Freelancefolder

7 Signs That It’s Time to Simplify Your Freelancing Business

Posted October 12, 2011 in Lifestyle, Productivity

We freelancers deal with a lot. Advice, expectations, client demands, family needs, financial pressure–all of these can sometimes combine to make freelancing a very complicated matter.

In fact, sometimes we freelancers make life too busy. If your freelancing life has become too much for you, it may be time to simplify your life and your freelancing business as well.

Do you think this is you? Check the signs below to find out.

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How to Use Templates to Keep Your Email Under Control

Posted October 10, 2011 in How-To, Productivity

My email inbox can get a little hairy. I’ve got messages coming in from clients that I can’t afford to miss. I’ve got emails coming in from other freelancers who I need to coordinate with on projects which, if I don’t get to, I might mess up an entire project. And I’ve got hundreds of other emails that, while they don’t immediately impact my work, do need to be dealt with in some way or another. But if I spent all the time I needed to on responding to the emails I receive, I wouldn’t have any time left for client work in the first place!

I’ve taken some pretty extreme measures to help me manage my email better. I use Gmail, so I have filters set up that organize my emails before I ever see them. I’ve written out my priorities so that I don’t get sucked into handling email for hours on end. And I have templates for my out-going emails.

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7 Ways to Bump Up Your Productivity and Start Earning More as a Freelancer

Posted October 9, 2011 in Productivity

While some people believe you can’t become rich as a freelance writer, I believe the contrary.

I also believe that, as humans, our bodies are capable of doing a lot more than we allow them to. I believe that being able to “hack” your body to make you more productive can mean the difference in you becoming rich as a freelancer, or not. I have been researching ways to become more productive in the past few months. I have also implemented a lot of what I’ve studied. I have been able to increase my income significantly month after month by using some very simple techniques.

The reality is that we freelancers get paid for our time, so it is important to make use of every productivity technique that we can find.

This article lists seven ways you can bump your productivity and start earning more as a writer. But first, I’ll share my story.

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Attitude Counts

Posted September 21, 2011 in Inspiration, Productivity

What is the difference between a successful freelancer and one who fails? Do you know that answer?

Of course, there are many variables behind a successful freelancing career.

Talent and skill definitely do count for something as does providing good customer service. However, I’m convinced that a key characteristic of many successful freelancers is their positive attitude.

A good attitude can help to carry you through a lot of tricky freelancing situations. The right attitude can help you effectively deal with difficult people. Simply put, the right attitude can keep you from giving up when freelancing gets tough.

In this post, I’ll share some examples of situations where attitude makes a difference. I’ll also discuss how you can cultivate a good attitude. Finally, I’ll invite you to share your own thoughts on the difference attitude makes in your own freelancing business.

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15+ Things You Can Do In 5 Minutes to Help Your Freelancing Business

Posted September 13, 2011 in Productivity

If you’re like many freelancers (me included), there’s just not enough time in the day. This is especially true if you’re seeking to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

It’s easy to think that you need a lot of time to make a difference in your freelancing business, but that’s not always the case. A few minutes a day, over time, can really add up and may even make a real long-term difference.

In this post, I’ve listed some tasks that each take approximately five minutes (give or take a little) to complete. While these tasks may seem simple (and of necessity, they are), they can still make a difference in your freelancing business.

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Top 10 Easy Ways to Squeeze Optimum Productivity from Your Day

Posted August 24, 2011 in Productivity

Do you need to squeeze more work out of your day?

Well, there’s some good news. By following just a few simple guidelines you can become more productive.

It may surprise you to learn that the answer to optimum productivity is NOT to work more hours each day. Read on to learn some simple guidelines that anyone can follow and start increasing your productivity today.

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Four Tips to Once & for All Detonate Procrastination

Posted July 15, 2011 in How-To, Productivity

I nearly didn’t write this article because I didn’t know if I would ever get around to it.

That, my friend, was a joke!

I know of so many people who battle with procrastination.

But their main problem is this. They never ever get around to dealing with the problem head on, and that makes the problem bigger than it really is.

So, here are some tips to help you once and for all detonate procrastination. Blow it to smithereens. Poof! It’s gone.

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7 Tips to Help Freelancers Get the Most from Their iPad

Posted July 13, 2011 in Productivity

Believe it or not, some people are still debating whether the iPad (and tablets like it) is merely a gadget for entertainment, or if it will or already has changed the way we work. I don’t want to get into the debate, but I believe the bottom line is you can use a tablet pretty much for whatever you want.

It’s a perfect tool for distracting yourself, if that’s what you want. On the other hand, if you want to get more productive, an iPad can help you achieve that, too. For freelancers, an iPad can help you get more things done more efficiently and have more fun while you’re at it.

In this post, we’ll go over some simple tips so your iPad can be a gadget that helps you become a better, happier freelancer (that way, you can claim it as a business expense ;-) ).

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7 Steps to Instant Motivation

Posted June 26, 2011 in How-To, Productivity

Do you know the story of Pavlov’s dog? If not, very briefly it went like this. Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov would ring a bell and when his dog came bounding up to check it out, Pavlov would give him some meat to eat.

He did this for some time before noticing that weirdly, the pooch started salivating as soon as he heard the bell ring and before he’d even seen the meat.

Pavlov realized he had stumbled on to something we now know as a conditioned response or reflex. Or as it is also known in NLP (neurolinguistic programming) parlance, an anchor.

In this post, I’ll explain why the principle that made Pavlov’s dog salivate works and how you can use the same principle to find your motivation.

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