I’ve found there are a lot of small things you can do once a day, once a week, or even once a month to boost your status from a 9-to-5 worker to keystone employee. Here’s how you can do it.

5 Ways How to Work Better At Your Job

1.  Do more

Problem: How many times a day do you get up to stand near the water cooler and catch passing conversations? Do you find yourself walking to the bathroom when you don’t actually need to go? Although sometimes we all need to clear our brain and get a stretch, you may also be avoiding doing work.

Do This Instead: Getting your work done a little earlier can open up time at the end of the day to help your boss or co-workers with last minute projects.

Solution: Cut your daily walks to the kitchen in half and aim to get all your work done a little early. This will free you up to take on a quick assignment. When your boss sees that you are proactive about taking on more work, you seem like an important player in the workday.

 2.  Be organized

Problem: You have a million things to do between work and home every single day. We expect our brains to hold it all neatly in place. Focusing on a spreadsheet when you keep reminding yourself to get a babysitter for this weekend inhibits you from truly focusing on work.

Do This Instead: When you write down your thoughts, due dates and obligations, your brain is free to focus on one thing at a time. This will allow you to put all your energy into the current project, thus getting better work done.

Solution: Thankfully, the wide world of technology has given us a wonderful gift called Widgets. You can download desktop items such as calendars, which will allow you to input due dates for the future. You can also keep a pad of paper next to your computer, and jot down thoughts as they come to your mind.

3.  Always keep learning

Problem: If you’re stuck in the same position for a long time, your mind tricks you into believing that you’ve learned all you need to know. Yet, our evolving world, heck our evolving Internet, has something new to teach you every day.

Do This Instead: Learn something new that pertains to your everyday job. This will almost instantly be put into use. You’d be surprised to find that learning something new may spark you to challenge yourself, which can elevate your work to a new level.

Solution: Refresh yourself and your work. Frequently visit the blogosphere, and see what’s new. Subscribe to new websites and converse with others in your field.

4.  Shut off the clock

Problem: When you step outside the doors of your office, you forget to turn off work and turn on life. When you hold onto stress from the day before the problems will keep compounding. This can restrict your ability to produce new, good work every day.

Do This Instead: As with anything in life, if you carry around the stress of an outside factor you can’t enjoy the simple pleasure of having a good dinner, or watching a show you DVR’d. Have some evening time to yourself and dispel your stress from the day; this will leave you fresh for a new day of work.

Solution: Shed your work clothes as soon as you get home. Put on something comfortable and slip into home life and out of your office mindset.

5.  Get to know your co-workers

Problem: Without someone to vent to, work problems can inhibit your ability to create successful work. When you are frustrated with work problems, you lose the drive to always do your best.

Do this Instead: Even if you only chat during the day at work, misery loves company. In the best sense of the phrase, making work friends will ease irritations.

Solution: Get the morning stress out of your system at lunch, for example, so you’re freed up to take on the new tasks of the afternoon. Getting through the last wee hours of the day can be tough. A good employee works smart straight through until the end, and this just might be your one way ticket to 5pm.

Here you go then. Five neat tips on how to work better!

In a scary job market, we all want to keep our jobs. Prove why you are a valuable member in the office. Make simple tweaks to what you normally do every day and see the biggest difference.

Got more ideas? We’d love to hear your tips on how to work better in the comments!

Photo by lululemon athletica.

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About a month ago, I heard from Lori Deschene, Founder of Tiny Buddha. Lori, with her creative writing and ideas, has created a community of like-minded people which is growing every second as you read this. Her Twitter following, when I last checked, was close to 240,000. Her social network page has a “Like” rate of 70,000.

I say this not to express how great a communicator she is (although that will be true), but to highlight the sheer power of will and passion. After having worked with 100 employers, she is here to share a piece of her life with us. A must-read, especially if you’re planning to go solo in your professional life.

1. Lori, you’ve done a bunch of different things in the past. Tell us about your career or better yet, your passion path.

Sure! I’ve definitely worn a lot of hats in my time. I studied acting and writing in college, because I was always happiest when I was expressing myself creatively. But after graduation, I felt scared of the potential for failure, and generally lost in life.

I would say I’ve worked for at least 100 employers, if you count the various companies I’ve freelanced for, both as a promotional marketing representative and a writer. I’ve also been a telemarketer, a sales person, a residential caregiver for developmentally disabled adults, and a child care worker, just to name a few roles.

My passions led me to @tinybuddha, where I started by tweeting just one quote per day. At the time, I was working 60+ hours per week from home as an online content and community manager. I was excited to finally be writing for a living, but I wasn’t writing about anything that mattered to me.

I wanted to do something more meaningful online, and tweeting inspiring quotes once a day was something I could easily do. As that following grew and I saw people frequently retweeting the quotes, I wondered how well we all apply those ideas when we shut down our computers or put down our gadgets. I know from experience that it’s a lot easier to consume information than it is to utilize it.

That’s what inspired me to start tinybuddha.com as a community blog, where anyone can submit a story about applying wisdom to real life. This site means the world to me because it’s not just about helping people—it’s also about allowing them to help me.

It’s a place where no one has it all figured out, and we all have something both to teach and to learn. Most importantly, it’s a loving community. For me, it feels like home.

2. How do you persuade yourself to write inspiring content when you’re having a mood swing or when you have nothing to say?

I generally don’t worry about being inspiring; my goal is to be honest. Every tinybuddha.com post explores some type of universal struggle and then ends with insights or lessons learned.

It’s cathartic and immensely helpful to be open about whatever I’m going through on a given day, and then conclude by focusing on what the experience has taught me. Writing in this way makes difficult times seem not only more manageable but also useful, because our struggles can connect us and allow us to help each other.

3. Do you procrastinate? How do you deal with it?

I don’t procrastinate often, and I think it might have something to do with the fact that I don’t set all that many goals at once. I’ve come to a place where I don’t feel overwhelmed by my to-do list.

I don’t maintain an insanely busy schedule. I run tinybuddha.com, I write for ‘tween girls (a magazine and a website), and I allow myself a lot of time to just be. I’m sure I progress a lot more slowly because of it, but I have decided that I will not trade all my time for dollars—and I’m much happier for it!

4. How did the idea of writing a book spark?

It started when I began connecting with publishers who contacted me to review their books. I saw an opportunity to pitch a Tiny Buddha book, and it all snowballed from there.

Since Tiny Buddha started on Twitter and the site is highly community-driven, I knew I wanted to do something with a crowdsourced element. I also knew I wanted to touch on several of the big issues that affect us all.

I decided to start by asking my Twitter followers a number of the hardest questions in life. Once I received their responses, I realized there were many shared perspectives in regards to these big issues—none right or wrong, but all empowering.

I knew then I wanted the tweets to be the backbone of the book, and I wanted to weave stories from my own experience along with ancient wisdom and modern research supporting these different ideas.

5. What does it take to become a self-employed writer?

The first thing is motivation. I’m passionate about the topics I explore, of course, but beyond that, I pursued self-employment because I want the freedom to travel and visit my family across the country for weeks at a time. This strong motivation is one thing that has helped me stay disciplined when it may have been tempting to lose focus.

The second thing is the willingness to frequently look for work. Before Tiny Buddha grew, I maintained numerous freelance and contract gigs to sustain myself. It’s much easier to transition to doing your own thing if you have supporting projects you can also do from home, as opposed to writing on the side of a full-time 9-5 job.

The last thing that has helped me is the ability to live on very little money. There were times when I was happily self-employed, but making just enough. Since I don’t have children, and I also have minimal bills (no car, for example) I can sustain myself if things are slow. This was essential in the building phase, and it allowed me to keep going when other people may have felt the need to get a real job.

6. How do you juggle different tasks of maintaining TinyBuddha, writing articles for ‘tweens and ghostwriting?

I follow a schedule, so I generally always work on the same things at the same times each week. Of course, it’s flexible when I travel.

7. How do you get things done? Are you very organized or do you flow with the moment when it comes to work?

I’m very organized, and I’m always aiming to become more efficient. It’s all too easy to get lost in mindless activities on the web that chip away at the day. I value my time disconnected from my computer, so I try to set a schedule and stick to it.

Of course, inspiration sometimes strikes when I’m not working. I generally don’t let those moments pass, especially since I write so frequently.

8. What keeps you going?

I keep going because I love Tiny Buddha. Writing and helping other writers communicate their message makes me feel purposeful and proud of myself. I feel like I am making a positive difference in other people’s lives, and I didn’t always that feel that way.

I also really enjoy connecting with readers and writers—sharing what we’ve gone through, what we’ve learned, what we’re going through, and what we’re learning.

Lastly, I keep going because I know there is room to grow. There’s a lot I want to do and create—the journey is just beginning!

9. Where to from here?

For now, I’m focusing most of my efforts on my book campaign. I launched the “Life’s Hard Questions” contest in November, and there’s about a week left (at the time of writing this).

Anyone who submits a photo of themselves somehow displaying the hardest question in their life is entered to win a Canon DSLR camera, one of two Amazon Kindles, and one of ten copies of my book.

Once that’s over and I’m done with my blog tour, I’ll be focusing on some new initiatives for tinybuddha.com and writing my second book. I also plan to spend some extended time in Massachusetts. “Spend time with family” is always on the top of my to-do list!

10. In one sentence, how would you describe your book?

Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions is a guide of possibilities for peace, happiness, and connection, even in a world with so much uncertainty.

To win a copy of Tiny Buddha: Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions, simply let us know what was the building block for the book. Giveaway closes 13th January.

(Hint: Look for the answer in this interview — it has to do with a social media platform!)

Update: And the Winners Are. . .

Kymberly Fergusson & Beverly Diehl! Congratulations guys. An official email is sent to you so please respond with your details for us to send you the books.

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Job security is a thing of the past, but you can regain control of your life by replacing blind loyalty to faithless employers with a commitment to your own long-term economic survival. Make this the year you commit to understanding and applying the new career management strategies that will put security and fulfillment back in your life. It’s just a question of making time in an already hectic life.

Steal Time for Achieving the Dream

The average American gets home from work, watches five hours of TV (25% of it commercials), and goes to bed, not always in that order. Give up just one thirty-minute TV sitcom four nights a week and I’ll show you how to revolutionize your life. Steal just two hours a week and invest it in learning how to make your life better.

It starts with understanding that no one cares about your survival except you, and doing something about this situation: Learn what it takes to get back to work; protect the job you have; get a better job, get a promotion; plan and execute job or career changes. Simultaneously you can begin to think about your entrepreneurial dreams. These are the issues of modern career management that you ignore at your peril.

A Successful Career Is Not a Sprint; It’s a Marathon

When you think about achieving lifetime plans, think in terms of calendars not clocks. Most people sacrifice a life of fulfillment to the whims of instant gratification because a life of fulfillment requires hard work. It’s time to start living up to your dreams, not your income.

Whatever your goals, the sooner you start towards them the better. Begin with evaluating where you are now and where you want to be ten years down the road. “I want to be president of the company” and “I want to be president of my own company,” aren’t mutually exclusive: This is not an either/or world anymore. You can pursue multiple career goals and multiple career paths: climbing the corporate ladder, building a successful business, making your living in the arts. There are proven paths to make multiple career goals come true. Others do it every year, so why not you?

Given your goals, all you need is a plan of attack that steadily takes you from where you stand today to where you want to stand tomorrow. Just what will you have to do to get from here to there? You then break those big steps down into smaller and smaller steps, until there is some small action you can take today, and every day, that will bring you one step closer to realizing the goals that give your life meaning. You can build plans and the stepping stones for the achievement in your corporate career and in your entrepreneurial and dream careers.

For Your Core Corporate Career

Become the best you can be, to secure the job you have today and to land the job you want tomorrow. Simultaneously, commit to learning the employment skills you need to survive: How to write a resume, how to turn a job interview into a job offer, and the handful of other critical job search and career management skills that you must master to survive.

For Your Entrepreneurial Career

Recognize that because paths running parallel to your core professional career take time, you must start walking towards them now. Study for that license, develop the skills that help small business owners succeed. Whatever puts the juice back in your life, start doing it.

Give up one sitcom a week on the TV to change the trajectory of your life. Don’t become a couch potato and watch life whizz by on the TV screen. Make the commitment to take control of your destiny by learning how to survive and navigate the twists and turns of an increasingly volatile professional life. Give yourself to achieving the dream that brings you joy, and the strategies that will ensure your economic survival. It can be done and you can do it.

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What’s your success plan for achieving the dream in 2012?

Photo by pheαnix.

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You can achieve your goals faster, and with fewer struggles.

Society consistently rewards those who master peak performance. When you have the extra “oomph” that gives you superior results, people are quick to give you respect, admiration, and power.

The world is a competitive place, and so when you don’t know how to focus, you get left behind by those people who can, and we also know that slackers often get the lowest status within our competitive society.

I know that you’ve always known that you can do better for yourself.

If not because of the “feel good” clichés that pervade pop culture, perhaps you’ve known about your true potential on an intuitive level.

But sensing your potential and living it are two different things. And bridging the gap between these two things is the subject of this post.

How Much Is Optimum Anyway?

You may have heard about the 80/20 rule.

Simply stated, 80% of your results almost always comes from 20% of your effort.

After “geeking out” on this principle for a while, it occurred to me that if 80% of my productivity came from 20% of my actions, I could choose to focus all of my energy on the 20% — and this could result in a 400% increase in productivity.

But in order to accomplish this, I think there are 2 keys to achieving this optimum state:

1. Motivation. Motivation is the fuel that drives any achievement, and even if you think you’re motivated, are you really?

There’s one thing that’s more motivating that any other, and that’s life and death.

You can choose to perceive that you have everything to gain by achieving a goal and everything to lose by not, and this can push you in the direction you WANT.

2. Accountability. Accountability works incredibly well to create results, because sooner or later you will screw up. Humans are incredibly talented at conning themselves out of doing what they know they should do. When you have someone else keeping you on track, you will be much more likely to stay focused and get what you need to do.

How to Stay Motivated:  Set a Powerful WHY-Goal

Even as you work that is very important to you, you drag your feet with sloth-like ambition.

Why?

Because you haven’t programmed your mind to really understand that your goal is critically important.

Any student procrastinating with their work knows exactly what I mean.

If you want to high levels of motivation, you’ve got to be crystal clear on WHY you’re doing what you do.

Even beyond that, paint a picture so that you have everything to gain if you succeed – and that’s the basic premise of a WHY-Goal.

Tony Robbins often talks about “getting leverage” on yourself. This is a similar concept.

Goal: Do my homework.

Why: Because every day that I do my homework gets me closer to excellent grades. This is critical because I’ll get one step closer to becoming a brain surgeon, I will be able to save the lives of thousands over my career, and when I become really exceptional, I’ll create  a new innovation in my field, and I’ll be able to change the lives of millions around the world!

If you repeat this goal daily, your mind will align itself with the goal, and it will eventually start to crave homework. You’ll know how to focus your energy.

And that’s when you suddenly start to operate on a “genius” level; productivity also becomes automatic.

How to Keep Yourself Accountable: Get an Accountability Partner

You want to meet your targeted goal – let’s say it’s working out.

If you want to get it done by yourself, you may have hit or miss success, but if you get someone who will agree to hold you accountable, you may find that success becomes much more inevitable.

You can setup an agreement with your friend so that you pay him every time you miss a workout. Of course, I know you’re going to back out when the time comes, so you would agree to it in advance.

Tell him/her,  “I need your help staying on track, and I’ve decided to commit to this, so I’m going to call you every day letting you know that I went to the gym or you take this check for $50 bucks and cash it immediately.

If you do this, you might miss one workout, but you’ll be a hell of a lot more motivated to get to the gym as long as your money is on the line!

Your thoughts on how to focus? Leave a comment and join the conversation!

Photo by striatic.

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Lifelong learners already know what’s going on in their field. They’re the ones who have subscriptions to professional journals, and they’re the ones who announce to the office the latest in technologies. Human Resources departments love them, and so they’re the ones who get the promotions.

Learning isn’t like riding a bicycle. Most people can do it, but those who are actively engaged in learning new ideas will be able to take on new challenges at work since they’re prepared to study and read up on it. If you haven’t read a book in ten years, don’t expect to be able to learn new ideas immediately.

Reading keeps your mind open, which is essential for training and moving up in a company. Showing complacence with your skill set isn’t what helps you get promoted.

Lifelong learners tend to love what they do, or they at least find some aspect of it to love. And they love the challenge, if nothing else. It’s the learners who are the innovators and the shakers.

Learn Your Passion

There is no great secret to lifelong learning. Start reading blogs from the top professionals in your field. Know what they think, and more importantly, know how they think. If you’re in public relations, subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog. Ask questions on Twitter, and look for responses from professionals. Become engaged in the conversation that is flowing around your field. Even if it’s as basic as data entry, you can start conversations on why it’s important to still have the human touch or maybe why it’s important to start training programs to do certain tasks.

You should also always follow the technological news. Technology affects everyone, no matter what your job title is. Knowing the latest software or the latest hardware will let you be the one who gives out the recommendations in the office. Many smaller companies don’t have anyone in charge of technological development. If you can become that person by default because you’re learning about them, you’re going to be in a good place for a promotion.

And Find a New One

What will get you even further than brushing up on your current career is learning a new skill. Don’t be afraid to take an online education course. Learning a new skill will help you diversify what you’re capable of, which can make you more attractive for open positions that are a blend of skills. Most jobs these days don’t require just one skill set, so it’s good to have a little flexibility on your résumé.

If you’ve been at the same company for some time and didn’t have computing classes in high school, you might want to consider taking an IT class or a web design course. You’ll want to tailor it to your interests and your job, but if you can find a class that wasn’t around when you were in college, take it. It’s going to keep you relevant and current in your job, and hopefully help you find a new one.

Lifelong learning isn’t a golden ticket to the CEO’s desk. But it is a way to make sure that your skill set matches your ambition. Going back to school or diving into learning a new skill is going to take time and dedication, but it’s well worth it.

How do you pursue lifelong learning?

Photo by Paolo Camera.

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Procrastination is something that affects people of all ages. Many college students put off studying for an exam or writing a paper for as long as they can, and then they have to pull a ridiculous all-nighter to compensate. Office workers set aside boring paperwork and avoid it until their bosses demand it at the end of the month, making them spend extra hours in the office for no good reason.

This type of behavior is not only unhealthy, but it also negatively affects the quality of your work in most cases.

Procrastination plagues us all, and in today’s world it is especially pronounced. Have you ever sat down at your computer to get some work done, but instead, ended up spending four hours commenting on your friends’ Facebook statuses and watching funny Youtube videos? With so many distractions begging for your attention on the Web, you need to be more adamant than ever these days about avoiding procrastination.

Remedying this behavior is of the utmost importance, not only for the sake of your time and sanity, but also for the sake of your success. Not getting your work done on time and handing in sloppy work to your teacher or your boss after you’ve rushed to get everything done last minute does not speak kindly of your work ethic or your ambitions. Procrastination can even affect your personal life. How many times can you cancel a movie date with your significant other because of work that has piled up without annoying them?

Procrastination is just like any other problem in life — you need to first admit that you have the problem before you can fix it. And once you admit your problem, you must remain steadfast in your intentions to change your ways.

Here’s what you must do if you want to nip your procrastinating ways in the bud, once and for good.

Weigh the Pros and Cons

This is the simplest and easiest way to get rid of your procrastinating habits. Once you sit down and see what you gain and what you lose from this behavior, it should be clear as day that procrastination is not doing anything to make your life easier or better.

The only pro of procrastinating is that you are not doing any work – you are relaxing. However, that does not negate the fact that this work needs to get done. When you are not doing the work, you are not actually freed from the work; you are just avoiding it and putting it off for another time. So, this pro of procrastination is not really much of a benefit, outside the temporary satisfaction of relaxation and not doing work.

What you might not realize is that the less you procrastinate, the more time you will have to relax. The cons of procrastination heavily outweigh the pros. When you are putting off doing work during the time in which you are supposed to be getting work done, that means that you are not only wasting that time, but you are also cutting into your relaxation and enjoyment time, which will now have to be used to get this work done.

Sitting in the cubicle and reading Twitter posts all day might seem more fun than working, but now you are going to have to make up that time. So even though it seems that you have more time to relax when you are procrastinating, the truth is that the more you put off things, the less free time you actually have.

Get Organized

Now that you have realized that nothing good can come of this, it is time to get organized and change your ways. Whether you have regular working hours or you are a student, you have a schedule. Make sure that you are aware of this schedule and map out your obligations. If you are working 9 to 5, get all of your work done in that period.

If you have two hours to study after classes, make sure that you use this period of time to study. Recognize when it is that you should be working and then make sure you are ready to work at those times.

Make a Plan

Once you are aware of what portion of your day should be allotted for getting work done and what part of the day should serve as your free time, now you have to make a plan for the constructive use of your work time. Making lists is a very good thing to do. Map out all of the obligations that you have for the coming week.

Once you have all of these tasks on paper, take a look at them and figure out how much time you will need to do each of them. This plan serves as a reminder and it should be followed as closely as possible. By now, you should be fully aware that sticking to this plan is what you need to do in order to improve the quality of your work and the quality of your life as well.

Reward Yourself

Sticking to the plan is made easier by giving yourself rewards for reaching your goals. For example, you are a blogger and you need to write two blogs today. You know that it takes you two hours to write one blog, so you will need four hours of continuous work to finish what you have to do for the day. If this is the case, set aside five hours.

Finish one blog post, then reward yourself with an hour of off time for surfing the Web and relaxing. In this off time, call a friend and ask them if they want to grab a drink at the bar in three hours. Now you have obligations, a plan and a reward looming in the distance once you have finished. Get the second blog post done in time to meet your friend, and then reward yourself with a night out.

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By realizing the benefits of getting work done on time, making a plan, completing your work on time, and then reaping the rewards of your hard work in the end, you are conditioning yourself to expel procrastination from your life forever. Now get back to work.

How do you deal with procrastination? Share your tips with us.

Photo by SuperFantastic.

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When put to good use, our valuable skills help increase our income, connect us to a closer network and ultimately deliver extreme personal satisfaction. The money may not be enough to make us financially free, but if we persevere, chances are one opportunity will lead to another, and before we know it a new wealth of options come knocking on our life’s door.

Start Freelancing in Five Steps

We may have some really useful commercial skills, but fear, uncertainty, reluctance and simply our perennial habit of delaying things always get in the way. Why the hesitation? Perhaps the following five simple steps will help you to do what you want to: Start freelancing while still engaged in a full-time job.

1. Outline your goals.

The word ‘freelance’ should never trick you into believing that this is not a serious business. Always bear in mind that great achievements begin with small steps. First, outline some of the goals you want to achieve by going freelance. These goals include financial, personal, business relationship and other relevant aspects of your life.

You have heard it; goals should be SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. For instance, Stuart aims to generate a consistent 20% surplus of income through his freelance fitness coaching after eight months. Zack anticipates accumulating a total of 100 leads and converting a minimum of 10% of them into clients within a half-year span for his business writing projects.

What about your freelancing goals? Get that pen and note pad. Start writing.

2. Allocate your time. Add discipline and consistency.

Working in a full-time job means that time is a major constraint. Finding the time to freelance can be a real pain and requires a delicate balancing act. Nevertheless, many people who have been extraordinarily successful in their chosen field have proven that this balance can indeed be attained.

Best-selling novelist, John Grisham, was already an excessively busy lawyer when he wrote his first novel, A Time to Kill. To accomplish his goal, he woke up one hour earlier every day to write his novel before dashing off to work. That 1 hour may not seem too significant, but when discipline and consistency are added to it, some magic will eventually take place. The combination of these elements has proven to be potent; to date, more than 250 million copies of Grisham’s novels have been sold worldwide.

3. Small marketing to big.

No business runs without customers. And customers don’t come without the right marketing and promotion. As a start, tell your closest friends what you have begun freelancing and that you are available for hire in case they need your services. Get the word-of-mouth going. Be slightly generous; as a newcomer, customers will not expect you to charge premium fees for your work. But as your business grows and your confidence increases, always be poised to restructure your pricing.

Next, position your business for a new level of marketing tactics. Rope in the next generation of business platforms that include websites, blogging, emails, social media marketing and so on. Break down that geographical barrier and reach out to global customers from the U.S., Europe, China, Australia etc., no matter where you are based.

4. Monitor your work performance.

As your freelance business grows, money will start pouring in. But this will not come without its so-called price. More business means more time and more commitment. The time and attention to your full-time job may be jeopardized if the level of freelance work crosses the boundary of your own capability. Be warned.

It is imperative therefore for you to ensure that your performance in your full-time job does not downgrade with the growth of your business. Discuss with your superior on a periodical basis to ascertain whether you are delivering what is expected of you from your employer. Where necessary, outsource some work to other parties while still exercising quality control and final delivery.

5. Is it time to quit job now?

There may come a time freelancing totally outgrows your full-time work. The business income may have doubled your monthly salary and your forecast for the next three years indicates that the freelance business is set to scale new heights. Perhaps it is time to write that resignation letter, say good bye to the day job, and jump onto the entrepreneurship bandwagon full-time.

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Have you taken the plunge? Share your tips on how you started freelancing.

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For example, I can tell you that on average I sleep 7 hours and 14 minutes a day and I spend on average 87 minutes a week running errands. You might wonder why I’m doing this. The reason is that I want to be on the fast-track to success. One of the ways to reach my destination faster is by maximizing the time I have at my disposal. In other words, by time saving.

Over the months of tracking my time I wanted to figure out ways to shave minutes of certain low value activities so I could refocus that to more important matters. The list of time saving tips below is the one I’ve done myself to free up time, and I have redirected those minutes and hours to work and personal projects.

21 Time Saving Tips That Work

1. Check your smart phone in line – Waiting in line is a waste of time, so use this time to check your email, respond to text messages or participate on social media.

2. Automate your monthly expenses – Stop paying bills through the mail and switch to paying your expenses online. If you are already doing that, the next step is to automate your payments and set a time once a month to review all your monthly payments.

3. Maximize your commute times – Read a book, listen to audiobooks, call people, email or get other work done.

4. Eat your frog – The first thing you do in the morning is the task you dread the most. Brian Tracy coined this term and he got it from the saying: “If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long!” By doing the dreadful task first, the rest of the day is going to be easy in comparison.

5. Stop watching TV – Cut back on watching television and switch over to on-demand media. TV commercials provide little value and revolving your day around the TV’s schedule is an inefficient use of your time. You can still watch most your favorite shows on Hulu or Netflix, but at your own pace and time.

6. Learn keyboard shortcuts – Using the mouse can be slow for certain tasks which oftentimes can be done faster by keyboard shortcuts. Learn a couple keyboard shortcuts of your frequently used programs, like your browser, word processor and spreadsheet software.

7. Stick to 3 tasks – If you only had time for 3 tasks each day to complete to make your day worthwhile, what would they be? Answering this question forces you to prioritize so you spend time on important things and avoid working on things that have little importance.

8. Call people – Sometimes calling is much faster than sending emails. What can be said in less than a minute usually takes you a couple of minutes drafting an email, proof reading and then sending it.

9. Get a virtual assistant – Personal outsourcing is a great to save time because someone else can do the menial tasks you dread (and cheaper). This leaves you with more time for leisure or to do more high value activities. Examples of tasks you can outsource is online research and data entry.

10. Batch your activities – Putting activities that are similar in nature allows you to process them faster and in one batch. For example, if you need to call or text people, do that in one batch instead of spreading it throughout the day.

11. Use a calendar – I’m often surprised when I still meet people who don’t use a calendar. It is also not surprising these people tend to be late most of the time or even completely forget their commitments. Avoid this by using a calendar. Bonus points if your calendar syncs through the cloud.

12. Tame your email – Email can be a big productivity killer. Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read, check it only twice a day at fixed times and set each session to a limit of 25 minutes.

13. Stop playing video games – They are great way to relax and wind down, but video games can also suck up a lot of time. Cut it completely or limit it to one hour every week.

14. Try a different route – We are creatures of habit and we like to stick to the path of least resistance. Once we have commuted to work on a particular route, we stick to that route no matter how bad the traffic is. Have you ever considered planning a new (and more efficient) route to work?

15. Touch it once – Whenever you get something in front of you, decide right away what to do with it. Don’t let it sit around for you to decide another time what to do. Either plan, do it, delegate or delete.

16. Use text expansion software – If you are someone who writes the same phrases and messages each day, you will greatly benefit from using text expansion software. It allows you set abbreviations (or keyboard shortcuts) and the software will fill it up with text. This is great for phone numbers, email signatures, and anything else you often type. Get started with DashExpander (Mac) or PhraseExpress (Windows).

17. Protein shake – If you want to keep your morning routine short, have a protein shake and a snack for breakfast.

18. Two laptop power adapters – If you bring your laptop home and to work, it is worthwhile buying a second power adapter. This will prevent you from forgetting to pack it. Thus save you a lot of time (and headaches).

19. Clean your desk at the end of the day – Before you stop working for the day, clean your desk. This makes it easy for you to get started the next time you start working.

20. Use a password manager – Trying to remember passwords and wasting time on recovering them is a thing of the past. Use a password manager such as 1Password (Mac) or Lastpass, and all you need is to memorize one password for all your logins.

21. Improve your typing speed – Considering you spend a lot of time writing emails and documents, it’s worthwhile learning how to type faster. This will add extra minutes to your day.

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Looking forward to your comments. What are the best ways you practise time saving?

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Every day and every moment in life is an opportunity to network. You never know what the unsuspecting gentlemen in jeans sitting across from you on the train does for a living until you get to know them; I can guarantee 9 out of 10 times you would be amazed.

Recently, on a Sunday afternoon, I spoke to a scruffy looking guy at a retail store; he looked very normal wearing his DIY Sunday clothes. It turned out he owned his own record label, would have never of guessed. . . if I was musically talented or was looking to get into the industry. . . brilliant, just found a way in, charm him and ask for a business card.

Quick Networking Tutorial: 5 Solid Tips

So how do you strike up a conversation with a stranger and find out what they can do for you or even what you can do for them? I’m going to give you 5 tips on how to improve your skills and make sure you get to know the right people, at the end of the day it really is who you know in life which is going to open the right doors for you.

1. Start a conversation

Conversations are easy to start, you just need to take the right approach and be in the right environment. Stopping someone whilst their running for their train is not the right time to try and network, but sitting opposite someone on the train is.

Look for something that’s going to give the lead into striking up the conversation, are they wearing a badge that looks interesting or are they reading your favourite book? That’s your lead in, ask them what they think of it. . . instantly you’re in because you’re talking about something you have in common, this then leads you to ask more, like “what stop do you get off at?”

2. Limit personal questions

Here is a tricky one: Make sure that you’re not trying to find out how many kids they have and how old they are. That is none of your business. However using your lead into the conversation move onto what they do for a living, asking where they are heading can then move onto, “Is that where you work?”

These are simple, un-intrusive questions that are very general to commuters and they won’t mind sharing too much. Once you know what they do, think if that is going to be of benefit to you, or can you offer your service to them.

3. Sell yourself

Can they help you in some way or can you help them? This is your opportunity just to give them a little outline of what you do. “Oh. . . so your in the music business. . . I’m actually a producer.” Generally if you’ve got this far in a conversation they would have already asked what you do for a living. Now don’t try to push yourself or seal some sort of deal whilst still on the train; use this as your leverage to getting to know someone in the industry that you want to be involved with. You’ll see the benefits later.

4. Leave a lasting impression

Remember, in any conversation you have, whether you’re on the train or a networking event, leave a positive impression for them to remember you. Making a sales pitch is not going to impress them, but taking a genuine interest in who they are and what they do will.

Also, don’t forget their name! People like the sound of their own name, so by acknowledging that you know their name is often a very good way to end a conversation, “Very nice to meet you James”. This instantly makes you a better people person as you’ve taken the time to learn their name. The number of times I have met someone and 2 minutes later they have forgotten my name is unreal, I’ve thought to myself that they didn’t really care about me as a person. Remember people buy you first before your service or product.

5. Follow up

So did you exchange business cards or email addresses? Great, you’re in then. Generally this is a sign that they are impressed with you, like you and defiantly want to hear from you. So DO follow up on this and keep the relationship going.

If you want something from them you will have to be prepared to give something first. So think about how that conversation is going to go. Generally following up with a simple “nice to meet you” email is a good start and will allow you to build a platform for taking this relationship further.

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You’ve got the very basics now, so get your self out there and start creating better prospects for yourself. Just remember that not everyone wants to have a chat with you and not everyone wants to network. So if you do come across that person don’t be pushy — they are not interested.

Now again this isn’t the final edition of networking tutorial; it’s a few simple tips to get you started, put your own twist on it and create your own style of striking up a conversation. In any situation being ‘you’ is the best person you can be.

Did you find this networking tutorial useful? Let us know below.

Photo by jenny downing.

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Jonathan is a highly-demanded speaker and accomplished author, whose latest book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance, drops this week. This new work discusses the aspects of uncertainty that hinder people, as well as how to overcome uncertainty when it is holding you back. And that just scratches the surface of this incredibly motivating and inspiring book.

During this interview, the topics of uncertainty is explored — a great primer for a book that is sure to awaken many people who aren’t living to their fullest because of being afraid of what lies beyond…and propelling them forward to face uncertainty head-on.

Show Notes

• Jonathan discusses ritualization and “certainty anchors” and how they play a role in overcoming one’s fear of uncertainty.
• Is uncertainty the enemy of flow? Jonathan offers his thoughts on the matter.
• Jonathan discusses the three elements that can aid in battling the fear of the unknown.
• What is Jonathan’s favorite drink? Does he use a standing or sitting desk? Can he work with music or his silence his ally? He tells us.

If you enjoyed the podcast, please let the Work Awesome editorial team know. Leave a rating and review in iTunes. Thanks!

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