EP 64: 5 Things I Can’t Live Without as a Freelance Writer
Sometimes you just need a few essentials to get you through the work day. On Episode 64, Cath Anne shares her top 5 Things she can’t live without in her day as a freelance writer.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Cath Anne: [00:00:00] Hi guys. And welcome back to our channel. My name is Cath Anne and this is the Homework Help Show hosted by Homework Help Global. For anyone that is new here, here on this show we provide you with valuable content for your academic and student life. Now before we jump into the content today I wanted to remind you to make sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the little bell button. The bell button is going to tell you when we upload new content to our channel. And for those of you who don’t know, we upload content every Monday morning so you can visit our channel on Mondays and see fresh new content from us. You just see you know we have some great content coming up as we progress through the summer and in to the new school year. We have our tried and true academic content as always. And we’re also branching off and going to provide you a little bit more content around the English language and learning English. We also have some amazing collaborations coming up. So make sure to stay tuned for that because we are super excited to collaborate with some amazing content creators in the same field we are. So stay tuned. We can’t wait to share with you. Also follow us on social media on Instagram or on Facebook. We’ll link everything in the description box below so you can find us on Instagram. We always have a steady stream of brand new content for you on a daily basis. So make sure to check us out there and chat with us in our DMs.
Cath Anne: [00:01:45] All right so let’s jump in to today’s video.
Cath Anne: [00:01:56] So today we are doing something a little different. I am sharing a little bit more about my life as a freelancer. And today I’m providing you with five things I absolutely can not live without as a freelancer and I hope as students you will relate to this to as many of you know I have been writing with Homework Help Global for over three years and it is a wonderful organization to work for. I am so happy that they helped me kick off my freelance lifestyle and I can’t wait to share with you the many things that I cannot live with in my day as a freelancer. OK so a number one on my list. Are these Bose over the ear headphones. Now these are amazing headphones and they were actually gifted to me from my friends at Homework Help Global because we do an amazing podcast which I’ll talk about a little bit later.
Cath Anne: [00:03:01] These Bose headphones are so amazing. I cannot even express to you how great they are. I don’t know what I did without them. Actually I cannot really hear myself talking at the moment because they work so well. I hope I’m not talking too loud. But yes, so I’ll just see if you guys can see the label there. So these Bose headphones these ones are not wireless. However I do believe you can get wireless ones. Now these are a little bit older however. They work super well. They work well for everything I need them for which I think is a huge testament to the brand Bose itself and I should mention this isn’t a paid collaboration or anything like that. I’m not being paid to say this. I’m just telling you about the amazing things that I need on a day to day basis and this is one of them.
Cath Anne: [00:03:57] Whether I am going out into the community to a meeting and I decide to walk I take these with me if I’m going to the cafe to do some work these work amazing because I can listen to my music and they block out all the surrounding noise around me while I’m also able to be around people and see people I know. The other thing that I really love these for is for podcasting. So we do a great podcast called Student influencers podcast where we talk to students and influencers from all around the world. So whether it is in India or in the US or in Canada we talk to influencers from across the world. And these are the headphones that I use for that. Why are these great for that podcast. Well they’re wonderful because they block out the sound. So when I use my highly sensitive microphone the Yeti stereo microphone these are blocked with the noise coming through from the other end which is absolutely perfect for podcasting because you don’t want any noise interference when you are podcasting. Now I should mention that if you guys want to be involved in the student influencers podcast make sure to find us on Instagram or email us all of our information is linked in listed in the description box below and connect with us. If you think that a podcast would be interesting to be a participant in if you have a unique vision. If you are an influencer or a student we would love to hear from you. So make sure to hit us up and let us know that you’re interested.
Cath Anne: [00:05:37] Finally make sure you take a listen to our student influencers podcast and we will also link that in the description multiple though so you can check it out. So the second thing that I absolutely cannot live without. And if you’re a follower of the channel you may recognize this from some of our other videos where I’ve discussed it in passing or blatantly is a moleskin notebook. I absolutely love these notebooks for many reasons. So the first reason I love moleskin notebook is because it’s black, it’s very streamlined and it looks professional when I go into a meeting and I can take notes really easily.
Cath Anne: [00:06:15] I love that I can take this wherever I go it fits easily into my backpack or my laptop bag and what I really love about it is that when I take notes or make my daily to do lists everything is in the same book. So I usually invest in one or two of these notebooks at the beginning of the year and they usually both last me throughout the year which I absolutely love keeping everything in one place or one notebook is a lot more organized than only having different random pieces of paper all around the place. So if you are a student or if you are a freelancer I highly recommend getting a few moleskin notebooks, labelling them if you want to and using them to your advantage. Another really great way that I love to use my moleskin notebook is to make my daily to do list and let’s see if I can find one here for you.
Cath Anne: [00:07:08] So here is an example of my one of my daily to do lists. So what I do on a daily basis is I go through my agenda and I look at what I have on the agenda for the day and if I have any specific deadlines I then write that down in my daily to do list and when I have finished a task I check it off with a colored marker or a colored pen.
Cath Anne: [00:07:34] Now I’ll tell you why this is beneficial. 1 When you write things down you can prioritize. So I would recommend prioritizing three tasks in the day by limiting your tasks to three. You are allowing yourself to be more productive and avoiding the overwhelm that comes with too many tasks. Even though I do write down other smaller tasks throughout the day I definitely prioritize only three tasks for the day. And this is something that I would recommend to you whether you’re a freelancer a person that works in an office or if you’re a student. The second reason that I think writing your lists like this is a great idea is because you can go through and check things off checking things off. Especially in a different color allows you to increase your motivation. So once you have finished one of your priorities for the day. Check that off and it is going to make you feel productive and that you have completed something. It’s going to give you energy and fuel to move on to your next task. Finally one of my favorite reasons for using a most skin notebook is that it allows me to have a log of all of the work that I’ve completed. So if you’re like me you might be a person who never thinks they do enough. So in a day you might do a ton of different tasks but you don’t write them down or you don’t document them in any way. And I think this can relate to a student anyone in their own business. A freelancer or even anyone who is working in a 9 to 5 type of traditional job. When you write things down in list form and check them off it gives you an intentional log of what you have done for the day. So if you have a tendency to get down on yourself or think you’re not doing enough go back to your notebook and look at what you have done in the day and you will realize that you are much more productive than you ever thought. So the third thing that I absolutely can not live without and I’m sure I’m not the only one is of course my phone and my lightning charger now because I am a freelancer. I go out into community a lot I have meetings I go to cafes to work and even when I’m home I use my phone a lot. I have a lot of different apps on there. I do a lot of other people’s social media so having a lightning charger or several is absolutely integral to the work I try to never leave the house without taking my lightning charger with me. And if you’re like me I would recommend that you do the same. So definitely my phone and my lightning charger are up there on things that I can not live without. I also wanted to mention that I have a lot of really great apps for productivity for meal ducking for work tracking and for invoicing things like that around freelancing and I was wondering if anyone would have an interest in me providing some info around that. So that something that you are interested in if you’d like to know some of my favorite apps that are on my phone. Definitely jump into the comments section below and let us know if that is something that you’d be interested in hearing about. OK.
Cath Anne: [00:11:01] So the next thing that I wanted to mention is something that is relatively new to me and that is there’s a little wallet and you might be like whatever it’s just a wallet. However it is simply perfect for carrying business cards. And this is something that I always tend to forget when I go out into community or to meetings which is so silly because people ask for your business card and I’m not used to carrying one. So this little number has been great for me to just throw in my bag throw my laptop bag and take with me this little wallet is from a brand called some mirror and they make a vegan leather products and it’s just perfect. This little one is just perfect for carrying business cards so I’ll show you it just pops open like this and then I keep my business cards right in here which I absolutely love. So the other reason I really love this is because it’s also perfect for when people give me their business cards I can keep it in here and then I have everyone’s business card all in one spot. Even though we are living in a digital age and we communicate a lot on our computers there is something to be said about carrying a business card and having a snapshot of who you are what you do and how to get a hold of you. So I definitely recommend if you’re in your third or fourth year of university to look into getting a business card created with your profession and your future degree on it. This will come in handy at networking events and let people know how to get hold of you. So this one is going to be a little bit silly but the this saying that I simply cannot live without. As a freelancer. Are my plants and my candles. And this might be something that you’ve noticed. If you’ve been watching our videos for a while I always have plants in the background and I usually have a candle lit and I’ll tell you why this is. I work a lot from home. I do go out to community sometimes however most of my days are spent at home so I want to make sure that I can set the tone for when I’m working. Every morning when I wake up. Before I start working I light a vanilla scented candle. I’ve really been loving the vanilla candles from Ikea. I also like vanilla soy candles and green apple candles have really been up there lately for me too. I always also have at least one or two plants on my desk at any given time as well as. Throughout my house. And I’ll tell you why this is this is because I work alone. I work by myself and I work in my house. I need things that are going to inspire me. I mean things that are going to set the tone for my work day. It’s really easy to get distracted by the dishes or the laundry that has to be done. So setting the tone for my day and placing beautiful things around me inspires me to create and motivates me to keep going throughout the day. Now this isn’t just for freelancers. This is something that I would recommend for anyone that’s working from home. And this includes people like students. So when you are going to study light a candle diffuse some essential oils or put some plants around you. This is going to help you to focus and to feel relaxed when you are trying to do something that is maybe not your favorite activity. I talk more about this in episode 53 of The Homework Help Show so definitely make sure to check that out and we will link that in the description box below.
Cath Anne: [00:14:49] OK guys so that’s it for me this week. I hope that you enjoyed this video and that this is the style of video that you’d like to see more of. Definitely jump into the comments section below and let us know which five items you simply cannot live without. Connect with us on social media and just so you know every Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. We are going to be going live on Instagram. So if you have any questions or you just want to chat jump on Instagram at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and join us for a little chat. OK guys thanks so much for joining me. Make sure to connect with us on our social media platforms hit subscribe if you like this video and made sure to give this video a thumbs up if you liked it. Talk soon guys and take care.
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