How to Deal with Time Wasters

Time is money. It is crucial that you spend your time most efficiently,  allow yourself some downtime and get the most out of every working day.

But when trying to be time efficient, the biggest obstacles we usually face are 'time wasters'. These are the things other people do to waste our time. It can just seem like little things, like phone calls and friendly visits, but these can turn into lengthy distractions and before you know it - your whole day has disappeared.

But you've also got the added challenge of trying to prove your worth, as strangely - some people don't seem to understand that being a freelancer or business owner doesn't mean you sit around all day doing nothing. Far from it! You're probably working twice as hard than you did when you worked for someone else.

So how do you deal with time wasters? Here are top tips to help you control them...

Dealing with visitors

When we work for ourselves, many people weirdly assume we're not really busy and they'll make a habit of 'popping in' to say hello. The next time someone drops by unannounced, stand up and fold your arms! This will subconsciously send the message that you're busy and don't have time to chat. If the subtle approach doesn't work, be honest. Thank them for stopping by but tactfully explain that you really need to get back to work. You could even suggest a drink after work or a coffee at the weekend somewhere, saying something like 'I'd love to chat now but I'm always so busy during office hours. Shall we arrange something when I'm not chained to my desk?' That should do the trick.

Dealing with phone calls

Similarly to visits, phone calls from friends and family can be a huge waste of your time. Establish boundaries wherever possible by politely saying something like: 'Can I call you later when I've finished work?' Again, you're trying to subtly get the message across that you're not available during office hours. Friends and family will eventually learn to leave you alone. Failing that, screen your calls and allow the voicemail to kick in.

Dealing with emails

Keep on top of your emails by cleaning out your entire inbox every day. Make life easier for yourself by reducing the amount of clutter you receive. For instance, are there any newsletters you could unsubscribe from? Also, don't use your business email address for personal use - set up a separate personal email account. Finally, if you find yourself dealing with similar emails again and again, create some 'canned responses' so you can quickly and easily respond.

Dealing with the freeloaders

There are many people who will seek your free advice when you work for yourself. It comes with the territory. Weirdly, I never got asked for free help when I worked for someone else - but since launching my own business five years ago, there have been many freeloaders wanting my skills and experience without having to pay for it. How do you tackle these types? Well, I used to help them all - but then I realised how much of my time and energy was being hijacked. Life is too short. Don't feel guilty about turning people down gently and politely saying no. You will feel liberated when you realise that you're not doing anything wrong by taking back control of your work and life. Read my tips on When and how to say 'no' when freelancing.

Dealing with friends who want free favours

Speaking from experience, 'helping' friends never works. You'll end up losing their respect and they'll keep coming back for more and more of your time. This can essentially destroy friendships as you give up your valuable time to work for free. It can leave you feeling bitter and disappointed with them. Bottom line? Don't mix business with pleasure. If a friend asks for help explain that you'd have to treat them like any client and charge for the work. But then say how you don't want to work for them anyway, because you value their friendship and don't want to ruin it. These days, I always decline and change the subject, explaining how I don't like to talk about work with my friends. Sounds a bit blunt - but you have to get in the habit of saying no and not feeling bad about it. Besides, if a friend kicks up a fuss - then they're not really a friend at all are they?

Dealing with clients who never intend to hire you

When you've worked in business for some time, you'll be able to smell these types a mile off. They're the kind who approach you and want your 'help', promising big budgets and all the rest of it. All you have to do is put together a kick-ass proposal, full of creative ideas on how to solve their problem. But lo and behold, they never hire you - and weeks later, you discover they've stolen, sorry 'used' all your ideas. Get wise at spotting the signs - they normally don't reveal how much budget they have to spend; they normally don't bother with an initial meeting and they're normally very vague. Read my Tips article on How to spot difficult clients before it's too late for some extra pointers.

How to start and run your own successful arts, culture or creative blog

With so many amazing arts, heritage and creative blogs out there already, how do you make yours stand out? How do you get people returning for more, and how do you increase visitor numbers and build a loyal following?

There are plenty of tips and tricks to get your own creative blog rocking and therefore raising your profile and helping you to win more business. Here's my top 20 tips for a successful creative blog, but if you can think of any more, please comment below and help me make this the best list on the web.

Getting started

Choosing a blogging platform is your first challenge. There are lots of free options out there including Wordpress, Tumblr, TypePad and Blogger. All of them offer free design themes so you can customise your own blog so it's very easy to get started. And if you're not sure how to use them? There's plenty of online video tutorials to be found on the web – for example, Wordpress has its very own lesson list to help get you started.

Consider integration

From an SEO point of view, it's worth getting your blog integrated with your existing website to build content and make the search engines love you even more. After all, SEO (search engine optimisation) is all about content. But if you're not able to do this or can't afford to hire a web developer to sort, then start a free blog and make sure you include links to your main website or other links, for example to your artistic portfolio.

Find a niche

When choosing a creative topic to blog about, try and find a niche. Make your blog about something very specific and you'll please both the search engines and your readers. Try not to be too general and really focus on one specialist topic and stick to it. Find your own niche and go for it – just remember to stay on topic.

Write about what you love

Write about something you love, otherwise you'll show no passion in your writing. And if there's no passion, your content will suffer, so find a topic you are comfortable with and only write about that. For example, if you're a museum curator, talk about the industry, emerging trends and other museums or exhibitions you love. And if you're a theatre director, you could write about industry folk you admire or share your working day with your followers.

Offer value

It goes without saying but if you don't provide something the public wants, your creative blog will never be a success. Give people what they're after and offer real value to their web browsing experience. What do I mean by this? Well, value is demonstrated in the content you publish. If your content isn't valuable people won't read it or return to read more. Really think about what you're putting out there and give the people what they want.

Focus on marketing

You won't get anywhere if you just launch a blog and hope that people will come without any marketing effort. You have to actively market your blog and you can do that through a variety of ways. You can start chatting with other bloggers by leaving valuable comments on other people's blog posts – this will help draw people back to your own site. Or you can make use of the search engines and write about topics that are popular in the searches, like this very feature. Or you could even offer to contribute to influential e-zines or blogs to help raise your profile. Whatever you choose to do, just get out there and market yourself like mad. There's really no excuse not to.

Encourage interaction

Get people talking on your blog. Ask them to add their comments on various articles, like I've done with this post. Encourage interaction wherever possible. Ask for feedback, respond to people's contributions, build a community and be nice. People love to interact, so make sure you're friendly and welcoming.

Make commenting easy

Just be aware that there are many reasons why people might not comment on your blog posts. It could be anything from not providing easy access to log a comment to writing about negative things people don't want to be a part of. Bottom line? Make commenting easily accessible and write about stuff that gets people talking positively. If people can interact on your blog, they'll keep coming back for more.

Don't worry about negativity

Occasionally you may get the odd negative comment on your blog. Don't let it put you off or scare you away from blogging. Any comments you're not happy with can be deleted or responded to positively. Despite what people say, it's very rare that you'll face negativity so don't worry about it too much.

Don't get stage fright and believe in yourself

Once your blog starts to get more than 1,000 visitors per month, it's only natural that you may lose confidence in yourself and your writing. Don't get stage fright and keep at it! There is a reason why you have so many visitors, so believe in yourself and keep writing fantastic content.

Images, images and more images

People love images. Some of the most popular arts and creative blogs in the world include a lot of imagery. This is partly because people love to quickly scan through web pages and they enjoy seeing photographs and pictures that help to break up text and add visual interest. When writing a creative blog, images are essential so provide as many as possible and give your audience lots of things to enjoy.

Provide easy reading

Research suggests that people view and scan web pages rather than read every last bit of copy. Therefore, try and keep your articles as easy, quick reads. Provide lists wherever possible and break up the text. From an SEO point of view, you want to provide at least 250 words of copy. But it's also good to stick to this number for your readers — unless of course you're writing an article such as this one – in which case, add in bullet points or lists because it will hold people's attention more.

Give your posts punchy titles

When thinking about things to blog about, write articles that have punchy titles: ones that people search for through search engines and titles that are appealing and catchy. You want to draw people in and inspire their curiosity.

Keep it regular

A blog is almost like an online journal and suggests a "regular" focus. Try and keep your blog updated with at least two articles a week. Ideally, you need to be blogging every single day, especially if SEO is one of your key priorities. Otherwise, just try and keep things going. And if you go on holiday, make best use of scheduling tools on your blog so you can post articles automatically while you're away from your desk.

Avoid clutter

When designing your blog — either creating one from scratch or using any of the free blogging platforms online — try and keep the layout clean, fresh and uncluttered. Avoid adding lots of unnecessary features. Keep it easy on the eye and you'll please your blog visitors and have them coming back for more.

Get social

Don't neglect social media elsewhere like Twitter and Facebook. Make sure you hook these up to your blog's RSS feed and update your followers and fans with your latest post. Twitterfeed is a great tool that automatic publishes your posts to your Twitter and Facebook accounts — great for Twitter but looks a bit spammy for Facebook at present. Test everything first and make sure you're happy with the automatic updates and tweets you're putting out there.

Keep an eye on analytics

Keep track of how people are landing on your blog and how they're finding you. You can then tailor your blog posts to your readers' needs as well as making best use of those external sources that are really drawing people in. If you invest in any online advertising, your analytics will also help determine your ROI (return of investment) and whether it's working or not. Keep an eye on your web analytics and ensure your blog is working as powerfully as it should be.

Allow easy following

Place "follow" badges on your blog wherever possible. For example, on Blogger you can add a free widget which encourages people to "follow your blog" in their own Google readers. Tumblr has something similar but this is already integrated. Make sure you provide an easy follow option on your own blog, even if it's just clear links to your RSS feed.

Get personal

Reveal more about who you are in your posts and your audience will love you for it. People want to follow people, not brands. Include an "about" section if possible and a photograph of yourself. By offering a personal slant, you'll be encouraging people to like you and by tapping into their emotions you'll encourage loyalty hence happy, returning visitors.

A really great example is Ana Kinsella, a fashion blogger from Ireland. Her Ripped Knees blog is mixed with lots of fashion news, but the personal slant is when she posts pictures of her own outfits. Stylebubble is very similar and hugely popular. Add a personal touch to your own blog.

Spell checking and proof-reading

Finally, before you hit the "publish" button, it's crucial you check your spelling and proofread your article again and again. Bad spelling will not only ruin your credibility, it will damage your SEO as the search engines won't appreciate poor copy. Make sure you check everything before you go live.

How to create a memorable and readable CV

When it comes to applying for a new job, your CV could be just the ticket to get you that initial foot in the door and secure an interview – but how do you ensure your CV is added to the interview pile rather than thrown straight in the bin?

Putting together a successful CV is easy once you know how. It's a case of taking all your skills and experience and tailoring them to the job you're applying for. But what if you don't meet the right criteria? Well, I've put together the following tips to help you get started in creating a successful CV and securing your first (or next) arts job.

Get the basics right

There is no right or wrong way to write a CV but there are some common sections you should cover. These include: personal and contact information; education and qualifications; work history and/or experience; relevant skills to the job in question; own interests, achievements or hobbies; and some references.

Presentation is key

A successful CV is always carefully and clearly presented, and printed on clean, crisp white paper. The layout should always be clean and well structured and CVs should never be crumpled or folded, so use an A4 envelope to post your applications.

Always remember the CV hotspot – the upper middle area of the first page is where the recruiter's eye will naturally fall, so make sure you include your most important information there.

Stick to no more than two pages of A4

A good CV is clear, concise and makes every point necessary without waffling. You don't need pages and pages of paper – you just keep things short and sweet. A CV is a reassurance to a potential employer, it's a chance to tick the right boxes. And if everything is satisfied, there's a better chance of a job interview. Also, employers receive dozens of CVs all the time so it's unlikely they'll read each one cover to cover. Most will make a judgment about a CV within sections, so stick to a maximum of two pages of A4 paper.

Understand the job description

The clues are in the job application, so read the details from start to finish. Take notes and create bullet points, highlighting everything you can satisfy and all the bits you can't. With the areas where you're lacking, fill in the blanks by adapting the skills you do have. For example, if the job in question requires someone with sales experience, there's nothing stopping you from using any retail work you've undertaken – even if it was something to help pay the bills through university. It will demonstrate the skills you do have and show how they're transferable.

Tailor the CV to the role

When you've established what the job entails and how you can match each requirement, create a CV specifically for that role. Remember, there is no such thing as a generic CV. Every CV you send to a potential employee should be tailored to that role so don't be lazy and hope that a general CV will work because it won't.

Create a unique CV for every job you apply for. You don't have to re-write the whole thing, just adapt the details so they're relevant.

Making the most of skills

Under the skills section of your CV don't forget to mention key skills that can help you to stand out from the crowd. These could include: communication skills; computer skills; team working; problem solving or even speaking a foreign language. Skills can come out of the most unlikely places, so really think about what you've done to grow your own skills, even if you take examples from being in a local sports team or joining a voluntary group – it's all relevant.

Making the most of interests

Under interests, highlight the things that show off skills you've gained and employers look for. Describe any examples of positions of responsibility, working in a team or anything that shows you can use your own initiative. For example, if you ran your university's newspaper or if you started a weekend league football team that became a success.

Include anything that shows how diverse, interested and skilled you are. Don't include passive interests like watching TV, solitary hobbies that can be perceived as you lacking in people skills. Make yourself sound really interesting.

Making the most of experience

Use assertive and positive language under the work history and experience sections, such as "developed", "organised" or "achieved". Try to relate the skills you have learned to the job role you're applying for. For example: "The work experience involved working in a team," or "This position involved planning, organisation and leadership as I was responsible for a team of people".

Really get to grips with the valuable skills and experience you have gained from past work positions, even if it was just working in a restaurant – every little helps.

Including references

References should be from someone who has employed you in the past and can vouch for your skills and experience. If you've never worked before you're OK to use a teacher or tutor as a referee. Try to include two if you can.

Keep your CV updated

It's crucial to review your CV on a regular basis and add any new skills or experience that's missing. For example, if you've just done some volunteering or worked on a new project, make sure they're on there – potential employers are always impressed with candidates who go the extra mile to boost their own skills and experience.

Unlock the power of Chrome - Some Tips

Some tips and tricks you can make use of to unlock the power of Chrome.

1. Pin tabs

Pinned tabs shuffle along to the left-hand side of the screen, take up less room and in some cases (e.g. Twitter), they glow if there's an update to the page. They also keep their places whenever you start up Chrome in the future. Right-click on a tab title to access the pin tab option. Pinned tabs take up less room but can still display information.

2. Log out with incognito mode

Like most browsers, Chrome has an incognito mode that disables history logging. Open up an incognito window whenever you want to quickly check how a site -- such as your Facebook page or Google+ profile -- looks to someone who isn't signed in as you. If you're using Windows, Control+Shift+N opens a new incognito window.

3. Browse files

Chrome offers a rudimentary file explorer -- try typing 'C:' into the omnibox and hitting Enter to look around.

4. Search by site

All the usual Google operators apply in the Chrome omnibox. Type 'site:' followed by your keywords to restrict a search to a particular website, for example.

5. View background tasks

Chrome is powerful enough to have its own task manager. Hit Shift+Esc to see what's running in the background (typically extensions and offline caching tools), alongside your open tabs, and how much CPU time and memory space each one is taking up.

6. Hide extensions

If you want to clean up the toolbar but don't want to uninstall all your extensions, you can hide them instead (right-click, Hide button). This can come in very handy for extensions that work mainly in the background.

7. Change version

As well as the stable version, Chrome is available in three more versions, which get increasingly more cutting edge and less stable -- Beta, Dev and Canary. Visit the Chrome Release Channels page to switch between them.

8. Use the keyboard

There's a wealth of keyboard shortcuts that make Chrome easier and faster to use, but here we'll just mention two of the most useful -- Ctrl+click to open up a link in its own tab and Ctrl+W to close the current tab.

9. Add desktop shortcuts

Right-click on a web app on the New Tab page and choose 'Create shortcut' to add a link to it from the Start menu, desktop or taskbar.

10. Check memory usage

Enter 'chrome://memory' into the address bar to see where all of your RAM is going. Try 'chrome://chrome-urls' to see the other diagnostic shortcuts that are available.

11. Drag links

If you find clicking on links somewhat old hat, try dragging them to the omnibox or the tab bar.

12. Visualise bookmarks

Add bookmarks to the bookmarks bar, then remove their names in the Bookmarks Manager to be left with a row of compact favicon shortcuts. Remove the names from your bookmarks to leave a row of favicons.

13. Edit most visited sites

If there's a thumbnail on the 'Most visited sites' page you no longer want to see, click the cross in the top right-hand corner of the image to replace it with the next most visited site in Chrome's list.

14. Rearrange apps

Click and drag an app on the Apps page to change its position -- drag to the far right to create a new page of apps.

15. Go full screen

See more of the web in full-screen mode -- F11 toggles it on and off.

16. Change History

Head to chrome://chrome/history and you can remove specific pages from your browsing record via the check boxes and the 'Remove selected items' button.

17. Enlarge text

If your eyesight is poor or you're using a huge monitor, you can increase the default text size via Settings > Web content > Font size.

18. Forget everything

Clear everything in Chrome's memory by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Del, ticking all of the boxes (from history to cookies), selecting 'the beginning of time' as the timespan and clicking 'Clear browsing data'.

19. Change the theme

Like Gmail, Chrome comes with a range of official and unofficial themes -- click 'Get themes' on the Settings page to browse the selection.

20. Go further back

Click and hold on the back button to see a list of recently visited pages for the current tab.

21. Jump tabs

Hit Ctrl+ to jump to that tab in Chrome -- Ctrl+2, for example, will open the second tab from the left.

22. Go offline

Keep emailing even when your online connection is down with Offline Gmail from the Chrome Web Store. Google promises more offline apps are on the way. It's possible to archive, search and compose messages in Offline Gmail.

23. Analyse pages

Right-click on a web page and choose 'Inspect element' to see the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other resources it's made up from.

24. Import data

Chrome can import bookmarks, browsing history and more from Internet Explorer and Firefox via the Import bookmarks and settings option on the Bookmarks menu.

25. Remote desktop

There's a beta Chrome Remote Desktop app in the Chrome Web Store that lets you access your other machines that have Chrome running. Follow the on-screen instructions to set it up.

26. Pick up where you left off

Rather than opening a set URL or the New Tab screen when you start Chrome, you can opt to relaunch the same tabs that were open when you shut it down -- visit the Settings page under 'On start-up'.

27. Send to phone

The Chrome to Phone extension available in the Chrome Web Store is developed by Google and can send links and other information straight to your Android device. You'll need to install the mobile app too.

28. Stay in sync

Sync some, all or none of the following by signing into Chrome with your Google account: apps, bookmarks, extensions, auto-fill data, passwords, open tabs, omnibox history, themes and settings.

29. Do your sums

Type a calculation into the omnibox to see the result in the suggestions without even hitting Enter.

30. Search elsewhere

On the Settings page under Search, you can set the omnibox search to query sites such as Facebook, Last.fm or Wikipedia by default.

31. Make more room

Drag out the edges of any text input box to give yourself more room to express yourself.

32. Save to Google Drive

Chrome doesn't have this option yet -- in the meantime, set the default download location to a folder being synced by the Google Drive desktop client. Set Chrome's default download location to a folder synced to Google Drive.

33. Zoom

Use the Ctrl button in conjunction with your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

34. See more suggestions

Increase the number of suggestions offered below the omnibox with a command line switch. Create a shortcut to chrome.exe with the '-omnibox-popup-count=' start-up switch afterwards.

35. Find in page

Hit Ctrl+F and type your text to find keywords in a page -- matches are highlighted in yellow on the right-hand scrollbar.

36. Highlight to search

Highlight a word or phrase and on the right-click menu you'll find an option to use the selection as a query for a Google search in a new tab.

37. Reopen a tab

If you've just closed a tab you didn't mean to, right-click on the tab bar and choose Reopen closed tab to bring it back.

38. Switch between Google accounts

Use the 'Add new user' button on the Settings page to sign in using another Google Account. You can then quickly switch between them by clicking on the user icon in the top-left corner.

39. Experiment

Enter 'about:flags' in the omnibox to see some experimental Chrome features you can try out, covering everything from geolocation APIs to gamepad support.

40. Paste and go

With a link on the clipboard, right-click on the omnibox and choose 'Paste and go' to visit it. If a link isn't detected, the option becomes Paste and search.

41. Find recent bookmarks

The Bookmark Manager creates an automatic list of recently bookmarked links if you can't remember which folder you saved your new favourite YouTube video to.

42. Get nostalgic

Click the globe icon (or padlock icon) on the far left of the omnibox to check when you first visited the current site. A cache clear-out or browser reinstall will reset this data. Find out just how long you've been frequenting a site for.

43. Disable spellcheck

If you don't like Chrome correcting you on your spelling, you can disable the feature under the Languages heading on the advanced settings screen.

44. Print from anywhere

Activate Google Cloud Print on your current PC with Chrome installed and you can access that computer's printers from every other Chrome browser you sign into.

45. Pan around

Click the mouse scroll wheel on a blank part of a web page to then pan around the site by moving the mouse.

46. Send feedback

You can let the Google Chrome team know about a bug via the 'Report an issue' link on the Tools menu. A screenshot can be included automatically.

47. Manage handlers

Visit Content settings (under Privacy on the Settings page), then click 'Manage handlers' to change the applications used to handle email and calendar links inside Chrome.

48. Speak to type

On any text box marked with a microphone icon, click the icon to speak to type, assuming you have a working microphone attached.

49. Use the jump list

If you're running Chrome on Windows 7, right-click on the taskbar icon to access its jump-list -- from here you can open recently closed tabs and most visited sites.

50. Enjoy your music

Right-click on an MP3 file in Windows and choose Open With > Google Chrome if you want to quickly hear a tune without the hassle of opening up iTunes or Windows Media Player.

How to handle your child’s TV time

Tired of telling your children to stop being couch potatoes?
If you have realized that you cannot stop your children from watching TV, here are tips that at least help you to get the best out of the idiot box.

1. Select the programmes your children watch  Choose the programmes your children should watch, of course keeping in mind their likes and dislikes. As far as possible, avoid the overdose of sex and violence that is integral to many TV programmes. It adversely affects impressionable minds. You should be able to clearly underline the programmes not meant for children, at least in the initial years. This task is not easy, but one can make a dent when the children are in their formative years.
2. Watch with them.
Let TV time be family time. While answering your children’s queries about television, try to understand their thinking processes.  Not only will that establish your rapport with your children, but it will mean quality time that will be cherished throughout life.


3. Arouse their curiosity
   Ask them questions related to their favorite programmes. TV can be a learning experience if TV watching is made interactive by nature. For instance, while watching a science quiz/mythological serial/chat show, ask them to relate to their classroom experiences.
   
4. TV time should never be overlapped with meals
   Doctors often warn against watching television during dinnertime. Watching TV while eating can cause severe and chronic indigestion. It can also lead to obesity as children sit glued to the TV set. Moreover, they do not enjoy food while concentrating on their favorite programmes. They have to be taught to ration their TV viewing. Otherwise, they will never enjoy other forms of entertainment like reading, outdoor games and sports, swimming and various performing arts. Children have to be consciously introduced to these avenues.
   
5. Discourage late night television viewing
   Children, especially the school-going kind, should never be allowed to watch TV after ten’ o’clock in the night. Not only does it affect the eyesight, but it also disturbs the morning routine on the next day. Inculcate the `early-to-bed’ `early to rise’ habit in your little ones.