A kind of normal work day (Patreon)

Hi Patreonizers! I hope you're having a good day, because you're a wonderful and amazing piece of human and deserve all the good stuff.

Something a lot of people have asked me is what a normal work day is like here at the workshop. And by a lot of people I mean absolutely nobody, but it was the only lead-in I could think of for this very unsolicited, potentially self-absorbed post. I've had a pretty uneventful week and don't have a whole lot to report on, so cut a girl some content slack.

Here's some insight into the curated mystery that is my work life:

MORNING
One of my favorite things about being self-employed is not having to be at work at any specific time. My team (Scott, Luke, Jess) schedules most of my meetings, and they know me well enough to not book anything before 10 AM. This means I have the luxury of waking up by myself, no alarms or wake-up machines required.

Because of the time difference, this is also the best time for me to call my family. So I make myself some breakfast, brew coffee and FaceTime Sweden. My family has watched me eat hundreds of pieces of toast. It's like a mukbang video stretched over the course of four years.

Just like this, but with toast. And less naked art in the background.

I brush my teeth, put on shoes and walk out of my house, just to immediately go back to double check that I locked the door. I walk to work almost every morning. It takes about an hour, and is a great way for me to burn off some energy and anxiety. Yes, I've become an I-like-long-walks type of person. Early thirties, you have no idea how ready I am for you.

LUNCH
I tend to get to the workshop around 11AM.  Does it sound like I'm bragging? I'm not. I then sneeze into my Fendi purse, wipe my butt with some rare orchids and contemplate how incredibly humble I've managed to stay through all of this. 

A photo idea that we quickly abandoned. For Patreon eyes only.

Scott is usually already at the workshop and the first thing we do is go through some rapid-fire questions. It's riveting things like:

"Disruptive Tech Gadget Reviews is a UK publication and want a 20 minute interview about a new service that is like Uber but for breast milk. Yes or no?" 

"This company wants you to come and speak at their conference that is scheduled for 2024, should we say yes or say that we're fully booked that year?"

"I have an idea for a project, what about if you had tiny utensils on your finger nails and ate tiny foods with them? Let's get some hamsters too. I can have some on your desk this afternoon."

AFTERNOON
This is when it's time to actually try to get things done. I put on headphones for the same reason horses wear blinders: Don't. Get. Distracted. 

I usually spend Mondays sorting through emails, with a somewhat embarrassing amount of "Received six days ago. Reply?" notifications.  I'm deliberately terrible at email, and most of the people we work with know to email Scott if it's something urgent.

Other days I work on scripts for upcoming projects, edit videos until I dislike my face, write Patreon posts (yay today!) or try out 20 different Instagram captions only to revert to "Feeling cute, might delete later". About once a week, I Skype with my manager Luke who's in Australia and we discuss business strategies, upcoming sponsorships and how to get me to space.

Luke and I right when we had started working together. Luke had broken his wrist playing footy, which is the most Australian thing I could imagine. 

My favorite kind of days is when I get build things, and even better is getting to build things and not having to film the process. That feels like getting to pick out the marshmallows in a pack of Lucky Charms. Indulgent and wonderful.

EVENING
I tend to work around 6 hours a day. I know it sounds spoiled, but I've noticed that I'm not productive for much longer than that. You can't really fool your boss when you're your own boss, so when I catch myself cherry picking only easy work tasks, I just call it a day and go home.

The things is that when you're a business owner, there's an infinite amount of work you could be doing. I could work every minute of the day and still not get everything done. Things are constantly on fire, and you kind of just have to learn how to live with it. 

Actual footage of me at work. Here's the guy who made this comic, in case you've seen this strip a hundred times but never considered who actually drew it. 

And honestly, having a brain tumor has really helped with shielding myself from the stress of infinite fields of work. Healing from surgery forced myself to work really softly, and step back as soon as it became too much. And the crazy thing is that I think I'm just as productive, if not more productive than I was before. And if nothing else I'm at least a lot happier.

PEOPLE WHO WE ARE SENDING ART TO
Speaking of happy people! You blew me away with your reviews of my foot mural, and Brooks Moses, Mary Compton, Samantha Aiello, Justin McMurry, Gregory Kinney, Cassie Crispin, Adam Bohlin and Samuel Kramer will all get some very fancy, hand-made, foot-made art sent to them soon. Thanks for making me laugh. 

XOXO
Simone