How to Cope When Technology Lets You Down

It’s been awhile since my last post. I could regale you with a long, frustration-riddled tale of down telephone lines and repeated internet malfunctions, but I won’t. Let’s just say I’ve been unable to access the regular world of communication for much longer than is good for a freelancer’s career.

Unfortunately, these things happen, and they happen at some of the worst possible times. I missed an important telephone interview, I missed out on a few job opportunities, and I am now officially behind in all the work I need to do.

In hindsight, I realize that I could have handled the situation much better than I did. My method of coping was basically to go into melt-down mode, agonizing over my inability to get online and withdrawing into a few novels I’ve been wanting to read.

Next time (and let’s hope that isn’t for a very, very long time), I plan to have a much better plan.

• I vow to immediately download any important files from my email account. I had a 350-page book and about 30 PDF files waiting for my attention on my email account. In the past, it has been my custom to just download them as I’m ready to start working on them. Not a good idea. With the internet down for four days, those files just sat there, unused, unread, and weighing heavily on my mind.

• I vow to get a more reliable cell phone. When I discovered that my phones were down, the first thing that hit me was that I had an important interview the next day. I decided to kill two birds with one stone by taking my daughter over to my brother’s house and making the call there. He could keep her occupied, and I could use his phone in peace. The only problem was that unbeknownst to me, his phones block long distance calls. After my initial panic, I turned to my cell phone. It’s not a great piece of technology, and my call kept getting cut off until the interviewee just gave up. It was not one of my most professional moments.

• I vow to be more patient with the service company. Apparently, phones were down pretty much everywhere, because every time I called the phone company, I was told there would be at least a 45-minute wait until someone could even speak with me. Since I was calling from my $0.10/minute aforementioned crappy cell phone, I either got cut off or refused to wait that long to talk to someone (waiting on the phone is REALLY hard with a toddler). So, it was two days before I was able to even start getting the problem addressed.

• I vow to be more productive with my “time off.” There are a number of things I could have done without the internet. Even though I couldn’t access the work that needed to be done, I could have:

* Stocked up on blog posts

* Organized my filing system (which currently consists of shoving everything into a bag)

* Worked on developing a logo for our company

* Brainstormed some marketing ideas

* Read some work-related books

* Played some educational games with my daughter

* Done pretty much anything except what I did (which was kick and scream and call the phone company bad names in front of my daughter)

• I vow to enjoy the devious plans of fate. In all honesty, the situation was largely out of my control. If someone were to tell me that he suddenly found himself unable to work for a few days, you know what my advice would be? Enjoy it! Go out and do things that you normally don’t do during the week. Kick back, relax, and spend some time with your kids.