Angela Booth’s Life Stream

1. Controls information overload. Freelancers – especially writers – often have to do a fair bit of research. Information overload can be a daily problem, but when using mind maps, it’s easy to build a reference map of articles, group and regroup information as necessary.

 

I use mind mapping constantly. It's my #1 personal productivity tool. It's not too much of a stretch to say that mind mapping keeps me sane.

Currently, my favorite mind mapping tools is iMindMap; I've got two other commercial programs on my Mac and PC, but iMindMap wins. (Not a surprise, since it was designed by Tony Buzan, who's popularized mind mapping.)

I love iMindMap for many reasons; not least because the program makes it easy to write while you're mind mapping. The notes window opens up into a large word processing window, and turns your notes into HTML, all ready to paste into a Web page or blog post.

Read the above article to discover how mind mapping makes freelancers (especially writers) more productive.

For many years I created  mini proposals for prospective copywriting clients. They were less than one page in length, and took me around half an hour to create. I sent these unsolicited proposals to companies with which I wanted to work. This worked brilliantly, for two reasons. The first reason is that I could decide exactly what I wanted to write and when; the second reason is that I could decide  exactly how much I wanted to charge.

Looking for writing jobs? Most writers go about it in the most wrong-headed way possible. They scrounge the job boards and the Web looking for advertised jobs.

I wrote the above article to show you how to get the writing jobs you want, when you want them, charging the rates you choose.

Creating mini proposals was one of my favorite tactics.

1. Identify what's not working in a piece of writing

2. Write down reasons you think it's not working

3. Once you know the reasons, choose one major reason and develop a strategy to fix it

4. Start the fix!

Worried about a writing project? If you are, chances are that you'll procrastinate on the project. Don't. Start writing. As I wrote in the above article, no writing you do is ever wasted, and once you've written something you can fix it.

.... just create a plan that you think might work, and create some tasks to get you moving toward your goals.

For example, let’s say that you wanted to write an ebook which would sell 1000 copies over six months. You’d be selling the ebook at $37, so you’d make $37,000 in that six months. You plan to write the ebook in a month, then take another month to set up a Web site, and a week to set up promotions.

Want a great writing career? You can have it. There's never been a better time to be a writer.

Start by creating some goals, and then create a plan for each goal. Read the above article to help you to create a plan.

Important: a plan is just a PLAN. You can't know whether it works until you start working with it, and get some feedback. As you continue to get feedback, refine your plan as needed.