A handful of interesting articles worked their way through my RSS Reader this morning and I thought I would share some of them here for others who might also find them interesting for their freelance writing business. This list is not an endorsement of the content that is linked, which I may or may not agree with, but rather interesting or otherwise helpful information that made me stop and take note.
First up, is this post, which while I’m sure is not the official release, nor the original mention of the news, was the first one I happened to come across mentioning that the coming release of WordPress 3.0 might be sooner than I thought it would be.
Next is this post of 15 Lesser Known Blogs for Freelance Writers and Other Freelancers. Some of these are actually new to me, and others have been in my RSS subscriptions for awhile. As always, beware the temptation to read more about writing than you actually write. That is a fast trip to nowhere. Nothing makes you a better writer than writing, and nothing builds a writing business faster than writing. Still, when you are taking a break, want some food for thought, or just feel like you need to take another look at what is and isn’t working for you, reading some of these freelance writing blogs might be just the ticket.
Here is an update about Elance which some freelancers are fans of, and some are not. I wrote about what I thought of the website in is Elance worth it (no caps as part of an experiment…). The latest concept at Elance is something similar to what Odesk has been doing for a very long time. I have a soft spot for Odesk because they were the first ever “bigger” website to list my writing blog as one of the best freelance writing blogs in their Top 100 Freelance Blogs list.
The new Elance feature is called Work View and it allows the client to look into what the freelancer is doing in the middle of the project. Officially, the purpose is to allow clients to provide timely suggestions and updates. The writers, however, feel like they are being spied upon or checked up on, which most freelancers hate. I’ve always said that if you are a freelance writer being paid by the hour, then your employer or client has a right to demand that you actually work the hours paid for. How the client and freelancer choose to verify or not verify that data is up to them. On the other hand, if a freelance writer is paid for the project or even for parts of the project, then the client is only entitled to accountability for the delivered project. How much, how little, or how often, or not, the freelancer works on the project is immaterial because the amount the freelance writer gets paid is the price for the product, not for the time. This is why I strongly prefer to be paid by the project. Anyway, the guys over at All Freelance Writing are very upset about it.
Finally, comes a small note. Lately, it has become trendy to bash multitasking after a pseudo-science research study declared that multitasking hurts productivity. Here is an article at a site that I generally respect that delves into the same subject with a bit more finesse than usual.
Folks, everyone multitasks all of the time, every day. It is the way the human brain is wired. If you don’t believe me, just try and only hear one thing in a room that is not soundproof. That guy giving the presentation isn’t the only thing you hear. You hear all of the coughs and the sneezes too. Taken one step further, if you are writing notes, while listening, while looking up at the awful PowerPoint presentation, you are multitasking. The key is to multitask properly, not to stop doing it.
I’ll be expanding upon my views of the benefits of multitasking in the future, but for now, remember this: eliminating distractions is good, tunnel vision is not.