Freelancefolder

5 Easy Ways to Start a Productive Day

Posted August 19, 2008 in How-To, Lifestyle, Productivity 31 Rockin' Comments »

In the quest for ultimate productivity it’s important to think about how you get started in the morning.

As easy as it is to skimp on your routine, rush breakfast, and then try to dive right into work — that’s not usually the best way to go.

Without starting your morning properly you may never hit your full efficiency, or worse, you could doom the rest of your day to failure.

On the positive side, a good morning routine can make it a whole lot easier to be productive for the rest of the day.

With that in mind, here are 5 ways to start a very productive day:
[Click here to read more →]

Freelancing Lessons from Tech Support

Posted August 18, 2008 in Business, Productivity 3 Rockin' Comments »

When I left my full-time job to strike out alone, I wondered whether the past couple of years had been a waste of time. Two years working in technical support didn’t seem like good preparation for a freelancing career involving writing and website creation.

But then I realized that a number of the “lessons learnt” during my time in tech support could help me in my freelance career as well. Dealing with clients is a priority in any business, and a lot of the tricks I learned from tech support apply to freelancing as well.

Here are a few client relationship lessons I learned from working in tech support:
[Click here to read more →]

9 Ideas For A More Creative And Effective Brainstorming Process

Posted July 18, 2008 in How-To, Inspiration, Productivity 20 Rockin' Comments »

Do you doodle? Do you have to draw abstracts when you are talking on the phone on anything that’s handy? Does your mind work better when the idea takes form on that discarded napkin? Then take a moment with me to see how you can’t possibly live without thumb nailing.

Thumb nailing goes by many different names too. I prefer doodling, but scribbles, chicken scratches, roughs, epiphanies, or just plain thoughts come to mind. For better or worse, these instantaneous thoughts that fall onto the nearest scrap of paper can be the start of something great.

Thumb nailing is simply rough hand drawn sketches we draw out for our own amusement or the very first glimmer of a project idea. Most of us are truly embarrassed to show these to our friends much less a client, but they are the foundation to all well thought out projects. As some of you know, I wake up at all hours or just don’t go to bed when I am in the groove of a project, as I am sure a lot of you do too.

By writing these ideas down, I capture the essence of the thought I want to hone later. [Click here to read more →]

5 Essential Ways To Turbo-Charge Your Productivity

Posted June 26, 2008 in How-To, Productivity 13 Rockin' Comments »

“I could earn so much more [insert high dollar amount here], if only I could manage to get more work done in a day.”

If you’re a freelancer, you’ve probably had exactly the same thought.

Often, the amount of work that I theoretically could produce is not the same as the amount of work that I actually produce. The gap between ideal productivity and actual productivity hurts – right in my pocketbook, because less completed work translates to lower pay.

Here are five ways that you can turbo-charge your productivity: [Click here to read more →]

4 Ways Web-Workers Can Use Time-Wasters Effectively And Productively

Posted June 5, 2008 in Productivity 14 Rockin' Comments »

If you are a freelancer and work from home, then chances are the internet is your bread and butter. You get new clients, market yourself, network, work on and deliver projects via the internet. If you ask me, I cannot imagine life without it. I just go crazy when I find that the net is not working.

So the web is undoubtedly a boon for us but it also offers a lot of things which can easily distract us from our main tasks, making us less productive. Today I decided to discuss some of these time-wasters and talk about how you can use them in a productive and effective way. [Click here to read more →]

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Meet Deadlines For Freelancers & Web Workers

Posted May 8, 2008 in Productivity 15 Rockin' Comments »

Meeting deadlines and targets is a major area of concern for many freelancers and web workers, especially if you get loads of work and find it difficult to do justice to all of them.

The topic of this post is not new and you are sure to find a lot of suggestions on the web on meeting deadlines and managing expectations and goals. However I decided to pick this topic and approach it in a slightly different manner.

If you keep the following 5 points in mind I am sure it will help a great deal in meeting your deadlines. And don’t forget to share your own tips and tricks in the comment section! :) [Click here to read more →]