When we released The Upwork 100, a list of the 100 most in-demand skills on Upwork in Q3 of 2019, we shared a few observations from our chief economist, Adam Ozimek, PhD. His highlights included the global demand for U.S.-based talent and the higher rates commanded by professionals whose skills are included on the list.

What other insights that can be gleaned from such an extended list? Here are three other trends that Dr. Ozimek has talked about in recent interviews.

1. Skills can be relatively niche

Some skills, such as business planning and interviewing, reflect broader business needs. But there’s also a lot of demand for tool and technology-specific expertise. “What’s fascinating is this list includes emerging skills such as Asana, which is a web-based management tool,” Dr. Ozimek said in an interview with the Associated Press. “You don’t just need someone who is a programmer; you need someone with very specific skills.”

2. Leading-edge skills aren’t the only ones in demand

Flexible talent can be an effective way to access the newest emerging skills, but The Upwork 100 shows that businesses are looking for more than just emerging IT skills. “Some of these are brand new skills that haven’t existed for long, but some of them are really, really old skills that have been around a long time, like bookkeeping,” Dr. Ozimek told TechRepublic.

3. The types of industries looking for talent are diverse

Speaking to the range of industries that are engaging talent on Upwork, Dr. Ozimek said it’s “all over the place.” The top 10 industries engaging experts for skills on the Upwork 100 list include:

1. Consulting
2. Internet Software & Services
3. Internet
4. Consumer Discretionary
5. Healthcare
6. Consumer Staples
7. Publishing
8. Education
9. Advertising
10. Specialized Consumer Services

Want to learn more? Read the complete Upwork 100 list and analysis here.

The post The Upwork 100: 3 Things You May Have Missed appeared first on Upwork Blog.

Work is increasingly being done away from the office, something that can have numerous benefits for companies and workers alike—but maybe not for your social life. Time spent in the office helps foster strong relationships, which in turn can leave us feeling happier, less stressed, and more recharged.

In contrast, working alone could be fuelling a mental health crisis: a report on remote work by Buffer found that 49 percent of remote workers said their biggest struggle was wellness-related. One in five said they feel lonely.

How do you address that when your closest physical colleague is a cat?
By learning how to make friends digitally.

A group of researchers recently tested this and shared the results in an article for Harvard Business Review. Through interviews with people who work remotely at least 50 percent of the time, the researchers identified something they call cadence.

The team wrote:

“Remote workers feel like they have cadence with a coworker when they understand who that person is and can predict how they will interact with them. Cadence is especially important when we work virtually because it helps us anticipate when we will interact with our virtual coworkers and how those interactions will go, things that are much easier to do when communicating face-to-face.”

What does it take to help establish cadence?
It turns out it doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling.

First, you need to lay a solid foundation:

• Be a reliable work partner
• Respond to messages in a timely manner

“Then, take a leap when you sense friendship potential: reach out to the coworker to share something a little more personal or to tell them a funny story,” they suggested. “In our experience, small actions like these can unlock a rich friendship.”

Learn more about how remote workers make work friends.

The post The Simple Way to Make Work Friends When You’re Remote appeared first on Upwork Blog.

We often talk about remote work and self-employment as lifestyle choices—and for many people, they are. But for others, they can be an open door where there have otherwise been dead ends.

Location is a barrier that often doesn’t need to exist

According to Freelancing in America 2019, 46 percent of freelancers said freelancing gives them flexibility they need because they are unable to work for a traditional employer due to personal circumstances.

Paul E., a graphic designer from Connecticut, is a Top Rated freelancer who found his tribe—and a new business—on Upwork. “It’s changed my outlook on my financial future, allowed me to sharpen my skill set, and be more competitive while working from the comfort of my home with my partner Timothy and my cat Nemo as my support systems,” he said in an interview.

Going to an office every day just isn’t a possibility for some people, as Jennifer Aldrich noted in a personal essay on Medium. Working remotely for InVision is something she credits with keeping her sane when her physical health waned.

“Remote work is far more than just a job perk for digital nomads who want to see the world,” she said. “It’s a life changing opportunity for people with chronic illness whose minds are fine, but their bodies don’t cooperate.”

Other groups that are able to thrive with remote work include veterans and military spouses. Shari Cruz is a freelance learning and development leader, instructional designer, and military spouse who has run her business from Texas, North Carolina, and Hawaii.

“The ability to find clients online, in nearly any field, allows [military spouses] to leverage our professional experience, use our talents, grow our passions, and even contribute substantially to our family’s economic well-being,” she wrote in an article for the Upwork Blog.

Companies are moving toward distributed teams

“If your office has more than two floors, people aren’t working across floors,” Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork, noted during the Fortune Global Forum in Paris. “They Slack each other, they Zoom each other, they Skype each other. So fundamentally, whether you have two floors in the same building, or two floors in two different cities, it makes no difference.” Already, more than two-thirds of employees are getting work done outside the office for at least a period of time each week; more than half (53 percent) work remotely for half of the week or more.

To learn more about how companies are embracing remote work, read about flexibility and boundaries in an enterprise environment.

The post How Remote Work Opens Doors for Accessibility and Equality appeared first on Upwork Blog.

It takes structure, resources, and an appropriate culture for an organization to support remote work and a flexible workforce—both of which are important for recruitment and retention as well as access to independent talent. Companies of all sizes are testing ideas and learning to adapt, but it can be a more complex shift within enterprise organizations. Here’s a look at three global brands that are exploring new ways to work and change the status quo.

Microsoft Japan tested a four-day work week and productivity jumped by 40% | The Guardian

This summer, Microsoft Japan piloted a program called Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019. As explained in The Guardian, much of the program revolved around three key decisions:

• Offices were closed on Friday
• Standard meeting times were halved from 60 to 30 minutes—and standard attendance was capped at 5 people
• People were encouraged to collaborate via chat instead of through email or meetings

“I want employees to think about and experience how they can achieve the same results with 20 percent less working time,” Microsoft Japan president and CEO Takuya Hirano explained on the company’s website.

Why we like it: The results of the pilot, which included a 40 percent jump in productivity as well as cost savings, are noteworthy. But the program also called out two notorious time-wasting activities: email and meetings. In one workplace survey, nearly half of respondents said their job should take less than five hours per day—if it wasn’t for other factors. Initiatives like this one challenge workers to communicate more effectively and find better ways to work.

BBVA Spain puts cap on working hours to encourage employee wellbeing | Employee Benefits

Spain-based BBVA, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, is trying a different approach to work-life balance by telling employees to disconnect from work devices and email between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m., whenever possible.

This move echoes “The right to disconnect” legislation in passed a few years ago in France, which gave some workers the ability to negotiate whether they needed to be available outside standard business hours. The results to that legislation are mixed; while few people doubt the underlying problem, it doesn’t apply equally to everyone and it’s possible for companies and workers alike to ignore it.

Plus, as one French Dropbox employee noted, the legislation imposes a schedule rather than encouraging the flexibility people are actually looking for: “Each individual must be free to work the way that makes the most sense for them,” said Héloïse Boungnasith, French language specialist.

The bigger hurdle, she noted, is that if companies won’t change the traditional mindset that encouraged the problem in the first place the law is counterproductive.

Why we like it: Being available 24/7 may seem important but, as noted above, it’s also regularly identified as disruptive and disproportionately time-consuming. Recognizing the impact this mindset can have on focus, productivity, and downtime is part of the equation, but unless expectations change it’s difficult for workers to reset their habits and manage their time differently.

What PwC learned from its policy of flexible work for everyone | HBR

“A strong culture starts from the very top,” wrote Anne Donovan, the U.S. People Experience Leader at PwC. “That said, that is only where it starts. The action comes from the bottom up.”

Over the past decade, PwC has gradually shifted its culture to embrace flexible and remote work. In an article for HBR, Donovan highlighted what the organization has learned about setting expectations, true flexibility, trust, and change management.

“This did not happen overnight,” she said. “It wasn’t easy, there were growing pains along the way, and we’re still learning.”

Why we like it: Individual priorities, schedules, and business needs are always changing. As Donovan observed, “Flexibility is a two-way street”; there should be give and take on both sides. While some companies have pulled back from flexible work, others recognize how important it is to leave room for variety—especially when it comes to attracting and working with the best talent.

What recent articles about the future of work have inspired you? Share them and how they influenced you in the comments section below.

The post What’s Trending in the World of Work: Flexibility and Boundaries in an Enterprise Environment appeared first on Upwork Blog.

What are your competitors prioritizing as we head toward 2020? The Upwork 100 is a quarterly index that ranks the top 100 skills—skills that have grown quickly and experienced a high level of demand on Upwork in Q3 of 2019. The list:

• Sheds light on current trends in the independent labor market and tech industry
• Serves as a barometer of the skills businesses are looking (and competing) for
• Indicates the most in-demand skills provided by independent professionals

The Upwork 100 balances real-time insights with consistent patterns based on real work that’s been completed. Analyzing the results, Upwork Chief Economist Adam Ozimek, PhD, highlighted the following three trends from the list:

1. U.S. workers are in demand around the world

U.S.-based freelancers work with businesses around the world. While U.S. companies lead demand, 38 percent of projects for the Top 100 skills are being hired by non-U.S. companies such as Canada, United Kingdom (UK), Australia, India, Israel, Germany, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and China.

2. Average rates for the Top 100 skills are higher than what the majority of workers in the U.S. economy earn per hour

The average hourly rate for the Top 100 skills in Q3 is $43.72. This is more per hour than 88 percent of U.S. workers¹ and higher than the median hourly rate for freelancers doing skilled services overall ($28 per hour).

3. Fortune 500 companies across a range of industries leverage independent talent

“[Our] data shows that a diverse range of industries are leveraging independent professionals to access the skills they need, when they need them,” said Dr. Ozimek. “More than 30 percent of the Fortune 500 use Upwork today, and we expect that number to increase.”

Click for larger version.

For a more detailed look at these trends, check out the press release.

The Upwork 100: Q3 2019

1. .NET Core
2. TypeScript
3. Landing pages
4. eBooks
5. Android
6. Electronic design
7. Presentation
8. Sketch
9. Research
10. Technical recruiter
11. Bank reconciliation
12. Slack
13. Google Tag Manager
14. Sourcing
15. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
16. Video post-editing
17. LinkedIn recruiting
18. Data visualization
19. Interviewing
20. Interior design
21. System administration
22. Kubernetes
23. Data scraping
24. Technical documentation
25. Project scheduling
26. Adobe Premiere Pro
27. 2D animation
28. Firebase
29. Customer retention marketing
30. Salesforce Lightning
31. DevOps
32. Selenium
33. Accounts receivable management
34. Microsoft Windows Azure
35. Database design
36. AutoCAD
37. Usability testing
38. C development
39. Accounts payable management
40. Lead generation
41. Product descriptions
42. Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
43. Circuit design
44. eLearning
45. Google Docs
46. Docker
47. GitHub
48. Redux for JavaScript
49. Business planning
50. Data entry
51. Motion graphics
52. Infographics
53. Architecture
54. ASP.NET
55. Asana
56. Instagram marketing
57. Shopify development
58. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
59. Architectural rendering
60. PostgreSQL administration
61. Salesforce app development
62. Python
63. Magento 2
64. Link building
65. MongoDB
66. Bootstrap
67. SEO writing
68. Web scraping
69. Animation
70. Network security
71. 3D rendering
72. Agile project management
73. Administrative support
74. Data mining
75. Internet research
76. English grammar
77. Squarespace
78. Elasticsearch
79. Startup consulting
80. AWS Lambda
81. Branding
82. Media relations
83. Appointment setting
84. 3D design
85. Bookkeeping
86. Romance writing
87. Budgeting and forecasting
88. Product design
89. Financial accounting
90. Adobe After Effects
91. Zendesk
92. Accounting
93. Virtual assistant
94. Google Cloud Platform
95. Postgre SQL programming
96. Tax preparation
97. Embedded systems
98. Audio editing
99. Google Analytics
100. Amazon S3

The goal of the Upwork 100 is to highlight the fastest-growing skills that also have a consistent and substantial level of demand. To do this, using data sourced from the Upwork.com database, we first limit the analysis to skills that are the most in-demand by including only skills that have been in the top 500 on Upwork.com in terms of freelancer billings for the past four complete quarters. Within that, we then rank the top 100 fastest-growing skills based on year-over-year growth rates in freelancer billings for Q3 2019 versus Q3 2018.

The next Upwork 100 report will be released winter 2020.

¹ Economic Policy Institute. 2019. Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 0.6.13.

The post Upwork 100 Provides Intel for 2020 Planning appeared first on Upwork Blog.

We value diversity in the workplace but sometimes lose sight of the experiences and values that shape those varied opinions and ideas. That’s why perspective and empathy are critical soft skills in today’s workplace; they can be essential to good collaboration and navigating through misunderstandings.

Division across generational lines is a common example of this. Sophie Wade, workforce innovator and author, challenged business leaders at the Work Without Limits Executive Summit to rethink not just their assumptions about different generations but also their language: We often assume the words we use have a relatively universal meaning. But what if we’re wrong? Consider what the following terms mean to you:

“Lifelong Employment”

To a baby boomer, “lifelong employment” meant working for one company for an entire career. This loyalty might be rewarded with a symbol, such as a gold watch, upon retirement.

But to a millennial, “lifelong employment” takes on a completely different meaning: “Of course, I’ll be working all my life”.

Wade explained that some of the things older generations aspired to are no longer the expectation. “The great recession exposed the lack of job security and lack of corporate loyalty,” she explained. “And millions of millennials around the world are very aware of how underfunded pensions are, making retirement either unwise or unlikely.”

“Career”

Careers used to be linear, continuous, and compounding. Older employees may have dedicated themselves to climbing one vertical ladder—at one company—over the course of their career.

Again, Wade noted, the norm has changed: “An article in the Financial Times recommended that every individual plan for having five careers in their lifetime. Five.”

Careers are no longer linear. They may involve multiple jobs, breaks in employment, and moves that could be vertical or diagonal or lateral. There’s no standardized path. Younger employees recognize this and try to navigate it—often by asking questions that seem to challenge the status quo.

“Hard work”

For years, hard work meant late nights at the office—and in some industries, this can still be the benchmark. However, for younger employees immersed in environments with artificial intelligence (AI) and an app for everything, “hard work” increasingly means finding ways to leverage digital tools to work more efficiently.

Wade says the clashes about this are all too common. For example, she cites research that shows baby boomers often don’t appreciate having lots of laptops out on the table during a meeting. Are people concentrating? Are they distracted? But then, she noted, this is what many classrooms look like today. “For millions of millennials and Gen Zs, this is what they’re supposed to do when they’re showing their teacher or professor that they’re concentrating and they’re taking notes and they’re engaged.”

Why it’s important to change lenses

We each see the world through the lens of our own beliefs and experiences. The problem is that sometimes, that context is wrong. “Very different conditions and experiences can really change how we understand something,” Wade said. “And that really makes a difference if we don’t take into account somebody else’s perspective.”

The post Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z at Work: 3 Words That May Not Mean What You Think appeared first on Upwork Blog.

We are all trying to keep up with the shifting dynamics of work and technology. But with as many as five generations represented in the workplace, how each one of us views that change can vary wildly. It’s unprecedented diversity that has its challenges, and intergenerational disconnect is a common issue.

“We are each, every one of us, interpreting these changes in different ways according to our own individual contexts,” Sophie Wade, workforce innovator and author, told the Work Without Limits Executive Summit in Chicago. “Some of us are excited or curious or confused or resisting, and these different interpretations are what are causing some of these misunderstandings.”

Click for larger image.

There is significant opportunity for companies that learn to combine decades of rich experience with fresh insights and modern solutions. Here’s a look at why perspective and empathy will be critical for organizations to succeed.

1. Challenge assumptions

How we interact with others is shaped not just by what we know but what we think we know. Current research into organizational psychology considers not just the stereotypes that apply to each generation but also the meta-stereotypes—what each group believes other generations think about them.

That research shows that our assumptions are often wrong.

In a cross-generational survey, researchers from Rice University found that the stories we tell ourselves about other people’s perceptions are generally more negative than their actual opinions. But those beliefs can influence not just how we approach work but also how we respond to others.

“Sometimes people react with a sense of challenge (‘Oh yeah? I’ll show them!’) and sometimes they report more threat (‘Oh no, what if I live up to this negative expectation?’),” the researchers wrote in an article for the Harvard Business Review. “Both threats and challenges led to conflict at work (things like arguing or not getting along with colleagues) and avoidance behaviors (things like keeping to oneself and avoiding interacting with others).”

To help head off this cross-generational disconnect, the researchers offer several suggestions:

• Foster open communication and acknowledge the stereotypes and meta-stereotypes that exist. Paired with efforts to encourage perspective, cooperation, and sharing, the improved awareness can help people recognize when biases start creeping in.
• Emphasize shared goals to help purposefully build a stronger sense of “We.”
• Discuss what each individual needs because, at the end of the day, stereotypes are often wrong: needs and experiences often aren’t dictated by age and one person’s needs can shift for any number of reasons.

2. Foster empathy

To work together more effectively, workers of all ages need to reframe how they think about things. And one often-overlooked key to doing that is to encourage empathy. 

“Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and feel what the other person is going through,” she said. “It’s the lack of empathy in the workplace that is causing, or at least exacerbating, some of our intergenerational issues.” 

She put two scenarios to the business leaders in the room. First, she recounted the experience of an entrepreneur:

Example 1: An interview with a new hire

A Gen X entrepreneur interviewed a millennial who turned the tables and started asking questions and challenging the company’s business model: “How convinced are you that this is going to work?” And “Why should I work at this company?” This happened to him not once, but twice!

To older generations, this could be seen as arrogant or disrespectful. But to younger workers, Wade explained that these questions are rooted in something deeply personal, connected with their values, and very practical, connected with their futures.

Millennials and Gen Z aren’t the first or only generations to look for purpose at work—but they are the first who are willing to move on if they don’t find it, especially if they feel those values don’t support a healthy workplace. The millennial’s questions are also trying to assess, on a practical level, the entrepreneur’s conviction, values, and approach to his employees. Without alignment on these, Wade said, working at the company would unlikely be fulfilling or long-term—both of which, in this case, are desired outcomes.

“CEOs invariably say the constituency that’s truly driving their newfound social activism is their employees,” Alan Murray, president and CEO of Fortune, explained in an editorial about the role of corporations. “Millennials, in particular, may be driving the change more than anyone—and more important, they’re choosing to work at companies that are driving change too.”

Without these changes—such as relating to culture, technology, skills, or flexibility—Wade said millennials are aware the company’s competitive position could soon be threatened, and their future along with it.

Example 2: A manager meets with a relatively recent hire

The second example is a situation Wade said she’s heard countless complaints about over the last three years: a recent hire within his first year on the job goes to his boss to ask for a raise.

To older generations, this could come across as premature or entitled. But context matters. Wade explained some of the realities younger workers face in today’s marketplace: “Automation has eliminated the basic elements of many entry-level jobs, so recent graduates are actually tasked with advanced work from day one, coming in as much as three to four years ahead of previous generations in many cases,” she said. And financial security is a significant concern: according to a survey by Charles Schwab, only 38 percent of millennials feel financially secure and two-thirds say they’re living paycheck to paycheck.

Wade added that younger workers are all too aware they can no longer expect traditional, linear, vertical career advancement. But they want to know if they have a future with an employer by pushing to find out about their next career milestone—a raise or promotion is the logical next step—that might reward hard work or represent the start of a new challenge. They recognize that progress has been accelerated so promotions could reasonably happen faster.

In the past, these opportunities often came from the top down. However, author and career coach Julie Jansen told the Wall Street Journal that competing and asking for these advancements now comes naturally: “This generation has been given permission by their parents and teachers and other authority figures to just go for it, go for the gold, ask for whatever you want.”

Open questions encourage better communication

As with clearing out assumptions, asking open questions is a good place to start. In recapping these two scenarios, Wade noted that by fostering more open communication, we can figure out what’s really going on and conversations can have a very different outcome.

“We have an opportunity to really understand and tap into all the insights and experiences and perspectives of our whole workforce,” she said. “We can lead and manage in engaged, inclusive, integrated, thriving, multigenerational companies and teams. Together with the empathetic mindsets and approaches, we can figure it out.”

The post Perspective & Empathy: Sophie Wade on Critical Soft Skills for the Multigenerational Workplace appeared first on Upwork Blog.

How much time do you spend every day checking messages just in case something comes up? In our 24/7 world, there’s often an unwritten expectation that we’re always available. After all, checking in takes moments—and reduces the chance that you might miss out. The average American checks their smartphone at least once every 12 minutes.

But at what cost? As companies recognize the impact of being constantly available and distributed teams increasingly stretch across time zones, a growing number of leaders are slowing down by embracing asynchronous communication—a traditional, even old fashioned, expectation that responses may be delayed. That people will respond when it works best for them.

Staying on top of communication can cost more than you think

In a survey by RescueTime, knowledge workers estimated that 29 percent of their day went toward email and instant messages (IM). But actual data from RescueTime’s time tracking app puts that commitment much higher. In fact, when you factor in messaging through collaboration tools, 76 percent of the day is typically impacted by messages.

Multiply that across your whole team and you can see why distraction is such a big problem.

Another expensive weight comes from high expectations. The same survey found that 63.5 percent of people expect a response to the messages they send within an hour. Small wonder that just one in 10 people feels like they’re in control of their day.

Responsiveness can drag down productivity

Being tethered to our inboxes has a measurable impact on our ability to get things done. Gloria Mark, a professor at University of California, Irvine, researches technology’s impact on people. In one oft-cited study, she found that it takes an average of 23 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds) to regain focus on a task that’s been interrupted.

People who are interrupted often adapt their work styles to compensate, working faster—perhaps by investing less in their work—to make up for time they anticipate will be lost. Mark found they also “experienced a higher workload, more stress, higher frustration, more time pressure, and effort.”

A potential solution is to make asynchronous communication not just an option but an integral part of your team’s culture. In doing so, you can help people own their time by setting their schedules and optimizing their days in a way that gives them time to focus when they need it most.

Good collaboration takes time

Jason Fried, CEO and co-founder of Basecamp, has been advocating for a return to asynchronous communication for years. Real emergencies should be few and far between, he argues, while most meaningful work requires regular uninterrupted focused time.

In an interview with HBR about restoring sanity to the office, he noted that when management drives a culture for quick responses, work hours disappear, actual work becomes disjointed, and people get drawn into watching a “conveyor belt” of conversation: “We’re being pulled into things we don’t need to be pulled into to wait to see if we need to be pulled into something. It’s completely out of control.

Instead, he suggested finding ways to acknowledge that need for space—whether through quiet time in the office, by enabling remote work, or by fostering a culture that asks: When should collaboration happen in real-time and when can it be asynchronous?

The result can be a team that’s able to think things through and get a lot more work done in an environment that’s less stressful and anxious.

“When conversations are sort of owned by the initiator, you end up with a very distracting culture,” he said. “When conversations are sort of controlled by the receiver, when the expectation is that the receiver can get back to you when they’re ready, then you have a much calmer environment.”

Learn more by checking out The Complete Guide to Asynchronous Communication in Remote Teams.

The post Why Slowing Down Can Free Your Team To Do More appeared first on Upwork Blog.

The pressure to keep our skills sharp is constant. It’s rarely enough to commit yourself to understanding your craft—it’s also essential that you keep an eye on the horizon, too. The half-life of a professional skill is about five years and, according to some estimates, by next year 35 percent of the skills workers need will have changed within the past few years.

That’s strong motivation to get ahead of the curve to protect your professional edge so you can keep thriving. But it’s also tough to master new skills while protecting the commitments you already have. To do so may mean reevaluating your priorities—and learning to use your time as wisely as possible.

Here are three tips to help you measure your options, future-proof your skillset, and tweak your habits so you can learn as efficiently as possible.

Stay on top of the latest trends

It isn’t hard to feel stuck in a state of information overload, but to anticipate what’s coming down the pipeline it’s important to find a way to stay on top of emerging trends in your industry. How can you do that?

• Read industry publications. This is an obvious starting point: curated content about topics that are top-of-mind for many who work in your area. While these publications may require a subscription, you can often access some content for free.
• Identify thought leaders—then pay attention. Many experts regularly publish content to share their opinions on the latest trends, and it can be easy to follow their updates through a site like Twitter, LinkedIn, or their personal blog.
• Participate in conferences. A conference can be a tremendous opportunity to learn and network, but they also often generate a lot of content that can be followed online—from people capturing key moments on Instagram to attendees having sideline conversations on Twitter.
• Monitor leading companies in your industry as well as your competitors. Whether through company news or their latest content marketing efforts, you can often gain a lot of insight by watching how others respond to new developments in your industry.
• Don’t overlook adjacent skillsets. Maybe the work you do seems to stick to the status quo, but would the professionals you regularly collaborate with say the same thing? Creating a network with a broad cross-section of people can help you stay in the know and spot new opportunities early on.

Keep the amount of information manageable by figuring out what works best for your particular niche, then pick a few different sources so you get a mix of different perspectives. To get a sense of what’s trending now, check out the Q2 2019 Skills Index, a list of the 20 fastest-growing skills on Upwork earlier this year.

Remember that soft skills have a long shelf life

In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, Stephen M Kosslyn, president and CEO of Foundry College, considered qualities that can’t be automated. Machine learning and automation have clear strengths, but he noted that there are still areas where bots fall short:

• Emotion. Particularly when we interact with other people, humans can pick up on subtle cues, empathize with someone else’s experience, and quickly adapt to different situations.
• Context. As with our ability to adapt, we’re able to quickly identify what’s happening now and consider all the factors that may shift from one moment to the next.

If we nurture skills that play to these unique strengths, we’ll be less likely to sidelined as technology finds new ways to tackle the repetitive and routine.

“Our ability to manage and utilize emotion and to take into account the effects of context are key ingredients of critical thinking, creative problem solving, effective communication, adaptive learning, and good judgment,” he said. “It has proven very difficult to program machines to emulate such human knowledge and skills, and it is not clear when (or whether) today’s fledgling efforts to do so will bear fruit.”

Find smarter ways to learn

“It’s possible to teach yourself difficult and valuable skills in an effective manner,” said Scott H. Young in an interview with Fast Company. Ultralearning is a topic Young explored in a book that reveals nine principles that helped him learn MITs four-year computer science curriculum in under a year. These include metalearning, drilling, feedback, and experimentation.

Speaking with reporter Stephanie Vozza, he explained two principles that people often get wrong:

• Directness. People often learn in one context then struggle to apply that knowledge in new situations (aka real life). Instead, Young suggested jumping in by immersing yourself or tackling a project that uses your new skills.
• Retrieval. Rather than cramming and review, Young recommended challenging yourself early on by trying to recall what you’ve learned—such as through tests—then reviewing to bridge the gaps. “If I don’t have to recall something, I don’t store it in my memory,” he said.

What do you do to stay at the top of your game? Share your tips in the comments below!

The post Smarter Ways to Level Up Your Skills and Focus Your Efforts appeared first on Upwork Blog.

Monday mornings can be tough. A 2018 survey by LinkedIn found that 80 percent of American workers get the “Sunday Scaries,” worrying about the week ahead. Add a time change to that mix and the beginning of your week can carry even more drag than usual.

What can you do to turn things around today—and into the future? Check out these three articles for ideas to help reset your mood, improve your energy, and protect your wellbeing.

1. Shape your mornings so they work for you

Mindset is a critical part of any day and experts say it starts by taking control of your morning. That can seem easier said than done: Organizing your family, enduring your commute, or logging on for a cross-timezone conference call first thing can quickly knock things off course.

But, as Sarah DiGiulio wrote for NBCNews Better in “9 Things to Do This Morning to Make Your Whole Day More Productive,” experts recommend a number of actions that can help you boost your energy and face the day with confidence.

It starts by having a plan. “Habits that get you out the door in the morning without having to stress over decisions enables you to have more willpower to make [other] decisions during the day about important things,” productivity expert and coach Ellen Goodwin told DiGiulio. Other tips include:

• Drinking a glass or two of water as soon as you wake up to rehydrate your body.
• Taking time to be mindful, whether that’s through meditation, journaling, or coloring. Goodwin said how you do it doesn’t matter as much as the goal: to calm down, slow down, and focus.
• Stepping into the sunshine, something Goel explained signals to your body that it’s time to wake up and start your day.

And—good news—your morning cup of coffee also gets the thumbs up. DiGiulio noted that “There’s a lot of data to show it really does help most people feel more alert and less groggy.”

Why we like it: Everyone’s daily routine is different, something that can be particularly true if you’re self-employed or working remotely. What matters is creating a morning routine that puts you on the path to a positive day, and this article provides helpful research-backed advice—including tips you may still be able to work into your morning today.

2. Adjust your priorities to find more happiness

It’s little surprise that being happy can help your week go more smoothly. But a study that’s been going for more than eight decades underscores how important it can be for both your short and long-term wellbeing.

“An 81-year Harvard Study Says Staying Happy and Mentally Sharp Boils Down to 1 Thing” summarized key findings from the research so far—or, specifically, the one critical thing the study’s current director, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, said the study has revealed:

“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”

As Procter & Gamble veteran and author Scott Mautz wrote for Inc.com, it turns out that the quality of our relationships can actually protect our brain and memory—we experience less stress and anxiety when we know there are people who have our backs.

But creating and maintaining quality relationships is no small feat: It takes ongoing effort, good communication, a willingness to forgive when things go sideways, and the ability to keep those relationships strong while meeting your other commitments, such as work.

“If success starts and ends with nurturing relationships, then everything else gets re-prioritized,” Mautz said. “You’ll find the things that go by the wayside to make room for relationships will soon seem trivial in comparison.

Why we like it: While relationships take time to grow, every small step is a move in the right direction—whether you schedule a call to check in with a friend, send a quick text to let your parents know you’re thinking of them, or wake up a few minutes earlier tomorrow to spend time with your family before everyone runs off to start their day.

3. Find a way to reduce or eliminate your commute time

If you don’t currently have the option to work remotely, this likely isn’t something you can swing for tomorrow. But with a growing number of companies adapting to distributed teams and remote workers, the possibility may not be out of reach.

In “The Average Worker Spends 51 Percent of Each Workday on These 3 Unnecessary Tasks” for Inc.com, contributing editor Geoffrey James calls out activities that take up far too much time and energy in our day-to-day lives: commutes, meetings, and emails.

“Add up those three huge time-wasters and it comes out to roughly 51 percent of your working life,” James wrote. “Think about that for second. How much more could you accomplish if you were twice as productive? How much better your life would become if you always had plenty of time?”

Why we like it: For better or worse, emails and meetings are still pretty well-rooted in business culture—although there are efforts, such as walking meetings and five.sentenc.es, that aim to inspire change. Remote work, however, is spreading as companies learn to leverage the global talent pool, and many skilled workers migrate away from cities in search of more affordable living and better quality of life.

What articles have you seen that have you thinking about the way we work? Tell us about it in the comments below.

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