Professional Translation:
Dealing with a bad day

Whether you work for a professional translation agency, or do most of your work as a freelancer, it's bound to happen sooner or later. Yep, the infamous "bad day."

As many of you know, I've worked both as an in-house translator and as a freelancer and I've had off days on both sides of the industry. It can be tough to deal with these types of days but there are some things than can help you overcome the bad feelings and make changes so that it doesn't last for too long.

Getting over the hump
So what can you do to get that bad day behind you? Well, here are some things to remember, no matter what the circumstances.

Focus on what you CAN do - A lot of times, stuff that is out of our control is what makes us feel less than stellar. We should remember that while we might not have control over those things, there are things that we can do and focusing on those will help us feel more productive.

Take a break - Whether you work as an in-house translator or a freelancer, make sure you take breaks. Oftentimes I get to working and forget to get up and stretch or walk around. I might not feel it right at the beginning, but I can tell at the end of the day that I haven't taken a break and it when my body feels bad, my mood turns bad.

Remember you're doing what you love - A lot of people are forced into having a career or doing a job that they don't want to do. Most translators love languages and love to translate. If you work in the translation industry, remember that you've got something not many others have, a love for what you do.

Look at the lighter side - Check out some translation humor. This always seems to help me.

Eat some ice cream - ...or something that makes you smile. Sometimes I just need to take my mind off what's putting me in a bad mood and taking a walk just doesn't cut it. That's when I go and make myself a glass of chocolate milk. Nothing puts a smile on my face like chocolate milk does.

There are a ton of different things that can put us, as translators, in a bad mood. We've got clients that are late on payments, translations that are giving us problems, lack of work, distractions at home or in the office, etc. No matter what the reason, being in a bad mood is not very conducive to providing professional translation services. The faster we can get out of the funk, the faster we can get back to doing what we love...translating!