Working from home as a freelance food writer is brilliant! I am my own boss and am doing the job I love. The only problem is the occasional dip* in motivation. In the past, when I have worked for other organisations I pull out all the stops to meet the deadlines set by my employer, now that I’m my own employer I seem to have become a bit of a slacker, perhaps I should put myself on a formal warning.

*substitute “dip” for plummet!

I hate letting other people down but for some reason I find it very easy to let myself down, I’ll work all night or all weekend for somebody else but can easily spend weeks watching the Fraiser box set instead of writing my book. Thankfully help is out there. A few months ago I found an organisation called Kindred HQ on twitter who seem to be a great big digital hug to freelancers. They have life coaching tips, fingers in almost every social media pie and are now running regular meet-up events called “Jelly” where freelancers can work together. Super! I particularly enjoy their “desk of the week” feature on their website where you get to have a little nosy at someone else’s workspace – another thing I’m probably clicking on when I should be cooking or writing!

Reading through the motivational tips or life coaching advice the recurring themes seem to be to:

• break daunting projects down into smaller tasks
• get the boring or difficult pieces of work out of the way first
• and to tell other people your plans in order to help you stay focussed.

I have decided to go one step further than just telling my friends what I am doing, instead I have chosen to work with them; as I am convinced that I will be much more motivated on collaborative projects – I will want to make it a success for them too, much more than if I were to work on something alone.

Firstly I am hoping to go into business with Bradley, a fantastic chef and actor. We are planning some exciting new food and events projects in London (that’s all you’re getting on this for now, you’ll have to keep checking back for details!)

Secondly, I am meeting up with Animation Director Helen Piercy tomorrow as we are hopefully going to be producing some more cookery videos! It was enormous fun to work with her on a video of Strawberry Brunch Recipes (as part of a zine I published last year) and I cannot wait to work with her again.

My friend Alison (who popped round for the gnocchi making workshop) took me to see Alan Carr – Chatty Man being filmed last night. It was a brilliant evening and I came out buzzing with ideas ready for my meeting with Helen. Strangely the ides are mostly fashion related as part of the show featured a very exciting performance by Nelly Furtado, who was dressed in a long sleeve gold sequinned top and black skinny trousers with a long black mesh skirt over the top. Alison is now convinced that this is the kind of thing I should be wearing in my cookery videos…watch the show and let me know what you think! (Channel 4, Fri 18 May, 10pm) oh and 10 points if you can spot us in the audience!

Today I got stuck into making sketches, watching YouTube videos of cookery shows and writing. I haven’t felt this motivated in months and I seriously think it is the thought of collaborating which is keeping me so focussed….not that focussed though, I paused for a break, got distracted and left my lunch to burn in the saucepan, luckily I remembered before the house caught fire! I’m off to the shops to buy a scouring pad. x