Cognition #27: Brain Dump ft Freelancing

Random, unfiltered thoughts on clients, systems, documentation, and more.

May 27, 2023

This is interesting.

All the issues of Cognition have been detailed case studies—and I enjoy presenting them. But I recently discovered Brain Dump: Your mind randomly hops from one thought to another, and you write everything down.

I tried this on my personal newsletter (highly recommend you to check it out), and I totally loved the process. I’m happy the readers liked it as well.

So I thought, why not do it for Cognition too?
And here we are.

Before we start, let me introduce you to our sponsor for today:
The Handwritten

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What do you get to read?

• Experiments with writing styles, tones, and editing.

• Not the fixed templates for writing on social media and connecting with people, but personalized experiences that foster better relationships.

• Certain discussions on life, death, psychology, books, etc.

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Got any questions or want to connect with Rajita? You can find her here.

Okay, back to Brain Dump

This is how I look brain dumping, lollllll.

Taking clients for granted

This was long ago when I began to get many inbound leads. Plus, I had quality clientele: Interesting work, good pay, as smooth as you aspire for things to be.

The only foot I set wrong was I took my clients for granted.

I was overconfident, my clients were not checking on me regularly, and hand-on-heart, I felt I took advantage of it.

Although a few personal incidents from my life during the same phase killed my motivation to work, I don’t want to use them as a reason or excuse for not providing my best to the folks who trusted their money with me.

Nevertheless, I use it as a story to not be too harsh on myself.

It continued for a few months until my clients fired me for not being quick enough with assignments.

I consider this my biggest freelancing lesson to date. What could have been a start of an uphill career turned me down to square one.

Never took a client for granted ever since.

Systems are everything

You obviously work with multiple clients simultaneously, but what differentiates order from chaos in freelancing is the systems you set up.

It can be your work hours, client boundaries, templatizing invoices/pitches, or even automation if needed.

A few systems I follow:

Work for clients only between 10-5 (ok, sometimes 6.)
I have templates for invoices, pitches, contracts, and important messages.
A progress database + Accounting system.
A few non-negotiables and personal policies.

…and many more.

You mess up things with one client, and all your clintele gets disturbed. Systems help you reduce that probability.

Document the smallest of things

I have a diary dedicated to my freelance business. I use it whenever I want to write about my work, clients, plans, milestones, rants, etc.

Not everything is converted to content.
Not everything is used to measure progress.
Not everything is done with the purpose of journaling.

But still, I do it because it clears my head, and I believe we need to hold a record of everything.

My new banner pretty much sums it up:

And yes, you get a lot of content from the documentation.

Long-form vs. Short-form content

In my experience with my clients, long-form brought my clients better results. I suppose it has much to do with my writing skills and personality in general.

In writing, I believe in setup and payoff. Although I am a big fan of one-liners, I am at my best when you give me time and space—in other words, long-form content.

I mean, look at Cognition. There is no way I could provide a value of this caliber on my social media posts.

Conversely, there are writers/creators who ace the social media game, and not so much when it comes to long-form content.

So when someone asks me about the short-form vs. long-form debate, I answer it depends on two factors.

One, of course, the audience demographics, what the brand provides, and all that technical stuff.

Two, I’d say it depends on your strength as a writer. If short-form is your strength and you’re not pitching clients to write email subject lines, push notifications, or tweets, you might be wasting your writing potential.

First identify, then act.

Freelancing isn’t always fancy

I was in Coorg recently.

My trip expense was around INR 12k.

While on the trip, I got a new gig that I REALLYYYYY wanted to take up. So I took the meeting with the prospect, understood the assignment, and made time to work on it.

This was a sample.

I had to submit it in one day. Usually, taking up urgent work is against my policy, but as I have said, I really really wanted to do it (Will share more about this gig next week.)

So this is the amount of time I spent on the work:

45 minutes: Meeting
30 minutes: Outlining + Strategy
90 minutes: Writing

That’s a total of two hours, forty-five minutes. I was paid INR 13.5k for the gig for writing basically nineteen lines. If you consider the lines finalized by the client, it’s only two lines. I gave them nineteen options.

Now, this makes a good story:

“Vikra took up a gig while on the trip and covered his trip expenses by working just ~three hours and writing two lines.”

With stories like these, it is easier to sell freelancing as a grand career.

Although things like these happen time-and-again and you reap the benefits of freelancing, there is a darker side to it. Or ‘real side’ would be a better phrase.

It includes:

Not getting paid on time
Getting ghosted
Projects abruptly ending
Dry spells
Instability

These are just the basic. Things can get worse.

All I want to say is: It’s easier to get delusional about freelancing by reading all the success stories.

Freelancing sure is a beautiful career, and you can succeed with discipline and organized systems. But it is wise to stay close to reality than get delusional.

PS: Not saying this to scare anyone. Showing the good and bad sides has always been part of my content. Can’t just sell you the bright side alone.

Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.

I have a lot of things to say, but I think this is a good place to park this issue.

My primary focus will always be on detailed case studies, but I’d like to know what you think about brain dumps like these occasionally.

Do let me know:

Non-technical aka fun segment

Favourite quote from a book

Do not accept my teachings merely out of faith and respect for me.
- Buddha, The Gateway to Liberation

I bought this short book when I visited Namdrolling Monastery in Kushalnagar, Coorg.

I have to say I’m in love with the line “Do not accept…”

I believe religion is about questioning every detail—not to prove or disprove something but to understand it.

I see many people accept customs without questioning them, and in my opinion, it’s not the right way to educate yourself about religion.

Movies/Shows I loved recently

Well, what did I watch?

Ed Sheeran: The Sum of it all
It’s a good series—a short one with 4 episodes, 30 minutes each. If you want to watch something light, beautiful, and musical, this is your pick!

It’s available on Hotstar.
Air
I felt I watched a good movie after a looooong time. There is no way you can dislike this film if you’re into marketing or sports. I’m into both, so I felt it was sexy.

It’s on Amazon Prime.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Honestly, I watch Marvel these days just to stay updated. However, Quantamania was better compared to other films/series rolled out lately. I liked the first 75% of the film.

It’s on Hotstar.

If you want to know about my personal side:

Well, I felt the non-technical segment is a good place to speak about it.

I launched my personal newsletter three months ago, and it’s doing crazily well. I thought no one would be interested in reading my stories/perspectives, but I’m glad I was wrong.

I don’t want you to miss out on it.

Do check it out here and subscribe if you want to read more of it:

Song I’m listening to on a loop

I heard someone playing Kamariya on the road and have been listening to it ever since.

I like the vibe of the song. Good energy!

That’s all we’ve got from the 27th edition.

If you love this, please share about Cognition on your socials or forward the email/links to people you think would benefit.

It would mean the world to me and will definitely help me scale Cognition.

See ya real soon!

Take care, stay safe, and do Brain Dumps, maybe?

Love,

Vikra.

Cognition