Sick day redux: it's amazing what you can do if you have to

I am still sick. But today I had to do an interview for a 2,000-word company case study. I’d already postponed it once due to being sick and one of the guys I was scheduled to interview is going on vacation for two weeks, so there was no question of postponing it again. And surprise, I did it. A 70-minute interview with three executive on a complicated technology deployment that I have relatively little experience writing about up until now. I probably did about half the prep work I would normally. But at the end of the interview, the guys said if they hadn’t known they would never have realized I was sick. Considering how I feel, that’s the nicest compliment I’ve gotten in a long time.

It all goes to show how much you can do if you have to. It also showed me:

♦ The more preparation you do, the better you can perform in an interview, even when you’re under the weather. I read press releases, white papers and background info from the companies’ Websites. Luckily for me, the publication I’m writing this story for has a standard list of questions, which was a great a starting point.

♦ If you’re working when you’re sick, pick the one or two things that absolutely, positively have to get done that day and let everything else slide (including housework).

♦ If you write for a publication or publications regularly and your editors know you’re good for your word, you’ll have an easier time asking for – and getting – extensions due to illness.

♦ Because of being sick, I’ll miss a deadline on a different story, and will deliver it in July instead of June. That’ll ding my June earnings, although it’ll add to wages in July, and my Q3 earnings will be the same. Normally that would be pretty upsetting, but in this case, I don’t really care.

♦ Stay healthy so you don’t have to learn these lessons the hard way.

Got your own lessons learned from being sick? Please share.

Related posts:

• Even freelancers have to take a sick day sometimes