I’m from Finland, a country of 5,2 million inhabitants at the northern end of Europe, right between Sweden and Russia, so when I started blogging, my decision was easy: if I wanted to reach more than a handful of people, I had to go with English. If you speak French, Spanish or Chinese, there is a bit more incentive for writing in your own language, but even then, the only way to reach the whole population of our planet is to write in English.

It’s not always easy, so that’s why today I am sharing with you the ten most useful and practical tips for writing in a foreign language that I have learnt during my blogging career.

1. Read in English

When you want to master a language, you can never read enough.

Every new book, short story or article you read teaches you new words, new ways to formulate sentences, and more natural ideas on how to use the language. They go to your subconscious and slowly start becoming more natural to you, until one day you notice that you start to think in English and know that you’re on the right track.

The easiest way to get started with reading in English rather than your own language is to pick up a non-fiction book on a familiar, interesting topic. Non-fiction tends to be easier to follow than fiction (fiction authors use tricky words to touch their readers’ feelings) and reading about a familiar topic makes it easier to guess what the author is trying to say to you when you don’t quite understand the words he’s using. Don’t use a dictionary unless you really have to – just skip the parts you don’t understand. If you make your reading feel too much like work, you’ll lose the fun in it, and the habit of reading won’t last for long.

Some great, free e-books to get you started:

1. The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson
2. Make a Name for Yourself by Scott Ginsberg
3. Why’s Poignant Guide To Ruby: This is a programming book, but also a reading experience like no other. I suggest you take a look even if you are not interested in learning to code in Ruby.

2. Listen to native speakers

Blogging is a form of public speaking, which is why one of the best tips for making your text come alive is to write as you speak.

But if you don’t speak English every day, this is a rather tricky advice to follow. So, one thing I have found useful in practicing conversational writing is to watch and listen natives speak.

The Internet comes to rescue here through podcasts and videos from speaking events. Pick your favorite speakers and listen to them deliver their message. You will learn not only about how they use the language, but also how to captivate the audience, and a bit about the topic at hand.

Check out these videos for a good start:

1. Randy Pausch on Time Management
2. Steve Jobs talks to Stanford students
3. Scott Ginsberg, “that guy with the nametag”, tells you how to be more approachable at NametagTV

3. When writing in English, think in English

This is one of the most important tips that separate a decent foreign language writer from a lousy one. The lousy writer thinks in his own language and then tries to translate his thoughts to English. But that simply doesn’t work: the idioms, grammar rules, and cultural differences make text written in this manner sound clumsy and unnatural.

Finnish is probably one of the extreme cases when it comes to grammar. In Finnish we concatenate a big part of words together (for example a railway station would be called railwaystation in Finnish) whereas English is full of small words. We have no future tense. We don’t use prepositions but suffixes… The list of examples could go on forever.

That’s why every time I set out to write in English, I push all my Finnish thoughts far to the background and don’t even look back. Then I pretend to be English speaking until the work is done and I can move back to my Finnish self.

I suggest you do the same.

4. Write

The best way to learn anything is by throwing yourself out there and practicing. With writing practice is even more important. In fact, I would give you the same advice even if you were considering writing in your native language. But of course, it’s even more important when writing in some other language.

When you are just starting out with your blogging, you should write something every day to really get your writing routine developed. After a while it’s OK to drop the pace a bit – although even then, if you want to become best at what you do, keeping up the habit of daily writing helps a lot.

Write in different styles: lists, humorous posts, serious posts, interviews, and if you have the time, even text that is completely unrelated to your blog. Just to get more practice.

5. Trust your gut

The human brain is an amazing machine.

You put in the source material by reading, listening to people talk, and speaking. Then you start writing your own blog posts and tune in the mind set of writing in English. And all of the sudden, words just start flowing from straight from your brain to the keyboard.

This can be a bit scary at first as you don’t know how you have learned the sayings and word plays you are using, and can’t be sure if they are correct or not. Uncertainty is the price you have to pay for trying to learn to use the language in a natural way. You just have to go with your gut and trust your brain when it keeps popping up words that you didn’t know you even knew.

I usually write freely on my first cycle, just trying to get the words and ideas out on paper. And then, on the second round of checking my text I drop sayings that sound too uncertain to me – or run them through a friend to see if they make sense or not. Usually they do.

6. Proofread

When you have finished writing your article and it seems nearly perfect to you, the next thing to do is to check it for typos, grammar mistakes, and just some plain weird sounding sentences.

The easiest way for checking for typos is to use a spellchecker:

1. If you have a word processor, you can use the spell checker that comes with it.
2. If you are using Firefox as your web browser, you can use the built-in spell checker support.
3. Another option for having a spellchecker in your browser is Google toolbar.
4. And finally, if you are using WordPress as your blogging platform, you can use the spellchecking feature built in to WordPress ever since version 2.1.

Checking for grammar mistakes is a lot trickier. What I do is that I usually check the grammar first in Microsoft Word or in an online tool and then go through it manually. For manually checking your grammar you can use a checklist of the most common grammar mistakes (here’s another one) or just play it by the ear, depending on how much you trust your own English language skills.

And of course, if you want to play it safe, you can always ask one of your English speaking friends to double check your article once you have done all in your own powers.

7. Have English-speaking friends who are not afraid to correct your mistakes

The best way to learn to sound like a native is to hang out with them as much as you can. By paying a close attention to how they speak, you will learn the sayings they use, the slang, and even the jokes that they throw at you. All of this is important in making your English sound more natural and conversational rather than something learned from a book.

Instant messaging, e-mailing, or even chatting with them face to face, if possible, are all good ways to learn from friends. And the best part in all of this – you can do it while having a great time getting to know new, interesting people.

When you apply tip number five, having native friends to point out your mistakes gets even more important. Even my gut goes wrong every now and then, and at times like that I rely in my friends. When they notice something weird in my posts, they let me know and guide me to the right direction.

8. Study spelling and grammar

Yeah. I admit it, this doesn’t sound like a lot of fun at all. But to achieve greatness, you have to put in some effort. And in the end, the reward of learning and becoming more confident with your writing is really worth it. Go find the books you were using on your English courses back in school, or if you can’t find them, check if there are any good course books at the local library.

If you still want to go one step further, you can enroll to a language course. Just make sure to pick one that is mostly about creative writing, because that will get you moving faster towards your goal.

But you don’t have to go that far for good results. These days you can find pretty much everything on the web – also material for studying English. Check out these links to get started:

1. Visual thesaurus: A fun way to improve your vocabulary by finding synonyms and related words. The page also contains word lists and a word of the day. For example, today I learned that Sesquipedalian is a fancy word that simply means long.
2. 40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation: A sesquipedalian list of tips and tricks to improve your English from the Dumb Little Man blog.
3. Dictionary.com: I use Dictionary.com mostly for checking up words that I have used when I’m not sure if they mean what I think they do. But that’s not all you can do with this brilliant web site. They have an interesting feature called reverse dictionary that looks up words when you write few words to describe their meaning, and a good list of further online resources for writers to check out.
4. The Economist Style Guide: The guide book given to all journalists who write for The Economist. Most of the advice applies really well to blogging.

With online services like these you will soon notice that learning English is indeed a fun activity that fuels your curiosity and gets you even more excited on your writing.

9. Commas and hyphenation – the tricky buggers

Commas are hard. Hyphenation nearly impossible.

The good thing here is that not even the English speaking bloggers always get these things right. But does that mean you don’t have to worry about them? No. If you want to be a great writer, you have to try to practice the hard things as well.

Let’s tackle hyphenation first: Definitive rules for how to do this right don’t even exist, so the trick I have adopted is simply to never do it. When blogging, you can always keep words in one piece and thus never make hyphenation mistakes.

Unfortunately you can’t get past commas and punctuation that easily. All you can do is to learn about using them and then always double check your text to see if your punctuation is correct.

1. Tips on Using Commas at Dumb Little Man.
2. Top 4 Guidelines for Using Commas Effectively at About.com.

10. Relax

Last comes the most important tip of all: Relax, and enjoy your writing. To be a great writer, you have to put in a lot of effort, but it’s not going to happen overnight. So, while you are practicing, don’t panic. Just write the best content you can with the skill set you have right now. Put it online on your own blog and learn more as you go.

Also, when you think about it, blogging is quite a forgiving platform: many of your readers are not from the English speaking parts of the world and won’t notice the small mistakes you make with things like prepositions or commas. Plus, people these days are busy. They don’t have time to stop and read every word you write. While that can be annoying in the sense that you can’t get their full attention, it also means that they won’t notice all of your mistakes either.

Relax, have fun, and share your thoughts with the world!

What follows are my observations on what sets these blogs apart…

The Givens

First there are the requisites for a good blog that any how-to-blog site will tell you about – that you must blog consistently, be on-topic, produce well written posts and that you need a clear focus to the blog. We will take these as givens as they are all factors in making a blog good. Certainly by themselves these are not a formula for success however, after all there are many, many blogs that do this that never make it to greatness. So clearly there are other factors that separate a good blog from a great one.

First among Equals

Rand from SEOMoz writes a very insightful article about how to choose what not to blog about. He does this by explaining that any area has space for only a given number of great blogs, a larger but still limited number of good blogs and still larger number of also-rans. When looking at the great blogs you quickly see that they each dominate one area, usually with a not quite as popular and successful #2 and #3.There is only a certain amount of mindshare available for any specific sector and this forces a blog to sit somewhere in a pyramidal structure. At the very top of the pyramid there is only space for a couple of people to sit and these are the A-list blogs.

Of course this doesn’t exactly explain what put those blogs at the top of their pyramids, but it does highlight one significant point, all things being equal those blogs have already filled those top spots and unless you can find a way to make a bit more space a new blog won’t fit up there. In that sense they are firsts in their fields. They are innovators that may not have been the absolute first blog on that topic, but are likely to have been the first really good blog on it.

Breaking News

Another characteristic of blogs that rise to the top is that they break news first. That is they tend to be sources of information you either cannot get elsewhere or would not know where to find. By providing the hottest news items the great blogs make it imperative that you subscribe or visit them first. In that sense they become indispensable.

Opinionated

Hand in hand with news is opinion – some would say the mainstay of the blogosphere. Great blogs have an opinion and aren’t afraid to share it. Moreover its an opinion that you can only get from one place. Whether its an educated opinion such as TechCrunch’s, a funny opinion such as theSuperficial’s, an innovative opinion such as 37Signals‘ or a methodical opinion such as ProBloggers‘, it is always an opinion that is highly rated.

Everyone has an opinion, but some people’s are just more worthwhile than others. Great blogs have opinions that matter.

Established since …

A great blog is like a fine wine, it takes time to reach its pinnacle. With time comes momentum and as in many areas of life success breeds further success. As great blogs hit their critical mass they acquire more readers and thus more links and standing and thus more readers and so on. An important difference here is that a great blog capitalizes effectively on its position to push itself forward.

In the Mainstream

Finally a great blog is almost always in a mainstream field – celebrity gossip, gadgets, politics, business, blogging, tech companies. Moreover they tend to reside in reasonably tech savvy fields as well. That is to say areas where a lot of people are online, know what a blog is and maybe even know what RSS is. That being said, this area is only growing and currently only a small percent of the population is online so more and more niche areas will open up into larger arenas.

So there you have it, my analysis of what sets blogs apart. Certainly its not definitive and I’d be interested to hear what other people think.

What this means for our readers:

All articles, including new ones moving forward, will be published at FreelancerMagazine.com. Over time we will be publishing back articles from NorthxEast.com on this site. No update to your RSS readers is necessary – Freelancer Magazine RSS Feed.

Not only will you continue to receive articles geared toward all freelancers, but a wider range of articles devoted to helping independent bloggers promote and manage all functions of their websites. Here is a sampling of articles you will find at the new NxE / FM:

• NxE’s Fifty Most Influential Bloggers…and…
• NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers
• Good to Great: Why Some Blogs Succeed and Others Don’t
• Building a Super Blog: Part 1 and Part 2
• 19 Blog Designs that Are a Sight for Sore Eyes
• 10 Ways to Focus on the Reader and Build Long-Term Traffic

We appreciate your past and continued readership, and hope to provide some great resources for you moving forward! Feel free to comment on the new site, or add suggestions for the types of content you’d like to see.

Cheers,
John Cottone
NorthxEast.com, FreelancerMagazine.com

Why I Chose Seo-semantic-xhtml.com:
I was quite impressed by their client list, which includes Sony Pictures, Columbia, and Mobile Illumination. Equally as impressive was their portfolio and coding style. SEO-Semantic-XHTML.com’s customer service was online so I showed them my design, discussed their process and Money back guarantee. After about a 20 minute discussion, I awarded my job to them.

Other perks:
They are in a similar time zone to mine (they are in PST, I’m in MST), which was a huge advantage over other providers. Also, their quality guidelines include w3c validation, and compatible with safari, IE, firefox, opera and chrome. Above all they have 100% Money back guarantee.

The Process:
I filled out their online order form, selected my package, and uploaded the design. Once it was done, I received a message from them confirming my order and delivery schedule.

Pricing:
Their packages start from $75. They offer three options based on the different markup selection i.e. HTML strict, XHTML transitional, and XHTML strict.

Support:
seo-semantic-xhtml.com has excellent customer support. They have ticket management system to handle all queries where I could login to see the status. They were available over IM,email,etc and reply was pretty quick too. I dont remember a single time when it took them more than a few hours to reply back.

Portfolio:
To see samples of their work, please visit: http://www.seo-semantic-xhtml.com/portfolio.html

What I got:
I received my files before the due date! And I was dually impressed with the quality of work – the code kept my design the same, it was w3c validated and working fine on all the browsers I checked. I must say they have done a quite good job.

Conclusion:
I would definitely recommend them for their XHTML coding. Their quality of code is good, delivery is fast, and charges are very reasonable vs. the competition.

Fell, who previously built and sold email marketing firm Pure for $7.8m last year, has been working on his latest project for the past 18 months.

Crunch.co.uk allows freelancers to manage their entire accounts, invoicing and expenses on a secure and user-friendly website, with the benefit of having an accountant at the end of the phone. It’s the first time traditional accountancy has been combined with the experience of a new media team to build one online package dedicated to freelancers, for a fair monthly price.

Customers receive an initial healthcheck with one of Crunch.co.uk’s accountants when they first join, and have a team of accountants available to talk to for ongoing advice. One advantage of using Crunch.co.uk is that it helps to convert Sole Traders, which freelancers are often classed as, to a Limited company set-up – by doing this it looks to save users on average £2,000 to £4,000 each year in taxes. Limited companies can use a tax efficient dividend method while Sole Traders are taxed at full rate on all income.

“Our research has shown that freelancers’ accounts cost well over £1,000 per year, while we will do the same thing and more for £59.50 per month,” said Darren Fell, MD of Crunch.co.uk. “This seamless integration of software and human has not been done before – with ongoing advice and support available as part of the online package, Crunch.co.uk offers the most cost-effective and unique accountancy service for freelancers, contractors and one person businesses.”

Crunch.co.uk will be updated every month, in a rapid expansion of its features. An iPhone application will also be released.

Fell continued: “There are currently 1.4 million self-employed people in the UK* so we have a big target market. We’ll be releasing some very exciting features that will simplify and join accounting processes together – things that should have been connected years ago, and that will make accounting ridiculously easy for freelancers. We’ve been completely supportive of this community since we launched advice and networking website www.FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk in February last year, and the site now attracts 10,000 followers each month. The interest in Crunch.co.uk shows that freelancing is surging – in the current climate more people are being made redundant and deciding that the freelancing lifestyle is for them.”

Crunch.co.uk is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

• Web and Programming - PHP, SQL, .NET, HTML, Java, C, MySQL, CSS, ASP, Flash, Javascript, ASP.NET, AJAX, SQL Server, XML, Windows, SEO, XHTML, Linux, Joomla!, Web Services, WordPress, VB.NET, JSP, Perl, J2EE, Visual Basic, Unix, Drupal, PayPal, Apache, Adobe Flash, DHTML, Flex, Social Networking, osCommerce, Facebook
• Design and Multimedia - Graphic Design, Photoshop, Illustrator, Logo Design, Animation, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Director, 3d, Photography, Custom Illustration, Video Production, After Effects, Cover Design, Video Editing, Art Direction, Music, Premiere, Digital Photography, Cartoon, 3ds Max, Audio Editing, Final Cut, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Creative Suite, Fashion Design, Coreldraw, Maya, Voice Over, Fireworks, Freehand, Voice Talent, Microsoft Office Publisher, Landscape Design
• Writing and Translation - English, Editing, Article Writing, Business Writing, Creative Writing, Content Writing, Proofreading, Blogs, Fiction Writing, Technical Writing, Online Writing, Web Content, Grammar, Report Writing, Sales Writing, Copywriting, Microsoft Office Word, Spelling, Newsletters, Press Release, Academic Writing, Letter Writing, Travel Writing, Non-Fiction Writing, Ebooks, Proposal Writing, Feature Writing, Medical Writing, Ghostwriting, Children’s Writing, Financial Writing, Spanish, Spanish Translation, Resume Writing, Journalistic Writing
• Freelance Tools and Software - Time Tracking, Client Management, Invoicing, Billing, Project Management, Collaboration
• Sales and Marketing - Sales, Market Research, Advertising, SEO, Marketing Strategy, Internet Marketing, Email Marketing, Direct Marketing, Branding, Public Relations, Lead Generation, Freelance Marketing, Event Planning, SEM, Telemarketing, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Public Speaking, Google Webmaster Central
• Admin Support - Office Admin, Data Entry, Word, Admin Assistant, Computer, Research, Customer Support, Time Management, Word Processing, Typing, Transcription, General Office Skills, Microsoft Office Outlook, Telephone Etiquette, Travel Planning, Email Handling, Medical Transcription, Medical Billing, Telephone Handling, Event Planner, Helpdesk, Wordperfect
• Finance and Management - Management, Accounting, Financial Management, Project Management, Bookkeeping, Business Plans, Business Analysis, Financial Analysis, Financial Reporting, QuickBooks, Financial Statements, Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Tax Preparation, Accounts Payable, Financial Forecasting, Strategic Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting, Investment Research, Inventory Management, Corporate Strategy, Peachtree, Job Costing, Statistics, Quicken, Organizational Behavior, Business Mathematics, Lacerte
• Legal - Contracts, Legal Research, Contract Law, Licensing, Litigation, Corporate Law, Legal Consulting, Paralegal, Negotiation, Intellectual Property, Real Estate Law, Trademark, International Law, Employment Law, Patent Law, Copyright, Family Law, Insurance, Medical Law, Legal Transcription, Bankruptcy, Trade Law, Tax Law, Records Management, Immigration Law, Environment, Benefits Law, Compensation, Trusts Estates Wills, Product Liability, Consumer Protection, Privacy & Security, Antitrust, Commercial Lending, Creative & Talent
• Engineering and Manufacturing - Manufacturing Design, Mechanical Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Industrial Design, Architecture, 3d Modelling, Computer Engineer, Electronics, Electrical Engineer, SolidWorks, Material Engineer, Digital, Interior Design, Civil Engineer, Pro-E, Structural Analysis, Sketchup, Wireless, Chemical Engineer, ANSYS, Operations Research, Autodesk Inventor, ArchiCAD, COSMOS, OrCAD, Integrated Circuit, ISO9001, Rhino CAD, CAD/AutoCAD, Scientific Computation, Altium Designer, Electrical Engineering, MathCAD, AEC

I am a mac user, and I use calendar app a lot. I have a couple (7 actually) different calendars, ranging from business tasks, to deadlines and personal plans. This has helped me stay on track with what I do, and make extensive plans up to almost 2 weeks ahead.

However, this didn’t work quite well, and just after this last Easter I ended up on the first working day with about 40 tasks to complete. That was obviously way to much I could handle, even if I had 10 employees. I ended up with those 40 tasks because I usually planned for each day much more than I could do. At the end of each day, all uncompleted tasks were postponed to the next day. In the long term, this technique proved very bad, but I switched it upside down.

Now, I pushed all my tasks to the end of the next week, picked the most important 5 of them, and moved them on the to-do list for today. Having the pressure off my shoulders, it turned out that all those 5 tasks were completed a couple of hours before my “working time” for today was over. I then looked and checked the next important task in the long list that was pushed to the next week. I did that task too, and repeated the process. When I finished work, and started writing this article, I realized I have finished 9 tasks, as opposed to 5 or 6 with my previous technique.

I think I got better results because I didn’t look ahead and try to multi-task. So, how do you do it?

You may have been extremly excited when you first started it, but as you go deeper and deeper, you feel like the outcome is… well… crap.

My best solution is to get away from the project for at least 12 hours and then get back to it. The thing is that when I get back to it I have new, fresh, better ideas and there’s a big chance I might start the project from scrap again.

So, let us know how often do you hit that wall, and how do you get passed it? Or how to you bring it down!

• of awful, low quality
• displayed in the worst way possible

The first issue is usually solved by using stock photos. There’s a bunch of free stock photo galleries and there’s even more with paid subscription. However, the second issue is tricky. In the past years you have come to know quite a few css/js powered image display tools like LightBox. Then there’s ThickBox, which I consider somewhat nicer. Both can be used in order to enlarge small thumbnails, but they both seem odd. Moreover, it depends on how you display the thumbnail, as some might not know immediately that clicking the image will provide a full size screen shot.

Brown

Take for example Brown University’s website in the screen shot. If you hover the images in the post, you will see a “+ Zoom” message in the upper left corner of the image. You will then try to go to that corner, and unfortunately, when you reach the “+ Zoom” button, it will start blinking (tested in Safari and Firefox). Now, that is really confusing. Not to mention that you can click anywhere in the picture to see the full size version. But oops, you do not know that.

Don’t panic, because I think I have found the best solution out there, and I am sharing this with you. If you check the latest version of Media Temple’s website, they too have screen shots in their control panel FAQ section. And those images are displayed perfectly. Rounded corners, borders, captions. But that’s not all of it. The great is about to be revealed. If you hover the image, in any given point, your pointer transforms into a “+” magnifying glass. What comes more natural to “enlarge” than a magnifying glass? Nothing! You even have text annotation, “Click to enlarge”, stupid.

Media Temple

Clicking will reveal a full size photo, more annotations, and in the upper central area of the image, navigation controls. YES! No need to scroll for next, previous etc buttons down to the bottom of your screen. You can even move the photo around, start slideshows, go to next picture, enlarge it even more and obviously hit the “X” close button. Now, if you do not want to go with the mouse around your screen to the “X” button, you will see your mouse pointer transformed into a “-” magnifying glass. Now, what comes more natural to “zoom out” than a magnifying glass with a minus inside it? Nothing!

Media Temple

Media Temple uses HighSlide JS, which is released under commercial license, but they do have a free version for you to try out.

Hands down for Media Temple!

Do you have a favorite or unique example of image handling you’d like to share?  Let us know via the comments section below.

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So, let’s get out of the house!  Here are 6 alternative work spaces to explore, ranging from office-like settings to some very casual places.  Try them out, work them into your schedule periodically, and enjoy the benefits of adding variety and renewed thinking to your work day.

1.)  Co-Working Facilities

Best for – socializing and collaborating, having desk space
Downside – usage fees are common

Imagine a modern shared office with a collaborative cafe culture, and you have a co-working space.  Over the past few years, co-working facilities have been launching around the world at an increasing rate.  These managed community spaces are geared toward developers, writers and independents who want to socialize and find networking benefits.

Sometimes co-working spaces are available free of charge, but many have modest usage fees by the day, weekend or month.  For information on locations in your city, check out this global Wiki on the subject: 

http://wiki.coworking.info/

2.)  The Cafe

Best for – energizing with the buzz of activity (and caffeine, of course)
Downside – tough to find a table in busier locations

The cafe is the “traditional” alternative work space for freelancers, and has many perks in its own right.  The coffee aroma can be fantastic, and your only fees are the cost of beverages and snacks (unless you prefer Starbucks, who charges for their Wi-Fi access).  It’s also a great place to meet former co-workers for a friendly chat or brainstorming session.

My best advice on this location is to be aware of your own working style. The noise and activity might be very distracting for some personalities, or the perfect white noise for other freelancers.

3.)  The Working Vacation

Best for – Workaholics, Adventurers
Downside – cost

If you feel like you need to get away, but you can’t leave your work, take your work with you!  I’m an avid traveler, but recently have had daily responsibilities to clients and content development.  The quick solution for both needs is to bring the laptop on the road, and find a new destination with these characteristics:

• Connectivity – good cell phone service and Internet access
• A location with a mix of tranquil locales and bustling hotspots to foster relaxation, work productivity and nighttime fun
• Accessibility – easily reached by major air carriers and train lines for a low-stress travel experience

A quick example: next month I’ll be taking a long weekend to the Rocky Mountains for skiing, nightlife, and blog management.  The location is accessible (3 hour drive), the lodges offer Wi-Fi and quiet relaxation by the fireplace, and the towns are bustling with activity at night.  The key to this working vacation will be to spend half my time enjoying fun, new experiences, and the other half on maintaining productivity.

4.)  The Public Library

Best for – focusing and finishing tasks
Downside – you can’t yell at your monitor

As I type this article, I’m sitting in a Denver Public Library, wearing headphones and sipping a coffee.  Yes the scene is quiet and slightly sterile, but I need to reduce distractions so I can crank out a few articles today.  At home, I’ve been finding excuses to avoid writing for a couple days now – laundry needs to be cleaned, Netflix movies to watch, yard work, etc.

So, this is my pseudo-punishment for procrastinating today – no cafe, no co-working, all business.  Maybe I can find a great book to read when I’m finished, and all will be good again.

5.)  WiFi-enabled Public Parks

Best for – fresh air inspiration, writing, brainstorming, creativity
Downside – bad weather

When I lived in New York a few years ago and worked for “the man”, catching up on email in Bryant Park was my favorite lunch escape.  With laptop and deli sandwich in hand, I’d walk around the park and find an open place to sit.  Somehow the sights and sounds of the city would invigorate me for the rest of the work day.

Maybe your city or town doesn’t offer Wi-Fi in public spaces. Take a walk through the park anyways! You can always work on offline tasks, or contemplate your business strategy or latest article topic.

6.) The Public House (a.k.a., the Reward)

Best for – indoor creative inspiration, buzz
Downside – potential for laptop damage (spills, sticky tables)

Every once in a while you should treat yourself to a light working day, so why not find a table at a nice pub? Maybe you just earned a new gig, had a super-productive week, or finished another big project.  Reward yourself with a pint and some pub grub!  Luckily my neighborhood has a few nice pub & eatery’s that offer free Wi-Fi access, and I can easily find a table during the weekdays.

OK, so the pub isn’t for everyone – but you see the point that I’m really trying to make.  As freelancers, we don’t have bosses to congratulate or motivate us.  So, take it upon yourself to recognize and reward good performance and milestones achieved.  You deserve it!

Dénouement

These six alternative work spaces can fit a range of personality-types and moods. I hope you try them out to spice up your freelancing lifestyle, reward yourself, and boost your mental well-being.

Do you have a favorite or unique alternative work space you’d like to share?  Let us know via the comments section below.

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