Freelancing overall is much more sustainable than onsite working. Working from home means fewer excuses for fast food, less transportation-related pollution, and less money spent. But even so, there are ways to shrink your footprint and lower your impact on the environment by making a few easy changes. Here are 4 things you can do as a freelancer to be even more sustainable.
Read more4 Words You Need to Cut to Strengthen Your Writing
I’ve always believed that the best writers can say the most using the fewest words. That being said, every writer has a different voice and style, and not all of those styles value a minimalist approach. Some writing styles are wordy, descriptive, and very much the embodiment of maximalism. And that’s okay, too.
What every writer must remember, though, is the difference between descriptive wording and…
Read moreHow to Be a Minimalist When Your Partner Isn't One
Minimalism is not an easy path to take when you’ve been raised to not only value material possessions but also attach your favourite memories to them. It can be a challenge to look at your belongings objectively, get rid of unused items, and control your impulse to buy all the pretty new clothes that come out every season. And it becomes even harder when you have a partner who…
Read moreHow to Brand Yourself as a Freelancer
Many freelancers don't like to think of themselves as a brand. After all, we're selling ourselves and the services we offer, not a product, and it's a lot tougher to brand an abstract concept than it is to brand a concrete one. What makes it even more difficult is that freelancing isn't the same as owning a business. A business has a name, a logo, and a target customer in mind, and this is why I advocate approaching freelancing in the same way you would a business.
Read more5 Books That Every Writer/Editor Should Own
It would be nice if there was only one writing style across all English publications, but life is never that easy. Ideally of course, if you're a freelance editor, you would want to own a copy of every style guide, because you will often have to edit according to every client's respective house style. but that can get costly and confusing.
Read more4 Apps to Help You Stay On Top of Your Social Media Game
I've never been very good at social media: I don't like posting selfies, and I'm way too embarrassed to be seen taking pictures of my food in public! So, when I started working for myself and realized a big part of marketing in the millennial is done through images and over social media, I had a few panic attacks before I seriously considered going back to working for someone.
Read moreBe Your Own Editor
In the fast-paced, content-congested CyberWorld that is today, quantity often supersedes quality. The pressure for a company or publication to post as much if not more content than its competitors generally results in them overlooking the quality of their content. I totally get the pressure for small business and solopreneurs to keep up with the big companies who have the resources to get exponentially more work done in the same amount of time, but I don't think it's beneficial for any company to overlook the quality of their content just for the sake of putting something out there before the competition.
I also get that many startups and small businesses don't have the budget to hire editors for every little blog or social media post, so they might get that employee with the English degree to do their editing. Though I still advocate the use of professional editors for the important content, this is the most basic checklist you'll need to "be your own editor" and ensure that no matter how tight your budget or deadline, you can at least rest assured that you've checked all your boxes and put out your best quality.
(You can also download the file at the bottom of the page.)
How to Maintain Your Business's Social Media Presence While You're on Vacation
I just spent the last ten days in Florida.
Except I wasn't on vacation. Not really, anyway.
Even though I was in another country, lying on the beach most of the time, I still feel obligated to fit in my 8-hour workday responsibilities, which was extremely difficult given the allure of the sun and the on-average 29° temperatures and my parents' constant reminders of how pale I am.
I had a hard time staying on track with my typical daily routine, and I'd have to have been delusional to think I could follow my strict schedule to a "T" in vacation mode. So how do some people do it? How do they go away for weeks at a time and manage to maintain some kind of social media/business presence? I've compiled a list of ways (and subsequently a short rhyme, because things are better when they rhyme) to help you stay on track with your work responsibilities when you go on vacation.
Schedule
Properly scheduling your posts isn't just about knowing what you plan to post on which days, but about having those pictures, blog posts, and hashtags ready to go so you can get them over with in less than a minute. Sure, some people are actually organized and plan these things ahead of time already, but some of you must be like me: waiting until the last minute then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh yeah, I need to post something today!"
While I do schedule photoshoot days where I get a bunch of flat lay shots, a few selfies, and a few other content pictures out of the way, I don't actually plan which photos will be posted on which days. It's the same with blog posts and Tweets; I don't plan specific days to post, I just post as soon as I get to it.
With a regular structured schedule, it's not a huge deal if you're planning your content day-by-day, but by planning ahead, you can go on vacation and actually enjoy your vacation without creating unnecessary stress everyday that you're away. (After all, you're supposed to be forgetting about work.)
Create
Sometimes I'll have a few days-worth of posts ready and just as I'm about to post, I'll look at a picture and decide I hate it and have to find something new. Tastes change and sometimes what you had planned doesn't feel right in the moment. Try to have some extra content ready to post in case you decide at the last minute you really don't want to post that workspace picture, or you've suddenly decided you hate that selfie you were going to post.
Despite having my entire social media scheduled while I was away, I think I changed every single post I had planned anyway. I don't write blog posts very frequently, but it would be the same idea for someone who likes to post on their blog once a week: have more finished posts than you need, so you have options when the time comes to post.
(How many times do you think I can say post?)
Incorporate
To me this is kind of the lazy man's way of staying on top of things (so naturally, the way I do it). It's like "I ran out of ideas for what to post, so I'm just going to wait until I'm on vacation to post pictures from my trip"--and that's totally valid! I find it's actually very effective and that travel pictures garner more engagement than other pictures do when they're posted periodically. Unless you're a travel blogger/writer, littering your social media accounts with travel pictures is very misleading of your brand (I also thing the whole travel-fashion-lifestyle Instagrammer thing is so overdone and completely unoriginal), but a few here and there is a nice and aesthetically appealing change for your audience.
Or, do what I did and write something based on your trip, like How to Do Such-and-Such While You're on Vacation, or 5 Non-Touristy Things to Do in X-Country.
When you're scheduling your posts for the next X-amount of days, for organization's sake, just allot specific days to travel post like you would any other post. I knew I wanted a workspace picture while I was in Florida, but obviously couldn't get one until I was in Florida, so I said, "On this day, I'm going to find a coffee shop to work in, and I'm going to take a picture of my workspace setup." It also motivated me to actually get off the beach for a bit to go to a coffee shop and do work.
Yes, we live in a very work-obsessed time where people work 60-hours a week and only get two weeks of paid vacation a year, but if you're lucky enough to work from home or be your own boss, I think it's important to make the most of that freedom and get out into the world once in awhile. Hopefully these tips can help you plan ahead so you can make the most of your holidays.