called me his own, I had always shared my devotion with a gray tabby.

When I looked at this rescue kitty named Gemma, I saw a bit of Josie, who had seen me through my awkward adolescent years and been there through the inevitable tears. I also saw Tuffy, who was my first cat at the age of five, and I still well up when I recall his untimely death.

Gemma was it, and we became rescue kitty parents a few days later … And it only took that long because the shelter was closed for the two days after we submitted our application.

The many names for our rescue kitty

So, here we are more than a month in. We’re learning how to live and work from home with a cat. It still feels weird occasionally. For many years, we’d proudly declared how free we were to do as we pleased because we didn’t have kids, pets, or plants.

Our cosmopolitan, care-free lives are a little less so these days. And we ask each other where the cat is at least five times a day from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

And when we do that, we use one of various nicknames for our rescue kitty. Some of those names match the lessons we’ve learned along the way:

Sweetheart
Sweetie Pie
Cutie
Kitty
Creature
Weirdo
Jerk

Sweetheart

Gemma the rescue kitty walks through the doorway of the author’s office — Gemma the rescue kitty checking out my office for the first time

Sweetheart is when she lopes into my home office, stares at me with her big bright green-yellow eyes, and purrs as I scratch the top of her head.

Sweetie Pie

Gemma the rescue kitty stretches on her perch by the author’s office window — Gemma just about fits on her perch between my desk and the window

Sweetie Pie is when our rescue kitty follows me out of the bedroom in the morning, mewing both for hellos and for breakfast. It’s also when she welcomes enthusiastic snuggles even as I wash her food and water bowls, and when she climbs onto her perch next to my desk.

Cutie

Cutie is when she wraps herself around my legs while I prepare lunch with her tail contentedly pointed upward. Our rescue kitty blinks and turns her head and my heart melts even when she’s lying on top of my keyboard and pressing the random and sometimes critical buttons on my keyboard as I type.

Kitty

Kitty is when I’m looking for her around the house before discovering her newest hiding place. It’s recently her own “private loft” at the top of our walk-in closet. That reminds me that I should put a soft blanket up there for her.

Creature

Gemma loves to jump up and attack her scratching post and the pom that hangs from it

Creature is when my husband comes out of his office after an intense conference call and goes in search of welcome pets and snuggles. Our rescue kitty is also a creature when we play with her each evening as she jumps, runs, and twirls around the dangly bird toy we swing around each night so she doesn’t wake us up at 4:00 a.m.

Weirdo

Gemma the rescue kitty is stretched out in front of the author’s computer screen — Gemma also likes to point out errors in the copy I’m editing

Weirdo is when she grabs the drawstring on my hoodie, rips up my grocery store receipt, throws her catnip-infused toy mouse in the air, chews on one of my two computer screens, drinks from my water glass, and falls off my desk mid-stretch.

Jerk

Jerk is when our rescue kitty claws at my feet through my thin cotton blanket or refuses to hang out with me when I’m looking right at her and pleading. Also, I’m a jerk when I give her catnip right before bedtime and complain all night that she tears through the house into the wee hours. I’m never doing that again!

Gemma

And Gemma is when we talk about what a sweetheart, sweetie pie, cutie, kitty, creature, weirdo, jerk we’ve brought into our lives. And what a gem our lives have become!