Many freelancers think that posts on writing are for the benefit of freelance journalists and copywriters alone. You can’t really blame them — if your trade is based on the excellent design you deliver or your skill as a programmer, then it might seem that the ability to piece words together in a pleasing and practical way isn’t necessary for you to master.

I’m a writer so my opinion might be biased, but many others in all sorts of trades and careers have discovered the value of the written word as a tool for relationship building, problem solving, and idea expression. You can learn to use the deceptively simple tool of writing to your advantage as well.

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A freelancer’s career path is rarely a straight line. Many people begin freelancing almost by mistake — maybe they were asked to write an article for a trade journal, or just placed a bid on an Elance project to make some extra money. Other freelancers get frustrated with their jobs and want to try something different. They end up loving the experience enough to stick with it.

If your career has been anything like mine, there’s a good chance you started out by focusing on a few niche projects where you felt you were something of an expert. But as time passes it’s easy to feel as if there’s a whole lot of lucrative projects on the market that you’re ignoring. Maybe you identify a demand for press release writing, but you’re not comfortable selling press releases. You need to learn more.

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Your fingers hover above the keyboard as you stare blankly at your empty document. You have an assignment, a topic, a project that you need to work on.

And you have no idea where to go from where you are.

It isn’t burnout. You aren’t exhausted, or sick of writing and wishing everyone who wants you to write something would just go away for a week

What you are is stuck. You know what you want to do, but you just can’t seem to get anything out to work on. Continue Reading

Photo by Sanzalone

Einstein once said something to the effect of, “you cannot solve problems by thinking within the same framework or mindset that discovered the problems.” The implication is that you need to step into another mindset, another level of thinking. So how do we step into another mindset, as Einstein implies we should? One possible method is mind-mapping, which arguably triggers a much more natural way of thinking and problem solving.

Overview

Mind mapping has of late become a very hot topic, with an increasing number of converts to this method of thinking, brainstorming and problem solving. It’s likely that many–if not most–of you already know what mind mapping is, in general. Do you know how powerful it can be for an endless number of creative, entrepreneurial, freelance and management uses?

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Photo by Hub :).

I’m a big fan of playing tricks on my own mind to get things done. For example, I’m the type of person who sets all my clocks to run fast by a few minutes (each clock by a different increment, of course) to stay punctual.

Recently, it occurred to me that there are a few other ways I could, maybe not exactly trick my mind, but at least play with my perception to get my freelance career moving along further.

Pretend you’ve been fired

This is one for those slaving away at the 9-5 and merely dreaming about quitting to freelance full-time.

What if that safe 9-5 job vanished tomorrow? What would you do? Continue Reading