Photo by Sphinx the Geek.

Some professions can be dangerous to your health. These include fire fighters, oil riggers, those serving in the armed forces, and even electricians. These professionals don’t take the danger for granted. They use special equipment and procedures to minimize the risk.

As a freelancer, you also spend your days doing activities that risk your health: sitting on a chair, typing, using a mouse, and looking at a monitor. Fortunately, the risk of injury when doing these seemingly safe activities for a prolonged time is becoming better known. And like those more dangerous jobs, there is equipment and techniques that help you minimize the risk.

Ergonomics is the science of work. It looks at ways of fitting the work to the user, rather than fitting the user to the work. Chris Adam’s simple definition is that “ergonomics makes things comfortable and efficient.” He goes on to say, “Ergonomics is commonly thought of in terms of products. But it can be equally useful in the design of services or processes.” In this article, we will look at both products and techniques that help.

The science of ergonomics is a very young field, and is subject to a lot of variability. Every person is built differently so it is hard to develop universal guidelines. I’d love to have your input in the comments about what works for you and what doesn’t.

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Image by j / f / photos.

Oh we so love e-mail. It’s fast, it’s a nice archive. We don’t have to get out of bed to send our first e-mail of the day (sometimes). But is e-mail the best way to communicate with your clients? Is it the best way to do business and send proposals? I don’t think so — and here’s a few reasons why.

The Digital Divide

As most of us are web workers, communicating via e-mail, VoIP and IM is second nature. The freelancer lifestyle in most cases means that we do the bulk of the work ourselves. Fast communication in these cases is crucial, but sometimes it can cost us projects. Why e-mail is bad:

Lack of emotion. Business is business, but people get emotional. No — I’m not talking about crying over your invoices or clients giving you a big hug when you finish their logo. I’m talking about the voice, the face, the stance, the actual reaction. You don’t get any of this via e-mail. Is the client really happy with the logo? Is he really that ecstatic? Does he hate your press release proposal or just think it needs a few tweaks?

Magnification. The purest form of communication, the written word. One word, one sentence can mean so many things to so many people. Find a potential client who doesn’t know (and doesn’t need to know) how to write well and you’ll really enjoy those e-mails… Continue Reading

If you’ve been listening to the podcasts here at FreelanceSwitch.com, you know that I am a sucker for nice office supplies. Anything with color, anything with a cute design…these are the things that make my office a restful, organized place for me.

But there is that time of year that stirs it all up for me—when I need to refill my planner.

Don’t ask me why, but I can never find the pages with the layout that I like. I go from store to store each year searching for weekly pages with horizontal daily planning room. Instead, I find pages with tiny one-inch columns and scores of hourly markers down the side that are ideal mostly for busy doctors. This is my challenge.
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