Being in control of work

Being in control at work is often something talked about in a negative light. People are described as controlling, rigid or overbearing when they try to control situations. It's assumed they are angling to influence others, while often it's because they feel out of control themselves.

Business likes steady employees and hierarchies that are controlled from above. Business also likes employees who can be moulded and shaped, who let others control them. Control is streamlining, it’s swift HR resolutions, it’s keeping staff turnover down.

How often we hear of people doing jobs they weren’t initially hired to do but were manipulated into doing them. It's not until you've felt out of control for a long time do you realise something isn't right. And understanding you're not in control – and are in fact being manipulated by others – isn't easy.

This is how I felt while working for five years on Fleet Street during my 20s. My shift pattern was always changing – for a year it required 5am starts – and the never-ending nature of free online content meant there was no down time. I felt the job controlled me, rather than me being in charge of my future.

Throughout my days at the newspaper I had continued to freelance for other companies – partly for something to do in the day times before my late shifts started, when everyone else was at work. I began to wonder why I didn’t just go freelance full time? What was I sacrificing by working a contracted job and what could I gain from being in charge of my own time?

After a period of working 14-hour days I decided change was needed. I quit the newspaper knowing I had something to fall back on – because of those other freelance gigs I mentioned – and realigned my work with clients. My aim was to balance journalism with the other skills I had developed almost unknowingly through my freelancing: editing, copywriting, marketing and SEO.

Balance discipline with flexibility

Deciding to work for oneself requires both discipline and flexibility. You have the choice to pick clients and projects that suit your personality, but need to stay on top of finances and scheduling. Flipping from a regular shift pattern to a blank calendar that you must fill yourself can be incredibly daunting.

But one of the best things I have experienced since working for myself is the ‘newness’ of a working week. The ability to experiment with new clients, write interesting features and articles, work in cafes (before Covid!) and from home, and enjoy a better work/life balance. It’s what companies try to offer as appealing when their job ads say ‘a working week here is never the same!’, only for them to be very same-y indeed.

I have Vic to thank for sitting me down and going through the importance of structuring work and breaking tasks down into time slots on a calendar. Of controlling myself. Not every job can be done at once and, if you don’t plan ahead, priorities can clash and that not only affects your work, but bleeds into your free time too. I had to learn that the working day starts at 9am, not five minutes after you wake up, and ends at 5:30pm. I didn’t really understand the value of taking a weekend off until I fully immersed myself in freelance work, where rather than a single job I now had nine.

I needed to control my output. Rather than working to an editor’s schedule I was now working to mine – and it takes a lot of discipline not to stray from the calendar. It’s hard. I often find myself either trying to do too much at once or struggling when I have time to fill – especially on days off.

In order to stay in control, Vic and I do a kick off meeting every single day. It might be as simple as explaining to each other that we have a full day working with a client booked in – or it could be that we have to schedule in four or five jobs across the morning and afternoon. It’s also an opportunity to assess what else we have to focus on that day – be it who is cooking tea or if we’re off to the pub that evening.

I wasn’t able to do this when working a contracted job and freelancing alongside. There was no time to think, let alone talk. But being able to step back and take control of my time has lifted the weight I felt when working at the newspaper.

This type of structure – an ordered one we have chosen ourselves – is often what I mean when I talk about work/life balance. It’s the middle ground between rigidity and looseness. It means I can be both disciplined and flexible at the same time – and it’s helped me work to my optimum.

And it’s something everyone working from home, especially during coronavirus lockdowns, should introduce to their mornings.