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tranfree issue 30 - 18th April 2001
Be Good To Yourselves
by Alex Eames
In December 99 I wrote an article about my back pain.
12 months ago I joined a health club and have been swimming and working out
now for a year. Let me tell you, it's had a marvellous effect.
Now at least twice a week on weekday afternoons, we deliberately
switch off the mobile phones and go to the health club for a
couple of hours. It's...
- relaxing
- great for coping with stress, and
- really good for building up the muscles which went slack because of too much desk work
Has this cost us a few lost jobs? Sure, of course it has.
"All hard work brings a profit" (Proverbs 14:23)
This can be physical or financial work (or profit). But what's
the point in financial profit if you lose your health to get it?
I don't want to get rich if I can't enjoy spending it. Do you?
I know another translator who recently had a bad back because of
overwork. In fact, it's very common.
Many people would claim to be "too busy" to join a health club.
That's exactly when you need it the most! And the other thing is
that if you're busy earning money, you've got no excuse that you
can't afford it either.
So instead of fitting exercise around your work, what about
fitting your work around your health? Have a regular time to look
after your body and do not accept work if it means you have to
sacrifice this. Obviously due to irregular work-flow you do have
to be reasonably...
 ...flexible.
The Formula Which Works For Us
The formula which worked for us was to join a fairly luxurious
club. So we feel bad if we don't take advantage of our
subscription. Let me tell you, it works for us!
But you don't even have to join a club. Go for a run, swim or
take an aerobics class. Just get away from your desk and get some
exercise 2 or 3 times a week. It really is that simple.
Work, Work, Work ~ Addiction
Not only that, but in the freelance lifestyle it's very tempting
to get up and work, work , work. Because you can't get away from
your office, basically when you're at home, you're working.
Even worse if you don't have a separate room for work, you'll be
stuck in your working environment all the time. This creates the
situation where you have to go out in order to relax. This alters
the nature of "home". It can be a problem.
Some people even rent business premises in order to get away from
the house. To create a physical separation between work and home
life. It depends on the level of the problem. It's like an addiction.
It's certainly like that with me and translatortips®. Because I
like messing about on my computer, it doesn't seem like work to
me. Last weekend I wrote a fairly complex banner tracking package
for our site. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.
But it is work and it does tire you out, and it does take a toll
on your mind and body. So you do need to get away from it and you
do need regular holidays as well.
Holidays
This time we're off to the Dominican Republic for two and a bit
weeks. Hopefully we'll be able to get away from it all.
Unfortunately/fortunately (I'm not quite sure which) there's an
internet cafe at the resort.
I don't know how that's going to work out. I guess it will be
hard to stay away because it's ingrained in my habits now. It's
like an addiction to the internet and to email - which has got to
be a bad thing really.
I love photography and on holiday I'm going to focus on that (pun
intended). But now I've got a digital camera, even that hobby
involves computers too!
AAAAAHHHHH How will I get away from them?
The main thing is I'm not taking a computer with me. That should
help a lot.
The harder you work, the more leisure time you need to get over
it. This needs to be structured into your life on two levels...
- regular weekly exercise and leisure time
- regular prolonged periods of time off work
I'm going to try and take my own advice now and go on holiday at
least twice a year. I'll let you know if I succeed. 
Alex Eames is the founder of translatortips.com,
editor of tranfree and author of the eBook...
How to Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator
http://www.translatortips.net/ht50.html
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