Tech Writer Today Magazine - TechWhirl
Technical writing and technical communications news, articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators.
In the fall of 2011, I had a job where I loved the work, loved my boss, loved the company and hated my job. The reason was simple. I had lost any balance between work and the rest of my life. Looking back, I see what happened. Early successes in streamlining processes and improving productivity earned me greater responsibility, respect and raises, but no additional resources. I gave up whole parts of my life in five or ten minute increments over ten years ... Continue reading ...
Like most thinking about the leap to fulltime freelancing, I had the dream of working at the local coffee shop sipping hot chocolate and working hard on the latest software documentation. My phone would ring with a new client that saw my website and just had to have my services. Then I made the plunge into freelancing while caring for my newborn, and had to wake up from that lovely dream. Continue reading ...
Back when I was taking my technical writing certificate at Seneca College in Toronto, one of my professors spent three hours chatting with us about what it’s like being a freelance technical writer. She laughed a lot about the highs and lows, but a few things she said jolted me out of my assumptions and made me sit up and pay attention. One of them was that she would take literally any job that had anything remotely to do with editing, writing, or teaching. Or websites. Or technology. Or people. Or extreme ironing. Let me share what else I’ve learned as I’ve transitioned from student to full-time employee to part-time consultant to full-time consultant over the last eight years, while balancing three houses, two cities, one wedding, and two kids. Continue reading ...
A tongue-in-cheek guide to losing your work/life balance... When you’re out with the family, never ignore work emails. Take a moment to read and reply to each message, even if no one’s expecting you to be in the office on a Saturday... Remember, caffeine is an excellent sleep substitute... and more tips to live and work by... Continue reading ...
It's a hard slog writing technical books, especially when juggling a full-time technical communications job and the usual set of family responsibilities. Structure and discipline are the keys to success. Here are some guidelines based on hard-won experience, to balancing the technical communications work, the personal life and the book writing dream. Continue reading ...
Here are two questions to ask yourself: 1) when are you most content? (Not ‘happy’ per se, since happy moments are fleeting. 2) Does contentment ever happen for you during the workday? The average American worker spends 2080 hours per year on paid work. Over 30 years, that adds up to 62,400 hours. That’s a [...] Continue reading ...