10 Easy Ways to Instantly Energize Your Natural Creative Powers
Being a successful freelancer has a lot to do with your creativity. Creative thinking helps you solve problems, overcome obstacles, and find new and better ways to use your skills in a productive and financially rewarding manner.
You don’t think you have creative abilities? Nonsense. Everyone is creative to some degree. The only difference between those we call “creative” and everyone else is that creative people use and develop their creative skills. Often this is not a conscious effort, but a natural result of their personality and upbringing.
So it’s not a matter of “becoming” creative. It’s simply a matter of “energizing” the creative powers you already have. To a great extent, it’s a matter of replacing the bad habits that are holding you back with good habits that make you a more creative and productive thinker. Here are some suggestions: Read more
8 Time-Eating Client Species to Avoid
After a few years of freelancing experience, you will develop a sixth sense about the people who approach you with freelance work. Within about five minutes of meeting someone or picking up the phone, you’ll be able to tell if they’re worth your time or wasting your time.
However, this skill is hard-won. While I’ve tried from the beginning to be careful, I’ve been tricked, schemed, bamboozled, and taken advantage of a number of ways. Nothing serious in the way of money, but time lost cannot be regained.
To help save you time and aggravation, I’d like to introduce you to the eight dominant species of Time Eaters. These are some of the ne’er-do-wells who lie in wait in the dark and menacing freelance jungle to feed on your valuable time. Read more
Quick Tips for Getting Things Done
Sure, freelancing gives you more flexibility in your schedule. But that doesn’t mean you can waste time. Learning to manage your time wisely is a must if you are to stay in business for the long haul.
Here is a collection of time management tips from around the web. And I’ll give you a tip before you even get started on reading these: choose your tips wisely. You don’t have follow every bit of advice about productivity. Pick two or three that work for you and go for it. If you spend too much time worrying about time, you end up wasting time!
- Productivity Tips for Writers
- Time management for graphic designers
- Productivity Tips for Bloggers
- Getting to Deadline - Programmer Productivity Tips
- 30 Productivity Tips for Designers
- Five fast email productivity tips
- Separate your email from your to-do’s
- Twenty Unique Ways to Use the 80/20 Rule Today
- The Productivity Trifecta, Part 1: The Word ‘No’
- The Power of Yes: A Simple Way to Get More Out of Life
- Inbox Zero: Processing to zero
- 10 Productivity Tips for Web Designers
- 10 Productivity Tips for Home-Based Businesses
Simple Ways to Be Happier and More Productive
Whether you’ve just started freelancing or you’ve been at it a while, you’ve probably noticed that the stress-free existence you dreamed about hasn’t materialized. Yes, freelancing doesn’t have the same pressures as a job, but it does have pressures. Just different ones.
Here’s an article I just read on this topic: 25 Tips to Become More Productive and Happy at Work. It’s written for people with 9-to-5 jobs, but most of the tips can be easily applied to freelancing, especially if you’re a full-time freelancer. And if you have a regular job, you can use these tips to relax a little and put yourself in the right frame of mind to consider your big freelance move.
