Happy Earth Day! If you’re reading this right now from a screen in your home or somewhere else that is NOT an office, congratulations! You’re saving the world!

To thank you and get you thinking about all the ways that working at home helps to conserve Earth’s resources, the authors of Undress For Success—The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home are offering a free download of the book’s introduction as well as the chapter, “What’s In It For Me” which, among other things, shows how employees can save up to $17,000 a year by working from home.

Saving the Earth (and money!) while making a living.

The free download is available today only! Wednesday, April 22!

According to Kate Lister if those Americans who held jobs that could be done at home worked at home just half the time, as a nation we could reduce Gulf Oil Imports by almost 60% and eliminate the greenhouse gas equivalent of taking 15 million cars off the road for a year.

Undress for Successis a comprehensive guide to all aspects of telecommuting - from working remotely sometimes in your current job to full-time eWork, to starting a business from home.

Click here to access the sample chapter: http://undress4success.com/store/undress_for_success_the_book/

And if you would like tips about working from home yourself, or advice about how to manage telecommuting for your business, see Listers website: http://Undress4Success.com

Image Credit: Tanya Ryno, Flickr

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)

We end this week with 69 Writing, Blogging, Editing and Translation Jobs.

That’s a total of 154 writing, blogging, editing and translation jobs - not too shabby considering Monday was a major holiday here in the States.

If you’re new to applying for freelance writing jobs or need a refresher, How To Apply For A Freelance Writing Job may help.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

I just realized I’m tired. Maybe I’ve been busier this week than I thought, or maybe feeling more stress, or, or, or… who knows, exactly. But as I wait for a call from a client, I realize I’m tired!

You know what? After the client calls, or doesn’t (sometimes they don’t), I’m taking a nap. I might take the rest of the day off.

Given how much I’ve written this week, it’s possible I’m more drained than tired.

Whatever it is, I’m not going to fight it.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

Darren Rowse, the prolific blogger at problogger shares how he gets more done than I ever intend to in a post called: How Batch Processing Made Me 10 Times More Productive

Actually, when I really look at his list, I see some similarities in my own productivity. It’s not at all unusual for me to write three or four thousand words on a book, another thousand or so on a second book, and do three or four blog postings of maybe 400 words each. I also take phone calls, handle email… not as much as he does, but in the hunrdeds including the spam I delete. With luck, I’ll moderate about 80 comments give or take tonight - far more than usual, but fun.

And I now live by myself (well, with MzTiz the kitty) so I don’t have the same sort of family obligations he does. But I do have house work, friends, etc., etc. I don’t do nearly the social media things he does… I know how to twitter and I don’t. Although I’ll probably teach a teleclass in the next month or so, it isn’t on my plate right this moment.

I think Darren is right about batching. I think I’ll work at doing more of it, particularly around the blogging. While creating a blog entry doesn’t take a ton of time, I can see it would be great to get a bunch of them out of the way.

I don’t think I want to be as busy as Darren, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pick up tips from him.

So, do you batch your work? Does it seem like a good idea? How busy do you want to be?

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

One of those things I’ve always been puzzled about is why so many employers seem to want to watch the writers they hire write. You know what I mean. You’re reading an ad for a writer, realizing you’re perfect for it until - WHAM! - there it is - ON SITE ONLY.

In other words, whoever has posted the ad has limited their pool of potential writers to those who live within commuting distance, and those who are willing to spend the time and the money to commute to and from the job so they can work in someone else’s office on someone else’s computer. All so, as near as I can tell, the employer can watch you write.

Now there probably are some writing jobs, and certainly some editing jobs that work better when you’re on site. I think about a newspaper where at least the editor needs to be there… or does she? Maybe not all the time, but often enough to make sure things are on track.

There is a certain energy when the staff of a publication gathers together in the same room to get the job done. It can be creative and wonderful or stultifying and awful.

Allowing for those possible exceptions, why would an employer insist I or any other freelancer come into the office? Particularly when I know that good freelancers can get the job done in way less time if they are allowed to work in their own space and schedule their own time. Besides, when I’m writing well, all you get to see is me focused on the screen and fingers tapping the keyboard… sounds rather dull to me.

My hunch is that the real reason is the managers who think they need to watch folks write are afraid. They are afraid the writer won’t write or that they won’t be able to control the writers time. Controlling people’s time must make some feel powerful somehow. I don’t totally get it - I don’t want to control anyone’s time. I don’t want power over people - the few times I’ve had it I’ve found it incredibly boring after the initial rush.

I have, once and awhile, had some success convincing someone to let me go home and work, but it never seemed to last long. Even though I was getting the work done they either wanted me back in the office or to find someone who was willing to show up there regularly.

So, I don’t get it. Do you? Are you an employer who can tell us freelancers why you want us in your office? Are you a freelancer who has cracked this particular code? Let’s talk about it.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

Just posted 46 new freelance writing and editing jobs. Which brings our total this week to 137 freelance writing and editing jobs.

Again as I page through the listings I’m struck by the number of full-time jobs for writers and editors. There are even a fair number of so-called freelance writing jobs that require you to go to an office.

In other words, there is work out there for writers - go get ‘em!

And subscribe to Abundant Writing News to get notice of all freelance writing jobs posted.

Write well and often,