Cassi Dulittle

Stories By Cassi Dulittle

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  Apps

  Apps By Cassi Dulittle

  Apps That Help Me Stay Healthy As a Freelancer

  People may think that the life of a freelancer is full of carefree days making up your own schedule and working at your own pace. In fact, it can be downright challenging juggling various projects and deadlines, staying on top of your invoices, working without a set schedule, communicating with difficult clients and other things that can cause a lot of stress. But there's no need to let these things get the best of you. It's possible to manage a freelancer's lifestyle in a way that's stress-free and healthy. Apps for mindfulness meditation, power naps, quick workouts, yoga and more can help freelancers stay sane through it all: MacBreakZ- Do you have terrible posture? Repetitive strain injury? This app can help. It provides activity monitoring to track your activity level and plan breaks so you don't overwork yourself. It also offers 42 different stretches that can help stretch and strengthen problem areas as well as improving posture and circulation. Keep yourself healthy and pain-free. Eyelo- Prevent eyestrain from spending too much time looking at your laptop with this app that works timed breaks and eye exercises into your workday. Every hour, the screen dims for a long break and every ten minutes there are short breaks with eye exercises. It notifies you when a break is coming up and allows you to customize the breaks but not skip them. Buddhify- Over 80 different meditation tracks to help you deal with a variety of modern life situations. From helping you deal with stress to just taking a short work break this app can help you relax and focus. Working under a tight deadline while battling the flu? This app can help you work through it. Its guided meditations will help you sail through a variety of life's challenges so you can stay mindful and stress-free. Fitnet- This personal training app gives you quick (5-7 minutes) targeted workouts that allow you get a workout in without having to go to the gym. Monitor your heart-rate and cardio zone and use your phone's camera to watch yourself and see how well you're performing the exercises alongside your trainer. Freelancers who need a quick energy boost during the day or have a hard time finding time to schedule a workout can use this app to keep up their health and fitness. Yoga Wake Up- Before delving into the day's task list, try doing some yoga sequences. Choose from a variety of yoga sessions that focus on different areas such as breathing and meditation or yoga poses to get your body prepped for a day in front of the laptop. A great way to balance both the body and the mind so you can better tackle your workload. 7 Cups- Do you need to vent about a problem with a client? Or even a personal issue that's preventing you from working? This app gives you access to trained professionals who will listen to you and give you problem-solving tools to help you. You can also talk to others in the community who have dealt with similar situations. One great feature is a "growth path" that helps you chart your emotional wellness progress over time while offering daily exercises to help you continue improving. Power Nap App- Power naps are a freelancer's best friend. When you're working hard throughout the day, a quick power nap can help refresh your brain and recharge your energy. Who can resist dozing off to beach sounds or the sound of rain and gentle thunder and being carefully coaxed back to wakefulness with chirping birds, chiming bells or a muted piano score? Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson- Widely touted as one of the most effective sleep-inducing apps to combat insomnia, this app teaches relaxation techniques that allow you to let go of stress and anxiety so you can get the rest you need. Perfect for freelancers who have been burning the midnight oil and/or are stressed about a looming deadline.

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  Buying Guides

  Buying Guides By Cassi Dulittle

  6 Apps That Help Me Work as a Freelance Writer

  I've been writing as a freelancer for over a decade. Since I began, the industry and our technology have evolved for the better. If you're getting into a freelance writing career now, you're super lucky - there are so many free and cheap tools to help you increase productivity and make your job easier and more entertaining. These are my favorite tools and apps for work. 1. UpWork Team App This app is only helpful for members of the UpWork platform. Since this is my favorite place to find gigs, the Team App comes in handy nearly every day. It allows me to receive notifications and respond to new interview invitations and messages from clients and teammates from my phone and desktop. There is also a time tracker that monitors hours worked on hourly rate projects and takes screenshots of what I'm doing. For this reason, clients love it, and it seems to increase retention. 2. Tweak Your Biz Title Generator This tool is especially great because once you input your topic, you get more than ten categories with over twenty headline ideas each. For example, you enter "technology", and get headlines like 9 Reasons People Laugh About Your Technology and This Technology Is Bound To Make An Impact In Your Business. Some of the headlines will turn out absurd, but still, I usually squeeze out a couple great ideas. 3. CoSchedule's Headline Analyzer After I've generated a list of working topics, I often need to make sure the reader will be interested to see what's behind the title. The Headline Analyzer that CoSchedule offers will help do just that. It has several functions. First, it analyzes the structure, grammar, and readability of the headline. Next, it looks for a balance of common, uncommon, emotional, and powerful words. Then it checks the headline type (generic, listicle, etc.). Finally, it counts the characters and words to make sure the title is optimized for readability. 4. Google Docs When I first started working as a freelancer, I used Microsoft Word for all of my projects (I still use it sparingly). Over the years, I've tried all of the cutting-edge writing software on the market. After all of this experience, Google Docs is my go-to writing app. I can use add-ons at my convenience. All of the files are created inside my Google Drive, saved automatically every few seconds, and are easy to share. Some clients don't like to use this platform, for personal reasons, and that is never a problem. I can still easily download my files in DOCX, PDF, HTML, and more formats for quick sharing via email. 5. Writing Service When I get busy, there is sometimes a need for some help with editing, as I often lack time for that. Instead of keeping on an assistant (who might have to go sometimes weeks without work), I decided to enlist the help of an online service. Essay Tigers is a writing service that also offers professional editing help. Of course, I don't use this every day, but it certainly comes in handy from time to time. Final Thoughts As a freelance writer, there's no limit to how high your career ladder reaches. Use tools and apps that help save you time and increase productivity to make the most of your job and your life. This list is enough to get you started, but it isn't all inclusive. What other writing and productivity apps have you used? Do you have a favorite? Tell us about it in the comments.

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  News

  News By Cassi Dulittle

  This is How Technology Helps Me Work From Home With Ease

  As little as ten years ago, it was difficult to work from home. If you were lucky enough to do so, you likely had an eCommerce business or you had to check in at the office once a week to collaborate with teammates. Today, it's easier than ever to work solely from your home office or even your bedroom. Here's how technology helps me work from home today. What is Technology's Role in Time Management? As I made a decision to transition my office into my home, one of the most predominant topics I read about was time organization. A friend whose mother worked from home told me that she always got up at the same time, made her coffee, got the kids to school, and went to work. Even though she had the freedom to choose her own schedule, she still had to have a routine. I always think of that. It is true that you have to have a set routine if you want any kind of success in your stay-at-home career. I've found that technology plays a major role in my time management. I use Google Calendar and the Asana task management platform daily. Without these tools, I'd be working from a messy day planner, and certainly be more likely to miss deadlines. How Does Social Media Affect My Work? Social media seems to be a hot topic amongst the work at home crowd. Many people discuss social media marketing at length. This isn't just because it helps businesses build their brand. As a freelance marketing writer, I cannot count how many times I've been approached for work on Facebook while having a natural conversation with someone. Without social media, if I were working at home, my networking would be extremely limited. File Sharing is No Longer a Dilemma I remember when it was nearly impossible to share large files over the internet. We had to download everything onto a floppy disk, then later a USB stick to share it with people. We had to do physical exchanges, and this took time. Now, you can store anything in the cloud.

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