work

This interesting article on deskmag discusses the German government’s plan to force freelancers to pay a compulsory retirement ‘contribution’. Will it kill off entrepreneurship and destroy millions of independent careers? At least that’s the opinion of Tim Wessels, an IT specialist from Hamburg who has launched a petition against the so-called “Rewarding Life’s Work” law. With this law, provided it is passed, Freelancers will be forced to pay €350+ a month to support the broken pension system, on top of the €300-€600 they must already pay for health insurance (plus other taxes). Demanding that entrepreneurs fork out at least €650 a month in contributions before they earn a single cent will end innovation in Germany…

“Tom Malone, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the HBR article “The Age of Hyperspecialization,” explains why breaking jobs into tiny pieces yields better, faster, cheaper work — and greater flexibility for employees…”

The future of work 2.0

If it comes to workspace, work time, global markets or salary, the job-world is changing rapidly, especially in the developed countries of the world. For example there are some people who are not having a real traditional job anymore. People are doing freelancing or are part of the so called “gig economy”. In the past you would have gotten a simple answer about the question what they are working:

“I work in manufacturing” or “I’m a teacher” etc. But nowadays you will find a lot more complex and undefined answers, they can’t label their “jobs” properly. They will give you loads of projects or things they are or are not working on right now. Exactly this progress is raising the question of Mathew Ingram: “Are defined hours of work an anachronism that’s holding us back? Or is it freedom to work whenever we want and/or is it a trap that causes us to work more, rather than less?”

As we all have a full timetable a to-do-list is pretty practical not to forget which work needs to be done. But these lists are usually never ending. Sometimes it’s easier to avoid nonessential activities at work and keep the primary things in mind. For that a not-to-do-list can be the right choice. It helps to keep up a fluent workflow and boosts freelancers to reduce the workload effectively.

On a not-to-do-lists you would  find  tasks that are not absolutely necessary. Most of the time you just do them because you are so used to doing it:

checking your e-mails every five minutes

Freelancers adore e-mails and would love to check the in-box as often as possible. Potentially something interesting could have happened over the last five minutes. And checking your e-mails seems to be an extraordinary important part of your work, too. But in truth you check your mails to dodge the preparation of the next presentation, the work on a project or a required call. Therefore one should take certain times to look up the latest mails and answer them, e.g. before going to lunch or afterwards.

answering every telephone call

Is it really always necessary to pick up? If you don’t know the number calling or if you are working highly focussed on your actual project you can call back later. In this moments it might be better to let the answering machine pick up for you.

spending too much time with social media networks

We love our social media networks nearly as much as our e-mails. Nowhere else we can fritter away our time more easily than on facebook, xing, linkedIn or Twitter. Couldn’t resist to click on one of the links? Just turn your internet off for a couple of hours and bring you actual work into focus. After a few days it will be much easier for you to restrain from the 24-hour-networking and socializing. No one will be seriously mad at you if you didn’t like the new entry on your wall within 10 seconds after it was posted. And you will still be considered as a caring person if you reply to the mention on twitter after you returned back home from work.

always being available for your customers

Of course it is important to do your work properly. Nevertheless it is important to prioritize which customers are the most lucrative for you. Make an imaginary list which persons are allowed to disturb you while you are concentrated on your work. You simply can not be everybody’s darling and pick up the phone all the time. And keep your list in mind to avoid complications. Your customers do not need to know about this hierarchy.

not having a work-life-balance

Think about your timing at work and also don’t forget your leisure time. Business-contacts are important but should not be the only social contacts you have. So work efficiently and look forward to see your friends afterwards.

What’s your opinion: Would a not-to-do list help you to stay focussed?

not surprisingly, the u.s. is still far ahead of germany and the rest of the world in terms of entrepreneurship. this interesting chart, produced by grasshopper, compares the u.s. portion of gdp (gross domestic product) that comes from entrepreneurship against that of major european countries.

entrepreneural activity in the u.s. (as a percentage of gdp) lies at 11.3%, compared to 6.3% in germany for example. also worth mentioning is how “would-be” entrepreneurs perceive starting a new business in the current economy: according to the data provided, entrepreneurs in the u.s. feel far more optimistic about starting a new business in the near future and foster much less fear of failure.

in addition, the graphic depicts the percentage of enterprises by size, native vs. foreign-born self-employed and the overall difficulty entrepreneurs face when starting a new business.

image by theeducatedentrepreneur.com

check out the full size infographic here.

How effective do you as a freelancer accomplish your work? It can be surprising, how much you can do to work more focused on your daily business. Exploiting your full potential is most important to run a successful business and to help you with this we have summarized a few hints.

Setting your goals for a certain period of time, both short term and long term to save time is equally important as watching your health and diet. Being under permanent stress and not doing a lot for your body in terms of exercising and eating properly can influence your state of health permanently during working hours as well as in your private life.

You should as well ask yourself if multitasking is always a good thing or if it can rush you into decisions you actually need to think of a bit longer. Some people are specialists in doing a lot of things at a time some need the focus on one thing to work effective. It is crucial to find out which is best for you to find your perfect work

Some useful hints to give you an idea what can help you to work conducive to success are elaborated here.

Source: elance.com

as the nytimes reports, the workforce is becoming increasingly comfortable with the changing nature of work as it is…”becoming more temporary and project-based, with workers increasingly functioning as free agents and no longer being governed by traditional long-term employer-employee relationships…”. it’s a development that first began in the 90′s but recently gained some momentum.

a recent survey by the pew research center found that job satisfaction is highest among the self-employed. the center studies behaviors and attitudes of americans in key realms of their lives, including family, community, health, finance, work and leisure.

link:

image by fastcompany

this neat video by fastcompany provides a few helpful tipps and hints freelancers may use to make the challenges and difficulties that self-employment entails a little less troublesome. gina trapani (author) suggests time management, money, and expectations to be the biggest struggles. what do you think? what do you find demanding about freelancing?

video: freelance survival skills

The entire world is taking a break for breakfast and lunch.
Breaks are important to keep performance, productivity and creativity high, also it helps you to calm down and relax.

Scientist keep finding that it is better for us to take a couple shorter breaks during the day than just taking one long break.
Furthermore breaks should be used for seriously taking time off and not for working on minor tasks, such as checking mails. Especially when you are a freelancer working at home, don’t occupy your breaks for getting other stuff done. You will feel drained if you don’t give your body and brain some rest. You better go outside and get some fresh air, close your eyes for a little while, calm down and dream yourself off to a nice place or do some stretching to get your circulation going.

Power naps are supposed to be most effective for regenerating and reactivating your productivity. But how to power nap?
Find yourself a comfortable place to sit or lay down, take something like a bunch of keys in your hand and relax your arm. Close your eyes and give in to sleepiness. After around 5 minutes you’ll be relaxed and your keys will fall out of your hand. Now you have to get up immediately and do some stretching, otherwise you’ll be even more tired afterwards.

After power napping you’ll feel refreshed and ready to start over again!

Are there any other suggestions how to get back on track during your working day?
Feel free to share!