I know the tricks of working through (or avoiding writer’s block). They are invaluable to me and many others, but this isn’t going to be one of those posts.  This isn’t about breaking through writer’s block – it’s about experiencing it. It’s about allowing it to break me, and enable a break through.

overcoming hurdles and creative limitations by experiencing discomfort

We are often quick to want to push through and get to the other side of discomfort.  Whether we’re talking about writer’s block, a personal situation or professional one we try to get through uncomfortable or painful moments as quickly as possible. However, sometimes the really good stuff lives within those raw moments.

Writer’s block is something that’s experienced by many of us. It’s brought on by exhaustion, an inability to focus, lack of passion, disinterest in a subject, stress, or personal distraction. But this is your chance. Acknowledge the discomfort, allow your words to be klunky and awkward. Be free to make no sense at all and jot down a jumble of ideas. Allow yourself the time to dig deeper to find what is really preventing your words and ideas from flowing? Is it fear? Is it boredom? Is it something else entirely?

confronting my own messy little writing demons and insecurities

My writer’s block is rooted in fear. Primarily the fear of what other people think. My insecurities have gotten the better of me and I’m hesitate in my words and ideas. Plus I’m undergoing a major life transition. I have too much in my head, it’s a big tangled mess. I’m painfully untangling everything, and it’s getting messy. Words, ideas, and posts are awkwardly being assembled. It might not be pretty to read or comfortable to write, but I’m on to something. New ideas are forming and directions being taken.

Through identifying the cause of my writer’s block I am confronting my insecurities, breathing them in, experiencing the discomfort, living the questions, and working through them in an imperfect way to me and my ideas to take new form and infused with an even great sense of purpose. Feel free to bear with me, ignore me, or even join me on the journey.

[Image by dirteh fingers via Flickr]

While feedback might not always be easy to hear it presents us with an opportunity to improve and change. Creating our own personalized feedback loop can be incredibly valuable, keep us on track, and focused on achieving all we aspire for.

observe what’s going on around you

Where does feedback come from? It comes from our friends, family, co-workers, managers, professional peers, or even the barista at your favorite cafe. Feedback cues are all around us we just have to listen. Each encounter offers insight into how we behave, work, and interact with others. Are there improvements that could be made to these interactions that would have better results or simply a more positive feeling.

ask for feedback from a range of people

Are you looking to improve a specific area of your work or life? Perhaps you’re interested in taking personal stock of your strengths and reveal areas of improve. Human beings are dynamic and therefore we need feedback that’s multi dimensional. Feedback should come from a group of people that are representative of our own dynamic nature.

how to request feedback

Once you have made the decision to develop a feedback loop it’s important that you identify reviewers, reach out to them, and review the feedback received in a mindful manner. Here are a few suggestions:

Identify your goal. Before you reach out to potential reviewers, take the time to determine what you want to achieve through your feedback. Identify your goals and reasons for seeking feedback.

Develop a list of reviewers. Select ten people who you interact and work with in a variety of ways. As mentioned, this will help you to obtain a more dynamic range of information and account for declines.

Contact individually. While you might keep the email or call content similar this is not an appropriate time to send a mass email. Personalized attention and requests are invaluable when asking for people’s time.

Say thank you. It’s important to be gracious. People are giving you their personal insights as well as their time. Remember to say thank you. Hand written thank you notes and a cup of coffee are a nice option.

Review together. I recommend reviewing feedback in one sitting once you’ve received it all. This will enable you to get a fuller picture, observe overlapping themes, and better identify strengths and opportunities.

acting upon feedback presents opportunity

Feedback is only the first step, the next step is integrating that feedback into your work, life, routine, aspirations, and practices. How can you use the feedback to improve your skills, ideas, or actions? What adjustments will you make?

Then there is the loop. Once you’ve received feedback and made the appropriate changes and/or additions you must close out the loop to determine if such changes were successful, value-added, or not quite on point. Select a few folks to check back in with. We are undergoing a constant revision and this loop better enables us to do so effectively as well as points out potential that isn’t always obvious to us.

What tips do you have for creating a personal feedback loop? What is important to be aware of when observing feedback and providing it to others?

[Image by Florian SEROUSSI via Flickr]

Monday through Friday we are on a very strict schedule. Up at 6 o’clock, my husband and I juggle showers, breakfast, coffee, and getting our almost seven month old ready for the day.

On a good day I have about eight hours of uninterrupted work time available before picking up my daughter, my husband coming home, and jumping into our evening routine. Am I a frazzled working mom? Nope, but I am an efficient one. We can all benefit from tips on how to work smarter (and a chance to gain back some sometimes lost sanity).

I know my priorities, both personal and professional, and what I want out of each day. I want to produce good work for my employer and push my career forward as well as spend quality time with my daughter, and relaxing evenings with my husband. Therefore I work smart.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that I work faster. It means that I need to prioritize and schedule everything during my day and week. It means that I focus on producing high quality work and eliminate anything that’s a distraction from that work. I follow three rules of thumb:

Schedule Accountability. I schedule everything! I rely heavily on Google Calendars and force myself to be accountable to the schedule that I create. Priority items get precedent and everything else fills in from there. Tasks are allocated specific windows of time – and most importantly I stick to them. I also schedule my family and personal time, including errands. It keeps me focused throughout the day and helps me to see what can, and cannot, get done.

Routine Consistency. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many workable hours. Even though we may be out the door by 8AM, I don’t actually get to settle into work until almost 9AM. I have to be efficient, and rely on a predictable and consistent routine. Each night helps to prep for the next day and each morning is the same. The quicker we can get through the morning and the more efficient we are means the more workable hours I can devote to deliverables.

Revisions and Renewal. Life and work is ever changing, and so are the needs of my family and my profession. Each weekend I look back at my calendar. I comb through how I spent my time. I take a hard look at where most of my time was spent, what unexpected items came up, or where I lost time. I think about what worked, what didn’t, and how it can be better. Then I make revisions as necessary, implement them during the coming week, and repeat as needed.

The most simple adjustment can have a dramatic impact. For example, dinners were creating unnecessary confusion. Dinners are important to us, especially since it’s one of the few times my husband and I get to relax, connect, and checkin. After a busy day we were often lacking a culinary spark of creativity and spent too much time on dinner or simply opted for takeout. The solution: we added nightly dinners to our weekly family calendar. Before we went grocery shopping we decided on the menu for the week. Not only were we able to have more efficient, and cost effective, shopping trips, but we were also better able to enjoy our evenings together during the week no matter how busy.

Most of us are diligently trying to navigate how best to get the most out of our day. As we do this, remember to be kind to yourself. Even if the to do list doesn’t always get done each day we all deserve to take a break and give ourselves the credit we deserve for what we have accomplished as working moms and dads.

[Image by Ali Nassiri via Flickr]

We’ve probably all said this once or twice in our careers. And really, why wouldn’t we? Interns can be a great resource and many companies eagerly await summer to tackle outlier projects. But you might want to think twice before you pile up that new summer intern’s plate with Facebook, Twitter, and full social media responsibility.

The bigger question is “who” should manage your social media presence. It’s not always an easy answer, especially when there are time and resource constraints. As a result, social media execution can sometimes fall too quickly, and too often, to interns – just check out craigslist to see what I mean.

Am I saying not to use interns in conjunction with your social media needs – no.
Can interns help to make social media implementation much more manageable – yes.
Can interns play a valuable role in execution of your strategy – of course.

What am I saying? I’m saying that it’s not necessarily in the best interest of your organization to hire an intern to develop, create, AND implement your social media program. As previously discussed, social media is a powerful channel due to many reasons, including its immediacy. Are you ready to hand over complete brand control, presence, and voice to an intern without a game plan?

Setting the stage. Make sure you setup a game plan ahead of time and that you’ve determined who will manage your online identity and accounts. That answer shouldn’t be “the intern”. Your intern or interns will help to support you, but shouldn’t be your primary go to (remember they are only available for a finite amount of time). A good exercise is to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you know what tasks/projects you need an intern to do?
• Will interns be maintaining your entire online presence?
• Do you have user guidelines or policies re: social media?

Executing strategically. Interns should be utilized for execution, which means a strategy needs to already be in place. Your voice and brand is important, so much so, that it might not be wise to leave it solely to the digression of your interns. Even the best and brightest need assistance, education, and direction on how to effectively align the strategic needs of your organization. Interns come and go, but your product and/or service is here to stay. Promote sustainability and consistency by taking the time to execute wisely.

Ensuring value. Interns fit into a bigger resource management puzzle. Recently, I wrote a post for CurrentMom.com that focused on resource management and the importance of human capital. A piece of that post focused on intern compensation:

Please be sure that these are not one-way relationships: offer something valuable in return. That reward can take the shape of class credit, an hourly rate or a lump sum. A thoughtful internship review can be a wonderful reward and should be given to interns who meet or exceed expectation.

Promoting growth. Remember internships are supposed to be a learning opportunity. Help to foster an environment of learning. We’re all busy and interns help to make us a little less busy, but we need to remain mindful of why they are here in the first place – to learn. Too often we take interns for granted and miss out on igniting potential.

Quick tips: Take time to ensure that they understand your brand as well as your voice. Offer resources and opportunities for your interns to learn, not just about social media, but also about the industry, and your organization. Grow together through weekly check-ins. I personally like one-on-ones in tandem with a group format, if you have multiple interns. Encourage questions. How else are they going to improve? Besides, this is a great habit to encourage early on (in my opinion, not enough people ask questions).

Perhaps no surprise that Southwest serves as a great example. They are not just creating a job, but rather an entire experience that there interns will remember for the rest of their careers. We’d all like our interns to walk away singing our praises in such a way – and why can’t we.

These are tips that ring true, not just for a social media interns, but for any intern. Whether your coordinating a large intern effort through a formalized program or one off interns do so mindfully, strategically, and with both of your end goals in mind – you will ensure a better experience and higher reward for everyone involved.

Social media has enabled a new channel for customer feedback. It’s more than just a one-way feedback opportunity, but rather the start of a two-way dialogue where the change process can be witnessed and the outcome quickly implemented. As a customer, how do we maximize this channel and these new dialogues to foster a valuable outcome?

Well, we could moan and vent about our frustrations via Twitter, Facebook or even Yelp, but does that offer workable substance. How is that productive? I mentioned in an old post that just because you have the means to tweet or voice your opinion online (and have a potential product/service grievance), doesn’t mean you should do so carelessly or without some thought to your desired resolution.

Samantha Ogborn wrote a great post, Social Media Karma: Why Your Voice Reigns that offers insight into how you (as a consumer) can effectively leverage and increase the value of your social media voice.

Collective responsibility: As Matt Cheuvront comments, constructive criticism is powerful. If we’re going to take the time to offer feedback, then we need to do so in a way that’s thoughtful and offers value. That’s the beauty of constructive criticism – it encourages us to offer suggestions in a manner that’s direct, constructive, and not accusatory. Rather than solely criticizing, it outline solutions and offers opportunities for improvement.

Note that while a tantrum might get attention, it doesn’t necessarily result in a positive outcome – no one really wins. Sometimes we need to take a deep breathe and think about the outcome we’d prefer. What do we want or need, why were we upset, and how could the party on the other end make it better? Better yet, how could the party on the other end make it better for everyone – not just for you?

My advice to companies: Continue to listen, but also do so with a curious and keen mind. Don’t assume that everything we, as customers, say is of value. We appreciate that you are starting to open yourself up to the good, the bad, and the ugly, but sometimes a rant is just a rant. Maybe there isn’t always something subliminally valuable within that tweet, post, or comment – anger and venting can’t always be translated or harnessed (even when it’s justified).

Earlier this week I complained about Apple‘s unveiling of the new iPhone 4. Honestly, I was just complaining, really for the sake of complaining. As an Apple consumer, I have accepted that updates and shiner, new versions are par for the course with just about all Apple products. I’m sure my rant was picked up by someone at Apple, but my guess is that Apple will more likely act on actual constructive feedback from someone else, v. my quick fire love/hate of Apple remark.

We keep encourage companies to listen. Now let’s give them something worth listening to.

Image: red ears listened to the gods courtesy of uBookworm, Flickr

There seems to be a number of self-proclaimed social media experts. The result is strategic confusion. Sadly, people and organizations in need are falling victim to misinformation. Sometimes unintentionally, and sometimes not.

Market your skill set honestly. I by no means would consider myself an expert really in anything at this stage in my career – still far too much to learn, experiences to be had and mistakes to be made. I believe I have a responsibility, which is to appropriately, and honestly, communicate my abilities, skills and knowledge. I’d like to believe we all have such a code.

I’m not here to point fingers. In fact, the responsibility is twofold. As entrepreneurs, small business owners, or large organizations it our responsibility to select the best candidate or candidates for the job. Typically our goal is to address knowledge gaps and fill areas of need that are perhaps beyond our own scope of experience.

Arm yourself with information. Just like with any employee hire or consultant contract make sure you take the time to better understand your candidate options. Don’t fall victim to buzzwords. Just because someone may know how to talk in social media speak doesn’t mean they are necessarily an expert.

Know your organization’s needs. Do you really need a social media expert? Do your homework ahead of time. Maybe the need is deeper than that. As an organization have you clearly mapped your goals, objectives and/or strategy? If not, then social media isn’t where you need to start.

There are people who I would consider experts. Individuals who are respected, offer wisdom by way of experiences and have the results to back it all up. More often than not I find that they are incredibly modest. They are busy doing rather than boasting or bragging. Instead the communities around them are helping them to build a credible reputation infused with collective confidence.

Expertise takes time to cultivate. Be willing, open and patient to learn from others.

Image: monster in a bag courtesy of arimoore, Flickr

The perks of a nontraditional workspace seem almost endless – no cubicles, tea at the ready and flexible work hours. Though it also requires major self discipline and means holding yourself accountable by developing a workflow that’s flexible, productive and motivating.

Up and at ‘em. Each morning, I tackle the day as if I am in fact heading out the door to an office. None of this working in my bunny slippers stuff. It’s the same deal each day: up no later than 7AM, shower, breakfast, a large pot of tea and an outfit to promote productivity. Dressing for success doesn’t necessarily require you to go anywhere (but you’re ready if you do). You never know when an impromptu meeting or lunch will present itself.

The perfect spot. Usually, I’m not one for working all day from home. Circumstance and limited mobility has resulted in me converting my dining room into the ideal workspace. I’ve reworked the space so I can spread out, be comfortable, productive and most importantly minimize the distractions of being at home. It’s important to know where you work best. Is it one location – or a variety throughout the week or even day.

Routines that work. Find a routine that works for you. Identify what makes you most productive and motivated, then go from there. For me, I know I need to take the time to breakdown tasks, tackling the most important ones during my most productive peaks and making sure I have some form of daily social stimulation. The primary thing I miss about being in an office is the people. I love a good sounding board. Therefore, I leverage networks daily to ensure that I am able to stay connected and challenged.

Make it manageable. Make task lists (daily, weekly and monthly) and employ time management to keep you on track. Identify the priorities – and then break the day into manageable chunks based on client needs and your own. I always make sure to integrate time to write, research, listen and interact with others. The trick is to create a list that’s manageable. Think about what has to get done, considering each item in detail, then note realistic times for each. It’s amazing how quickly even eight to ten hours can be allocated – use them wisely.

Motivational milestones. Working solo means lots of self motivation, especially on tougher days. I thrive on goals. I like to be able to set a goal and work diligently to accomplish it. There’s nothing more motivating or rewarding. Goals come in all shapes and sizes. Set customizable goals weekly to foster not only productivity, but a sense of accomplishment. When setting goals, don’t forget to include ones specifically for you. If you’re a freelancer, make sure you make time to market and better yourself weekly.

Setting boundaries. Perhaps my own greatest challenge is knowing when it’s time to stop. It can be easy to work all day, but I don’t – and neither should you. To ensure maximum output and avoid burning out be sure to decide when you’ll be shutting down – and try to stick to it. Be flexible and let the day’s workload help you decide on that particular day’s length, but remember to be diligent in this practice. Otherwise, it will all just run into each other and the freedom, enjoyment and balance of freelancing dissolves – with work/life balance going out the window.

Flexible working is a great opportunity for many of us. It enables us to pick and choose the projects we are most passionate about, while being able to do so in a manner that’s conducive to our own lives. Though it’s up to us to toss out those fuzzy slippers and establish a workflow and community that maximizes productivity, quality and satisfaction, while fostering accountability and promoting balance.

[Image: Green Fuzzy Slippers courtesy of Jamiesrabbits, Flickr]

What about me. Twitter can be a great communications tool. It’s been great for me personally and professionally. Caveat: knowing that everyone’s not using Twitter. Knowing who’s using a tool is equally as important as knowing who’s not. Don’t forget who isn’t here to contribute to the conversation – they may have something amazing to contribute, but are voiceless.

And it’s not just Twitter. There are plenty of platforms and tools where folks are missing. For instance, Facebook, yes, there are millions upon millions of users, but who’s missing. For example, me. I don’t have a Facebook account (…really, I don’t). I might have something valuable to say.

Aligning audience and means of communication. Are there voices being left out of the conversation that could add exponential value to your organization, goal or community? Twitter can be used in the execution of a portfolio of communication means to tap into a range of audiences, but that should only happen once audiences have been identified. Have you taken a moment to determine who your audience is – and where they are?

Who’s making the decision. What happens when you don’t take the time to identify where your audience plays, well, you miss an opportunity. Someone misses the message, the chance to be engaged or an invitation to participate (either physically or virtually). Case and point, my ten year high school reunion, the reunion invitation was only sent via Facebook. As I said earlier, I’m not on Facebook. Meaning, I found out about the reunion only after it took place. The point isn’t that I missed the reunion, it’s that I never got a chance to decide for myself if I wanted to attend or not. The means of communication decided for me.

Take the time, do the work. Don’t let voices go unheard or leave communities ignored just because you missed the mark. Take time to understand your audience and then communicate to them in the space where they play. Why should they come to you? If they are that important, then you should go to them. In time, that may reverse, but you have to reach out and cultivate the relationship first.

Tools are going to change, audiences will change too – and where they intersect is going to change. What shouldn’t change is critical thinking around how best to link the two.

Remember, 80% of Twitter accounts are inactive. That’s whole a lot of people not paying attention to those thoughtful, value-filled, community building tweets you’re spending hours crafting. Make sure your audience is where you’re focusing your attention, before you start trying to get the attention of an audience that may not even be there in the first place.

[Image: The empty playground #1 courtesy of soulholder, Flickr]

A personal heart-to-heart. Have you checked in with yourself lately to identify areas where you can improve? Taking a self inventory is incredibly empowering not too mention valuable to those you work with and support. Take a moment to ask yourself: What’s been added to my plate over the past few months? What activities have fallen off the radar – and gone incomplete? Are there areas of value that are no longer getting attention?

We’re always juggling something. For me, it’s several freelance projects and a baby on the way. It’s easy to get caught up in everything and simply look away from items that have gone ignored. However, being able to acknowledge where you can improve makes you better equipped to tackle whatever gets thrown your way. You’re aware and will be able to appropriately allocate yourself to the most important tasks. This type of self awareness is sometimes (and too often) misinterpreted as admitting weakness or failure. Wrong.

Self assessment is about being able to review all aspects of your working self – the good, the bad and the ugly – then doing something to improve the bad and the ugly.

Take manageable bites. Self improvement doesn’t require a complete overhaul, start small. For me, I know “blog commenting” has fallen to the wayside. For a while I was simply kicking myself (…so not a productive response). I read so many wonderful posts daily, but failed to truly contribute or participate in the conversation. It’s something I wanted to fix and focus on – right now.

No time like the present. Therefore each and every day I’ve added to my daily work list: comment on one blog post. Just one. This might seem like a marginal, arbitrary goal, but one is better than zero. One is manageable, I can take my time, be intentional in my contribution, and will enable me to set up a new daily routine. Will I increase this target number, probably, but not yet.

For now, it’s just one comment daily. It’s about identifying an area of improvement and setting up a realistic, non threatening goal to achieve in a sustainable way. From there, I’ll take stock and improve further. The constant self assessing results in an organic checks and balances system that will ensure I’m always learning and offering the best istrategies and solutions to my clients and contributions to my communities.

[Image: Work courtesy of alexanderljung, Flickr]