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Don’t Buy Into the Dual-Monitor Productivity Myth

Dual-monitor envy is common and understandable.

You’ve seen your buddy sitting there looking like an air-traffic controller — vast fields of spreadsheets that look to contain all the world’s information.

Plus: two monitors. Two is better than one, right?

But it may not be the case that you’ll get better work results with dual monitors, either in terms of quality or quantity.

Here are some issues with dual monitors, as well as a discussion of the differences between dual and single monitors.

The Too Much Factor

The way most people use dual monitors for work is to have one big desktop. When you drag, say, a Word document to the far edge of the right-hand monitor, it just stays there, rather than appearing on both monitors at the same time.

This allows for many different applications to be open at once, none of them partially covering the other. The intrepid bookkeeper, writer, graphic designer or entrepreneur then plucks information from each window, synthesizing it as needed.

The only problem with this approach is that having too much information to sift through doesn’t necessarily increase speed. Is it necessarily better to swivel your head back and forth to locate the right spreadsheet? Or would it be more effective to have it sitting down in your tray? You know where it is and can open it when you need it.

The Multi-Task Morass

If you’re using two monitors, say, to create a report, having research over here and your Word document over there, that’s one thing.

But if you’re using it to chat with a client while doing some invoices on the side when your chat partner takes too long to respond, with some job searching thrown in (insert endless combos here) your results may suffer.

With your attention thus divided, are you giving thoughtful replies to your client? Are you invoicing correctly? The evidence that incriminates multi-tasking is substantial.

Size Matters

Without a doubt, dual monitors give you what looks like a monstrous field for monster work. But a lot of the hype about dual monitors came out several years ago when monitors were quite a bit smaller. The way to get working space was the magic of addition.

Now, though, monitors are pretty wide, particularly with laptops. And if you want to go out and buy a wide monitor, they’re in the store waiting, and they’re not terribly expensive these days.

Having your info on one big ole monitor means not having to ask yourself which monitor which document is on, not breaking your neck with swiveling, etc. And IT writer Wallace Chu makes the shrewd observation that “a 1440p monitor offers more real estate than two 720p monitors.”

So, yes, it can be good to have multiple windows open at once if that suits your working style. But that doesn’t mean that two monitors is the way to get there.

Also, if people find out you have dual monitors, they’ll expect you to do twice the work. Ask around some, and if you decide dual monitors are the way to go for you, then go for it. But don’t allow yourself to get sucked into the hype that says they increase productivity.

(Photo by Tim Samoff / CC BY)

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7 Tips for Aspiring Startups

When you finally get the nerve to start your business, you want to be sure everything will work out in the best way.

Only five percent of those who want to start a business are able to make their dream come true.

Do you give up right after launching if your product isn’t a complete success?

Do you bail out if you lose money from month to month or stick with it, hoping that your idea will bring you millions one day?

If you’re asking yourself these questions, it means that you’re at the beginning of the long road to success, right where I was a year ago.

If you’re aware of these seven things I learned after the beginning of my business launch, you can turn your startup dream into a reality and resist the urge to give up in few months in.

1. Realize Even a Great Idea Isn’t Enough

The crucial problem with the vast majority of young entrepreneurs is that they start to think about their business in a wrong way. When I was starting a business, I was sure my idea would bring me a billion …

“Well yeah. The idea is half of success, isn’t it?”

I thought wrong.

An idea is not a business or even a startup. It has to be raised and nurtured to stand the test of time to become the business of your dreams.

2. Start Your Selling Small

Will your product be popular? The best way to figure that out is to try to sell your idea first. You don’t have to have a prototype to rouse prospects’ interest in your product.

Pitching and selling ideas helps to develop strong selling skills that will boost your sales in each step of the product launch: from idea to beta to final product. In addition, while selling an idea and prototype, you may gather important feedback and improvement suggestions that can help your project avoid disaster.

3. Become a Project Management Guru

When you are starting a business, one of the main goals is to plan your activities and accelerate decision-making processes. Use all the available project management tools, from Gantt charts to time trackers. Fortunately, there’s a wide range of project management apps on the web.

Here are some tools I found easy to use and really helpful for those who are going to run their first business:

• ThoughtPlan — This app helps you summarize your thoughts and make a list of activities and ideas.

• Ganttpro.com — A fairly new free web-based application that’s intuitive, simple and incredibly helpful for scheduling your projects and activities and tracking your progress.

• Kindlingapp.com — When starting a project, it’s better to avoid any oral discussions; ideas can get lost for good. Communication with team members with this app helped me recall all the ideas and improvement suggestions each time I need it.

• Startup Growth Calculator — How your business performs depends on loads of factors, and you have to be ready that your ideas of how it will perform are often far away from reality. That being said, it’s pretty advantageous to keep an idea on your project’s key financials, and this app does just that.

4. Invest All Profit Back in the Business

Understand that in most businesses you probably won’t reach a break-even point in a month or two or even a year. Arm yourself with patience here!

Short story:

Once I worked with an iron lady who ran a small pastry shop. I left her after six months of work — young and brash, I thought she would never succeed. But step by step, she invested every earned dollar back into her business and turned her small pastry shop into the most famous patisserie in the city.

5.  Trust Your Team Like Yourself

I know what you’re thinking:

• The only person who knows how to run a business is you.
• The only person who is responsible for your profit and expenses is you.
• It is difficult to trust anyone.

But despite those thoughts, you have to build a strong team of dedicated people who will be as interested in the project’s success as you are. Once you start your business, you have to be in 20 places at one time.

The best decision isn’t to try to manage everything by yourself, decreasing your motivation and productivity, but to delegate some tasks to your team members and focus on the business itself. Remember that your team is the greatest force you have!

6. You Will Not Have Down Time

Just accept it and start planning your every step (hello, project management tools!) to improve your situation. As soon as you become a guru of planning you will be able to buy yourself a little time to relax at the bar with your friends in the evening, sharing your achievements and progress.

7.  Don’t be Afraid to Dream

Keep your dreams alive! They are the greatest motivation to moving forward. Although you may seem idealistic at times, that is one of the greatest qualities an entrepreneur can have. So keep a dream journal, think big and hire pragmatists.

—

Starting a new business can be daunting and distressing at times. Knowing these seven things can encourage you to keep moving forward with a well-structured plan.

What tools do you think help new entrepreneurs?

(Photo by StartupStockPhotos / CCO Public Domain )

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Freelancers: Here’s How to Get Motivated

One of the greatest things about being a freelancer is you make your own hours.

One of the worst things about being a freelancer is you make your own hours.

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the many years I’ve been working for myself, it’s that you need to find different ways to motivate yourself.

This actually applies to working in an office as well, but I find having meetings and coworkers who count on you tend to act as motivation most days.

It’s built in. It’s unsaid.

As a freelancer, you’re often on your own — in a coffee house or home office — and the people counting on you are far away. Maybe you’ve never even met them in person.

So how do you get motivated day after day? How do you get any work done when binging on Netflix is a viable alternative?

Rewards. The carrot has always worked much better than the stick, at least for me. So here are a few tips on using rewards I use to keep me going when I’ve got boring work, I’m tired or I just don’t feel like staring at a computer screen any more.

It’s the Little Things

Since I often find myself using the Pomodoro Technique, I’ll have windows of five or 10 minutes I need to fill with something other than work. This is the perfect time to reward myself and get away from the computer screen.

Of course, there’s not a lot you can do in five to 10 minutes, but that’s the beauty of it. Don’t try to get anything done in this time. In fact, do your best to ignore the time. Set a timer and don’t think about it again until you hear the ding.

Here are a few things I like to do during this time:

• Sit outside in the sun
• Brew a cup of coffee
• Read a magazine article (paper version preferred)
• Play with my dog
• Lay on the couch and do a short guided meditation

You will be amazed how long these breaks last if you stop trying to be productive. That’s what a break is. It’s not time to plan the rest of your day. It’s not time to get chores done around the house. It’s time to mentally check out.

Bring in the Big Guns

There are definitely times where I’m not feeling the Pomodoro Technique. Generally these are the days when I need more motivation.

I’m feeling like maybe I should just take a day off, and putting the nose to the grindstone is not the answer. Breaking up my day into 25-minute windows of work sounds exhausting.

When this happens, I generally choose to work in bigger chunks and allow myself bigger rewards when I finish. I also set up my day based on tasks rather than time.

I will write first draft of an article. I will find four references for a new project. Then when I finish those tasks, the payoff will be longer stretches of time where I can rest, either mentally or physically.

Some of the bigger rewards I use:

• Hike the 3-mile loop behind my house
• Watch an episode of Misfits on Netflix
• Read a few chapters of a book
• Take a 45-minute nap

Now this is important: You’ve got to know what task you plan to do after your reward is finished, because it’s easy to get caught up in these longer moments. But if you have a set plan for after your episode of Lost finishes, then even if you’re tempted to watch another, you can simply say, “After I finish editing that chapter.”

Rewards on a Deadline

Of course, there are plenty of days where you can reward yourself, get some work done and feel good about it, but what about those days where you simply must push something through? What if you’ve got a client counting on you and you’re staring down a 12-hour work day?

It might be hard to believe, but rewards on days like that are the most important. They keep you fresh; they keep you going. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you do this. Here’s how to prepare to keep motivated on days like this:

• Create a list of 5-minute rewards.
• Save it on the cloud so you can access it on your devices to add something new whenever inspiration strikes.
• Don’t plan to do other chores around the house. Your breaks are for reward time only!
• Enlist the help of a friend — offer to buy them lunch if they’ll bring it by. Then you’re forced to take a small break and have something look forward to.
• Use the Pomodoro Technique to keep moving forward and increase productivity. Use your 5-minute rewards in between.
• If you find yourself losing steam, get outside for a 15-minute walk. Exercise can increase your mental alertness.

Rewards can be one of the best ways freelancers can stay motivated. You catch more bees with honey than vinegar, the old adage goes, and it’s true. Too often we’re tempted to push ourselves without taking a minute to breathe. It’s unsustainable, unhealthy and often times, unproductive.

What about you? How do you motivate yourself?

(Photo by jill111 / CCO Public Domain )

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3 Tips for Writing Great Intros

This is the best introduction I’ve ever written.

It’s surprising and unique.

It’s concise.

It doesn’t re-invent the wheel.

And because I’m telling you that these are the traits of a great intro paragraphs, it sets up the discussion.

I’m now ready to flesh out ways to write a great intro for a blog post or other web article.

Set Up the Discussion

This is pretty easy, so I won’t spend too much time on it. Just remember that the idea isn’t just to establish what the general subject of the article, but to let the reader know what you’ll say about it.

Here’s an intro to an article I wrote on Enzo Ferrari for a blog about entrepreneurs:

Enzo Ferrari’s career tells a simple and classic self-made man’s story. He had a product—more of an art, really — about which he was passionate, and he crafted it his whole life. He made a world-famous icon.

The article then explores the idea of chasing one passion throughout a lifetime and treating a product as a work of art.

In the intro to this article, I actually outlined the specific points that would make up the headings of each section. That can be good, but impractical if you have ten headings. Perhaps you can group some of them into larger categories, or, in that case, forget about the outline route.

Be Surprising & Unique

You may not have expected this article to begin with a cocky proclamation from its author. Maybe you expected, “An introduction is very important …” or, “Have you ever read an article with a really great introduction?” Those are wastes of space.

A cliché in writing is that you should draw the reader in. The problem with that is the reader is going to be drawn in more by the headline and subheading of the article and perhaps with the main picture that went with it.

But being surprising can be a way to at least make the reader a little curious. If you can do that and simultaneously let the reader know that the article is, in fact, discussing what the title promised in a way that is useful, you’re well on your way.

Be Concise & Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Asking the reader if she has ever read an article with a good intro doesn’t really get anywhere. It’s kind of like approaching someone to ask him or her on a date, being nervous, and talking about the weather or some other obvious item just to say something.

We don’t need four sentences merely telling us this:

There are a lot of cars in the world and that they are all made by someone. Enzo Ferrari was one of the people who did this. Making cars is an example of entrepreneurship, the goal of which is to make money. Ferrari sure made a lot of it.

All too many introductions are made up almost entirely of things everyone already knows. If that’s what a reader sees, what will the rest of the article be made up of?

So, now that you’re not reinventing Ferrari’s wheel, it’s also important to be concise. An intro should be just that. It may be two paragraphs or the classic solo graph.

It may span 300 words, because it may have that much work to do. Or it may be about 80 or 90. My example above was 37.

You don’t have to be what J.D. Salinger would call a “word squeezer,” but the reader has a sense of what you’re talking about from the headline — let him or her know the parameters of your discussion and then launch into it — leave the details for the body of the article.

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What tips do you have for writing a good introduction? Tell us in the comments.

(Photo by StartupStockPhotos /CC0 Public Domain)

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How to Not Hate Your Job

We all have those moments where we can’t stand our job.

Whether it’s a difficult boss, an absurd deadline or terrible coworkers, we’ve all been there.

But what to do when the stress of the job begins to infect the rest of your life?

There’s nothing worse than leaving the office only to carry around the burden of your job all night long.

It’s time to cure the 9-to-5 blues before they put a damper on your entire life.

1. You Are More Than Your Job

This is a difficult concept to follow, but it’s the most important. In the past I’ve had trouble letting work issues go once I leave the office, and it’s done nothing but made me feel worse and ruined my free time.

Keeping work stress at the forefront of your mind when you leave the office accomplishes nothing. Preoccupation with a work-related stressor means you need to confront the issue once and for all.

Do this during regular work hours. See if a resolution can be made. If not, start seriously looking for another job or just let it go.

It’s so important to have hobbies and activities you look forward to during the week. If your weekday schedule consists of travel to/from the office, work, watching television, dinner and sleep, you’re going to let work stress affect you more, because it’s the main defining activity in your life.

Instead sign up for language or cooking courses after work. Throughout my employment history, I’ve taken several classes including French and pottery-making. Taking classes is also one of the best ways to meet new friends as an adult.

When you have topics other than work to discuss with people, it really makes a difference in how you see yourself. Next time work gets you down, you’ll just breathe in and think about what you’re going to do in your next painting class.

2. Use Your Vacation Time

I am completely guilty of not following my own advice here. I was at my first office for almost three years without taking an actual vacation.

The office had a rollover and payout policy: You could accrue two years’ worth of vacation time, and when you left the position, any unused vacation days would be paid out to you.

For some reason I thought it was a good idea to accrue my vacation time to the maximum so I could cash out when I left. This was misguided thinking and it gets worse.

I actually ended up wasting vacation days by not using them and allowing them to expire. In the end, I did get a month’s worth of vacation payout, but it was hardly worth it. I was constantly stressed, depressed and my blood pressure was deemed high for my age group.

If you’re not a vacation person, that’s perfectly ok. Staycations work just as well. A coworker of mine goes on a more extravagant vacation every few years and takes a week off around her birthday every year.

She uses that week to explore her local area, hang out with friends and pay more attention to her hobbies. It doesn’t matter if you spend your days doing nothing more than sitting around reading or going to the movies – as long as you’re not in the office, you’re doing it right.

3. Keep Your Dreams Alive

This may be clichéd, but seriously do this. When I have a bad day at my job, I always go home and try to write at least four pages of a play I’ve been working on for the last year. My co-workers in the past have been up-and-coming comedians, actors and singers.

Your dreams don’t have to be about the arts either. Your goal can be volunteering with animals or at a hospital. Help paint a mural in an urban garden or tutor a child in math. Do something that makes you feel like you’re accomplishing more than just your job.

Dreams and hope obviously makes you feel better about your current circumstances. It can be as simple as buying a lottery ticket to a draw with a huge jackpot. Write a list of the top five things you’d do if you won the lottery.

Then to balance it out, write a top five list of things you can do to realistically improve your life now. Then whether the ticket you bought makes you a lottery millionaire or not, you’ll have goals to work toward.

4. Keep Yourself Informed

This piece of advice might sound strange, but hear me out. I’ve worked in offices where my coworkers only talked about work; even when we went out after work, it was the only topic available for discussion.

This is a problem for several reasons:

• People aren’t following my first piece of advice and are making their job the defining characteristic in their lives;
• Talking about work too much leads to complaining about work, higher-ups, and coworkers – depending on who you speak with, this can be a job-killer;
• It makes life incredibly boring, and you basically become a shell of your former, more interesting self.

I don’t mean to say that you need to read three newspapers a day and watch cable news (don’t watch cable news), but know enough about current events to realize that you’re part of a bigger world and when work is stressing you out, there is a whole world outside your bubble.

Keep up with current best-selling books, popular films and go to concerts. Even with your up-to-date knowledge, remember that it’s never a good idea to talk about politics at the workplace unless your office is on 10 Downing Street or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

5. If All Else Fails, Find Another Job

If you feel like you’re at the point of no return when it comes to stress, then the best option is to start looking for a new job. Make replacing your job your new job – put as much energy and time into the job search as possible.

It’s always better to stay at your job until you find a new position, but if the job is causing physical or mental health problems, then quitting may be an option you need to consider. Take some time to recuperate, then go back to the job search.

Part-time work and freelancing, depending on your field of expertise, is also something to consider. Consult with your family, friends and finances before you make a major change.

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Even a dream job can have flaws. No one workplace is perfect. Hopefully these tips can help you learn to get through a tough day and help you to not hate your job.

(Photo by Unsplash / CCO Public Domain )

The Best Software to Integrate Video Conferencing Into Your Office

If your business has any remote workers, the ability to communicate with your employees is an integral part of your success.

All of your workers are going to need to be up-to-date on topics discussed during meetings as well as informed of company goals and their responsibilities in achieving them.

Unfortunately, communicating this amount of information to all of your remote workers who may live in different time zones or have different schedules can quickly turn into a chore.

Thankfully, there’s an easy solution that is well within the reach of any business owner.

Video conferencing is by far the easiest way to make sure your remote employees have all of the information they need to succeed in your company, as it allows them full access to your company’s meetings wherever they are.

They can ask questions, voice their concerns if they have any and participate in discussions as well as they could if they were there. Unfortunately, integrating video conferencing into your office can seem a bit overwhelming.

It’s not cheap, and the task itself requires a large amount technical knowledge and finesse the average person just doesn’t have. There are a few different services that can assist you in installing and maintaining a video conference network so you can take advantage of everything that this technology has to offer.

Bluejeans 

Bluejeans Network is a video conferencing startup that aims to bridge the gap between several different video conferencing platforms. Through the use of the cloud, they allow businesses to link their pre-existing video conferencing hardware and software to any other video conferencing software on the market.

So if half of your employees prefer Skype while the other half prefer AdobeConnect, now they can all communicate with their favorite platform.

What’s great about Bluejeans is that it doesn’t require businesses to purchase new (and generally more expensive) hardware and software. Just purchasing a Bluejeans license allows them to use their existing infrastructure.

So while Bluejeans may not be necessary for a business that is just starting to integrate video conferencing software into their offices, it’s a great fit for those who want to get more use out of an existing one.

AdobeConnect

Adobe Connect is the video conferencing software of choice for a lot of businesses that need the ability to customize their video conferencing experience. What’s great about AdobeConnect is that it scales to the needs of the business.

The service costs $55 per person who has the ability to host but features unlimited video streams. You also have a pretty impressive amount of customization options through an abundance of different plug-ins and templates.

Your employees will also have access to the service through an in-client browser, and iOS, BlackBerry, and Android clients. AdobeConnect is also compatible with PC, Mac, and Linux based desktops.

Unfortunately, AdobeConnect’s emphasis on customization is also its downfall, as it makes the service feel a bit clunky. To set up a meeting you have to name the meeting, choose your URL, select a start time and duration for your meeting, choose a template, and assign access rights to your employees.

So while the service is definitely powerful, it requires a lot of trial and error to get it configured to your liking.

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center

Cisco WebEx is the largest video conferencing service on the market today. Having millions of users and more than 15 years of experience in the field, they’re definitely a force to be reckoned with in the industry.

The service they provide is definitely functional, and I would even go so far as to say that it’s great. The interface feels professional and smooth, the product is affordable ($49/month), and Cisco WebEx made sure that the product is very easy to use. The service also communicates very well with smartphones and different operating systems.

Unfortunately, Cisco WebEx falls short on some of the features you will find in AdobeConnect and doesn’t make communication as easy as Bluejeans. However, Cisco WebEx does a better job than its competitors in providing a service that is simple to use for those who aren’t very experienced at dealing with this type of software.

In Closing

All of these services will give you the ability to host video conferences fairly well. But to get the best performance possible out of whichever service you choose, you’re going to need to think about which will be the best fit for your office.

Do you already have video conferencing software installed but need it to be able to communicate with a wide variety of devices and clients? If so, you might find Bluejeans to be the right choice for you. If you’re just starting out and need software that is powerful yet still easy to use, you might find that Cisco WebEx would be the best fit for your office.

Either way, installing video conferencing software will make your office run smoother than you would have ever believed possible.

(Photo by Razlan / CC BY)

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10 Tips to Keep Employees Happy

As job-hopping millennials infiltrate the workforce, employers need to be aware of the value of keeping their employees happy.

Considering the time and money investments associated with the hiring and training processes, it makes much more sense to keep current employees than take on the challenge of bringing in new ones.

So how do you keep employees happy?

The best place to start for employers is to understand why people quit their jobs and, conversely, what makes people stay.

Why Employees Leave

Based on my experience helping some of the world’s largest enterprises with their approaches to HR, the top five reasons employees quit are:

1. Feeling Underutilized — If employees feel like their strengths aren’t being taken advantage of and have expressed that, they probably won’t be very happy in their current position. Employees want to feel like they add value to the company, so they will seek a role where they have that opportunity. After all, there are only so many times one can reorganize their desk in one day, right?

2. The job is Not What They Expected — The job description reads “Marketing Assistant” and you think, “Great, I’ll get to be part of the creative process!” First day on the job and you’re in a hot dog costume handing out fliers on the street.

Not quite what you thought the job would entail, right? When accepting a job, people want to have a good sense of what their main responsibilities will be and what an average day will consist of. If the job does not match the advertised description, you can expect a frustrated employee that isn’t going to stick around.

3. No Room for Growth — Most people – especially millennials – enter the workforce with the mindset that they will gain skills and experience over time, and therefore, they will grow within the company. If there is no opportunity for advancing, employees will look elsewhere for the chance to grow their career.

4. Negative Work Environment — Considering most of your waking hours are spent at work, it makes sense to want to spend those hours in a pleasant work environment. If an employee gets to the point where they dread going to work each day, you can guarantee that they will eventually decide to stop going.

What makes a work environment so destructive? It can be anything from an unrealistic workload to a lack of respect among coworkers … which brings me to my next and final point.

5. Personality Conflict — Sure, it’s important to keep your personal issues separate from your work environment, but when there is a true personality clash, it can be hard to ignore. Whether it is a condescending boss or a peer that you can’t seem to get along with, there will come a point when you decide its best not to work together. How long do you think Captain Hook and Peter Pan would have lasted working together?

Why Employees Stay

Aside from just addressing those reasons people quit, there are plenty of factors that can boost employee retention. Let’s look at the top five reasons people are compelled to stay at their jobs:

1. Company Culture — The work environment, combined with how employees feel and interact, can have enormous pull on how long someone stays at their job. Have you ever been in the situation where you may have been unhappy with the work you’re doing, but thought “How can I leave my coworkers?”

This is a perfect example of how much a company’s culture weighs into staying at a job. Participating in group activities like ice-breakers or a March Madness bracket can help boost morale among employees.

2. The Perks — Paid vacations, annual bonuses, season tickets, oh my! I’m not saying that it’s a good idea to bribe your employees to keep them from quitting, but if your company offers these incentive and rewards programs from the get-go, it shows that the employer cares and wants to put in the effort to create a happy workforce.

3. Work/life Balance — As I mentioned above, an overworked employee is not a happy employee. To retain employees, companies should make the effort to promote a healthy work/life balance.

Enforce a strict eight-hour rule, or encourage employees to avoid checking email once they’ve left the office. Flexible hours also promote a healthy balance between work and home, especially for employees with young children. Respecting an employee’s free time is a way to show the company cares.

4. Salary and Benefits. This one is a given. When looking for a job, competitive benefits are increasingly being sought out by potential employees. It is important to be aware of this consistently — not just when offering a job. For example, consistent raises over time can help retain your top employees.

5. Passion. Simply put, people are compelled to do what they love. During the hiring process, it is important to determine if this is the career a potential hire is passionate about or if they simply need a job.

Hiring people that care about their work will go a long way, because they enter the company already driven to succeed in the industry. Passion also helps reinforce company culture, because sharing a common goal will encourage cohesion among the team.

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There is always something new and innovative a company can be doing to attract and retain talent. But by following these dos and don’ts, you should be able to stay ahead of the game and put your best team forward.

(Photo by highwaysengland / CC BY)

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10 Tools to Make Writing Easier

Content creation is one of the hardest skills someone can master.

As a blogger, this skill is essential to the success of your art.

It takes a while before one can confidently say they’ve mastered the skill of content creation from a blogger’s perspective.

Regardless of whether you’ve mastered this skill, there are some tools that make the process easier.

There are some tools you can’t do without —they’re vital to enhancing your blogging experience.

Some are browser based while others can be downloaded and used offline. With the advancement of technology, it’s possible to find tools or software to help make the most of your blog posts or improve your articles.

Let’s examine some of the free tools you can use to make content creation as smooth as possible.

Organizational Tools

Whether you are working as a blogger or an essay writer, organization should form a huge part of your process. Ultimately, organization is the key to any effective writing.

When little attention is paid to organizing your work, chances are you might end up confusing your readers with jumbled up words and chaotic thought patterns. If you are looking to do away with frustration, you may want to practice a little bit of organization. These tools can help you with that:

Mindmaps — Are you a believer in mindmaps? If not, consider changing your mentality. The benefits from using any kind of mindmap should convince you.

Mindmappers not only assist you as in organization, they also go a long way in helping the user to explore, develop and refine their ideas in a more logical manner that is essential to any writer.

• XMind
• MindNode

Wiki-style Notebooks — Free personal wikis are a perfect channel for a blogger to record and develop ideas. The best part about these tools is that they encourage collaboration.

This basically means you can develop your ideas with another party dubbed as the collaborator. You can link a number of pages to allow for easy navigation.

• CherryTree
• TiddlyWiki

 Utility Tools

The tools covered in this category are special in their own way. They specialize in whatever it is that they offer. They include:

Cliché Finder — When it comes to writing, clichés do have a place in the English language. However, a problem arises when a blogger begins to overuse them. This might make your writing sound juvenile, which is not something anyone wants, especially if they’re trying to make money or gain respect through their work. Cliché Finder helps writers avoid this.

oTranscribe — This web-based tool is ideal for individuals who do a lot of transcribing work. oTranscribe supports a number of audio files including MP3, OGG and WAV. It’s very straight forward and can make life easier.

Citation Generators — We all can agree that compiling bibliographies can be brain-draining, especially on publications that are hundreds of pages. However, citation generators make things a little bit simpler.

With these tools, you can easily generate a bibliography according to the standard you need. They can handle many types of media, ranging from books to newspapers and websites.

• BibMe
• Citation Styles

Writing Tools

When it comes to blogging, writing is, of course, an essential requirement. While there are individuals who have the ability to type hundreds of pages in a Word document, there are others who prefer alternatives.

Distraction-Free Editors — Writing is an art that requires a lot of creativity and concentration. Distractions are a major hindrance. There tools are designed to help the user maintain their high concentration level and remain productive.

• WriteApp
• OmmWriter

Edit-Lock Editors — There are very simple text editors that will prevent you from editing any material you’ve written until when you’ve reached a predetermined word count or a time limit. This tool is the perfect representation of common writing wisdom, ”Write first and edit later’.’

• Ilys
• Earnest

Screenwriting Editor — Writing a screenplay is definitely different than writing a novel or essay. So why would you use the same software? These tools allow you to write any screenplay online and will automatically format the script to industry standards.

They allow you to write with a lot of freedom with little concern about whether you’re doing it right or not. Some tools also allow you to collaborate with others.

• PlotBot
• celtx

Productivity Tools

The truth of the matter is when it comes to writing, it is often easy. The hardest part comes when you have to keep on writing. For people who are required to write regularly, productivity can fall over time. With these applications, you are in a better able to maintain a high level of productivity.

Pomodoro Timers — For many years the Pomodoro Technique of approaching work has been hyped as one of the best as it helps to greatly reduce burnout. These web based tools can be used as timers to increase productivity.

• TomatoTimer
• Tomato.es

Site Blockers — There are plenty of these apps that can be used to help you block the websites you do not want to visit until an appropriate time. This will prevent you from wasting time. You can enhance your productivity with these site blocker tools.

• LeechBlock
• StayFocusd

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For any writer, these can be helpful regardless of which ones you decide to go with. They are designed to make your life easy and enjoyable. Don’t let content creation give you nightmares when you can make use of these awesome tools.

(Photo by Gautam / CC BY)

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6 Tips to Uncover Your Best Writing

Being a writer requires time, devotion, passion and skill.

For aspiring writers and those who have just started, becoming the writer you always wanted to be is a big challenge.

There are times when you would end up asking yourself if you can really do this or if you are good enough to write.

This is completely normal.

Even the most prolific writers experience problems like these, and you don’t establish your identity as a writer in one shot.

1. Trust Yourself and Just Write

The most successful writers can only give you their own formulas for success. The same thing goes when you’re writing a particular kind of content. Whether it’s a simple essay, a short story or a novel, there is a lot of information telling you to write in this manner, do this and do that.

More often than not, you doubt whether you can possibly write something significant, especially when what you’re doing is different from what others are doing. But always keep in mind that each person is unique in his own thoughts and ideas.

Trust in yourself and just keep on writing. Keep in mind that you write to express yourself and to share your ideas with your readers.

2. Allot Time For Writing

You can never find an excellent writer who succeeded overnight. Apart from talent, writing is also a skill you must continuously hone and develop. Just as artists hone their craft, you need to practice.

It is essential that you take time to practice and to write. When you allot time for writing, you develop certain skills that are essential for writers like the ability to think fast, brainstorm ideas effectively, organize your thoughts, etc.

3. Proofread Your Work

It is never a bad thing to read through your work. Just don’t overdo it so you end up removing almost everything you wrote, because you feel writing it was a mistake.

Keep in mind that the goal is not to identify what is right or wrong with your writing. What you want to know is if you are able to express what you wanted to share with your readers.

4. Accept Constructive Criticism

All of the most highly acclaimed written works went through a lot of editing and some even experienced numerous rejections. This is the flow and the process that most writers have to experience before their works are published.

So, never be afraid to take criticism and even rejection. You can learn so many things about your work from other people especially if the person reviewing your work is also a writer.

It is much easier to see what parts need to be changed or what needs to be removed. After a work has undergone a series of proofreads and edits, the best version of your work emerges.

5. Put Aside Your Fears

To write effectively, you have to set aside your fears. This problem comes when you have too many doubts and fears about your writing skills or even if your ideas are worth writing about.

But when you finally learn to let go of your inhibitions, you have freedom to explore your thoughts and to write anything you want without having self-doubts about it.

Set aside your fears and let your ideas bloom and your thoughts wander. It is only when you finally cast away your fears that you get to tap your creative potential as a writer — you find out what it really means to be a writer.

6. Set Your Goals

All good writers set goals. Prior to writing, you have to know what your purpose and your objectives are. What is it that you want to achieve? What is your goal in writing a particular piece?

Setting straight and clear goals is a great motivational force. They serve as blueprint when you write as you can compare if what you are writing serves your purpose and your goal.

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All of these are just some of the tips you can apply in order to become the writer you have always wanted to be. Yet at the end of the day, every writer must establish his own identity and his own formula of success.

Just keep on writing and never doubt if you can become a prolific writer or achieve the status of your revered writers. The greatest writers didn’t emerge overnight. It took years for them to get to the place you’re aiming for.

(Photo by Doug Robichaud / CC BY)

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4 Reasons to Stop Banning Social Media at Work

There is no denying that the typical office environment has changed over the last decade, with the majority of employees now sitting in front of a computer screen for long periods of time.

The once-seen boundary between work and life has become blurred, predominantly due to social media becoming increasingly utilized in business for marketing purposes.

For many employers, allowing for social media use in the workplace would be absurd.

In fact, 42 percent of employers prohibit workers from using social media altogether.

And perhaps, this makes sense, as social media is widely understood to be time-consuming, mindless and useless.

It can be very tempting to check social media accounts while working, but unless you’re working in the social media or marketing field, it is very unlikely that interacting with followers is what you’re being paid to do.

But does banning social media boost productivity or hurt workplace morale? Here are four reasons to why social media should be allowed in the working environment.

1. You Are Losing Talent

The feeling of connectedness is vital in Generation Y, and overlooking this fact could adversely affect hiring and turnover rate.

Fifty-six percent of millennials say they won’t accept a job role unless social media is allowed at the workplace. As a result, social media plays a huge role in drawing new talent.

Employees from younger generations are accustomed to using social media on a regular basis. If you start banning social media, some employees may look for work elsewhere. This will result in the loss of good employees.

Social media is an important part of daily communication and identity and not just in the younger generation. About half of employees using social media at work are over the age of 35. Social media is now a regular part of human interaction, and denying this can be counterproductive.

2. You Are Decreasing Productivity

The biggest fear for employers is that social media will make employees less productive. However, these employers must remember it’s not the hours spent working on a project, it is the result of that work which counts. Always measure productivity by the end result.

A study produced by the University of Melbourne found those who regular surf the internet are more productive than those who don’t. Therefore, despite beliefs, social media has a place in the workplace.

Businesses realize that to maintain productivity, employees need to take small breaks in order to re-energize their minds. Social media and checking emails are forms of refreshing the mind.

Thirty-four percent of employees say they slack at work because they work too many hours. Social media can provide a much-needed mental break in the heat of a project.

Two hours on Facebook may be a huge problem, but a five-minute diversion is not a big deal. Employees simply cannot concentrate on working for eight hours straight. Short social media breaks may be necessary to keep employees at the top of their game.

Discourage social media procrastination and create accountability with open desk arrangements where computer monitors are visible enough to limit social media usage.

3. You Are Establishing Mistrust

If an employee speaks poorly of your company on social media in working time, something must be done about it. However, banning social media in the workplace isn’t going to win the battle.

Whether an employee misrepresents your company on social media in or out of working hours, it is not the timing of the post which is the problem but rather the attitude of that employee.

Banning social media sends a message through the workplace that you don’t trust your employees. Responsible employees know they have a job to do, assignments to complete and a quality to achieve. Allowing employees to spend a few moments on social media will keep these employees engaged and performance levels up.

Create specific guidelines for on-the-clock usage to help avoid any social media disasters. You should introduce these guidelines to new employees on day one.

Productivity is all about balance. Banning employees from Facebook is like banning them from talking about football at work. Social media is a way to relax for a moment, away from the working situation at hand.

4. You Are Inhibiting Communication

Social media doesn’t break face-to-face communication in the office — it helps. One study found that three in five workers say social media has resulted in better relationships at work, and one in three have used social media in furthering work-related projects.

Like emails and instant messaging systems, social media is a casual way for employees to interact with acquaintances and build stronger relationships, resulting in an overall better workplace communication.

Empower employees with social media by putting a social media policy and monitoring tools in place to keep the business in line. Proper training to improve employee morale and to avoid social media disasters should be given to each employee.

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Is social media use allowed in your office? Tell us about what you think!

(Photo by FirmBee / CC BY)

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Is a Home Office Worth It?

As a young or potential entrepreneur, renting out office space seems like a daunting idea right?

It’s a big commitment, especially when there is an alternative.

This is a topic that I encounter all the time.

With a growing number of people working from home nowadays, claiming the cost of rent or their mortgage repayments is becoming a hot topic, with most people thinking they can claim the full amount and that being that.

Unfortunately it’s not as straightforward as that.

Many Things Factor In

Yes, you are allowed to claim a certain amount of “use of home as office,” but this depends on many factors, including how many hours you work at home and how many rooms your house contains.

You are able to claim a proportion of costs incurred for:

• Mortgage or rent
• Heating, water, gas and electricity
• Taxes
• Insurance (if you pay an extra premium) for using your home as an office
• Broadband and telephone

You have to determine:

• How many hours you work in the house
• Have you got a room set aside for purely business use?
• The total annual cost of your mortgage/rent is

For Instance …

Let’s run through an example to help break it down for you:

Heating — Let’s assume you work full time from home and that you have a five room house with one in full-time business use. The rooms cover an equal proportion, therefore using up an equal amount of the heating costs.

Let’s say that the total costs incurred during the year are £1,500.00, The amount you can claim will be 1,500/5 = £300. Then you’ll have to apply this method to mortgage/rent, tax, etc. to work out the total amount you can claim.

If you don’t work full time from home, you’ll have to work out how many hours you spend in the room and use the same principle as above, but proportion the amount accordingly.

You have to be careful when working this out though — ensure you keep copies of all the necessary records and calculations you used to work out your total costs.

Alternatively, if you don’t want the hassle of working all the proportions out, you can use the flat rate method which goes off the numbers of hours you are working from home:

• 25-50 hours: £10 per month
• 51-100 hours: £18 per month
• 101 hours or more: £26 per month

Using this method will definitely be quicker than working out your actual costs. However, the figure may not end up quite as high. It’s also important to note that the flat rate method only covers the cost of heating, light and power and broadband and telephone. You will still be required to work out your other costs using the method illustrated above.

Of course, you can always ask a tax professional for help when the time comes. But it’s good to know in advance how it works out when considering whether or not to rent office space.

(Photo by Kai Hendry  / CC BY)

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