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Do you work on a PC every day or measure your daily mobile screen time in hours? Then you need to know something about maintaining good vision and eye health.
A few months ago, we shared a wonderful podcast episode presented by Stanford neurobiology professor Andrew Huberman on how to improve your eyesight.
He has now returned to the topic with a new episode titled How to Improve Your Eye Health & Offset Vision Loss, featuring his friend and colleague, professor and chair of the department of ophthalmology at Stanford, Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg.
In the episode, they discuss how to maintain and improve eye health throughout life, the advantages and disadvantages of corrective lenses, including if you should wear “readers,” the use and risks of contact lenses, considerations for LASIK eye surgery, floaters, dry eye, the importance of sunlight and UV protection and specific exercises to improve eye and vision health.
You can watch the episode on YouTube:
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Money Diaries is a long-running series published by Refinery29 (media company focused on young women). It shows how much different professionals make, how they think about money, and how they spend or save it. Some of them are freelancers, and their stories are revealing from a financial perspective. For example:
As you might expect, many of the respondents are not particularly good with money. They often complain about insecurity and instability of their finances. This side of their freelancing seems to be a constant struggle to find balance in an ever-changing market environment while paying for bills, loans, and other things. Quite real.
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Along with Elaine Pofeldt and Jon Younger, Ginny Hogan is another Forbes contributor who writes regularly about freelancing and freelancers. Her articles are short and to the point. A good example is her recent article with 3 tips for reading contracts as a self-employed freelancer:
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Many freelance knowledge workers cycle through various stages of business development, e.g. from small bets, to an eager generalist, up to a micro-business. As Sarah Duran points out in her retrospective article for Freelancers Union, they are a result of outgrowing one’s business model and searching for a new, sustainable setup.
Our take: Naturally, it is much better for freelancers to consciously choose their business model according to their needs and progress, rather than being forced to do so by circumstances.
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Definitions of freelancers vary widely, and there are many nuances to understanding even the most common terms such as freelancer, contractor, independent professional, etc.
Stephanie Whalley wrote a short article What is a Freelancer? for Freelancer News about the differences between freelancers and contractors — as these terms are commonly used in the UK:
“A freelancer is somebody who works independently, for themselves, as opposed to working for an employer. This means that freelancing is classified as a form of self-employment, even if the person only freelances part-time to supplement their main full-time job (also known as a ‘side hustle’). The term ‘freelancer’ isn’t actually a business structure in its own right, so a freelancer might run their business as a sole trader or as a limited company. A freelancer will often work for multiple clients at once, juggling various projects simultaneously. As a result, freelancers will charge for their services on a task-by-task basis or by the day, hour, or something even more granular – a freelance copywriter could charge per word, for example.”
Note: One questionable assertion in the article is that freelancers “fall neatly under the umbrella of ‘gig work’ or the ‘gig economy’” — the fact is that the gig economy is widely understood as an online phenomenon, while freelancing also includes a huge amount of “offline” work and professions. Watch Robert Vlach’s popular talk European Freelancers & Where to Find Them for a detailed explanation of why freelancing and the gig economy are merely overlapping:
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Many freelancers strive for longevity and good health. This is partly because it allows us to do our work well and reliably, possibly into old age.
Peter Attia's excellent and very practical book, Outlive, is about how to live longer and healthier. As a physician, he presents a vision and strategy for personal medicine 3.0 that addresses problems long before they occur. This allows readers to anticipate, plan, and make meaningful changes in their habits with the clear goal of avoiding future problems.
There are far too many average books on longevity, but this is arguably the first one on par with David Sinclair's groundbreaking bestseller, Lifespan. Go get it.
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If you’re a storyteller of any kind, or an aspiring writer, The Authentic Swing is a superbly inspiring book for you to read.
It’s not a long read. It’s not about golf. And it’s not yet another how-to book.
In essence, it is the origins story of a novel, and—on a much deeper level—it is a book about finding one’s authentic voice and writing style.
Steven Pressfield based this book on his notes from the writing of The Legend of Bagger Vance, his first and breakthrough novel, set in the game of golf. It sold over 250,000 copies and was eventually made into a movie directed by Robert Redford, and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron.
Of all Pressfield’s nonfiction books for creators and artists, this is perhaps the best, aside from the far more famous War of Art.
It reads like a great story and feels like one too.
A masterpiece.
But it can also be practical. For example, here’s a great passage from a chapter on Steve’s writing habits that can easily relate to anyone struggling with a major writing project:
“Each day when I finish work, I write down the project I’ve worked on and how many hours I’ve worked on it. I have a wall calendar too, the Sierra Club/Ansel Adams type, with a two-inch square for each day. In the bottom left corner of each square, I write what fitness stuff I did that day—gym, run, whatever. In the upper right corner I put a one-letter abbreviation for what project I worked on—and a check mark beside it.
…
When I can scan a calendar month and tally up twenty or twenty-five check marks and the same number of fitness notations, I know I’ve got the momentum. A writer doesn’t have a boss. No one hands me a paycheck or pats me on the back or buys me a drink and tells me: Good job, Steve. I have to do that for myself. I have to haul myself out of bed and march myself into the office. I have to psych myself up to plunge in and kick myself in the ass when I start grumbling and complaining. I reward myself too. Simple stuff. If I get a package in the mail that looks like it might contain something interesting, I won’t let myself open it till the day’s work is done. The writer’s life is about self-motivation, self-discipline, self-reinforcement, and self-validation. I need every trick I can think of to help me keep going.”
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Tom May wrote an interesting piece for Creative Boom about how creative freelancers set their prices, whether they prefer hourly or day rates, fixed fees, etc.
The overall message is that prices vary wildly (from £30/hour to $1875/day just for the freelancers mentioned in the article) and that freelancers often soften their pricing for smaller clients. Don’t expect universal advice, but it’s worth a read.
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Our member and a SEO consultant Jan Onesork wrote a very insightful post about his top apps and tools for freelancers.
His picks cover daily planning, email, personal finance and budgeting, reading, SaaS, and even money transfers and exchange rates. All tips come with Jan’s personal comments and direct links. A useful and honest selection!
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Joshua Toovey makes an excellent point on the IPSE blog that not every business wants to scale up. He quotes recent research that asked the British self-employed what growth means to them:
The article goes on to illustrate how out of touch UK government policy is with what the self-employed need to grow their businesses. Is it similar in the country where you are based as a freelancer?
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