You sit down to work at the computer. 45 minutes later you realize that you’ve gotten hardly anything done because you’ve been checking email, the news, your social feeds, the latest price on that phone case you want… Sound familiar?
We’re all living that reality – a constant, vast world of compelling digital distractions that continually demand our attention.
Fortunately, there’s a way to eliminate those distractions and even break your habit of succumbing to them. The answer is Freedom.
Freedom gives you complete control over digital distractions, allowing you to block specific websites, apps or the entire internet when and where you want. The Freedom platform works in sync across all your Mac, Windows iOS and Android devices.
Here are some ways to use Freedom and to get your work done without falling into the trap of digital distractions.
BLOCK WEBSITES
Whether meeting a deadline or studying – we’ve all needed a little help staying focused. This is what Freedom is most known for – blocking distracting sites. Freedom allows you to select which websites you want to block, and on which of your devices.
If you try to access a blocked site during a Freedom session, your browser will instead display a calming green screen, gently reminding you that you’ve committed to getting some work done.
BLOCK APPS
Another core feature of Freedom is the ability to block distracting apps. Determine which apps distract you (like games, email, Slack…), and add them as blocked apps to a Freedom session.
If you try to open those apps during a Freedom session they’ll be shut down instantly, so your attention never has a chance to be diverted.
BLOCK THE ENTIRE INTERNET
Sometimes it’s hard to know what distractions you need to be blocking - there are so many.
What to do? Use Freedom’s “Block All Websites” feature to essentially shut off the internet during your work session.
You can even block everything except (whitelist) if you choose, allowing yourself access to only what you need for work (including of course, Coffitivity!)
Freedom is free to try, and if you want to use our more powerful features, we’re including an offer code, just for Coffitivity users. Use code COFFEE for 30% off a Freedom Yearly subscription!
This is Part 1 of a multipart series where we discuss upcoming expansions and developments for Coffitivity. Learn how the community can get involved, and plug in for a chance to win some cash!
Upcoming Expansions and Developments?
There’s a lot coming but, if you’re eager to get involved right this second, take our survey now for a chance to win $25 gift card to Starbucks.
If current trends continue, it seems pretty clear that for many people around the world, freelance work is the wave of the future. Some estimate that by 2020, 50 percent of the workforce in America will be freelancers (although freelancing might not be their full-time, or their only, job).
We recently posted about the steps you can take to minimize late payments and avoid nonpayment from flakey clients. Our friends at the Freelancers Union have been thinking about the same issues and over the past year, they’ve been pushing for new legislation in New York City protecting freelancers and providing recourse if you end up in a bad client situation. The time for a vote is just around the corner and we all have a chance to do our part in making sure the Freelance Isn’t Free Act is passed! For all of our NYC freelancers, this is one of the most important steps you can take to make sure you don’t get stiffed again. Even if you’re not in NYC, this legislation is still super important as it could serve as a model for YOUR city and others across the globe.
We read through the act itself and you can do the same [here]. (It’s totally worth the read if you’re kinda nerdy and like this stuff like we do.) If you’re NOT like us, that probably good and exactly why we pulled a couple points we really dig and wanted to share.
1) Any person or company who hires a freelance working must execute a written contract detailing the scope of work being performed, payment method, and when payment is due.
2) Payment in full will be required within 30 days of the completion of the project or of the payment due date, whichever is later.
3) If there is a breach of the above terms, the bill could be enforced by the Office of Labor Standards or such entity as the mayor may designate - freelancers would no longer be left to fend for themselves!
How can you help?
-Sign this petition to show your support for the Freelance Isn’t Free Act.
-You can read more about the legislation at The New York City Councilhere or here on the Freelancer’s Union blog.
-Share with your friends, peers, and colleagues so this bill actually gets the support it needs to make all of our lives better.
I’m the king of procrastination. Seriously, I’m the worst. I somehow manage to spend 100x more energy not doing something than a fraction of the same energy starting said thing. It makes no sense, but I have an incredible knack for talking myself out of getting moving on a project. If this sounds like you, I assure you, we’re a lot alike. For me, it’s starting that’s the hard part and unfortunately, what I’ve found is that there’s no trick for getting going. The reality is, you have to just dive in. Prolific advice, right? I’m pretty much the Shia Labeouf of doing important shit. Just do it. Really though, I think what’s important here is reminding myself that often times the work I push off isn’t actually that hard. While there’s no magic pill for getting into a project, I have found a couple tricks that help get over the hurdle and allow me to settle in on work that I’m less than enthused about.
Find people who hold you accountable
Shoutout to my longtime partner and professional slave driver, Justin. He’s a bully when I’m behind on work, and rightfully so. We’ve been working together for years at this point and have developed a rhythm and a friendship that allows him to push me through some of my blocks - especially because my blocks can become blockers for him and that’s one of his all-time biggest pet peeves. Having someone with high expectations of you getting projects moving is a great way to keep you honest. Whether you lean on clients or collaborators, partners or peers, having folks in your corner to hold you to your schedule so they don’t get behind is a blessing in disguise. Trust me, I have to remind myself constantly when I have Justin breathing down my neck to finish a post or edit a document. Pressure is good!
Embrace good distractions
A shameless Coffitivity plug and basically Exhibit A of “getting high on your own supply” here, but whatever. We literally built Coffitivity to be able to work better and I’m an avid user of the platform on the daily. As you might have read, the science behind Coffitivity says being a tiny bit distracted gets your creative juices flowing. I’m a firm believer and an advocate of having that coffee shop chatter in the background of my work day. Even on the go, I plug in with our mobile app and it keeps me focused on the train, in a cab, or simply when I don’t have wifi in one of those bougie “we don’t want you to be productive” cafes in Williamsburg.
Minimize bad distractions
Recently, I’ve taken to putting my phone and laptop on Do Not Disturb while I’m in the middle of a project. This is pretty hard to do given how things happen on the fly in the world of freelancing and/or startups that we need to keep up with. That said, cutting down on how frequently you’re checking in on the outside world can help you maximize your efficiency at work. For writing, tools like Blankslate.io are great gems for a minimal, distraction-free writing experience. Techniques like Pomodoro can help establish a cadence for blocking out the world, while still scheduling regular intervals to check in on clients, kids, and the casserole in the over on occasion.
Good (affordable) gear helps
I love my headphones. Hard stop. Seriously, without headphones I wouldn’t be able to get a lick of work done. As it turns out the rest of our team is in the same boat. At time of writing, we have 4 pairs of Sony headphones, 1 set of Bose, some generic Apple headphones, and Matt has a $500 pair of Sennheiser Momentum Bluetooth Wireless Over-Ear Headset with NFC because he’s a showoff and likes nice things. Regardless of the price point of your gear, make sure you have good, functional gear so you can do quick, efficient work when it matters. Along those lines, I’ll also recommend considering going analog if you hit a block. One of the best ways for me to get a move on a project is to sketch or do prewriting in my Moleskine Cahier Journal. Whether you’re a digital or analog kinda guy/gal, good gear is worth investing in (as long as it doesn’t break the bank).
Find the right tunes
Ya boy loves some Explosions in the Sky or This Will Destroy You. My partner Matt, on the other hand, loves his jazz or showtunes (for whatever reason). To each, his own, of course. Just make sure to find the right jams (or lack thereof) for you so you can dig in when you don’t want to work, but have to. Currently I have a few shared Spotify playlists with friends that allows us to kill two birds with one stone - we stay connected, but we also stay head down in the middle of the workday. It’s great! On that front, keep an eye out for a few updates on the music side of things from the crew here at Coffitivity. We’ll be curating a few playlists like this one over the coming months with some new music we really dig for plugging into work or jammin’ out during your breaks.
I’ve recently been working on-site for a client, and I could not understand why the coffee pot was always empty. Sure, there are plenty of people in the office who drink coffee, albeit at a moderate pace in comparison to my constant need to mainline it, but somehow there never seemed to be any brewed in the nice, stainless steel pots.
While I consider myself a team player, having to brew an entire pot (four whole minutes of my day) nearly every time I want a caffeine fix seems excessive.
Once the initial grumbling wore off, my curiosity took over. I watched from outside the kitchen to understand what was going on. People were coming in, filling up their cups and mugs and then heading back to work. It all seemed so normal.
Then it happened. A fellow came in, poured a few sips out of the pot, and the coffee stopped flowing. I put my head down, not wanting my observation to influence the outcome of his behavior. He casually looked around, replaced the pot, and walked out.
An offender! I thought. Surely this is the culprit for this pot. Every pot in the building must have it’s analogous bad actor who leaves the pot empty and slinks out, unobserved.
After a couple more days of observation, I confirmed the behavioral pattern. The coffee runs out mid-cup, and even with others present, the empty pot victim would casually slide the pot back, un-refilled.
The humanity! What about this particular place made these seemingly wonderful people such heathens, unable to abide by the cardinal rule of “You kill it, you fill it?”
The answer was in the coffee pot itself. You see, unlike the pots of yore, those plastic-ringed diner staples with crusty grounds burned to the bottom, these pots have class. They’re high-tech, insulated stainless steel with pour tops, so you can brew the coffee into them without ever having to open the pot.
Did this level of coddling somehow dull the empathy of these otherwise great people? Were the pots too fancy or difficult for the average person to operate? I portend the answer to these is no. It is the simple fact that the pots are opaque that is to blame.
In a traditional clear-pot kitchen, the offense of leaving an empty pot is a giant middle finger to the rest of your colleagues, marking you as a person who has little regard for human life.
In a kitchen with opaque coffee pots, the social order breaks down. The fear of being seen in your transgression is next to zero, as you can always have the defense of not being able to tell how empty the pot is, and even if someone sees you commit your heinous act, they have to confront you directly.
With a clear-pot you both know what has to be done.
Being self-employed is hard, plain and simple. Finding clients, managing expectations, keeping track of time and appointments, and then actually getting work done is a handful. And, of course, when tax season rolls around you have to deal with the hassle of getting 1099 taxes filed. Sorting through receipts and praying you don’t get blindsided by a bigger bill than you expected is fun, right? Not! Tax season should be just as easy for someone who’s self-employed as it is for people with a W-2 job, which is why we put together this short list of things to help avoid a tax nightmare.
1) Stay on top of your quarterly payments.
One of the messiest parts of self-employment is not having an employer automatically withholding Social Security and Medicare taxes for you. On top of that, the IRS requires you to make estimated quarterly payments for these taxes, which means you’ll need to play accordingly. If you owe over $1,000 and don’t make these payments, you could be charged penalties. The best part about paying quarterlies is getting Uncle Sam’s cash out of your bank account so you’re not tempted to spend it because there’s nothing worse than having to stroke a check on tax day that you don’t have the money for. Make sure you mark your calendar for the quarterly estimate filing dates - which can be found here.
2) You can always file an extension if you’re behind.
If you’re feeling behind the 8 Ball even with a few extra days, make sure to file an extension for your personal taxes (super easy to do through most tax software). You can also head to the IRS FreeFile page for a run down of options to file your extension for free. Remember, as of 1/1/16, the IRS has the power to revoke or deny your passport in certain cases of unpaid taxes, so use the extra few days to take a look while you still have time!
3) Keep track of your expenses.
If you’re self-employed, you have ample opportunities to take tax deductions. Anything including your home office, mileage driving, meetings, coffees with clients, and the water bottles you keep stocked in your Uber can be written off if you’re prudent about keeping records of these expenditures. Fortunately there are some great options out there for tracking expenses. Check out QuickBooks Self-Employed or Xero Tax Touch for a great way to categorize expenditures for clients. MileIQ can help you log mileage and 99Deductions can help you understand what you can expense. While you’re at it, take a look at Hurdlr, a holistic finance app for freelancers built by 99Deductions. With so much awesome technology at our fingertips, there’s no reason to get behind on expenses over the year! This will make all the difference in driving down your total end of the year tax obligation.
4) Find a great accountant.
Finding a good accountant will pay off in the long run, literally. Knowing what you can write off as a business expense makes all the difference when it comes to driving down your overall tax bill. Working with the right accountant or software will make sure that you aren’t overpaying at the end of the year. For instance, CPAforFreelancers is a phenomenal resource for anybody who is self-employed (not just for freelancers as the name might suggest). You can hire them to take care of actually filing your taxes for you. Brass Taxes is another great site for all of your tax needs. They even have a price estimator on the homepage to help you calculate if working with them fits your budget. If you’re a little more tech inclined, check out BotKeeper, an “AI” bookkeeper for your small business.
5) Make sure to save 30% for taxes.
Saving is hard — no surprise here. Even if you’re meticulous about your expenses, you’re still expected to pay quarterly estimated taxes on roughly 30% of your self-employment income, which means you need to be keeping an eye on not only how much you earn, but how much you set aside for Uncle Sam. The good news is we’ve created a solution so that you can focus on your work and we can save your money for you. Painless1099 is a smart bank account that automates tax withholding from each payment of 1099 income you receive. With a Painless1099 account, all you have to do is connect your direct deposit or invoicing tool (like Quickbooks Invoicing, Freshbooks, or Harvest) to your new smart savings account and input a few tidbits of information about your tax status. Once you’re setup, Painless will watch for 1099 income, separate taxes based on your tax status, and pass your spendable cash along to your personal checking account. We get it, you’re busy as a freelancer, which is why we made it easy to be prepare for tax season. All in all, tax season doesn’t have to be stressful. The beauty of staying on top of your 1099 taxes is that you can treat April as if it’s just another month. If you’re ever looking for more tips on being self-employed, you can talk to our team on the chat portal on our home page. Keep in mind we’re offering free lifetime withholding for our awesome beta users, so go sign up for Painless1099 today!
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Dear Reader,
This is meant as a guide, not professional financial or tax advice. If you have any questions about your taxes or your deductions, hire an accountant or ask a tax professional.
To our freelancers and 1099er friends - now there’s a better way to save for tax season!
First off, congrats. You made it through tax season 2015! Hopefully you came out unscathed, but if you’re anything like us, taxes were a nightmare. Trust us, we get it. Which is why over the past few months we’ve been building Painless1099 to solve the headache of 1099 taxes for people like you and us!
Painless1099 is the first automated tax withholding for 1099 hustlers. Think: freelance creatives, 1099 contractors, on-demand drivers, you name it - anyone who collects a 1099 and has to pay Uncle Sam throughout the year. We’re talking about people like you and people like the team here at Coffitivity!
Painless1099 is the simplest way to save for your quarterly taxes so you can worry less about your tax bill from 1099 income and focus more on doing the work you know and love. With a Painless1099 bank account, you can direct all of your client billing to your new, smart withholding account and count on us to do the rest! We separate what you should set aside for taxes and we’ll send your remaining cash directly to your personal checking account. No hassle, no headache; you’ll be squared away with enough cash saved to pay taxes on time every time. The best part - Painless1099 is completely free to use!
We’re opening up the first few Painless1099 accounts today just for our Coffitivity family and we’d love for you to check out the platform, get signed up, and start saving for Tax Day 2016 today!
Pop over to Painless1099.com to get started and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop a line to hello@painless1099.com! And of course, if you think of someone you know who needs a Painless1099 account, don’t forget to share this with them.
We’re stoked to having you using Painless1099 and can’t wait to make your taxes a little easier this year!
As always, stay creative, -the Coffitivity crew
Coffee Talk: Tommy Nicholas | blankslate.io
Welcome to the first edition of Coffee Talk. In this series, we get to know makers, developers, creatives, and the other generally cool people that make up our audience. We’ll get a brief rundown on what you’re working on and share it with the rest of the community.
This episode, we’re talking to our good pal Tommy Nicholas about an app called blankslate.io that he and Scott Clark have developed to help capture those quick thoughts you have while working on your laptop.
One of our favorite hacks is to set our Chrome homepage to blankslate.io. That way you can just ⌘ + T for a new tab and then ⌘ + Shift + H for a homepage you can type on.
