I was asked recently by someone how do I generate ideas for the articles I write for TechRepublic and other sites. Since my layoff in September 2012, I’ve been a full time freelance writer generating story ideas that interest my editors is of utmost importance. read more
The last six months since my layoff has been a flurry of freelance work especially article writing. Moving from the glacial drift speed of a federal government contract back to freelance writing meant I had to get organized quickly. It was back to living by my ideas again.
One of the first things I did was get reorganized quickly and came to rely on the following apps:
The anniversary of my father’s death and his birthday have passed again for another year. He was a good father, a good man, and he was my best friend, trusted advisor, and confidant until he passed away in January 2000. There were many times I wished he was still around these past few years but he left me with some good lessons I still hold true to this day.
Here is some of the wisdom my father passed onto me:
Through the Apple Recycling Program, I was able to accumulate enough Apple Gift Cards to purchase an iPad Mini. While I am quite happy with my third generation iPad, I thought having an iPad Mini in house could be helpful with my CNET TechRepublic.com and The Mobility Hub writing. At least, that was the excuse I told myself.
Here are my initial thoughts about the device:
2012 could have ended up much worse of a year than it actually did. While I didn’t make good on some of the 2012 plans, I got through the year and landed on my feet.
Here are some of the lessons I learned this year:
I was reminded recently about how much the successful management of remote writing projects relies on common sense, communications, and teamwork. Looking back over previous part-time remote projects I’ve worked on the lack of one of those elements usually made for a lot more difficult of a project.
However, I’m the first to say that communications are a two way street between the remote writer and the mother ship.
The year 2012 has finally come to an end. It wasn’t without its personal and professional challenges but nonetheless my year ended on a happy note.
I am past the three month mark working from home again and haven’t gone completely Lord of the Flies or gone total hermit yet. On the other hand, spending three years on a federal government contract might have made me a hermit. Some things had really changed since the last time I worked from home with any frequency.
Here are some observations from what I call Working from Home Redux:
The way people use Microsoft Word largely hasn’t changed much since the product initially launched. However, since Office 2003, Microsoft Office application and Word in particular have become more integrated with other applications and the cloud.
If your usage of Microsoft Word largely hasn’t changed much in the past few years even though you and/or your employer are upgrading to Office 2010 then there are some underutilized features you might be missing but could benefit your work.
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