Achieving Inbox Zero

GTD Inbox makes it a snap to deal with your email (in Gmail). You have five email statuses (next action, action, waiting on, some day and finished) that you apply to your email when it comes in. The theory is that if you can do something immediately, you should, otherwise you apply a priority label and archive it. Then you deal with items in order of priority.

This has worked well for me. My inbox is almost always empty (the famed ‘inbox zero’) and I know exactly which emails are most important. So, what if you don’t use Gmail? The system will work with any email program that allows you to use tags, labels or smart folders. My friend Mitchell Allen has outlined a similar system which he uses with Thunderbird. (These labels also work for processing real mail. I instituted a six-tray system under the influence of my DH some time ago. Labels are now, soon, file, read, info and pass on.)

Making Lists And Getting Organised

Once I had the email sorted, I turned my attention to task lists. I’ve made several attempts to get organised when it comes to tasks. I’ve used Google Calendar, with a separate calendar for writing deadlines. I’ve used a paper diary, which is still on my desk. And now I’m using Remember The Milk for Gmail.

I’ve flirted with RTM in the past, but gave up because it just added one more thing for me to do. Now that I can add tasks from the inbox, assign priorities and see a handy list of what I’ve got coming up, it’s perfect. The task list only appears in the inbox list view, which works for me. When you click on an email it disappears. But here’s the beauty of the system.

Working Together: GTDInbox And RTM

Now, when an email comes in, I either deal with it or assign it a GTD priority and archive it, which takes me back to the inbox. I can immediately input a task related to that email, along with a due date. It should mean that I never forget anything important and am always on top of what has to be done. Marking tasks complete is also satisfying, though postponing them is less so.

So that’s how I’m getting organised at the moment. I’m not even using all the features yet, but I’ll let you know when I find out more. I’ve always met my deadlines, sometimes with time to spare, but using these extensions makes me feel more control over the process.

(Photo: arundo)

When I opened up the software I was blown away by the number of icons, toolbars and buttons that appeared on the screen. And let’s not forget the sidebar where you input your queries. I could not hope to talk you through these any better than the manual, so let me just say that though the interface is cluttered, it contains a lot of useful features.

The top left of the screen has a few menu links, a date screen (with a couple of other functions and a search box. When you search, additional options appear in the left sidebar. The right of the screen has about five rows of buttons and links and a built in browser window in the bottom right. These allow you to conduct searches on specific engines, in specific countries and for specific types of content (there’s also some fine tuning in the left hand search box.)

So, on to the field test. I had three research projects for which I usually use Google: a real estate article, an article on energy efficient homes and a lesson on journalism ethics. I decided to try Research Wizard Pro on these to see how it performed.

Case Study 1: The Real Estate Article

When I write these articles, I need a map, an MLS search and a community profile. That’s it. So although using Research Wizard Pro helped me find those things, it wasn’t an improvement on plain old Google. I didn’t need any of the bells and whistles for that project, so they were a distraction.

Case Study 2: Energy Efficient Homes

This was when it started to get interesting. While the main window gave me the standard Google search result (and you can change the default search engine if you want to), the side window gave me the option to narrow my search. I could look only for PDFs or for tutorials or for buying guides or for manuals - or for about 15 other things. I clicked on buying guides and got some great guides to energy efficiency in homes.

Effectively the software adds the resource type to your search term to narrow the search. Sure, I could have searched for that myself, but I might not have. The software has given me some additional ideas for focusing my search terms - and I thought I was already a pretty savvy searcher.

Case Study 3: Journalism Ethics

When I did the third search, I was seriously impressed. I had started to research this topic a few weeks earlier so I was able to make an on the fly comparison of Research Wizard Pro. I found stuff that I didn’t know was out there. I was able to search for tutorials, which helped as that was what I was creating. I will be using the tool to research the rest of the lessons in the course I’m creating. It shaved hours off the time I spend looking for quality resources.

More About Menus

Having tried it a few times, I was ready to look at the huge bank of toolbar icons. This time, they didn’t seem quite as daunting. The related searches bar at the top led me to a new tool, KWMap, which connects keywords related to your search. The next row led to some drop down menus for searching other search engines, RSS feed, video and more. The row below included other search tools and the final row had an address bar and buttons for adding bookmarks.

That leads to one minor gripe. I would have liked to mark resources as favorites within the program, rather than having to add them to my browser. However, I’m told that this functionality is coming in the next release. I have no hesitation in recommending Research Wizard Pro. Once you get accustomed to the interface, it puts a range of search options at your fingertips.

Getting The Program

The software is available as a download and works with any program. You can paste text in and copy it out, or simply compose in the compose window. I tried the online demo, and there are some minor differences from the downloadable product. However, most of the main features are the same.

So, what does it look like? It’s a bit like Word, Google Docs and other word processing programs. It’s got a simple array of formatting buttons across the top for editing style, font and font size, followed by buttons for bold, italics, underline, creating coloured text and a few more. The second row has buttons for alignment, bullets and numbering, and cutting and pasting. A cool feature is that it will paste text from Word or plain text depending on the button you choose.

The top of the window has three tabs on the left (enrichment, dictionary and templates) plus two on the right for information. The templates window allows you to load one of 600 templates in the commercial, literary, medical or legal categories and customise them for your needs. The dictionary is a lookup window and the main window, where you write and edit text, is enrichment. At the bottom of a window is a WhiteSmoke button, as well as undo, redo and demo buttons. The bottom right allows you to select the type of writing you are doing (great for those interested in business and literary, less so for those of us who blog for a living) If you’re writing a speech, dissertation or letter, you’re covered too. On to the main window.

Error Checking

You can use WhiteSmoke with any application, since it works with cut and paste, and you can also set it to check as you type. When you paste some text in, and hit one of those two buttons you get some text underlined in different colours. The colour code is blue for enrichment/thesaurus, green for grammar and red for spelling, cleverly following MS Word conventions. Here is where it gets interesting. Click on or hover over an underlined word and you get suggestions for improvement. So, how did WhiteSmoke do? I used it to check three articles I was writing for a client.

It picked up well on spelling errors. I use UK English, so it tried to convert them to US English. It found no grammatical errors - I had to insert a deliberate mistake to test that. That’s a major improvement over Word, which always finds grammatical errors where there are none. For me, the winner was the enrichments popup menu. That’s in two parts. The left suggests adjectives and adverbs you can add to enrich your writing, while the right suggests synonyms. Just click to add your changes. I liked some of the suggestions and can see where this type of software would help people who struggle with writing.

There are several different WhiteSmoke products aimed respectively at general writing, business writing, creative writing, legal writing, medical writing and executive writing, as well as a language translator that offers instant translation into 20 languages. There are also pro versions with additional enhancements (currently on sale for $1 when you buy the main program).

The Verdict: This is a useful product, especially for people who are new to writing or who have English as a second language. Even experienced writers will find it useful on a day when the words just aren’t flowing the way you want.

Most of the time, I find it useful. I signed up for a premium account so I could check blocks of text rather than just URLs. (Five cents a time is a small charge to protect my good name.) The fact is, sometimes you have to use it, but what do you do if it isn’t working? This recently happened to me. I needed to check some work quickly and Copyscape was throwing up error messages. Thanks to the wonders of Google, I quickly found a few alternatives, which I’m putting here in case you can use them.

Article Checker

Article Checker was the most useful of the alternatives I found. You can paste in a block of text and check it against the sites indexed on Google and Yahoo. It’s lightning quick and appears to be accurate. I don’t know how long a text has to be before it flags. I was checking 400 word articles and it seemed ok. I’ve used this tool a couple of times and it’s never found any plagiarism but that doesn’t mean it won’t. Many other writers I know use this tool because it is free. A good feature is that you can upload files for checking, which could be good if you are doing rewrites.

Plagiarism Checker

The Plagiarism Checker was originally designed as a student project at the University of Maryland. Like the other tools, it works by pasting some text into a box and hitting enter. Then you get a list of results for phrases. Interestingly, this check said the article I checked with Article Checker was almost certainly plagiarised. It brought up a list of suspicious phrases and then you could click on a link for more information. That took me to a Google search page which found … drumroll, please … no plagiarism. So I wouldn’t rely on that tool.

DupeCop

DupeCop allows you to compare two pieces of text through its free online duplicate content checker, or to compare up to four versions of spun articles through its spun article checker. I haven’t tested these yet, but this looks like a good service. There are desktop versions of both checkers too.

Other Tools

If you just want to compare web pages, then try DuplicateContent, which has an online URL comparison engine. There are also a few other tools, which I haven’t tested, but am listing in case you want to. DocCop has both free and paid services, but you will need to register to use either service. DupeFree Pro is a piece of free software (I’m still waiting for my registration details to arrive). Finally I-thenticate is a web based product used in business and education. It’s not free. In fact, you have to register just to find out the price, which is why I didn’t.

That seemed to fit well with a post on Skellie’s new Anywired blog about leveraging a blog. This post is all about adding value - and making money while you do it.

Freelance writers are often overworked, so I was interested to read a post on FreelanceSwitch about the work life balance. The post gives 12 tips to help writers get themselves back on an even keel.

One of the suggestions in that post is to learn to say no. If you’re wondering how to do it, then the Web Content Copywriting blog has a whole post on this topic. Meanwhile, Dana Prince advises us not to let our manners get in the way of getting paid to write.

Finally, here are two useful resources to round out the list. The first is a list of other freelance writing job sites. It’s no secret that Freelance Writing Gigs is my top choice, but it never hurts to have alternatives. (Thanks to Freelancing Journey for the tip.)

And there’s something for all the non-US writers who are looking for the right paperwork to fill out. Sometimes companies ask you to fill out a tax form. If you don’t pay taxes in the US, then they may still ask for a form to meet their reporting requirements. The form you need is a W8-BEN - and here’s how to fill it out. The instructions are for the UK, but they work for everywhere.

Technorati Tags: writing,writing career,writing business,resources,blogging

So, what’s inside the blog? One of the early posts is Job Search Tips For Wannabe Writers. If you’re applying for your first freelancing job, Dana tells you what has worked for her. If you want to find out about distinguishing between the clients you want and those you should avoid, read Good Clients, Bad Clients and Life Lessons. And one of my favourite posts, which I’ve plugged before, is The Net Value of a Writing Assignment.

There’s lots more good stuff on the blog. I particularly like the freelance writing posts but check out the others as well. Dana is a prolific writer and there are links to some of her other writing ventures in the sidebar. This blog may be new, but there’s not an ounce of fluff on it - definitely one to watch.

One of the tasks from last week was to set a schedule for posting. I did a draft schedule for Get Paid To Write Online this week, and although I didn’t stick to it, it made me think about some of the content I try to include.

For example, I am still running the paid to blog site reviews. I have a few more to do before I start a new series related to writer promotion.

I also want to keep giving some tips on writing careers, including working with clients and promotion. And I’d like to do more posts on some of the issues we face as writers.

It’s also important to look at resources for writers, and I’ve decided to include reviews of other writing sites in that list.

And finally, I’d like to share posts of note that I read each week

So that’s my plan for this blog and it’s the answer to the question of what this freelance mentoring blog is about.  The question for you is: do I have the balance right? Is there anything else you would like to see on this blog (other than more graphics, which I’m working on :))

This week’s linky love features a a few posts that I bookmarked a long time ago, but which I still think are relevant to writers.

23 Ideas for Finding New Readers for Your Blog

Who is YOUR Ideal Client?

The Monster List of Freelancing Job Sites

12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them

101 Essential Freelancing Resources

What to Do With Articles You Still Own Some Rights To

How to Recycle Your Already Sold Exclusive Rights Article

Article Marketing How To: Getting the most out of it

The Blog is the New Resume

15 Cool Tools for easy Expense Tracking and Budgeting

As writers we may find ourselves crammed into the only available space at home, but there are still some things that we need to do our jobs. Check out How to Create the Ultimate Home Office for Writing.

When I was teaching journalism, I prepared a lecture on verifying internet resources, then promptly lost the reference. Luckily, I’ve found something similar again - this article on

Evaluating Internet Resources - Georgetown University Library

Unlike similar information found in newspapers or television broadcasts, information available on the Internet is not regulated for quality or accuracy; therefore, it is particularly important for the individual Internet user to evaluate the resource or information

Though it may be time consuming, you could use it to build  a list of trusted sources that would be your first stop when doing some new research.

If you’re using an online dictionary, you probably also need an online thesaurus (you know, for those many times when the built in MS Word one won’t do). I’ve tried two: Thesaurus.com and Merriam Webster. I have a slight preference for the first one, because it’s slightly more comprehensive for those of us who use British English as well as American English. Lest I be accused of partiality, I should say that in the print versions, the Merriam Webster has a far superior and more user friendly layout than Roget’s Thesaurus, on which Thesaurus.com is based.

More free tools for writers.

Today’s discovery is a lens on ghostwriting. How To Hire A Ghostwriter is aimed at those who are intending to hire ghostwriters and answers some common questions in a clear and simple way. If you’re starting out as a ghostwriter, it’s a good way to find out what clients might be looking for and what you can charge, though there are other resources that do that too.

I’ve written a bit on ghostwriting myself, but I found this a really useful lens. Way to go, stevemcc.

I’ve been equally ferocious about backing up. First I used floppies, then CDs, then DVDs. If nothing was handy I used a virtual backup drive by emailing my work from one email address to another. I never lost anything. That was the old days. If you read my previous post you’ll know that my laptop died and I lost a couple days’ work. So how could this happen to someone who’s usually so well organised?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. I’m much less well organised since I had a child. Simply put, there’s much less leftover brain power to apply to keeping my life ticking over. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but this wouldn’t have happened to the old paranoid me three years ago. I’m stretched thin and suddenly very busy. The result of that is that when I managed to do 25 tips for LifeTips (I finished them on Wednesday when my daughter was napping), I forgot to back them up. Most of the time you can let things slip for a little while, and there’s no danger. Not this time - and there was no warning. At 5.15 my laptop was working. At 6.15 it was dead.

What this has taught me is that it’s important to have a plan B when you make your living with a computer. Until recently my plan B was my husband’s computer, but he’s on the road more, so I can’t relay on having access to it. The library doesn’t open at hours that suit the rest of my life. I quite often work late at night after my daughter’s gone to bed and my local library closes at 5.

While I was facing the loss of two days’ work and the prospect of 10 days without a computer (and I admit, shedding a few tears of annoyance), I thought of a plan. My hubby had a tablet pc he had never used so maybe I could use that as a backup. We bought a USB keyboard and then tried to get it connected to our wireless network. Nothing. I fiddled around with settings, still nothing. Eventually I discovered that Microsoft’s tablet software does not support WSP-PSK or whatever it is, so it’s not going to happen. So I dug out an Ethernet cable and finally got online.

All of my work at the moment has to be researched on line so doing without a net connection is not an option if I’m to meet my deadlines. Now I’ve got to figure out how to prop the tablet up so I can type and see the screen at the same time.

Meanwhile I am missing my favourite programs:
- Firefox - I will install this soon
- Thunderbird
- Performancing - my blog editor of choice (by the way, that’s why there are no links or fancy formatting in this post. I’ll go back and fix it once I’ve got my laptop back).

I have lost
- 21 lifetips
- a new poem
- my WritingUp backup
- my invoice template
- this week’s writing jobs - most of which I had submitted

The lesson I’m getting to is that you need to have a plan B. So, I’ve now got a few.

First, I’m moving everything that I can online. I already use blinklist and Google calendar. Now I’ll use my gmail account for backing up my work in progress. That way I can access it wherever I am.

Second, as soon as I can afford it, I’ll get a cheap desktop pc as a backup.

Third, I’ll replace my 80GB external hard drive with something that I can keep permanently attached to my laptop, so I can backup as I go.

Fourth, I’ll put a reminder in my diary so that I always do it.

Fifth, my new laptop will come with an international next day onsite warranty.

Apart from the social deprivation of being without a reliable internet connection (regular writnguppers will know what I’m talking about), this incident has very real consequences for my writing. I’m going to have to make up a couple of days’ work over what is already a busy week. I won’t get caught this way again.

How have you done with disaster preparedness? Do you have a plan B?

PS. If I’m a bit slower than usual responding to comments you’ll know the reason why. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

April 2006

• So You Want To Be A Freelance Writer?
• How To Write Copy That Pays The Bills
• Article Secrets For Writers
• Resources For Writers

May 2006

• Freelance Writers - Four Reasons To Get On The Net
• Turn One Moment Into One Hundred Years
• Diary Of A Working Writer
• Free Resources For Writers
• How I Get Paid To Blog

June 2006

• Copyright Law: A Quick Guide For Freelance Writers
• Article Secrets For Writers (this is different from the April one)
• Diary Of A Working Writer - June 2006
• Free Resources For Writers
• Guru and Elance: Are They Worth It For Writers?

Now that I’m preparing my fourth issue, I’ve got a format. I try to have one article I’ve written, two articles by someone else, a diary entry, a roundup of my best blog posts of the month and some free resources, if I’ve found any. I also have links to products I recommend (so far only to things I’ve used).

I’ve also started archiving my posts on sharonhurleyhall.com. That way, when subscribers sign up mid-month, I can send an email out pointing them to the previous issue. I follow up mid-month anyway (thanks, Mitch) with a a short letter highlighting the archived copy and something new, like a blog post, article or resource. I’ve had good feedback on it so far.

My only niggles are with the ConstantContact templates. The links are ugly and the interface a bit clunky. However, I still think it’s a great place for the novice newsletter producer. Once my subscriber base grows a bit, I’ll be exploring other options. I’ll let you know what I’ve found out.

Subscribe to Writing Lab News, my FREE writing newsletter

Enter The Textalyser

Textalyser is an online text analysis tool. Near the top of the page is a box where writers can paste their text. They can then set a minimum number of characters per word, ask it to analyze a particular number of words, and apply a stoplist (words to be ignored such as ‘and’ and ‘but’). Then just press ‘analyze the text’ and wait for the results, which arrive quickly. The results include a word count, lexical density percentage and readability assessment as well as a frequency count and listing for words and two, three, four and five word phrases.

I have found this incredibly useful and there are features I haven’t even used. I could, for example, ask for a particular word or phrase to be analyzed.

Textalyser also analyzes French text, for those who need it, though I haven’t tested that function myself.

Marking Time

Although I prefer Textalyser, there’s also an alternative that I’ve used from time to time. Mark Horrell’s Keyword Density Analyser does exactly what it says and it works almost the same way as Textalyser. Paste the text into a window and you get a simple table which shows the word, frequency and density. However, it does not show phrases, so this limits its usefulness in my view. That said, there are a number of other free tools on Mark’s site, including another spell checker. I haven’t used any of the other tools, but some of them seem worth a look.

So those are my recommendations for keyword analysis. And if you really want to analyze an existing web page, both these tools will do that too.

My other posts on free tools and resources

Free Ezine For Your Site
Resources for Freelance Writers - What’s The Job Worth?
Writing Tools Online: Resources For Freelance Writers
Keeping Track Of Your Writing
Freelance writing - how much to charge?
Doing The Maths
Without Word: Free Online Tools For Writers

Free resources outside my blog

Freelance writing articles
Writing skills articles
Free writers’ forum

PS. Thanks to Haven for the title, which came from this comment.

Now, wordcount is the most useful tool in Word, IMHO, because writers, editors and publishers always need to know how long a piece of writing is. What I normally do to avoid the problems caused by Word is compose in Notepad or Wordpad, paste into Word to spellcheck and count the words, and paste back into Wordpad or Notepad. As I found out today, that doesn’t work quite as well as I thought it did.

Instead of tearing my hair out, I got on the net and found two tools that appear to solve the problem. A free online spellcheck is available from spellcheck.net and a free online word counter can be found at allworldphone.com.

I can’t make any grand claims about these two services, as I’ve used them only once each, but they did what I needed at the time. And I’m sure there won’t be any strange characters in my next batch of articles.

And by the way, if you want a program that saves in rich text format automatically (no funny characters), and has a built in spellcheck and word count, you could do worse than Jarte. And it’s free, too!

My Squidoo Lens On Website Promotion

Now, I didn’t have a huge software budget when I started submitting my work, so I did some research and found a submissions tracker you can get for free. It’s called WriteAgain from Asmoday Enterprises.

WriteAgain manages projects, markets and contacts, submissions and deadlines. I’ve been using it for about seven months and haven’t used all the features yet, but here’s what I’ve done with it:

• I have started a project file for an article series. Each time I complete an article I add it to the series
• I have input the titles and genres of all my articles, stories and other writing (adding genres as needed)
• I have put contact details for all the publishers to whom I have submitted work
• I have made a note of the date of submission, whether it was email or snail mail and how long it should take for publishers to get back to me.
• I have viewed submission status reports, which allow me to keep track of all my work (and to decide whether it’s time to chase for a response)

The software also includes a time planner, finance manager and market viability reports. A full list of features can be found here.

The software comes in three editions: Professional, Standard and Light. The Light edition will be enough for most people and is free. Why not give WriteAgain a try?