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This article offers three reasons and three solutions: “thinking about the consequences of failure, ignoring your feelings, and engaging in detailed planning.” Summarized in edited excerpts here: 1. Reason: You are putting something off because you are afraid you will screw it up. Solution: Adopt a “prevention focus.” Instead of thinking about how you can end up better off, you see the task as a way to hang on to what you’ve already got—to avoid loss. 2. Reason: You are putting something off because you don’t “feel” like doing it. Solution: Ignore your feelings. They’re getting in your way. If you are sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it. There is nothing stopping you. 3. Reason: You are putting something off because it’s hard, boring, or otherwise unpleasant. Solution: Use if-then planning. Making an if-then plan is more than just deciding what specific steps you need to take to complete a project – it’s also deciding where and when you will take them. By deciding in advance exactly what you’re going to do, and when and where you’re going to do it, there’s no deliberating when the time comes. It’s when we deliberate that willpower becomes necessary to make the tough choice. But if-then plans dramatically reduce the demands placed on your willpower, by ensuring that you’ve made the right decision way ahead of the critical moment. In fact, if-then planning has been shown in over 200 studies to increase rates of goal attainment and productivity by 200%-300% on average.

This is from a freelancer writer, not a web developer, but most of the principles still apply. • DO: Wake up early • DO: Cultivate multiple interests so you are widely hirable • DO: Build a good network of friends doing the same thing as you • DO: Read the comments and grow a thick skin (I don't know about this one…) • DO: Respect your editor • DO: Stand up for yourself; the people who hire you are not right by default • DO: Ask for your money • DO: Buy business cards • DO: Be positive and supportive • DON'T: Push yourself to do too much or something you're not ready for • DON'T: Read the comments (enough to build confidence, then never again) • DON'T: Pitch stories to your friends who are editors, it'll make it weird • DON'T: Be jealous

Basically: • Be reliable • Communicate when things are going wrong • Be ‘a generalist who specializes’ • Don’t diversify—you can't handle that much work at once • Build a network from home: talk yourself up, have a website, use LinkedIn • Don’t be afraid to ask for a lot of money and negotiate down from there • Save *at least* six months of reserve funds • Take breaks and leave the house • Create projects that are rewarding and challenging to teach yourself things and stay motivated

Tons of good advice about being a freelancer/consultant, from a well-known WordPress developer.

Each year people accept salaries less than what they deserve. It seems like employers always have the upper hand, but that doesn't have to be the case.

It’s easy to get caught up in the specifics of running a business or being a programmer. But sometimes, it’s the simple, old-fashioned things that humans have always struggled with – showing up, working hard, being reliable – that can advance your career. For me, it has been the single largest factor in growing my business, and it was completely by accident.

This is one of the most important things I’ve ever read. You’re a business. You have a price. You’ve (hopefully) given thought to that price. If someone can’t afford it, they really won’t be mad. Besides: If they are mad about your price, do you really want them as a client?

Great advice for freelancers.

“Two quick points. Not every idea is going to work. Know that going in. Ideas tend to follow the path of least resistance and more often than not that path is the one where you find yourself talking an idea to death, by getting hung up on the ‘what ifs.’ So you need to actively push ideas out and embrace failure. Fail spectacularly whenever possible. “Secondly, every single person I have ever met or corresponded with about leaving the work-for-hire world and trying to create something of their own, something that they really care about, says exactly the same thing. Win, lose or draw they always express the same thought and most of the time they say it in exactly these words. “What they say is, ‘I should have done this sooner.’”

“A writer’s search for journalism in the age of branding.” In which Maureen Tkacik engages in a number of jobs she wouldn’t otherwise take to explore them journalistically and try to get at the heart of the ‘nothing economy’. This is a great piece, and I think the reactions (in the comments and in my knee, occasionally) questioning her ‘legitimacy’ and hypocrisy illuminate the very problem she’s talking about. I think the idea of injecting a journalist experience into a piece are wonderful, because so-called straight journalism is often a myth and because it can make the writing and reading better.

Tips for effective sales management. Not particularly useful to me at the moment, since 90% of my work is long-term contracts, but good advice in general. "As my friend said, we are all selling at the end of the day. So, stop being afraid of the S-word. By finding a way to balance your creative role with giving sales the proper attention, you can improve the projects you’re working on and grow your business."