Working as a freelancer can be a very lonely experience - but don't despair - help is at large. You have just entered the PolarZone!

Contents:
1. Feature Article - How to Work at Home and Keep Your Sanity!
2. Software Review - Jarte
3. Recommended Products
     - Ecourse: Web Design in 7 days
     - Ebook: How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator

How to Work at Home and Keep Your Sanity!
by Terri Seymour

Working at home can be a blessing and/or a disaster depending on how you are able to handle it. A home business or job is not for all of us. I know a lot of people who much prefer to "get out in the world" to work.

I absolutely love working at home. I did enjoy working outside the home as well, but I am a homebody and much prefer working at home. It does have disadvantages and problems though as well.

1. Isolation - This can be a tough one to deal with for some people. Sitting in your lonely little corner or home office hour after hour can get you down. When you start feeling isolated and lonely contact an online friend and chat awhile. If no one is available, take a break and get outside. Take a walk to visit a friend or family member. Just getting out in the fresh air can make you feel rejuvenated and alive again. Even a phone call to an old friend or your spouse, if possible, can do wonders.

2. Self-discipline - This one can be a tuffy. Having your own business can tend to make us lazy once in awhile. I know it does me. ;-) What I do is go over my goals and the reasons I started my business in the first place. I also think about all my readers/customers who are counting on me. This helps me get back into focus and to get motivated to go back to work. You need to train yourself to work when it is work time because you have no boss to do it for you.

3. Schedule Keeping - Making up a schedule is easy, sticking to it is not. I try not to have too strict of a schedule because it probably will need to be changed now and then. Try a daily schedule instead of a hourly one. This will make it much easier to bend it when you need to. Not being able to follow your schedule can be frustrating to say the least, but preparing a flexible schedule makes it less stressful on you and everyone else.

4. Family Distractions - This is one of the main reasons it is so hard to stick to our schedules! ;-) Make time for your family and make sure they understand that work time is for work and family time is for them. With me, my family comes first and I arrange my schedule around them and it works out very well.

5. Lack of Respect - Although we know how important our business is, our family or friends may not. They think we are playing around or just doing a hobby. You need to sit them down and explain that this is your job and it is very important to you and they need to respect that. Be firm. They will get the message. ;-)

6. Organization - Although we might be very organized, we just might not have the space when working at home. Some people might have a office, but some of us have work stations or corners. I have a corner. Although, I don't have much room, I am able to stay fairly well organized. I have a shelf, a desk and a drawer - with a file cabinet in another room and this is all I need. Most of the organizing is on the computer so I don't need a lot of outside room. I print out pertinent records and file them accordingly. I have a 4-story paper tray which holds all my "need now or soon" papers. The shelf holds my printer, answering machine and phone. And I also have a junk drawer ( we all need one of those)! ;-) This works out with very few or no problems.

Although working at home does have some disadvantages, I would not want to give it up for anything. I love the freedom of it, the excitement of it, the pride of it, and all the wonderful people I have met.

If you feel you are a candidate for a home business or job, I say go for it, but I wish you much success in whichever path you choose!

Author:Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com Learn to publish and promote your own ezine. mailto:myownezine@subto.us Sign-up for the FR~E MOE Ezine Publishing Ecourse mailto:moe-mini-course@getresponse.com Fr^ee Program to help you add subs to your list! http://www.subto.us

Jarte
by Anita Karlson

Jarte is a powerful word processor. The program is a good replacement for WordPad and Notepad delivered with Windows. It is compact and designed to fit the needs of home, school, and small business: A brilliant alternative to the huge, complex, and cumbersome commercial word processors.

The most convincing thing about this word processor is that it incorporates much more features than a normal notepad. You can add background images and patterns and use an easy bookmark system. The Clip List lets you view and reuse the last 25 clipboard entries and the Reference Bar gives you instant access to online dictionaries, thesaurus, and encyclopedia lookup tools.

It runs on the following operating systems: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.

Read the complete review here.

Web page: http://www.jarte.com/

E-Course "Web Design in 7 days"

The Learnem Educational Group offers a comprehensive free Web Design Course. The course contains seven lessens and covers the basics of web design. The information available will give you a start kick if you want to take controle of your web page and not relay entirely on FrontPage.

This new and inspiring e-book will help you succeed in your career as a Freelance Translator. The e-book discusses many difficult concepts. For instance how to present your business, how to find clients, how to set goals and work towards them, plus much more. Read more about it here.

The PolarZone is published by Anita Karlson. For any feedback please send an email to this addresse: akarlson@polartext.com

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