They say it’s not stress that causes heart attacks, but the feeling of being out of control. True or not, I find that my week is more productive, and the people around me are nicer when I take the time to plan my work. Sunday is a good day for that.
As a writer, I’ve found it efficient to gather my ideas first, when my mind is free and fresh, to make note of them and then to returrn to them later to write.
I made this a tool to help. Come look. [Read more…]
I snuck into publishing through the back door. I freelanced first. People asked me to do things. As fast as they asked was how fast I would learn. I was sure that everyone else already knew them.
Then I got my first job as an Executive Editor, and a whole new world view came with it. I had been learning things few people knew. . . . It worked for me. I kind of liked it.
I also saw that most freelancers weren’t like me.
What I saw was that folks who had full-time jobs did more accurate work than freelancers — even when they were the same people. As soon as we hired a freelancer, that person’s work improved to the full-time work standard. That’s when I knew it was us, not them. There was something in what we were doing.
It wasn’t the work. It wasn’t the people.
It was how we put the two together.
I know how you can get my best work every time. Do 10 things, and I can’t help but do a great job for you. Really. [Read more…]
How many emails are in your in-box?
How long does it take you to find one you might want?
Do you think about that when you write an email? I’d be delighted if you would.
You may think that email is easy, but I have to tell you. I’m writing this post for a reason. In the last few weeks I’ve gotten some emails that have really concerned me with how folks are doing email business.
Here’s a quote from one:
Dear Liz,
I don’t know you. I’ve never read your blog. Would you come look at mine and see whether I can be an SOB?
I didn’t love that email.
But that’s a gross point. I’ve also picked up some finer points of managing and sending email to business associates that I bet that even you might not have run into. [Read more…]
I’ve been working on big ideas — how blogging and online communication relates to how enterprises and entrepreneurs communicate in the 3-D world. How might thinking about one help us to be better at the other? What I know from my experience and research is this.
In the act of communication, listening and reading are often undervalued, speaking and writing are often underperformed.
Execution of any process or plan, and success of any business, is entirely dependent upon clear, quick, and complete communication.
Many folks hold other people accountable for making sure communication happens.
Few people actually think about the differences in forms of communication or which is the best in a given situation.
I’ve also figured out one more thing.
If you have a blog, there’s a good chance that you may have brought blogging habits back with you into the business world. That’s not a good idea. Really.
Blogging is bad business writing. Come look. [Read more…]