Friday, November 29, 2019
10 Tips to Help Remote Workers Avoid Burnout
10 Tips to Help Remote Workers Avoid Burnout10 Tips to Help Remote Workers Avoid Burnout These days, many people are able to work from a variety of locations, thanks to the Internet. More and mora companies are allowing their employees to become remote workers . These employees are bedrngnis chained to a desk in the same old office every day, and they are able to work from pretty much anywhere in the world , as long as they have an Internet connection.But, just because you can work remotely, it doesnt mean that you cant end up suffering from erschpfung . This can happen to anyone, no matter what job they are doing and where they are working from. So, if you are a remote worker , read on to learn 10 tips on how to help you to avoid burnout.Even though you have a lot more freedom as a remote worker , you do still need to have a schedule and daily routine. Find the hours that you do your best work, and create your schedule around those hours. Be koranvers to inclu de everything you would normally do in the run of a day, including spending time with your family and taking time for yourself. Sure, there are sometimes going to be upsets in your schedule, but it is going to work for the most part. Once you create your schedule, you will know the times when you are available to take calls from your clients, employer, etc. Make sure that they are fully aware of the hours that you are available, and that you set boundaries to make sure that they dont call you outside of these hours. You need to do the same with friends and family. Make sure that they know not to call you during the hours that you will be working. Just because you are a remote worker and your schedule is more flexible, it doesnt mean that you can start slacking off. You need to set deadlines , and make sure that you meet those deadlines. If you are unable to do this, your employer may start to have second thoughts about letting you be a remote worker, and then you will be stuck ba ck in the office again. When you make promises about deadlines, be sure to keep those promises. Just because you are not in the office, it doesnt mean that you shouldnt continue to communicate with your employer and your team regularly . Everyone needs to always been in the loop about what is going on, where you are at with a project, etc. When you work remotely, it tends to be more difficult to communicate with others, as they are not able to simply walk to your desk when they need to talk to you. Make sure that you are always reaching out. Since you have the ability to set your own schedule and work from anywhere, you are free to travel. It is a good idea to get one of the various small business travel credit cards , especially if you are going to be traveling for business or working while you are on the road. That way, you will never end up stuck with no cash and unable to pay for a meal, cab fares, etc. Look for a card that offers rewards points that you can use on future bu siness trips. It is all too easy to get comfortable on the couch while you are working, and the next thing you know, you havent moved for several hours. Get into the habit of taking regular stretching breaks . If you are taking calls, get up and walk around while you are talking. Not only is this going to be a great benefit for your health, it is also going to give you energy to move on to the next task, and you will have a lot more focus. If you are going to be working remotely, it is important that you have good tech to work with. If you are working with an older laptop, you might want to consider upgrading to get the latest features and apps. If your laptop is still in good condition, someone else will want it. Sell laptop online and use that money to put towards a new laptop. It is easy to do, and everyone benefits. It happens all the time. You get into what you are doing, and all of the sudden, it is several hours later, and you havent had anything to eat or drink. It is imp ortant to stay well-hydrated at all times, and you also need to fuel your body with healthy foods. Make sure that you have a glass of water or something else to drink with you at all times, and take regular breaks so you can have snacks, lunch, etc. When you dont get the fuel your body needs, you arent going to have the energy to work. Now that you are able to set a more flexible schedule, you can get out there and actually start enjoying life more. For instance, if you want to be able to spend time with the kids when they get home from school, you can easily work this into your schedule. Or, you might want to spend a couple of hours each afternoon at the gym. When you work remotely, you can schedule your time so you get to do a lot more. One of the worst things that can happen to a remote worker is that they often end up shutting themselves off from the outside world. After all, a remote worker doesnt ever have to leave their home, and it doesnt take long before they have become a hermit. Take time each day for to be with others. Go out for a walk with a friend. Call someone on the phone. Reach out so you dont end up burning out from the lack of human interaction.
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Work Hacks 5 Free Digital Resources to Help You Get Ahead
Work Hacks 5 Free Digital Resources to Help You Get AheadWork Hacks 5 Free Digital Resources to Help You Get AheadUtilize these five innovative resources among the dozens posted daily on ProductHunt.com to help you work smarter, not harder. It seems as if there are a gazillion new apps, websites and general resources popping up online every day. While your average, hard-working professional might not have the time to sift through the never-ending flow of new product releases, the good people at Product Hunt have helped crowdsource this dilemma. New products are ranked daily by its community, with curated lists of the best new products for __, many of which are free tools designed to save you time and effort in your hectic work schedule. A concept wed likely all upvote.We all know just how valuable a new app or tool can be in making our lives more productive. Its also extremely satisfying to know about something none of your competitors have heard of In fact, swapout competitors wit h any other noun and this logic likley holds.Here are five resources that we invite you to try out. If youre in need of salary and career insights, weve also got you covered.Stay up-to-date on tech trends with Product Hunt collections. Every day the Product Hunt team discovers new, free tools, organizing their selections into collections. Each collection features products relevant to a specific work theme for example, free resources for startups.You can browse though collections and products, and bookmark your favorites using your very own Pocket via their site. That way you wont forget the tools most useful to you.Sign up to Product Hunts Daily Digest so you never miss a post or freebie. Join in on the lively discussions, or even submit your own suggestions for tools that youve found. Dont miss out on reading the recommendations and reviews that can help you find your new favorite virtual tool faster Write lightning-fast emails with Gorgias. You spend so much time responding to ema ils that anything capable of simplifying this repetitive task could instantly add hours to your workday. Discover Gorgias, an extension plug-in for your Chrome browser. To respond to an email, simply choose from a library of standard responses you can build using a simple template.Though the personal version is free, the real power is in the premium team version. You can standardize approved responses with your team in order to achieve a smooth and consistent tone throughout emails. Find and design free, beautiful photos with Stock Up and Canva.Trying to find that perfect stock image to accompany an article or presentation can take hours. There are too many sites and photos - to navigate through without a plan of action. Stock Up can be your go-to stock photo resource. Think of Stock Up as the Google of royalty-free images the search tool shows you images for any theme taken from more than 21 different stock photo sites.While were on the subject of images, graphics and design, che ck out Canva. The site allows anyone to quickly create original designs, as well as alter photos. Automate tedious documents and forms with Free Invoice Generator and Docracy.Forget about agonizing over another template in Microsoft Word. Create your invoice instantly online and download it as a PDF with this Free Invoice Generator.You can also check out the vast collection of legal documents and contracts at Docracy. The site allows you to electronically sign documents on-site to make them legally valid. Stay focused and tune out distractions with Noisli and Coffitivity.Create a curtain of soothing soundtracks to cancel out irritating sounds with the help of the web-based and mobile app Noisli. Create your very own mixing deck and select from a range of themes, such as flowing water, forest birdsong, etc. Or, if you work better against a backdrop of coffee shop sounds, try one from hauptstadt von frankreich or Brazil at Coffitivity. You can even go one step further and temporarily block websites that distract you with Cold Turkey.Check out these five resources to get you started. And dont forget to browse through Product Hunt regularly new products are released, reviewed and voted on every day
Thursday, November 21, 2019
The uncomfortable secret to finding your dream job
The uncomfortable secret to finding your dream jobThe uncomfortable secret to finding your dream jobTheres a phenomenon that happens in the beginning of biopics, a moment when, as a child, the soon-to-be famous protagonist hits a ball out of the local ballpark, sings a note she should not be able to sing, or launches an elaborately built rocket using too-sophisticated-for-her-age quantum physics.You see this in real life too, in live interviews and in magazine profiles successful person X explaining that she always knew she would do successful thing Y, that it was what she loved forever, that it shone in her face one day like a magic destiny sunbeam.When success happens like this, its beautiful and life-affirming, which is why we enjoy these stories as much as we do. The idea of a predetermined path gives us a sense of safety and security in a world that often feels random and senseless, a world in which us weirdos often feel lost.But much as meant to be love stories about the one fi ll us with unrealistic expectations about what marriage and finding a partner are supposed to look like, finding your career path doesnt always happen this way, and imagining that it will or should can leave you feeling anxious or paralyzed, wanting to crawl into a ball and hide under the bed. It can make you feel like you shouldnt even try.But I want you to try. I want you to get out from under the bed of fear and start living, so lets cut to the chase its highly unlikely that a career-path lightning bolt will hit you one day and give you road-to-success superpowers.Sometimes your career identity unfolds over years, the path twisting and turning as you learn more about both yourself and the working world. Sometimes, after decades doing something else, your brain cracks open, and you know you do not want to be a dental assistant anymore and instead need to become the worlds greatest cartoonist. And sometimes finding what you should do with your life starts simply with having the cou rage to try something else.None of this will be easy. All of it will require sacrifices that may at first feel unintuitive and even crazy. Especially if where you want to land is far from where you currently are. Especially if you are about to enter the business of reinvention.Ultimately, the process for finding the vocation I wanted and would excel at wasnt soft or calm. It wasnt worksheets or matching my personality type against a series of careers to see what lined up. Those things never turned up writer or editor instead they made me seem like a sociopath. And finding my calling wasnt even about being pragmatic and making lists of what I was good at and what interested me, what sounded compelling or fun.How I found the color of my particular parachute was by force, by taking a hard and honest look at my sadness and insecurity, what made me the most pissed off and envious, the things that I wanted to be so badly that I seethed.Follow your bad feelings and let them lead you to the BIG DREAM of what it is you want to do now. Because behind your anger and jealousy is passion, and even further behind it is fear, and these very strong feelings are what youre going to need to be fortwhrend and unrelenting and succeed at and love what you do.Is there a person in your life who makes you secretly feel TREMENDOUSLY jealous? Is there a job that makes you ANGRY?Now listen with more intention, because probably what youre actually hearing is I wish that were me. And instead of wasting all this time being jealous, sad, or pissed, you should channel that energy into transforming your life.Roll around in the world, examine what you like and what you dont, study what comes naturally to you and what doesnt. Follow your bad feelings to their origin. Lift up the rock of your envy of that girl who makes textiles/writes graphic novels/builds buildings/takes pictures. Expose yourself. Get to a place where you are vulnerable and open.In this journey of exploration, there may come a moment when what you want to do will slap you in the face, when doing this thing and imagining yourself doing this thing will feel so special as to almost be illicit, and when thinking about getting paid just for doing this thing will nearly kill you with happiness.When someone else is doing what you want to do, you will blaze with jealousy. It will burn and burn and burn inside you.Actually doing what you want to do will make you feel so afraid your body will shake, and you will want to throw up. Whether your career dream is special or broad, creative or medical or political or technical, gaining access to this dream will feel exhilarating.This is how you know youve found it.This article is adapted from Weird In A World Thats Not A Career Guide For Misfits, F*ckups, And Failuresby Jennifer Romolini. It is reprinted with permission from HarperBusiness, a teilen of HarperCollins Publishers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)