The Proverbial Ball-Buster: Time Management

Well, it’s that time again: time for classes to start, writing to commence, and the hours and minutes to startlingly run out. As a student/writer/soldier/musician/girlfriend/yoga-practitioner and now cat owner, I understand the true value of time. I also understand that there is absolutely not enough of it to go around as well. This is why it is so very important to practice time management. We hear this a lot (particularly in academia), but it seems a very difficult task to overcome for many—myself included, occasionally. Well, probably a lot depending on who you talk to…

So how is it done? Carefully, my friends, very carefully. I’ve found that even in cases when I feel I’ve properly managed my time, others seem to feel ousted from my schedule. Likely this is because they are—because I am a shameless workaholic. Therefore, along with time management I will emphasize the importance of priorities, and not entirely blowing off everyone around you for the sake of productivity.

Know what you gotta get done!

Many things fall by the way-side when you have a hectic schedule. So write it down. You will forget. You will definitely forget if you are scatterbrained and otherwise disorganized. Don’t underestimate the importance of all this. It will help you prioritize and it will allow you to maintain some sanity. If at all possible. Write it all down. Not just your homework assignments, but errands. Put down shopping for your grandma’s birthday present. Also don’t forget spending time with the people in your life. If you have to call your mother once a week to schedule something, do it. But don’t let a busy schedule push out your friends and family.

Now prioritize.

This will be done according to a few factors—importance, deadlines, etc. Look at your schedule and find the gaps where you’re not on the clock at work, when you’re not in class, or not at a dentist appointment. Understand that even 10 minutes in the grand scheme of things can be spent on these tasks. Perhaps those 10 minutes can be spent on something you forgot to write down, such as doing the dishes. Valuing your time for what it is will help you. Don’t lollygag (love that word), use that time. Use it in order of your priorities. If reading a chapter of a book is your first priority, carry that book with you everywhere you go! If it’s writing an article, try to bust it out in that 20 minutes before your pilates class.

Get off the freaking internet!

For those of us who work in the world wide web, it’s pretty difficult to actually get off of the internet. But there are some of us (and I am most certainly guilty) that need a support group for the amount of time we spend on sites like Facebook, Twitter, or that site you like to hop on just to pass time and procrastinate everything that is on that laundry list of things you need to get done. This is the biggest culprit in the grand scheme of my time management, and it really is a time killer. I should ban myself from Facebook during times that I’m supposed to be working. I really should… But they say our own advice is the hardest to follow…

So after that long ramble of crap, I hope you have a few ideas of how to properly manage your time. Just remember that if your time really is that valuable that you need to treat it as such. Then you’ll be more productive in no time!

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Tara, September 1st 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Freelance Writing

Personality vs. Professionalism: A Fine Line

I wanted to write a post about the fine line drawn between personality and professionalism for a couple of different reasons:

1. To explain to those casting a critical eye why “Internet Ninja” is listed as one of my potential job titles, and

2. To express the importance of humanity in business practice.

I have, as many, engaged in the business world for the majority of my working years. It may not have been in a corporate setting, but every establishment, every restaurant, every job comes down to selling something—be it vacuum cleaners or a marketing campaign. That being said, face to face transaction is becoming more and more scarce within the global internet community, and technology has allowed us the convenience of ignoring and overlooking personality. Many of us just strive to look good on paper—with a list of qualifications, certificates, degrees, and numbers of years spent at such-and-such a company.

Whereas I am no different in this—I too hope to have a resume that looks good and drives my professional movement toward where I want to be in life—I feel it is important, if not wholly necessary to retain some amount of my humanity in all of this. I have a certain style about me, that can be entirely academic and professional in nature, but it will always be me, and that is something I refuse to give up. The fact of the matter is that work takes up the majority of our time.

Think about it. Of the assumed 24 hours in a given day, approximately eight of them will be spent at work. Three of those hours will likely be spent worrying about what will happen or what did happen at some point in your work day, or how much better you wish that time spent was. I have worked many different kinds of jobs, some in which allowed me to sit back in my pajamas, behind the scenes from home, others that required me to put on a certain façade, assume the appearance of always being chipper, cheery, and quite frankly, I was miserable.

Not to say I’m not cheery or chipper. I like to think I’m an incredibly upbeat individual. But I’m also sarcastic, goofy, and sometimes downright strange. I’m certainly not your average bear. I can’t stand the thought of losing my personality in my work, therefore I don’t. The great thing about freelance writing is that although your work must reflect a variety of topics, industries, and tones of voice, you get to pick what work you take on. I have certainly written with great variety, and still manage to maintain my personality—and within it, my humanity.

Our personalities and differences are what make us human; distinguish us from the robots that will soon take over (if any of these crazy movies are ever to come true). Technology becomes increasingly more unbelievable each and ever day, but it will never measure up to the innovative and powerful nature of human creativity. There are certainly those out there that are looking for writers that can just pump out content like a machine (they’re usually the ones hiring from third-world countries, offering $0.05 per 300 words or something obscene like that). But I personally don’t want to work with clients like that.

I believe it is important to work with those that will suit your personality type—your working relationship will be stronger for it, and you will have the confidence to write on just about anything within reason, and still not get burnt out. You have to be yourself in this business, or you just won’t cut it. Selling yourself as a machine will only make you feel like one, and none of us are cut out for that.

Understand that you have a choice in this. Sure, you should always strive to improve your writing, marketing, or whatever other skills you have. But be sure to make sure that you are always a part of it. I may be an Internet Ninja. I personally love it. It means I have the freedom of approaching the social and professional world as Tara, the crazy college girl that loves to play with words. As a result, I attract open-minded and creative people.

As I always preach, words do matter, and every one you type says something about you. Do you want your resume to say, “I sucked in a bunch of catchy sounding words and spit them up so I look impressive?” or do you want to be reflective of who you really are? Be proud of who you are, and don’t let it get lost in professionalism. It’s a thin line, sure, but your humanity is a huge sacrifice to make.

Keep up the good work, kids. Til next time,

Your friendly neighborhood Internet Ninja

(P.S. Yes, that is me in the photo, and you can check out other wonderful photography from this artist at NoelSmart.com)

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Tara, May 12th 2010 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Freelance Writing

Meaningful Words: Incorporating Consciousness into Your Writing

When we make the decision to be freelance writers, we often dream of being able to write about bigger and greater things—the things we truly love and care about. It sounds all too glamorous: press passes, interviews with experts who can give us insight into the world of our passion, and the glory of seeing our names on a byline wrought with fame and fortune. The reality of the situation, however, is that as freelance writers we don’t always have the freedom to write about our passions.

I have written about everything from concrete polishing to designer handbags to motorcycle parts auctions. When it comes to SEO, we can get incredibly limited by the assignments we take on to pay the bills. Even if you’re writing for a site such as Associated Content ,where your options are opened a bit, to make any money you need to follow the assignments they offer or rely on SEO practices to get page views. I want to say, however, that you are not entirely limited, and the writing you do can make a difference.

As previously stated, not everything I write about is particularly riveting, or even interesting to me. I have, however, sought out assignments and projects that do make a difference. They didn’t just fall into my lap, however. In some cases I had to look for a while. Still in others I had to be creative. Regardless of the means, I still made it a point to do some writing that was beneficial on a community level—even if it means not making quite as much money for that time I used to write it.

Here are some tips for incorporating more meaningful writing into your career, based on my personal experiences:

Put in the time. We all want work that comes to us easily, sure. But to find that gold nugget, we have to keep looking. I managed to find an incredibly rewarding job through oDesk.com, ultimately working for a wonderful organization by the name of Sustainability Guild International. Whereas some of the writing I’m currently doing for them is more marketing-related than research related, supporting the organization is still a great way to give back and get the message out. If you’re looking to seek more meaningful work, one way to do this is by offering your services to nonprofits or similar advocacy groups. Every cause needs exposure, and even if you’re not interviewing starving children in the midst of civil war in Africa, you can be doing your community a great service by helping these organizations get out necessary information.

Be creative. Even when the jobs for social activists groups do not walk through your door, there are ways you can practice writing and online marketing in ways that are meaningful if you approach them the right way. In my freelance writing career, I’ve decided to make my work meaningful by promoting the support of local business. So even if I’m just writing about certain products or services for a particular company, or if I’m just doing restaurant reviews for local blogs and marketing companies, the push to stimulate local economy and support the little guy gives me drive and a purpose in my writing. Understanding business in a creative way is an excellent way to practice community conscious writing without having to sell all your belongings to keep up with the cause.

Be conscious. If you do happen to earn your keep through SEO article writing or something similar, sometimes it’s just important to understand the implications of your writing. Writing such as this is used to sell a product or service. It is obviously to some extent manipulative in nature, as it is intended to be persuasive. I’m not going to turn my nose up and tell you that this is wrong (aside from it being hypocritical, it’s the way business works, and business is what drives the world forward). However, think about what you’re trying to sell. I can’t say I felt I was doing the world a disservice when writing about designer handbags—to be honest, I felt many of them were ugly, and entirely overpriced. So rather than writing about how wonderful these handbags were, I decided to write about how to find the right handbag that would get the most use in a person’s wardrobe. Though perhaps this is still a bit superficial in nature, those people who are interested in articles about handbags obviously already purchase them. Helping them to make an informed purchase that will hopefully save them money in the future certainly helps me sleep at night—and still allows me to make money using effective (and creative) SEO practices.

So don’t beat yourself up if your writing is all business. We’ve all got to make a living. But remember that words are not just words, and there are ways to make a meaningful career for yourself even in the face of a competitive market riddled with demand for high-impact marketing. It can be done! You just have to set your mind to it.

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Tara, May 6th 2010 | Tags: , , ,
Posted in Freelance Writing

Do you have what it takes to be a freelancer?

You may have the tools...So it occurred to me after I decided to tell the world about my new site yesterday that I would have to populate it with some blog posts. Here’s the first one.

I ask the question “do you have what it takes to be a freelancer?” not necessarily as a writer pulling in thousands a month. I have been writing for years, yes, but I’m still in the beginning stages of my career and still constantly building. I also have not done it all on my own. If it weren’t for a few key people to lead me in the right direction, I’d likely still be posting one article every few months, content with the few bucks and two page views a day.

That being said, however, there are definitely a few factors that need to be taken into consideration if you’re planning on making freelancing into a part-time gig for supplemental income. If you want to earn more than a few bucks a month, and develop a repertoire, you have to know what it takes:

Time, and lots of it.

If you think you’re going to get somewhere just putting in an hour a day, you’re crazy. You may be able to submit an article a day, and perhaps bring in about $5, but that includes naught for marketing, networking. You’re selling yourself short. It’s a process, and it takes time to build up a foundation. This brings us up to the second point…

Got patience?

You’re going to need it. There is no get-rich-quick scheme for freelance writing. I’m still building my own foundation, and I’m doing relatively well from what I’ve gathered. You have to have the patience to do the research—on whatever style of writing you want to do, how to effectively use SEO or internet marketing tactics.

You need to network like a crazy person, because that’s the only way anyone will ever know your name. It’ll take a couple months to see a return on your investment, and it is an investment. You’ll spend hours on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, you’ll post in forums and get involved with different communities.

I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon Associated Content a few years ago—once I actually started writing aggressively, I had a whole support system there at my disposal. Once I started getting involved, I found a host of resources I could use to improve my writing and practice more effective marketing for my articles.

You need drive, kid.

Unless you have a passion or debt that’s so up to your eyeballs you just don’t have a choice in the matter, you’re not going to have the discipline to continually write and market yourself. You need to push out content. I went from approximately 6 articles to almost 50 in a month, and that’s peanuts compared to many freelancers. But I also took the time to get links to my articles out to the internet community via Twitter. I built up my network. Then I kept writing.

When I felt bogged down by a lot of projects, I kept working. It absolutely helped that I had a drive to make a difference. I not only wrote about the generic topics that came my way (grout cleaning anyone?) but I made sure to write about things that also mattered to me, and strove to get my voice out about important issues—such as gender or racism.

The bottom line.

There is no litmus test that says whether or not you’ll make it as a freelancer. I’ve been fortunate enough to find helpful individuals that have given me direction here and there. But you have to put in the work first to connect with those people, and keep writing! If you continually work to improve your writing and research, the rest should come naturally. Just don’t give up ;)

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Tara, April 29th 2010 | Tags: , ,
Posted in Freelance Writing
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