It’s July. I mean, JULY. If I’m honest, I’m not sure how we’re more than halfway through 2024.
So, this year has been an absolute whirlwind of events for me, professionally and personally…
From realising that yes, I will actually be presenting at the #ITIConf24 and that I needed to get organised and focused, was a massive undertaking for me.
Then if I think back to three months ago when I started to receive more and more invitations to work on amazing audiovisual translation sports projects…
Added to that, the absolute juggle of organising professional life and being a mum of two – one that finishes primary school in a couple of weeks and the other who starts Year 10 in September – I think I felt like every step forwards I, and we as a family made, was a huge achievement.
After the amazing Institute of Translation and Interpreting Conference in Edinburgh, I continued working on more sports-related projects, which I thoroughly enjoyed… And now I finally have time for reflection. And this reflection, I realised, was so very important.
During the ITI Conference, I attended talks by Mariana Teixeira, The invisible burden: managing cognitive load in translation and Natasha Lutes, Time management: when it’s a struggle. These two fantastic talks have allowed me to review my own approach to work and life in general.
These two talks complemented each other so well, and reviewing them again since the conference, I feel like they are so relevant to these last two years of working as a full-time freelance translator and subtitler.
Considering Mariana’s talk and the mental, physical and professional aspects of the impact of cognitive overload has allowed me to pinpoint key challenges and the strategies I could employ to get to the other side.
Then Natasha’s talk was so very honest and refreshing, and I could really relate to the questions and fill in my own issues to find solutions when time management is a struggle, to again, get to the other side.
…And by getting to the other side, I don’t just mean completing a project and moving on to the next one… I mean enjoying a project, building on knowledge, understanding boundaries, how life can sometimes throw a curveball, how to learn from these experiences, and in a sense being comfortable about feeling uncomfortable and embracing the unknown.
As I begin to navigate the rest of the year, I’ve gone full circle and made time for time with this short yet meaningful video of the solutions I have found to some of the challenges I have faced as a freelance translator and subtitler.
Thank you Mariana and Natasha for helping me to be confident in the decisions I make as a freelance professional… I have a clearer picture of who I am, where I’m going and what I aspire to be.
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