WIPO vs Home

I recently started an external contract with WIPO. This is basically the job I had in Switzerland but from home. It took a little while to get myself into a proper routine and the right frame of mind (this is my first major contract with consistent delivery of source material and deadlines) but I'm getting into the swing of things. I also needed to get used to the different working environment (I've gone from a big desk in an office with two monitors to a laptop at my sister-in-law's house, we're visiting the wife's family). Beyond this, I have noticed a couple of key differences since I started and had a minor epiphany.

The first key difference is that I no longer have access to the patents. Whilst this was not unexpected, it had a bigger impact than I thought. I think, when I was actually at WIPO, I took having access to the patents for granted and, like in most romantic comedies, I didn't realise what I had until I lost it. This hasn't proved to be a major problem, thus far, because I get a bit of extra information and I tend to do a fair bit of background research and, if I need to, I can ask questions. However, it still makes things a little more difficult than I expected.

Another difference is that I have ended up talking to myself more than I normally do. When I was at WIPO, I had other people to bounce ideas off and to test if a given sentence sounded natural or made sense. At home, I am the only native English speaker in my household and while my wife speaks fine conversational English, she's not very useful for my purposes (my daughter doesn't say very much at all, mostly she laughs at me). I'm aware that most of the time I just need to hear the sentence out loud, even if it's me saying it, so I end up talking to myself a lot.

My epiphany is hardly road to Damascus stuff so let's call it a sudden realisation. My sudden realisation is that I can do whatever I want. To elaborate, when I was working at WIPO, there was always the knowledge that I was being paid to be there so I should do something constructive. But the other day I realised that that is no longer the case. So long as I meet my deadlines, I can do anything I want. When I realised this I was feeling stuck and that I wasn't accomplishing anything and then it hit me that I could stop, so I did. This blew my mind. Today, I had a very productive morning and I thought I'd like a nap after lunch, so I took one. I probably shouldn't have but that's a whole different kettle of fish. I knew this before in an offhand way but it's only recently that it really hit me. I love my job.

Self-motivation

Image from www.despair.com

One aspect of free-lancing that I never really considered when I first decided to try it was motivation, not in the sense of 'why am I doing this?' but in the sense of 'I should really stop procrastinating and do something', and this could be a serious problem if I can't keep it under control.

I find that deadlines help. Unlike Douglas Adams, I don't like to hear them whoosh by and, if I have a deadline, getting motivated is not a problem. Unfortunately, this rarely works with self-imposed deadlines, usually only if I have found some other source of motivation.

So how do I motivate myself in the absence of a deadline? In some instances, I can self-impose a deadline simply by making said deadline known. This blog is an example of that. When I first started I decided that I would need to post a minimum of once a fortnight, more often would be better but that was the minimum. I picked this amount because it would give me plenty of time to think of things to write about if I was lacking inspiration (which, surprisingly, has not been the case thus far) and because it annoys me when I sign up to a blog and then there are no posts for weeks or even months on end. So, I decided on my arbitrary update schedule and then I told my wife and now I've told everyone who reads this. I choose the deadline, but now I have to stick to it or bad stuff happens.

But what about those things that can't be readily seen by other people? For example, I'm the only one who will know whether or not I have applied for a particular job or to work with an agency. Nobody will know if I do it now or tomorrow or next week. So, how do I motivate myself and stop procrastinating? Sometimes it helps me to focus on my own personal goals, be they short term (money for rent) or long term (enough money to buy an elephant. I don't want an elephant, I just want that much money). But what usually works best for me is if I can find something to inspire me. If I read or watch something about or by someone who is at the top of their game, a great writer, or an actor or just about anything, it inspires me to do the same. This motivates me to do things like update my resume and fill in applications and do test translations and do it now, the necessary things that aren't always the most interesting.

I suspect this post may make me come across as more than a little lazy but I think everyone has tasks that they put off in favour of more interesting ones. This is just how I deal with that problem.

As a side note, reward systems (if you work hard now, you can play later) do not work for me (I'm already playing and you have nothing else I want).

Was it worth it after all?

I arrived back in Australia earlier this week and, while I have been busy, I've done next to no work at all.

With that in mind, I thought I'd post about whether or not I thought the fellowship at WIPO was worthwhile.

In a word, yes. Professionally, I feel that I got a lot out of it. I learnt a lot about translating in general and about translating for WIPO specifically. I got some experience in translating in-house, which will help me decide if I want to go for a similar position somewhere else. I made some contacts with other translators who are at similar stages in their careers to me (actually this could probably count as a personal benefit as well). And on top of all that, it'll look good on my resume.

As for personal benefits, I got to go to Europe, which was fantastic.

(I'm going to end this post here because it has been inordinately difficult to write and one of the things I learnt was to cut my losses)