Work from Home: The First Time

“Work from home? Nah. I don’t think so.”

This was what I thought when I heard it the first time way back.

After graduating from college, my first instinct is to get a job. Get work from a company.

I was doing work in offices the whole day, doing the tasks I was assigned and even get overtimes when needed.

The good part: huge salary.

Yes. That’s what I’m after before. The salary.

To buy and buy more things and ended up with no savings.

The worst part: I relied too much on the salary.

Sometimes, I become a millionaire for days. Sometimes, I get broke.

I admit. I got too caught up with my salary that I got no time to save it.

Then, it hit me last year.

Last year on September, I resigned from my job. My job in a company.

Then by December, I recalled “work from home” from way back.

Although, I attended several seminars and even read books about work from home careers. I wasn’t thinking about it much previously.

But now, I am thinking of trying it out.

One of my new goals this year was to do work from home jobs.

At first, I wasn’t sure if this suits me.

I normally go to work for a company with a physical office over the past years. Working in a company is good but not enough.

Don’t get me wrong. It is good to work in a company because it gives a lot of benefits and friends with bonuses and other allowances.

Apparently, it kills my time.

My time, supposedly for myself, is concentrated more on office works and in the company, travels towards the office and other trainings.

Apart from that, whenever I had nothing to do, I get bored and think of ways to get boredom out by playing games or going out of the office to kill the time.

When I started the journey of working from home last week of December, I researched first on the how to’s.

Ways on how to build my profile. Ways on how to build my resume to stand out. ways on how to apply for jobs online.

It’s a bit a journey.

After building my profile and took some tests on skills, I applied for jobs that could use the skills I have been using for the longest time. These are my software testing and writing skills.

I applied a LOT, really. It took me at least 30 to 40 jobs submissions just to get my first job.

My very first job was amazing.

I wasn’t the one who applied for that specific job. The client was looking for me!

I can’t believe that someone notices my skills even though I haven’t applied for them.

And so, I took the job. It wasn’t easy though because I wasn’t confident yet to start doing content writing tasks.

Yep. You read that right.

Content writing.

It was my first time to do so. And so, I took the chance and grabbed that job.

And after grabbing that one, another client showed up and hired me.

This time, it’s more on the virtual assistance job I was aiming for.

And that’s it. That’s my journey of how I got to be a virtual assistant today.

Currently, I am looking for more chances of winning other online jobs that can catapult my salary and even my opportunities to go abroad. I am so looking forward to that moment!

By the way, what are the perks of doing online jobs at home?

There are tons! But to name a few, here are some of the benefits of working from home.

No more travel time. Yes! It really kills time due to heavy traffic. When I was still working in a company every single day, I travel from home to the office for almost two hours. Same goes when going home, another two hours. There are so many things that I can do in those idle time. Obviously, apart from taking a nap during the travel, I can do more tasks by that time.

No government documents and too long processes needed. Yes! Less paperwork on the hiring process. No more documents to secure. No more added processes to wait for. All you need is a simple test, interview, waiting time (it could take a couple of weeks the longest) and that’s it. You’re hired. Usually the trial period is a month for online jobs rather than 6 months in the companies which is huge by the way.

Payment is directly sent to me. Payments vary for online jobs. I receive payments weekly or based from the sent articles. Payments can also be done daily and is easily transferrable to your account so no more waiting for the 15-30 paydays.

No taxes, I mean government taxes. Yes! That’s right. The only taxes you will receive is from PayPal or from the bank account they are sending the payments to. No more government taxes. No more withholding taxes. That’s great news to hear.

Flexible time to work. Currently, on my online jobs right now, I control my time. I can work on my tasks anytime I like. No hassle. And I can manage time to do other things when I finish doing my tasks online.

New things to learn. This is definitely the major perk of being a freelancer or a work from homer. This is also my first time to do virtual assistance jobs. It was definitely hard to get a client at first since I don’t have any skills yet to become a virtual assistant. But even though I’m getting a bit of experience on it, there are so many things to learn and so many skills to enjoy. It is my first time to do Photoshop editing stuff and it was fun. I wanted to learn new things so that I can be versatile on other virtual assistant jobs when I applied for them.

And there are tons more!

It’s fun to learn more and add new things to your skills set. Every time I apply for a job, there are already quick responses and then hiring processes start.

It’s that fast and easy. Even though I applied I lot doesn’t mean I get them all. It’s like catching Pokémon. Sometimes you can catch them. Sometimes not.

Try to check it out. There is no harm in trying to do work from home jobs. You’ll get a lot of your time doing other things when you do.

New Year, New Goals

2016 was a roller coaster ride for me.

There are a lot of ups and downs.

Despite all these, 2016 was my turning point in achieving my dreams – learning music on voice and keyboard, perform on stage and write songs.

That’s just the start.

This brand new year, 2017, new goals will be set. Goals that have been achieved last year will be continued and goals that have been skipped last year will be done this year.

Some of the goals that have been achieved last year that I wanted to continue this year are the following:

Voice lessons

Last year was the start of something new for me. Beginning of last year was disastrous. I was all over the place. 2^nd half of last year, I improved. But still, there are a lot of things to work on. Last month on the year ender concert, it’s my first time to sing solo and some of applause at the end. That was sick.

But now, 2017, I will continue on my voice lessons. There are still things I needed to know of, learn and improve on. Also, I wanted to learn on theatrics and do auditions.

These are my goals on taking up voice lessons.

Keyboard lessons

2^nd half of last year, I started learning keyboard from the beginning.it enhances my listening skills when doing vocalizations and learn about notes and chords. I am beginning to know about the chords when playing songs, techniques and shortcuts. I also played the keyboard on stage for a couple of concerts and still there are things I need to improve on. I still need a lot of practice.

But for this year, 2017, I will still continue on my keyboard lessons. I still need to learn more about the chords; notes and scales so that I can start composing songs on my own.

Write and compose songs

On the last quarter of 2015, I started to compose a Marian song and it was chosen for a non-profit contest on an album. That was my debut.

Last year, I started to compose Visayan songs and joined a Visayan songwriting contest. I also started attending songwriting workshops so that I can learn more on how I can compose songs nicely and melodically. I even attended a music summit to learn more on ideas of what I can write and compose with.

This year, 2017, I will still continue to write songs. It will still be collaboration with my friend on ideas, tunes, notes and harmonies. I will still need to attend workshops to enhance my songwriting skills.

Blog posting

Last year, I started to do blog posting at full blast. It started with the personal experiences I have recently encountered. Then it continues on and on. Every time there is an event in my life, I write and post them in my blog site.

So in this year, I’ll continue on writing whatever memorable or anything that comes in mind to post them in my blog site.

Serving God through a Community

I will continue to serve God through The Feast and serving the attendees. I’ll continue to be Jesus to them and also to learn and nourish my soul through the teachings and talks from the community.

2017 will be my continuous nourishment for my body, mind and soul.

Time Off with Family

This will definitely be continued this year. Even though I’ll be working from home, I still to have bonding time with my family. This can be done through vacation time, quiet time, meal time and other fun-filled family activities that we can enjoy with as one big family.

It will still be a family year for me this year.

 So, those are my In-Progress goals for this year.

For my new goals, I wouldn’t say them as my new year’s resolutions because they may be continued whole year round and to the years to come.  Some of my new goals this year are the following:

Work from Home

I haven’t tried this one. Last month, I tried to set up my profile and proposals. So by this year, when my proposals are active or accepted, I can start working from the comfort of my home. My proposals vary from proofreading to software testing.

So 2017, I’ll be ready to work from home!

Prayer Time

I have to admit, I wasn’t consistent with my prayer time last year.

Last month, a friend gave me a 2017 Didache bible reflection book. With that, I was forced to pray and read it with the gospel reading. It pushed me to pray daily and to make it a habit the whole year round.

Savings and Investments

Since I will be doing work from home jobs this year, I wanted to start saving up for my future. Saving up for my appliances and furniture since my house will be done this year. So I wanna make sure that all the things inside are ready and fully furnished before moving in my new home.

Also, I wanted to invest on the mutual funds again. I stopped it last year due to some financial need. And also I wanted to try investing on the New York Stock Exchange. I still need to ask help from a friend on how to do this. With these investments, I can save up for my future and for any emergencies that may come this year.

Dance Lessons

I admit. I missed dancing.

So this year, I’ll go for dancing lessons. This will also enhance my theatrics skills as well. I’ll have to decide along the way what genre of dancing will I take up so I’m so excited for this year.

So 2017, I’ll be dancing along this year!

Violin Lessons

Hmmm...

I am thinking to take violin lessons this year.

It might be at the 2^nd half of the year or later this year. But the important thing is at least I can start doing lessons for violin. I really wanted to learn how to play the violin and it will take me a lot of time to make up for it.

Love life

Even though I was hurt last year, I’ll be a new leaf this year!

I’m ready whenever God will give me someone to be part of my life. I’ll have to do extra hard this year to get her and to be with her whoever she is.

2017 will be a love filled year for me! #fingerscrossed

That sums it all.

Based from the goals I’ve listed above, they are a lot to do and this year will be busy for sure.

Amidst all those goals, for sure, there’ll be temptations. So when those temptations come, I think of my goals and the things to do so that I can be busy and distract myself from getting tempted.

This is also one thing that I need to refrain from doing – temptations and sin.

I do hope that this year can make be busy in doing all my goals and not be distracted from all those temptations around me.

Have a blessed 2017!