Freelance-Advice.com » The Freelance Lifestyle

Are You LinkedIn?

Catherine Tully — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:24:01 +0000

LinkedIn is one of several important networking sites for the Freelancer. It is a great place to showcase your resume, get endorsements and update your status to a group of like-minded professionals. If you don’t yet have an account, check out the new user starter guide that they offer to get going and set one up today!

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Take a Break

Yolander Prinzel — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:46:42 +0000

When you are having trouble with an assignment or other business-related thing, go out and get a cup of joe. Yeah, maybe you already have a whole pot of joe sitting on the counter, or, maybe you don’t like joe…whatever. Just get up and outta your house and get some perspective on whatever is giving you trouble. Chances are it’s not as important as you think it is, and getting away from it will help you realize that.

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Working Alone

Yolander Prinzel — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:19:11 +0000

Once a week, I meet a telecommuting friend at Panera or in my home and we work together for about four hours. We’ve been friends for almost 20 years and we’ve shared many jobs during that time, so we know how each other likes to work and we manage to get in a lot of chatting during that four hours. But it makes me feel a little closer to society after we meet and a little more like I’ve got coworkers than I might if I was home alone all the time.

So try to reach out to any telecommuters you know and see if you can set up a weekly or monthly work meeting. If you don’t know any, you could post a notice on the bulletin board of your favorite Wifi spot and see if any locals want to meet up. Just be sure you don’t take the person home or give them too much information if you don’t know them. Duh.

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Remove Distractions

Yolander Prinzel — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:05:29 +0000

I have heard this time and time again, mostly from female freelance writers, “It’s impossible for me to work unless the house is clean.” I understand and agree…sort of. With pets, spouses, children and whatever else going on in your home, it’s almost impossible to guarantee that your home will be spotless every time you tap on a keyboard. Instead, be sure to keep your work area neat. If you have an office, close the door and don’t let the tracked in mud, unfolded laundry and limescale distract you.

You can always clean when you are done writing–but if you let the cleaning distract you while you write, you’ll have a hard time getting anything done.

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Form Healthy Work Habits Early

freelance — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:57:55 +0000

If you are a new writer you have a great opportunity–you can form healthy work habits from the beginning! Many writers get stuck in a rut and don’t take breaks to rest their eyes, or to get a bit of physical activity in during the day. Take advantage of the fact that you don’t have a pattern yet, and build some healthy activities into your routine.

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Free Business Cards

Yolander Prinzel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:30:49 +0000

Need some business cards but all outta cash? Try this offer for 100 free business cards from Ooprint. Now look, no excuses not to network!

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Notate Due Dates and Schedule Work Time

Yolander Prinzel — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:24:25 +0000

When you write down a due date for an article or other work in your calendar, be sure to mark off time when you’ll work on the project too. It can be misleading to look at your calendar and see nothing due on a certain day–because that empty date doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be working.

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Tick Tock

freelance — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:04:48 +0000

How are you doing on time management? One way to tell is to keep a daily log for a week and then look back to see any patterns. How do you do this? Simply jot down what you are doing each hour (in as many words as you need to remember what you are talking about later) on paper or on the computer. At the end of the week you should be able to examine the log to find any time-wasters or to identify your most productive periods.

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What??!!?? No Ice Cream?

Yolander Prinzel — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:24:42 +0000

I don’t know about you, but before I began freelancing full time I used to have to walk from the parking garage to my office, climb and descend stairs, walk through a 4 building office compound for meetings and look presentable. Now, I can roll out of bed, take 10 sleepy steps and be in my new office. My hair can be…um…just woke up hot mess? My make up can be…wait, what’s make up? My body can be more Body by Ben and Jerry’s than Body by Jake.

So take some time each week to take care of your hot mess of a self. Leave the house, go get a facial, put on clothes that don’t have pit stains–you have spouses and friends who don’t want you to look like a homeless person.

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Take a Nap

Yolander Prinzel — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:59:20 +0000

One of the best parts of working for yourself is that you can bring back that wonderful kindergarten tradition of nap time. Let me tell you, since I have adopted an afternoon nap time, my productivity is easily doubled from when I worked for a large company and had to do 9 hours straight.

So go ahead, let yourself take a nap and work in two shifts. It really is a powerful way to break up your work day and become more productive.

In order to make your rest easy, be sure to take care of any time-sensitive issues first thing in the morning when you wake (this would include blog posts). That way, they don’t weigh on your mind as you nap.

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