Sometimes, I just want to yell…

“…Just hurry up! Don’t waste your life!” It sounds stupid, but I’m so busy that it’s getting increasingly frustrating watching people move. so. slowly. Whether that’s in a queue, cooking, or whatever else, I’m finding the speed a lot of people operate at amazing. I can’t even comprehend my Facebook friends saying that they’re going to stay in bed all day because they can’t be bothered. I can’t imagine staying in bed all day. At all. Ever. Even in the rare cases I’m ill I absolutely hate staying in bed (and yes, that does make me more ill and I’m still on the go). I can’t imagine spending three hours cooking a meal when I barely even have time to think about what I want to eat and what the quickest option would be.

This weekend has been what I’d describe as a ‘getting on top of everything’ weekend, which means lots of productive stuff, especially as Joe’s away. I’ve renewed my rail card, spent several hours painting the stair walls ready for the new carpet that was fitted today, done a lot of laundry, worked on the styling for Blossom’s new design, tidied my room, placed an order with Abel and Cole, checked/sorted/deleted emails, done some paperwork, worked on some new tutorials and cleaned the bathroom. I also found some time to play Settlers of Catan and Ocarina of Time, finish re-reading The Other Boleyn Girl and watch some TV. I still have more paperwork, more work on Blossom, and preparations for my trip to London on Tuesday…there’s always more stuff to do. This is why I have ten minute showers instead of hour long ones, pull the first thing out of my wardrobe, and hardly ever wear makeup. In the mornings I can be up, washed, dressed and out of the house in under fifteen minutes (I usually get up earlier than that to do chores though).

People who just stand there and say they have nothing to do annoy me. Even if you don’t have a job, do some volunteering. Do something creative. Do something nice for someone else. Learn a new skill, the internet is your oyster. Joe is job hunting/freelancing currently, and his parents are bothered by the fact that he doesn’t have a full time job. I don’t mind as long as he’s productive. If he was sitting around all day watching daytime TV or playing Farmville, I’d be concerned. But at the moment he’s getting back into the sports he used to do, working on his portfolio website, volunteering at a local college and doing their website, working on a website for me and a few other projects. He’s learning the ins and outs of WordPress and creating themes from scratch, and he’s currently about to start coding some plugins. This is in additional to stuff he does round the house, including cooking for us a lot – I hate cooking, taking the cats to the vets, paying bills and so on. It’s all about making the most of the time you have and not making the simplest task take two hours longer than it should just because you have nothing else to do.

If you’re currently job hunting, employers are impressed to see initiative and how you’re spending your time. Saying that you’ve been job hunting for a month, or six months, or two years, isn’t very impressive and doesn’t set you apart. On the other hand, volunteering and benefiting the local community looks good, especially if you’ve worked on a project, learned or developed skills and worked well with people. Most importantly, it will make you feel better about yourself. Nothing can match feeling wanted and purposeful. If you’re in the UK, a great place to start is do-it.org.uk. I was surprised to see how many varied opportunities there were in my area, with some literally being as near as a couple of streets away. You never know, it can lead to bigger opportunities too. The college Joe works at has offered to pay for a teacher training course for him, and whilst he’s not sure it’s the route he wants to go down, it shows how volunteering can open up new worlds. That’s without even mentioning the social aspect of it. In 2008, when I was job hunting, there were more jobs around than there are now, despite it being the start of the recession. Even then, I applied for at least 30 jobs a week. It’s not about sitting there and applying for three a week because you’ve been told to, or taking weeks to fill out an application form. You have to be aggressive because it’s an aggressive market. No one’s going to suddenly stop you in the street and offer you your dream job.

If you have web skills, you really can make a lot of money, and there are advantages for being self-employed. My advice here would be to open up as many income streams as possible and find out which are the most profitable for you. There are plenty of freelancer forums, but I’d actually recommend signing up at forums that are more generally business-related. There’s far less competition for jobs and it’s easier to build up a reputation with some well-thought out posts. Get on LinkedIn, join some groups, and start answering questions about things you specialise in. You’ll soon get noticed.

So yes, I’m impatient and judgemental. But seriously, don’t waste your life. Be busy doing what you want to do, and don’t let anyone stop you from living the life you want.