Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

Have you been thinking about a different career path? I have had several conversations with people over the past few weeks about starting down the path of full-time freelance writing. Both wanted to hear about my experience (now 3+ years into this thing!)

If it's been on your mind also, I wrote my advice here. You can also read practical tips about career pivots and solopreneurship here.

1) Reflection:

A few months ago, I wrote about how I've cut back on screen time (you can check out that issue here). I'm still using a Brick device every day and, can confirm, it continues to be very effective. Every night, the Brick "locks" my phone, and I can't access most apps before I go to bed.

As a parent, I also have to teach my kids good screen time habits. Which is hard, because they are so enticing and accessible. When I was a kid, accessing the internet or games meant getting on a PC. For my kids, it means using a phone or a handheld gaming device.

While I know not everyone on this newsletter has kids, I wanted to share two things I've done to help curb my kids' screen time.

2) Product

When my kids turned 13 years old, I got them Pinwheel phones. I recognized that they needed a way to communicate with their friends, but not have unfettered access to the internet.

Pinwheel phones have really good parental controls. The phones cannot install social media apps. Apps in general can't be installed without parent approval. You can set different modes that lock the device or apps at different times of day (similar to my Brick). At 8:00 pm, the kids' phones lock, except for the ability to make emergency calls.

3) Tip

Starting when my kids were really little, we had designated screen time in the house. They can watch tv after school. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, they can play video games.

Screen time has a specific start and end time. The kids know if they ask to watch tv or use the devices outside of that time, the answer is "no." Because we've always followed this, it's eliminated all battles over using devices.

If you have young kids, I highly recommend implementing this as early as possible so you can save yourself a lot of arguments later.

Want more ideas?

→ My friend Brionna Ned is hosting a workshop, Pay Me What You Owe Me, on February 18th. This is for freelancers and consultants who struggle to get paid on time and manage scope creep with clients. You can register here.

→ Check out this article from Revenue Rulebreaker: Why entrepreneurial journalism is the next era of content creation​

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That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

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