Weekly Newsletter for The Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of the week starting on 11th of June 2018.
Freelancers’ focus skills can improve their productivity. It is an important self-knowledge skill that freelancers need to have. This quote is very appropriate:
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s
rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham
Bell
Freelancers need to understand that they have a daily focus pattern that varies with each individual, but clearly varies significantly during different times of the day.
If you understand your focus pattern you can schedule work that requires focus and creative thought for when your focus is at its strongest.
Looking for how to improve focus, it is clear that focus can be trained and planned!
Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter have written an article for HBR.org entitled Are you having trouble focusing? These simple strategies will help which you can read here.
If you are interested in improving your focus you can have a look inside the cover of this book by clicking on the icon below:
Motivate Yourself!
“The growth of coworking and surveys of coworkers
demonstrate that given the choice, people will choose
workspaces that support their digital style while giving them
access to new knowledge, exposing them to different kinds
of expertise, and accelerating their learning.”
– Harvard Business Review
Why You Should Be Motivated To Keep Up To Date On Co-Working News?
Co-working is starting to make an impact as a new self-employment model. It is not the traditional employer model with workers as employees, but it is about real estate entrepreneurs providing the facilities for independent workers.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has researched the development trends of co-working spaces. Co-working is not simply one approach and you may find that some approaches are better for your personal circumstances than others.
This article has been published by JLL Real Views and WEF: 8 ways co-working is evolving which you can read here.
This article from the WeworkTeam.com entitled the WeWork economic impact report can be read here. The WeWorkTeam believes that co-working increases innovation and co-operation between freelancing knowledge workers, corporates, and entrepreneurs. Do you agree?
If you are a member of a freelancing group and are starting to think about co-working you can look inside this eBook for the headings of what you have to consider (I like the photo of their co-working group!):
Productivity Tip of the Week
Is Your Productivity Suffering From The Boiling Frog Syndrome?
Bad habits can have a big impact on your productivity and for freelancers that means a big negative impact on your income. It is for this reason that freelancers need to be self-aware of the power of habits.
It is not that any freelancers would want to deny themselves money, but bad habits can creep up on you without you being aware. It can be a form of self-denial that can not only impact on individuals, but also on organizations and even countries.
Dr. Tasha Eurich has written The invisible habits hurting our happiness for the Psychologytoday.com which you can read here.
Bad habits can be as simple as placing your social media and email importance in your ToDoList above getting on with working on your latest project, whether it is creating a new app, graphic designing a new logo for a client or writing an article for a magazine.
Bad habits for freelancers are time thieves that creep up on you. Kassey Vilches has written Your bad habits are hurting your progress: here’s what science says on how to break them. Kassey’s article appears in Medium.com and you can read it here.
If you want to build successful habits as a freelancer, look inside this eBook by clicking on the icon below:
Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week
Do You Think That Working Part-Time Is The Right Answer For Work-Life Balance?
Being millennial parents is not easy and nobody should think otherwise. Priorities are being constantly juggled to try and get the best outcome for the family. Here is Caroline Beaton’s list of 8 habits that make millennials stressed and unproductive.
If your family is feeling financial pressure and you are offered a chance to work part-time, here is Laura Vanderkam’s Thinking of going part-time? Some questions to ask (and boundaries to draw). You can read it here.
Beyond working part-time and work-life balance is the consideration whether your family should have a Life Plan. Cnbc.com’s Ester Bloom believes that Here’s what millennials are prioritizing instead of retirement which you can read here.
When you have read the article you will realize that Ester is right and having a Life Plan is about setting lifestyle goals for your family which can save a lot of stress. You can read about Life Planning in this book:
Financial Tip of the Week
Critical To All Of Us Is To Understand The Difference Between Life Planning And Financial Planning.
It does not matter whether you are a millennial family with young children or a retiree in your early sixties facing another thirty years of your life.
Having a Life Plan is important. If you do not have a Life Plan giving direction to a financial plan that is aimed at helping you achieve your life goals it is hard to believe that the adviser is acting in your best interest.
It is a question of changing the process. This is very much in line with the message that the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, was giving in the forum The New Economy: The Future of Work which you can watch here.
The former CEO of the Freelancers Union, Sara Horowitz, was a member of the forum for a reason – the rise of the freelancing economy is not only changing the future of work, but also the future of retirement because of the increases in life expectancy globally.
Carly Schulaka has written an article called 10 Questions: George Kinder on Life Planning, inspiration and a golden civilization. Carly’s article appeared in the United States Financial Planning Association’s journal and can be read here.
It is an important article for all freelancers especially, but also others who wish to understand if they want to set their own goals and direct their efforts towards achieving them.
It seems fairly straightforward, doesn’t it? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FreelanceWorkGuide/.
Amazon News
Amazon Alexa is leading in the race for smart homes, but it is a part of a broader home innovation revolution that is sweeping the world.
For millennial families especially, keeping abreast with developments is important because it will lead to efficiencies. Eric Griffith has written The best smart home devices of 2018 which appears in au.pcmag.com which you can read here.
The weekly AWS news video link to acloud.guru is here. They are the leading trainers globally for AWS freelancers.
Amazon Associates Website Case Study
The history of the Case Study can be read at links to the previous newsletter issues. There is no change for this week as we are adjusting our articles to take into account their new offering of Amazon Home Services (AHS). Details of AHS can be read here.
We have stopped showing the links for new articles as we have discovered that it could be having adverse impacts on the search engine optimization of the website Best Sellers Hourly. We will advise you when new articles are added. They are currently being worked on.
By this time you can check our social media:
Freelancers And Cyber Security
We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant.
He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books:
What Is The Difference Between HTTP And HTTPS?
