When You’re Not Getting Things Done, You Are Doing *Something*–What Is It?
When I first started coaching, running events, corralling writers for a website, and interviewing a lot of people for positions in a short period of time, I felt like a high school teacher.
I was receiving excuses right and left, insignificant and grave, for all sorts of things.
Event space managers delay getting me contracts because they’re sick (and apparently have no one else in the office of the major hotel they work at?), sponsorship chairs for conferences aren’t available to get me a sponsorship contract for months, and writers get me overdue in two weeks rather than two days because… well, I don’t think they actually even bother to explain themselves (and correspondingly aren’t due to be receiving any new assignments).
How to Be Your Own Unerring Sounding Board for Any Freelance Problem
What is up with the mismatches between our to-do lists or our freelance goals and what we actually spend our time doing?
I personally hate when I get to the end of a day or week, look at my three MITs (“most important tasks”) and find that I didn’t do them, because I did other things that matter that I’m glad that I got done.
On most occasions, I don’t regret swapping the goal line, and I’m happy with the things that did get done as they were necessary, but there’s feel this twinge like, “Why couldn’t I forecast this better? Why is it so hard to know what the right things are at the beginning of the week?”
It’s typically much easier to see these situations with some clarity when they happen to someone else, though, am I right?
As Sherlock Holmes Says: When Inconvenient, Do It Anyway
There’s a Sherlock Holmes line that gets repeated in nearly every adaptation verbatim. It’s a note from Sherlock to Watson:
Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.
They always find comical ways to make the letter arrive at the most inconvenient times. And Watson does always come right away, out of loyalty and curiosity (though often tempered with a fair amount of annoyance ;)).
What “Impossible” Things Can You Do Next Month?
What do you tell yourself is impossible?
I don’t mean the quite difficult things, like base jumping, becoming a competition-level ballroom dancer, or learning a new language in one week.
I’m wondering more about the things that you just don’t allow yourself to imagine as possibilities. The things that stop you building a flourishing business.
Sometimes they hide in the places we haven’t travel, the activities we haven’t done, or the way we describe ourselves.
Never Write the Story First (In Case You Didn’t Know)
When I go to conferences and talk to people who would like to publish travel articles, online or in print, one of the most frequent questions I get is:
But I should write the article before I pitch, right?
Or something like that. Some variation on the crazy, horrifying spread of misinformation out there that makes people think they should work many hours for peanuts to be published on some random travel website.
Are You Wasting Your Best Hours By Not Energy Mapping Your Day?
I literally track every minute that I spend on my laptop using a time tracker. Not because I am a particularly micromanaging person. But to make sure that what I think is happening or is possible is in line with reality.
The Incredibly Simple Secret to Successful Pitches
Successful pitches are the single biggest way to completely up your publishing track record.
But the sad thing is, it’s also the biggest area in which most aspiring, struggling, and even working writers with flourishing businesses flounder.
How to Take Notes Like a Pro: In the Words of Three Award-Winning Travel Writers
At the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference a few years ago, the group had the pleasure of listening to the Tim Cahill, founding editor of Outside magazine interview, Susan Casey, with whom he had worked for years, on the occasion of the publication of her new book Voices in the Ocean.
Never Say “I Just Couldn’t Get Anyone to Publish My Story” Again
It breaks my heart when I see writers go on a trip, come home, spend months waiting to hear about one story idea pitch to one magazine (and waiting for far too long to follow up with that editor) and then say with a sigh:
“I went on this great trip, saw this festival that only happens once every seven years, and got great photos. I know it’s a great story, but I just can’t get anyone to publish it.
My Short Formula for Writing Productivity Magic
It really all started, for me, with one travel writer.
You know the story. Writer has blog. Writer has blogged for some number of years. Writer makes cards boldly and proudly proclaiming the job title “travel writer and photographer.” Writer lands one or two gigs writing for other websites.