From politicians to sporting athletics to super stars, Twitter seems to be stirring up interest and addiction all at once. I’m sure that the co-founders of Twitter pictured to the left, could not have imaged how quickly Twitter would moved from a “cute” communication tool to a “must have”.

Biz Stone (L) and Jack Dorsey (R) Twitter co-founders

According to CNNPolitics.com, many politician have started using Twitter as a way to quickly communicate with their follower about the state of affairs on Capitol Hill. Real-time updates are quickly becoming the norm for many to communicate their status or opinions about various topics. Whether it’s the state of the economy, the latest trends or even the newest gadgets, Twitter is being ingrained into the process of communicating with others.

With this in mind, have you as a business owner incorporated Twitter into your business plan? With the various Twitter third-party tools available, there are many ways that you can incorporate this tool into your business. Below is a very short list out of hundreds of third-party Twitter tools:

• TweetLater.com: a productivity Twitter tool for busy people that allows you to do a variety of tasks all in one place. You can setup tweets to post later, auto follow, auto thank your new followers, post to multiple social networks using the integrated Ping.fm interface and so many more options. (Online tool)
• Twellow.com: a directory of those who use Twitter that allows you to either list yourself in various categories or you can find others according to your needs. (Online tool)
• Twitwall.com: allows you to embed your favorite videos and widgets, upload your photos, mp3 music or podcasts. All you have to do is login using your Twitter access and you have instance access to micro-blog on Twitwall. No need to setup an account. (Online tool)
• TweetDeck.com: an Adobe Air desktop application that allows you to access Twitter information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces using their application. (Windows & MAC compatible)
• Digsby.com: an instant messaging (IM) program that allows you to manage all your IM, email, and social network accounts using one program. For IM, it connects with and merges all your contacts for AIM, MSN, Facebook Chat, Yahoo, ICQ, GTalk, and Jabber. For social networks, it provides a feed of events for each social network and the ability to set status with support for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. (Currently windows compatible only)

Image: Newscom.com

Since I left the corporate world, I’ve been having a bit of a time dilemma. When I was working in an office, I had distractions, sure. But those were all within the realm of work. Trying to stay productive here at home is a little different.

So my planner and I had a come-to-Jesus meeting on Friday, during which I was reminded of everything that made me successful at managing my time when I was immersed in the whirlwind of producing magazines. Being a good employee, I responded with an outline of how I plan to use it now in my daily freelance life.

Biding My Time

I invested in this version from AT-A-GLANCE. Over the years I’ve tried a lot of them, and what I like about this version is its dual-purpose space. Each day has one-third of a page dedicated to it, with less emphasis on evenings and weekends, which is just fine by me.

The left-hand side keeps track of the hour, and of course I use that section for marking down meetings and appointments. I kinda like the fact that these lines aren’t covered in ink like they used to be at work. Now I can use them to plot start and stop times for tasks.

To-Dos

On the right-hand side I keep track of my list of tasks. I’ve never been a big list maker—I’m more the big-picture type. But no matter which way you lean, everyone needs a to-do list.

Some days, I don’t get to check them all off. I don’t waste energy beating myself up about it. What I do is draw an arrow next to it and rewrite it for the next day. I spend the time to rewrite it because I think I it helps reinforce that I will do it tomorrow. It’s helpful, too, to look at priorities here, and decide whether it’ll be possible tomorrow. If it’s a lower priority I may write the task down for a later day. When I see it then, I’m usually ready to knock it out. And it helped that I didn’t spend the days in between beating myself up about not getting it done—less stress that way.

Divide and Conquer

Most of my projects are a little more complicated than a single item on a to-do list. I find that it helps to break them down, dividing the various tasks into phases that can be more easily recorded as single to-dos. This helps me keep better track of where I am on the project timeline; plus I benefit from a more frequent sense of accomplishment because I am making progress by completing each phase.

Divvying up a project into smaller sections has a great side benefit too: I find that this process leaves far fewer loose ends floating around in my brain. Just knowing that I’ve corralled them all into one place sets my mind at ease, which means less stress. Less dropped balls too. And when it’s time to quit working, I know I can pick right up where I left off. No obsessing about what I did and didn’t do today, whether I forgot anything, etc.

My planner is always a work in progress. When I am using it properly—help me stay accountable here, folks!—I treat it like a daily diary and work it every day. I get more done, and I’m better organized. Which should keep the boss happy and leave me a little extra surfing time, right?

Do you use a planner? Any tips for making good use of your workdays? I’d love to hear from you.

-Shelley

Photo credit: happyeclair (Flickr)

Ever get an interesting assignment, land some great interviews, and then struggle for motivation when it’s time to start writing?

A freelancer friend of mine was having a crisis of this sort recently and talked about it in one of the writers forums I belong to. There were a lot of people who empathized. Because I think most of us have been there at one time or another. And you have to remind yourself that it’s normal and it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad writer.

Keyboard Motivation - Image: Flickr

But it’s certainly frustrating when it happens because if you’re a freelancer, you have to write and complete assignments in order to get paid. So in order to get things moving again, it’s helpful to take a step back and think about what might be causing the lack of motivation.

Here are some questions to ask:

1) Are you lacking motivation because you’re overwhelmed by all your notes or by the assignment itself? If so, you can chip away at a big story by breaking it down into smaller tasks. If you have the luxury of time, you can estimate how long the story will take you to write and then simply break up the assignment into manageable chunks of time over a couple days. I also strongly suggest using the Power of 15—particularly to work your way through writer’s block. Sometimes I simply read through my notes the night before I have to write a story. This works for me. Even while my brain is sleeping, it seems to absorb information on a deeper level so that I’m able able to write with greater ease and fluidity when I get up the next morning.

2) Are you afraid of making a mistake? I talked about the difference between the writer’s brain and the editor’s brain last week. Freelancers who seem to have a brain that’s wired more for editing than writing often have a tougher time tuning out the hypercritical internal committee. You know when you’ve fallen victim to the editor brain. Every time you write five words, you end up deleting four—because your internal editor is telling you that everything has to come out perfectly the moment your words hit the page. Then, your progress slows like snails crawling in molasses. Once again, using the Power of 15 is helpful when you’re trying to get past this hangup. If you try to write as much as you can against the clock, and you tell yourself that you have to hit a certain word count by the time an alarm goes off, your editor brain won’t have time to ramp up its hypercritical self. It’s the same concept as NaNoWriMo, only on a smaller scale. But it does work. And when you’re trying to get words down on a page, temporarily quieting the editor brain is a good thing. Then once the words are down on the page, the editor brain can take over again, nipping and tucking all it wants to.

3) Do you need a break? With the economy the way it is, I’d be willing to bet that any writers with workaholic tendencies probably have gone into hyperwork mode. It’s hard not to because you have to work harder and longer to find freelance assignments these days. But if you’re working too many hours and you’re not giving yourself any downtime, you’ll eventually pay the price. You’ll either get too brain tired and too burned-out to work, or you’ll wear yourself so far down that you’ll get sick. And then you’ll be forced to slow down. I’ve done the latter in the past, and it’s not fun. Working to the point of exhaustion and not taking care of basics like proper sleep, diet, and exercise will eventually catch up to you and erode your motivation over time. You are a human being, not a human doing. So it’s better to choose downtime than to be forced into it. Besides, if you’re overtired, the quality of your work will suffer and you won’t have the energy to market yourself or bring in more work. And that will ultimately kill your business.

4) Are you bored with the topic you’re writing about? This is a toughie. And I’d also be willing to bet that every freelancer has dealt with this problem at least once. The bad news is, if you’re bored writing it, the reader will probably be bored reading it. So find something—anything—interesting about the topic and expand on that. I remember when I was still a news reporter and had to cover things like planning commission meetings and sewer system stories. But if I could find the human element in the story, I always got more interested in the story. I remember once when I was covering a story about a neighborhood that continued to flood over and over again. It was a dry story until I went out into the neighborhood with a photographer and we saw how people had to live as a result of a problem that the city never seemed to adequately fix. Seeing the buckled floors and smelling the mold and mildew made the story real. So if you’re bored with a story topic, you probably haven’t done enough digging or you’ve left the human element out of the story.

So what about you? Ever have motivation problems when it comes to writing? How do you move yourself beyond the problem and into the solution? Drop me a line and tell me about it!

Photo credit: Martin Kingsley (Flickr)

Few things frustrate me more than having to wait on someone if I’ve set up a meeting, interview, or appointment for a specific time. Worse, if I never get a courtesy call letting me know they’re running behind schedule.

So I was pretty torqued today when I left work early so that I could get to a doctor’s appointment on time (to allow for bad road conditions). And then after all my troubles, I arrived only to find out that the doctor was running an hour and a half behind. Of course, the office staff never bothered to call and tell me the doctor was running so far behind. Most offices don’t. But I could have worked for the bulk of the afternoon at the office and then gone to the appointment at the end of the day.

I was amused when the nurse who took my vitals commented on my elevated pulse. “Are you upset about anything?” I paused for a moment and then decided to get honest. This is not an exact quote, but my part of the conversation went something like this: “Yes, as a matter of fact. I am upset. My appointment was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and I was on time. Early in fact. It’s now 4 p.m. and I still haven’t seen the doctor. And I left work early today to get here on time. Yes, I’m very upset. Particularly since no one on your staff bothered to call and tell me the doctor was running so far behind. So half of my workday is POOF! Gone!”

I didn’t ask what my blood pressure reading was, but I’m guessing that was elevated too. It also didn’t help that one of my meetings was sidelined earlier in the day. Or that the guy next to me on the treadmill at the gym insisted on having a loud phone conversation with one of his buddies while I was trying to focus on my running and empty my mind.

So lack of courtesy all the way around wasted a lot of my time today. And the cellphone bozo on the treadmill next to me at the gym was the reason I didn’t run that last mile tonight. I couldn’t hear myself think—even with my headphones on.

It was just one of those days. And everybody has one once in awhile. I guess it was my turn today.

But in retrospect, I actually did get a few things accomplished while I was growing moss in the waiting room today.

The point I’m trying to make here is this: If you’re a freelancer, you can always make good use of your time in a waiting room.

Here’s what I did:

1) Started drafting this blog post. Hey, I had to do something with my frustrating experience, right? At least on paper, writing helps turn bad experiences into something good. That’s one thing I love about it. So the next time you’re in a waiting room, do some writing. Or if you need story ideas or some dialogue for that fiction project, eavesdrop. You’re stuck there anyway. What else are you going to do? Read 10-year-old magazines?

2) Caught up on some work-related reading. Any time I go to meet someone or I have an appointment, I always anticipate that the other person is going to be late. So I try to maximize this time by catching up on my reading. That way, I’m not generally angry about having to wait. I look forward to those times (except for today), because I do manage to get caught up on some of my reading. I never go anywhere in my car without carting some reading material with me. Today, I was able to plow through several articles in some work-related trade journals. And that reading spawned more story ideas and questions, which I wrote down for future reference.

3) Closed my eyes. I like children. Really, I do. But not when they’re screaming in closed spaces next to me. So when the child in the waiting room started renting too much space in my head with all his wailing, I closed my eyes and tried to mentally drift off somewhere else for a while. Some people might consider this meditating. And I did manage to clear my mind for a couple of minutes and replace thoughts of irritation with something more pleasant. And then the nurse called me into the back room and I was finally rescued from the noise-saturated waiting room.

4) Took notes. I’m working on several writing projects right now. And even when I’m not working on them per se, my mind is still percolating and rolling ideas around. So as some of those thoughts bubbled up to the surface today, I wrote them down. And as it turned out, some of the reading I was doing serendipitously tied in with a couple of my work projects. The idea factory was running at full throttle today. And that’s always a good thing.

So looking back on my day today, I realize now that I actually did get a lot done. Just not in the way I originally intended. And some days (like today), the disruption in my planned schedule helps me more than if everyone would have adhered to my schedule and everything would have gone my way.

It’s a good reminder that sometimes the unexpected and the unplanned thing turns out to be exactly what you need. Today, I needed more patience. And I got a lot of practice.

So how do you maximize your time as a freelancer? What do you do or work on when you’re sitting in a waiting room? Drop me a line—I’d love to hear about it!

Photo credit: Piez (Flickr)