Recently, I attended a Barcamp for web workers, where I popped in and out of two groups discussing Getting Things Done (GTD). There was a beginners’ group, and one they called “Kung Fu GTD,” for the hardcore efficiency crowd. Despite not being a GTD user myself, […] Read more »
Quite a few folks are reporting problems in getting the Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update installed and working properly on their officially supported Macs, while “hackintosh” netbook users are finding they’re getting dramatically improved battery runtime with 10.5.7 — one of those ironies. I’m still waiting […] Read more »
Much as we wish it wasn’t true, on occasion we take on a contract that gets us in over our heads. Especially when just starting out, and/or we’re unfamiliar with the field or industry we’re working in. Obviously, realizing that you can’t deliver what the client is expecting, and what you originally agreed to produce, can be a very stressful experience. It may even seem like it’s the end of your professional life.
It mostly likely isn’t, so don’t panic. There are steps you can take to mitigate the damage and come out as clean as possible on the other side. Read more »
{"source":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/tag\/tips\/page\/2\/wijax\/b959f4af7e82222223ac4cb50ea2d81d","varname":"wijax_82cc8a6358d789107f4c4e32c9652953","title_element":"h2","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Ch2%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fh2%3E"}
It’s Friday! It’s 4:50 p.m.! You’re about to kick back and breathe a sigh of relief, happy to forget about work for the next 48 hours…
Wait a second. Before you escape into the blissful freedom of the weekend, take a few minutes to prep things for next week. I know it may sound crazy right now, when you’re about to shut down the lappy and start up those Friday night plans. But you’ve still got 10 minutes before you wind up for the day — why not spend them productively? Spend a little time getting organised now, and you’ll be thanking me come Monday morning… Read more »
Recently, I was commiserating with a friend looking for a new job about the unpleasantness of that task. I remembered the hours of fruitless toiling, sending countless resumes off into the void, along with unique, individually tailored cover letters for hundreds of positions. Days that first […] Read more »
Web workers are often hired on on a contract basis. The benefit, and the failing, of contract work is that it is not permanent, and almost always ends. Sometimes you may have ample warning of a contract’s end date if you’ve established a set term beforehand, but sometimes the end comes unexpectedly, and you should always be prepared for that unfortunate possibility. Here’s a guide to the steps you should take when a contract closes. Read more »
A lot of people are getting into coworking in a big way, the team at WebWorkerDaily included. It’s a very nice idea, and a welcome escape from the solitude of working from home, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone wants to go out and join what effectively amounts to an office environment, having just escaped from one.
If you want to try out the coworking experience, but would rather get just get your feet wet than completely take the plunge, two might be the magic number. Find another person to work with and you might eliminate some of the isolation of the web worker lifestyle, but it won’t resemble the office job you might have felt trapped by. But who you work with, and how you work together, make all the difference when it comes to a coworking partnership. Read more »
Apple released the second version of the iPhone 3.0 OS and SDK Beta today, bringing developers a number of feature improvements and stability fixes. It’s good news for people like me who are using the beta on their primary phones — against their own good judgment […] Read more »
If you are a designer, then you know the joy of having thousands and thousands of fonts available to use in your projects. You probably are also familiar with the despair of waiting for apps to launch, font menus to draw, and the horror of kernel […] Read more »
As web workers, we probably have to endure meetings less often than our cube-dwelling counterparts. When you do hold a meeting with a client or with your teammates, either face-to-face or as a teleconference, you want to make it as effective as possible so you get […] Read more »
{"source":"http:\/\/pro.gigaom.com\/wijax\/a206c64880c8215b985ab24ebe90eafd","varname":"wijax_d269eebc26af5b39ec3c65bb7948e7ce","title_element":"h2","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Ch2%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fh2%3E"}
One of the dangers of web working is that of getting stuck in a rut. Not that people working in traditional settings aren’t also affected by this professional pitfall. In fact, web workers are probably better off than most because more decisions about how and where […] Read more »
In this post, I’m going to get back to basics. The key to successful web work, and getting paid to do it, is knowing exactly what it is you want to do, and how you’re going to go about doing it. In other words, you have to plan, you have to budget, and you have to set goals for yourself. Read more »
How to avoid your quest for the best tools becoming an excuse to indulge that most dangerous of professional vices: procrastination. Read more »
It’s hard to know what you’re going to need of your office when you’re first starting out, so I asked some fellow WWD bloggers and my Twitter followers what tips they might give to people setting up a home office. Here’s what I learned. Read more »
An introductory look at two of the key tools of the trade. Read more »
One of the things that I struggle with most when I’m working from home is wrapping up and finishing for the day. Quite often, I’ll mean to finish at, say, 6:30 pm, but then another email drops into the old inbox, or I’ll move onto “just […] Read more »
Targeting your professional development in a preemptive rather than reactive way, is not always easy. Usually freelancers and consultants just roll with the punches and learn what they have to depending on client requirements. A little forethought, though, can go a long way to making you the applicant of choice before any contracts are awarded. Read more »
I didn’t make many New Year’s resolutions this year. I cut out all those destined to fail, and instead focused on some that I have at least a little hope of achieving. A lot were work related, and one in particular applies primarily to web work. […] Read more »
You may be interested and motivated to become a freelance writer, but it’s hard to know where to start. First, you should write, but that goes without saying. How do you turn your passion into paid work? It’s not a simple process, and it involves a […] Read more »
A big chunk of web working has to do with managing your online presence. That means staying on top of social media trends, managing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other profiles, and making sure all these communities are working to your advantage. A well-managed online presence could […] Read more »
Guest post by Pete Johnson As an IT teleworker for a large company over the past 10 years, I’ve spent my share of time on conference calls. The other day, in fact, I set a personal record with 11.5 hours of them in a single work […] Read more »
Updated: I was mildly surprised by the news reported in the Wall Street Journal this morning that Google was in talks with Verizon Wireless to get its search bar embedded on the home screen of Verizon’s phones. Google would love such a deal — the company […] Read more »
jkOnTheRun — Breaking Down Dell’s 19-hour Battery Life Claims Earth2Tech — Lotus Builds “Omnivore” Engine for Biofuels Research NewTeeVee – YouTube Tries New Homepage Ad Format Web Worker Daily — iPhone: One Month Later Read more »
Brad Feld maintains a great blog, and yesterday he linked to this terrific post called Notes From Buffett Meeting, dated Feb. 15. The notes are from a Q&A session that Buffett gave to students at the Emory’s Goizueta Business School and McCombs School of Business at […] Read more »
Lucy Kellaway is a columnist for the Financial Times and the workplace commentator for BBC Radio’s daily Business Brief, where she serially kvetches about poor business jargon and why you should never use it. Tonight I caught her hilarious take on our latest “lethal” and “horrid […] Read more »
The key to using Google Docs (GDocs) document editing effectively is to understand that it’s a web word processor rather than an outright replacement for full-featured desktop word processors like Microsoft Word. Shift your word processing into web mode with these tips for using Google Docs, from HTML editing to wiki-like version control. Read more »
Semantic web believers including Tim Berners-Lee and Nova Spivack like to say that the social graph is part of their semantic world: the Giant Global Graph (GGG) as coined by Tim Berners-Lee. But the Giant Global Graph itself is like Dustin Hoffman’s autistic savant character Raymond […] Read more »
[qi:_earth2tech] Bob Metcalfe, the father of Ethernet and founder of 3Com (COMS), says the history of the Internet is a “rich vein to mine” when it comes to building the next generation of energy technology. He should know — he’s been researching network and information technologies […] Read more »
I’ve been a bit light on Quicksilver love lately, and for the fans out there, I apologize. (Though from some of the comments I’ve seen, there are those who appreciate this, so there ya go.) But this morning there’s a great tip that Merlin points out, […] Read more »
Yeah, sorry, I don’t really know how to title this little trick. Let me see if I can set this up so it’s clear what you’ll be looking at, before you actually look. (Or you can skip me stumbling over myself and just watch it anyway…) […] Read more »
Obsessing over all things Apple used to be a lonely place. Through the 1990s, in the “No Steve Era”, there was a seemingly small group that would discuss the benefits of CyberDog and OpenDoc, run Kaleidoscope themes to show the futuristic Copland interface, engage in live […] Read more »
Undoubtedly, everyone’s closed a file that hadn’t yet been saved, and gotten the dialog box asking if you’d like to save the file before closing and losing its contents. In most cases this is probably a nice reminder, but there are enough occasions where I was […] Read more »
Any iPod owner knows that the earbuds cable gets tangled very easily. I can’t claim ownership of this great tip, but don’t recall where I first heard it long ago. Anyhow, it’s very simple to do, essentially giving the “Rock on!” hand gesture, and looping the […] Read more »
Regular reader/commenter/fellow Quicksilver guru Jono emailed this great tip for Quicksilver. If you’re a regular user of Quicksilver – especially with the advanced features enabled – you know it can act up from time to time. And while Quicksilver can be used to Force Quit or […] Read more »
James and I swung by the Pepper booth at CES, but only brought still cameras. Luckily the Gotta Be Mobile team had their roving reporter crew armed and dangerous with a video cam! Rob Bushway spends about eight minutes with the Pepper Pad 3 and OLPC […] Read more »
My man Raz asked some questions about how to tag your files for use with Spotlight. I don’t believe there’s truly a right or wrong way to do it. (Except for the way I do it. That way being the right one of course…) Here are […] Read more »
Now that Lafayette has approved its own fiber plan, it seems BellSouth, the incumbent, is blaming the Lafayette Utilities for cutting its cables. This is the second time in two weeks this has happened. Lafayette Pro Fiber blog says, “We go for years without cuts like […] Read more »
Follow @gigaom for more stories like this.
You're subscribed to our newsletter. If you'd like, you can update your settings
