Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

Freelance Advice

3 Easy Ways to Increase Your Productivity!

First off – I have to admit that as I type this, I’m pushing out a couple of responsibilities…or procrastinating…or not being productive. I’m justifying it by keeping an eye on the lasagna I have in the oven (supper made – productive, no?!) and throwing the frisbee for our dog.

The topic of productivity came up today, so I felt like I should probably chime in and offer my two cents; hopefully someone finds these tips useful!

1. Find productive background noise.

Typically, I will listen to podcasts while I work. However, I have a fairly strict rotation of podcasts I listen to (because change is hard!) and when those run out, I find myself consulting some background noise that allows me to be productive while I work. Here are some examples:

Consult Songza Concierge and choose something that doesn’t overwhelm you! For me, I tend to veer towards the Mellow Indie playlists because I know I’ll get carried away singing along to anything from the 90s (not productive). Alternatively, they have several stations that just play background noise.

Coffitivity claims to increase your creativity, keeping you at your best, by providing some background coffee shop noises. A lot of people find this helps boost their productivity; however, after five years of managing a busy Starbucks, this type of background noise stresses me out as I’m constantly waiting for the ‘rush’.

Stereomood was one of my favourite things to stream in my last cube farm job. 1 – we didn’t have a lot of options for things we were able to stream and this one was obscure enough that it hadn’t been blocked, and 2 – it lets you base your selections based on mood  (Songza concierge does this too – but Stereomood came preceded Songza for me).

2. Let technology help you with your productivity.

There are tons of applications out there to help you with your productivity, and a few things I’ve heard good things about include:

Todoist is a to do list and task manager application; it allows you to enter in tasks (and group them under projects), and you can check things off the list as you complete each task (and we all know how fulfilling that can be)!

Inbox Pause – I don’t use this yet because I haven’t reached that level of popularity (either that or my clients have been very considerate), but I have friends and colleagues who use this and swear by it. Inbox Pause lets you set an ‘away message’ of sorts, letting folks know that you’ll respond when you’re available. Your email inbox is then paused and you are no longer distracted by all of the emails coming in (until of course you’re ready for such distraction).

Unroll.me has been the answer to all of my prayers! I cannot even explain to you how life altering this very simple procedure is. It’s free and it lets you select which subscriptions (I know they’re piling up in your inbox) you want to free yourself from (unsubscribe from) and which ones you want to receive in a daily ‘roll up’. This has been AH-MAY-ZING for me! Everyday I get my little digest and scroll through – if there’s been any action in the communities I’m apart of, I’ll take the opportunity to respond at this time instead of distracting myself throughout the day.

3. Group like items.

I’m not the most organized person on the planet, but one thing I find enhances my productivity is to group like items. Initially, I’ll group items based on delivery deadlines. Once that’s done, I’ll try and do all of my Microsoft Word together, all of my Microsoft PowerPoint work together, and all of my Articulate work together (and so on and so on). This has really helped me boost productivity because I’m not jumping around as often as I once was.

I’ve mentioned several times before, but using Parallels for Mac has also helped me out in the productivity department because it’s allowed me to ‘group like items’ in terms of my Operating Systems, and allows me to not jump back and forth between Windows and Mac OS to use some of the programs I use which are only native to one OS or the other.

3 Tips for Backing up Information

Recently, I experienced issues associated with backing up information, causing me to lose work and want to sob uncontrollably. Since then, I have spent time getting to know the lovely folks at my local Apple Store, and have invested in several pieces of technology (one of which I mentioned in the previous post – Parallels for Mac – not necessarily for backing up information).

Today I’ll be discussing some important tips when it comes to backing up your information, and hopefully these tips come in handy, allowing you to avoid uncontrollable sobbery – because no one wants to watch that.

1. Ignorance is not bliss – back EVERYTHING up.

When beginning my foray into the realm of virtual work, I blatantly ignored the process of backing up my information. Sure, I had some things on flash drives, some things in my email, some things hanging out on dropbox…but these things weren’t all necessarily current and some were just too large to be backed up on any of those three options, so I lazily left them where they were on my hard drive, believing foolishly that hard drive malfunctions or user error were things that would never happen to me. Boy was I wrong!

After experiencing the loss of important work (work I had slaved over for weeks in some cases), I quickly realized that trusting technology is not always the best way to deal with the security of your files. So I recommend to trust MANY technologies. I now have my hard drive backing up hourly, daily, and monthly to an external hard drive, my working files backing up hourly to dropbox, and all important text-based documents backing up to Google Drive and USB flash drives, as necessary – call me paranoid, because I am.

2. Invest in technology that will save your butt!

I’ve made some personal investments and will be making several more in the near future. Losing information has been a traumatic experience, and I’ve learned that the amount of cash I would typically balk at when it comes to storage and data back up is worth the expense if it saves me from tears. Here are some items I have recently invested in (or will be in the very short-term – no I am not being paid to promote these products):

AirPort Time Capsule – There are other, slightly cheaper, alternatives to Time Capsule, and while the guy at the Apple Store wasn’t entirely convinced it was a necessary purchase, it will be a purchase for my business within the coming weeks. Why? Because of my sanity. Time Capsule backs everything up wirelessly and works double duty as a router – hooray!

WD My Passport for Mac – While not the best external hard drive, this little guy has proven to be a valuable purchase and comes with me almost everywhere. It’s lightweight, portable, and doesn’t talk back. It lets me back up information regardless of where I am.

Flash Drives – I have SO MANY of these and they are in every one of my bags. I use them predominantly for backing up documents, saving scanned documents, and backing up working files on the go if I don’t have my WD Passport on hand.

Dropbox – Get a dropbox account and upgrade it; you’ll quickly need more space than what is offered, and it’s a pretty small monthly investment for the service it provides. You can download the application and easily auto back up your information.

Google Drive – I haven’t had to upgrade my Google Drive account yet as I use it primarily for text-based documents, but if I had to (or if you were interested) you can upgrade from the free 15GB of space to 100GB (!) of space for a measly 1.99/month – chump change – DO IT!

3. Have a Good Emotional Support System

This one might seem a bit silly, but you’ll understand why it’s important once you experience your first loss-of-work. My husband is always my greatest support, and he didn’t let me down when I royally screwed myself work-wise; we spent about eight hours attempting to recover my data, he empathized, and was very understanding in my time of need.

Alternatively, consult your communities. Wherever your tribes are, you should consult with them about how they go about backing up information and what systems they have in place. Industries vary and one system for backing up information within one industry may not be the best option within another industry. Find out what your colleagues are doing and take their recommendations – worst case scenario, you end up with way too many methods for backing up information – a problem I would consider small (and cautious) in the grand scheme of things.

How I Streamline My Development Using Articulate Products

It should be no surprise that I love me some Articulate products (come on – my entire portfolio is based on Articulate Storyline outputs right now). They’re just so versatile and user-friendly! And I’m not even being paid to say that.

In taking my freelancing full-time, I was quickly becoming overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do, most of which is done in one Articulate product or another. I decided that if I was feeling overwhelmed, other freelancers may share that feeling, so some tips may be in order. Today I’ll be talking about three ways that I have streamlined my development process using Articulate products.

1. Parallels for Mac

I have a Mac Book Pro, and do the majority of work from my laptop. Now, anyone who has a Mac knows that Articulate products are currently only available for Windows OS. This makes it extremely frustrating. When I first purchased my Mac, I knew I would need to set up a Windows OS partition using Boot Camp, but this was before I took my freelancing full-time. Once I went full-time, I quickly found out that I needed a lot more space than I had allotted to my Windows partition. Not to mention, dual-booting was extremely frustrating to me. I often found myself syncing files to dropbox or using flash drives to access files previously stored on my Mac OS (which I work exclusively in UNLESS I’m using an Articulate product). This very quickly became annoying, especially when I forgot a flash drive at home.

The Boot Camp setup works for a lot of folks, but for me, I found it annoying and I often felt disorganized and stressed out. After running into a deleted file situation, I consulted the folks at my local Apple store and the guy I spoke with recommended Parallels for Mac. Parallels allows you to run Windows OS within your Mac OS (simultaneously). It was probably the fastest and simplest install of Windows OS I have ever experienced (which says a lot as a former serial PC purchaser) and it runs like a charm. I’ve experienced no lag (even while working in larger Storyline files), and it has a coherence setting which allows my Windows applications to behave like Mac applications. IT IS AMAZING! I never thought such a simple solution would be so life-altering. I’m not being dramatic – Parallels for Mac has honestly changed my workflow for the better, and has allowed me to streamline processes that were previously very clunky.

Now I can work within all of my Articulate products, launching them from Mac OS, and still access anything I would have previously saved on Dropbox or a flash drive. It is so much better! I’ve only been using it for 3 days now, but I feel confidant in recommending it to anyone with a Mac who is looking for a solution to running Windows OS-based programs seamlessly.

2. Cheat Sheets!

We all have a lot of things to remember on a daily basis, and for most of us, hot keys don’t rank very high on the list of things to remember. Especially the more obscure hot keys. Luckily, the kind folks over at Articulate have provided several job aids (or cheat sheets) to help users streamline their development process.

This printable collection of time-saving Articulate Storyline short-cuts is printed and on the cork board in my office – thanks, Mike!

Articulate even has a Job Aids download section which provides users with tons of helpful resources for adjusting player properties in various products.

Everyone likes shortcuts, and I’m not one to buck the system on that one!

3. Saving Frequently and Backing Up Regularly

Now this may seem like a no-brainer, but sometimes you just trust your machines too much. This type of trust can greatly hinder your productivity and throw a huge wrench in your development process. This is not necessarily an Articulate product-specific tip, but my most recent productivity-destroying experience occurred with several Storyline files, so it’s kind of relevant. When I was blabbering on about Parallels, I briefly mentioned having a run in with a deleted file situation – ugh.

I had spent an entire week developing three modules for a client, and once they were all sent for revision, I backed them up to my external drive. Or at least my computer made me think I did. Silly me. The next day, the client came back with several revisions; I was on my way home, got the email, and thought ‘Great! Only two small changes! I’ll do those as soon as I get home!’ – I arrived home, bitterly dual-booted into Windows, and went to open the files…but the files were no where to be found. After consulting The Google (many times) and spending about 7 hours trying to recover the files, I was able to recover two of three…except that Storyline would not longer recognize them. This left me to spend my Saturday and Sunday morning foregoing a fun and exciting hiking trip to redevelop all of that work from the Storyline outputs. I wanted to cry, but in the end it took me a lot less time to reproduce the files than I had originally thought it would take, and the world was alright again. But I did miss that hiking trip – dammit!

What did I learn? Save ALL THE TIME and back things up every other second. To multiple places. I know have Mac’s Time Machine running on my external hard drive, backing things up hourly, and I also have all of my files backing up to Dropbox. When I’m feeling extra paranoid, I’ll save files to Google Drive or a flash drive. Eventually, I’ll probably get a Time Capsule from Apple (it’s a product – I’m not crazy enough to bury a bunch of flash drives in my yard) so I can set up wireless backups, but for now I’ll leave my external hard drive tethered to its USB port (first world problem, I know).

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3 Ways to Take Your Freelance Instructional Design Full-Time

It’s only been two months since I took my side-gig Instructional Design work full-time, but I have been LOVING it! Making the leap was one of the scariest decisions I’ve ever made, but it has paid off, and I’m a lot happier for it. My favourite aspect so far is being location independent; it’s nice to not have to be tethered to an office to do my job, and I think our dog has been really enjoying the extra time spent home.

Now, taking your side-gig full-time does not always have its perks – this past month for instance has been extremely busy for me, which is a great problem to have, but it has also meant that I need to hustle harder to get my work done and invoice those clients! I’ve missed every Thursday poker night in May and was unable to go on a day-long hiking trip that I really wanted to go on, all in the name of work…and I’ve been working some long days (and nights…and weekends).

If you’ve been wondering how you can take your Instructional Design gig full-time (or even break out into the field), here are the best three bits of advice I have for you:

1. Build Your Portfolio

This is so important! I understand that it may be difficult to do – heck! I have over 5 years of work that’s considered ‘controlled goods’ that I can’t use in my portfolio – some of my best work…it’s disappointing. However, don’t let Non-Disclosure Agreements and controlled goods get you down, instead proactively build your portfolio. Research various types of courses to develop and create miniature one-offs of those courses.

Challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone by producing a creative portfolio that showcases your skills and abilities. If you need help, David Anderson puts up weekly e-learning challenges over on the E-Learning Heroes Community, and these are a great way to get your creative juices flowing and add pieces to your portfolio.

Another alternative is to volunteer your services to small businesses; this is a great way to help out organizations to develop their training opportunities, while building your portfolio. If a contract is developed for such an arrangement, MAKE DAMN SURE that the only important requirement (on your end) is that you get to use the project in your portfolio – very few things in life are free, and free training is a steal! Cover your butt and make sure you spell it out in the contract, just to make sure!

“But is a portfolio necessary?” – You know, it’s really not. However, it does give you a HUGE leg up when you’re competing against others for an Instructional Design job. You’ll end up being more of an ‘on purpose instructional designer’ instead of an ‘accidental instructional designer’ (both are fine, but you want to highlight your worth)! My business has grown considerably since adding a few small pieces to my portfolio; now, professional pieces are still hard to come by due to the aforementioned NDAs and controlled goods issues, but just showcasing some of your abilities can really help clients visualize how you can work for them on their projects!

2. Get Online! Be Social! Be Proactive!

Now – I know you’re already online, because you’re reading this, but what I mean is go get a website and start blogging. Now that you’ve built an awesome portfolio, put it somewhere for all to see. Get on twitter! Be active in communities! Take time to build a profile and following on LinkedIn!

The internet and social media is amazing when it comes to promoting yourself – it’s one of the best marketing tools I’ve come across so far, and once you start building a group of followers (on your blog, twitter, LinkedIn, wherever)…you will begin to see results in the form of business.

 

Another downside of small business ownership can be the hustle – the time you spend, that you aren’t being paid for, promoting yourself and seeking new contracts. I have to be honest – at least 1 hour a day is still reserved for finding new business opportunities. It can be frustrating and discouraging, and every industry has its peaks and valleys, but you want to make sure you’re contracting yourself out in advance (as much as possible). Keep hustlin’ and don’t get lazy! You’ll quickly find out that in the world of freelance, lazy = no work = no pay = no mortgage payment.

Now, I will make one forewarning about being active on social media. Try your best to keep your participation to meaningful posts; reciprocate. If you’re involved in a community, try to be helpful! You’re there for a reason and so are others, the least you can do is engage in meaningful ways and share your wealth of knowledge.

3. Remember – You are on a continuous learning journey!

As Instructional Designers (or aspiring Instructional Designers), I would hope that you have long-since been embracing your journey as a continuous learner, but if you haven’t – GET ON IT, GIIIIRL! Making it on your own in a very competitive industry can be difficult, but it  doesn’t have to be. You can get a leg up on your competitors or find freelancers who need help with overflow work or even just need to collaborate with your services to get their contracts done, but the difference between you and your competitors will often be your abilities.

You don’t need a formal education, but I will say that it has definitely helped – people love qualifications, let me tell you! You don’t need a lot of experience, but start now, because it definitely helps! What you need are mad research skills – research anything and everything you think might help you improve your abilities. If you want to enhance current skills or acquire new skills, you can often find all of the information you need online.

Invest in yourself – TREAT YO’ SELF! It will pay off in spades, I promise. The Internet is a wonderful place – you can find courses on almost anything at sites like Udemy, SkillShare, and Lynda. If you make it to big and need real professional advice, don’t hesitate to employ marketing companies like YEAH Local. If you don’t want to outsource, many post-secondary institutions offer formal diplomas and/or certifications in Instructional Design, and there are SO MANY great books out there. You just need to do the research! By and large, the best resource I’ve found for my field has been the Articulate E-Learning Heroes Community. I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again – THESE FOLKS ROCK! There is so much talent within those forums, it is unbelievable; when it comes to researching, you can find almost anything within that forum, and everyone is so supportive!

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3 Tips for Better Project Management

Project Management and Instructional Design

There is some truth to saying that all Instructional Design requires some amount of project management; however, some roles require more project management than others. In a previous life, I was fortunate enough to have project managers who would deal with all the more frustrating client communications and assert their dominance, but now I’m foraging my own path as an Independent Contractor and I’m finding that I wear the Project Manager hat a bit more often than I’d like to – but it’s necessary.

Today I’m going to be discussing tips for managing your Instructional Design projects and the corresponding client. Hold on to your hats! You’re going to quickly notice a theme.

Tip # 1 – Communicate!

This may seem like an obvious thing to do, but the reality is that a lot of people don’t communicate effectively or enough. When beginning a new project, it is essential to discuss all project requirements with your client and THEN draft a Statement of Work or contract. This document will outline everything from project requirements to deadlines to payment to what will happen if the client initiates project delays, etc. You must detail EVERYTHING in this document. An important aspect often overlooked within a contract is a section on communication and how the client is to communicate with you, when they can expect a response, etc. Your client needs to know that they’re not the only client you have. You’ll be respectful of their time and they should be respectful of yours.

So the project has begun and you’re confused about something. Instead of spending days troubleshooting and trying to find a solution, ask your client – they may provide a simple solution, ask your colleagues – they may be able to help, and ask the internet – it’s one of our greatest resources.

Tip # 2 – Be Clear with Your Expectations

This goes hand-in-hand with Tip #1. In all of your communications, be very clear. Do not be wishy washy. Make decisions, and stand by these decisions. Including these expectations within your Statement of Work or Contract is a smart idea as doing so allows you to refer back to this signed document anytime the client starts moving toward scope creep or going back on their original agreement. Contracts can be always be amended, but they need to be mutually agreed upon.

Tip # 3 – Assert Yourself!

Now this one can be tricky for a lot of people. I have a hard time asserting myself and tend to prefer to go above and beyond to please my clients. However, going above and beyond is fine – so long as it’s in your contract. If it’s not in your contract and it’s going to add time on to your process, you need to let your client know and assert yourself by explaining that you can do X, but it will be an additional charge. It also helps if you explain this in your contract by indicating that any work above and beyond the work outlined in the contract will be billed at your hourly/daily/weekly rate of X. If scope creep begins to occur, you can refer your client back to their contract and they won’t be surprised – here they can decide whether the work is in fact required, or whether they can do without the additional work.

Bonus Tip: Learn from Your Mistakes

This is an important one! If you don’t learn from your past mistakes, you will likely keep making them. This will likely create more aggravation than good, so don’t be too proud to admit to your own mistakes.

For more tips, check out my mentor’s site: Lea-p.com

My Freelance to Freedom

As a member of Leah Kalamakis’ Freelance to Freedom Project Community,  I was prompted to consider the reasons why I freelance, and make some suggestions as to how you too can kick start your freelance career and potentially freelance to freedom.

My Experience:

Originally, I began freelancing strictly to have an extra revenue stream and, specifically, to pay off my undergraduate debt. My freelancing wasn’t very pointed and I used popular freelancing sites to find odd jobs (proofreading, editing, transcribing…groan).  While I was able to secure several fantastic clients, I often considered myself as selling out in that the content sometimes wasn’t my finest moment, ethically, and I knew that the work I was doing was a means to an end. Once I was able to pay off the remainder of my student debt, I very quickly took a year hiatus. After working full-time at my regular job, full-time freelancing, and going to school as a full-time graduate student, I was BURNT OUT. I needed to take some time to refocus myself and realize that I didn’t need this added income to sustain my lifestyle.

During this freelance hiatus, we were able to save a large amount of money in a very small amount of time and purchase our first home. Achieving this goal really made me realize that we were in a great financial state. However, once I finished my graduate degree this past May, I quickly began to grow bored and stagnate within my role. I love my job, but it’s been a labour of love and has been very one-sided. Long after considering this, I realized that I needed to be the change – If I wanted to take control of my career, I really needed to get in the drivers seat and let go of my anxieties in order to be successful.

So, what did I do?

I made the decision to think strategically about my potential business. I did this by reading a lot of books (Do Cool Sh*t,Creative, Inc., My So-Called Freelance Life, The Anti 9 to 5 Guide, Daring Greatly, and The Power of Habit – *I am in no way affiliated with any of these books, but they’re all awesome reads, so I highly recommend them!*) I made other freelance friends and observed what they were doing, I bid on projects that I was actually interested in working on, and I gained some stellar clients in industries I only dreamt of being a part of.

After awhile, I began taking more calculated risks by applying for part-time positions, asking my full-time employer about flex scheduling and the potential of moving from full-time to contract (meaning a loss of hours, consistency, and health/dental benefits). I didn’t let my previous anxieties get the best of me – a year ago, I would have cowered at the thought of asking my boss to reduce my scheduling hours, thinking they would fire me. Instead, I was met with a fairly positive outcome, and currently split my time between two roles that I love.

Most recently, I enlisted the help of Kory to get my website up and running. I had been sitting on doing this for far too long and it was just something that desperately needed to get done, and I registered (last minute) for Marie Forleo’s B-School. I’ll write about my impressions and experiences of B-School later, but I’m excited for it to begin!

Where am I going from here?

My long-term goal is to begin securing contracts and shift my freelancing/independent contractor-ship to a full-time commitment. This may be a goal that is closer than it seems right now, but I’m patient. Until then, I’m going to continue doing what I’ve been doing, and remain strategic in my approach for engaging in and soliciting new work. It’s my hope that B-School will help tremendously with ironing out all of the administrative issues with my business that I’ve been avoiding, allowing me to have a narrow, but sustainable, business focus.

What advice do I have for you?

My advice is simple – just go for it! But you should be organized and calculated about going for it. Most businesses begin before they were ready, and my business is no different. My only real words of wisdom is to do a lot of research and make some financial plans, such as saving up a reserve fund in the event that everything goes south and you need to float yourself financially for a little while (instead of ignoring the fact that finances are a part of daily life).

Did anyone find this helpful? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! I’m always learning and improving, but I’m happy to help out where I can!