WritingThoughts

Top Five Reasons To Work At Home

May 10th, 2007 · 47 Comments

I have decided to enter ProBlogger’s Top 5 — Group Writing Project.

The project fits nicely with a topic that I’ve been mulling over recently. That topic concerns the advantages of my work-at-home lifestyle.

Although there are drawbacks to working at home (especially when you are self-employed like I am), most of the time I truly feel that I am living my dream.

Here are the top advantages to working at home (as I see it):

1. Scheduling Flexibility.

With my work-at-home lifestyle I have scheduling flexibility that simply can’t be matched in any traditional 9 to 5 environment. If I want to chaperone my child’s field trip during the day and work in the evening, I do so. If I want to sleep until 10:00 a.m. and start my workday at 11:00 a.m., I do so. If I can’t sleep at 4:00 a.m. and I want to get up and work on my latest project, I can do it. I’ve used this flexibility to be more involved in my children’s school lives, to help care for my father when he had Alzheimer’s disease, and even to avoid the busy after work rush at local shops.

2. You Can Say No.

When I worked for a single employer my projects were pretty much determined by whoever happened to be my manager. Even if I thought the project didn’t make good business sense, I still had to give it my best shot or lose my employment. As a self-employed individual, clients contact me and ask me if I am available to work on their project. If a project comes along that makes no business sense (such as writing 1000 word SEO articles for $1.00 a piece), I can say no. Even if I say no to a project, at the end of the day I still have my writing business.

3. No Commute.

When I was working in the corporate world it didn’t seem to matter where I was employed. With a few exceptions, my employers always seemed to be located about one hour and 15 minutes away. That’s two and a half hours of driving every day. When you add it up over the course of a week the commute comes to 12 1/2 hours. If you add it up over the course of a month, that commute actually comes to fifty hours. Wow, that’s like putting in an extra workweek every single month! No wonder I was so tired.

4. No Dress Code.

Although I usually do dress for work (old habits die hard I guess), I don’t have to dress up since my office is behind my kitchen. Not needed to dress up comes in really handy if I’m behind on doing on the laundry.

5. Pets Are Allowed.

I can’t think of a better coworker and officemate than my 16-pound terrier mix. She doesn’t gossip and she’s not competing with me for the good projects. Her office attendance is perfect too, she never misses a day. She’s willing to listen to all of my work ideas without getting bored or criticizing. Besides, since she’s somewhat territorial I feel a bit safer with her around.

There you have it — the five reasons why I won’t trade my home office for a cubicle.

→ 47 CommentsTags: Uncategorized

Five Posts to Learn From

May 9th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Learning isÂ important for every writer. Fortunately, there are a lot of learning opportunitiesÂ available this week. Here areÂ just a few of them:Â

Learn about plagiarism and copyright infringement from Kristen King at Inkthinker.
Learn about the importance of saving moneyÂ from Lisa Mills at Work At Home Mom Revolution.
Learn five truths about freelance writingÂ from Anne Wayman at The Golden Pencil.
Learn how to use metaphors from Brian Clark at copyblogger.
Learn how to learn from a failed blog from Wendy Piersall at eMoms At Home.

Have fun learning!

→ 4 CommentsTags: Writing Tools

WAHM Wednesday: What Is the Best Mother’s Day Present?

May 9th, 2007 · 5 Comments

This is a bit off-topic, but it is WAHM Wednesday AND Mother’s Day is coming. I have been thinking a lot about Mother’s Day gifts lately, not for my own mother because she passed away in 2004. I am not thinking about Mother’s Day gifts for myself either.

When I say that I am thinking about Mother’s Day gifts I don’t mean that I am thinking about flowers, chocolates, or candy. Although, it is true that most mothers do enjoy flowers, chocolates, and candy.

What I’ve been reflecting on has more to do with the relationship between mothers and children.Â It has a lot to do with the relationship between my mother and me.

First of all, now that I am a mother, I have to say that motherhood has not always been what I imagined that it would be. Yeah, the picture perfect moments do come and I cherish each one. But overall motherhood is a lot harder than I ever imagined that it would be.

What makes motherhood so hard? It’s not really being on duty 24/7, although that IS hard. It’s not really being on-duty when you’re feeling sick, although that IS hard too. It’s not even getting up in the middle of the night to feed, change, or comfort your child–although that is hard.

What do I find to be the hardest thing about motherhood? It’s the constant concern that you have for your child. It’s the nagging questions that keep you awake in the middle of the night. It’s the nameless fear that your child will make a wrong choice. And yes, it’s the fear for the safety of your child.

I know that my mother had these types of fears. I can remember how, each time our part of the country experienced severe weather, she would call to check on me. If my mother were still alive I would have received that call last night because my area was under a tornado watch.

So, what is the greatest gift a child can give to a mother? I believe that it is the gift of peace of mind. It is a peace of mind that the mother can only have when she realizes that her child is now mature and responsible enough to make the right choices and decisions on their own.

I believe that I did give that gift to my mother before she died.Â The reason that I think I gave it to her is because she called me in to help with my Dad’s Alzheimer’s care. I don’t think she would have done that if she had thought that I wasn’t responsible enough or mature enough to handle it.

What can you do now to give this gift to your own mother this Mother’s Day? I don’t believe that you need to wait until your parents are elderly or one of them is ill. You can begin building this gift right now.Â No matter how old you are or how old your mother is, start building trust. Make right choices, even when it’s difficult. Choose the choices that you know would make your mother proud.

Start giving your mother the gift of peace of mind.

→ 5 CommentsTags: WAHM

Harvesting Ideas From Everyday Life

May 7th, 2007 · 10 Comments

Although most of my writing assignments come with parameters and topics already assigned, sometimes I do have the opportunity to choose my own writing topics.

On the writer’s message boards that I read I sometimes find comments from writers who are asking for ideas on what to write about. (This always puzzles me, because I usually have more ideas than I could possibly develop. Of course, as I explained earlier, I don’t usually get to choose my own topics.)

I propose that, whether you are blogging or writing web content articles, you don’t need to look much further than your own life to find topics to write about. If you are struggling or frustrated with something, there’s a good chance that other people are struggling or frustrated with it also.

(Of course, you can always go to sites like Yahoo Buzz Index, AOL Hot searches, or Google Zeitgeist to grab the popular keywords and then write an article or post based on those keywords.)

I’ve decided to show how some common events from a typical day can be used as inspiration for blog posts or content articles. So, here’s a look at some common daily routines and some article or blog topic inspiration that could be drawn from those routines.

Event: Rise and Shine (morning routine, dress, breakfast, make sack lunches)