(Image: Nic_Taylor / iStockphoto)

One of the founding Smartlife principles is that you should never have to do anything twice — the computer should be able to do it for you. The Internet has extended this awesome idea, brilliantly declaring that nobody should do anything a second time. By engaging crowdsourcing, thousands of everyday tasks have been taken online, from your personal party checklist to building bits of your business.

Familiarizing yourself with these resources takes a small-time investment but the payback is incredible. Never again do you need to start with a blank sheet, and procrastination will be seriously reduced — because once you already have something to work with, any task is infinitely more un-intimidating.

1. Checkser

Checklists are one of the most powerful personal productivity tools there are, and you can start with a pen and paper. Simply writing your tasks down clarifies plans, helps organize time, and frees your brain form remembering what you need to do (allowing you to do it instead!). Checklists are the entire basis of the popular “Getting Things Done” management technique, and have even been shown to save lives. So you should use them!

Even better, you don’t have to write your own. With thousands of people writing their own, Checkser offers a searchable database of lists for every imaginable task. Of course you’ll customize your own, but the pre-prepared starting point saves a lot of time — and can remind you of vital steps you might forget!

Checkser

2. ListPool

The next step in web-list evolution is not just downloading them but interacting with them online. ListPool is a cross between crowdsourcing and wikis, meaning it couldn’t be more web-connected if it became sentient and tried to kill us. ListPool allows you to engineer work lists with collaborators, checking off and modifying entries as the task progresses, and writing wikipedia-style entries on each task. This “build your own list/book” approach is incredibly useful if it’s a repeated task, especially if you’ll be bringing in new staff — a little extra time planning the first run through will save hours in every subsequent event. Just like good planning should.

ListPool

3. Microsoft Templates

Microsoft takes a lot of flak because of updates, installs, and the Blue-Screen-Of-That’s-My-Workday-Destroyed, but the fact is everyone uses it — and many of them demand updates, adverts, status reports, and dozens of other words that mean “a file you have to type up.”

Except you don’t! You already know to copy-and-paste text and images to build up a report (instead of rewriting things you’ve already done), but now you can copy out the entire framework. Microsoft offers an online database of thousands of templates, all organized by function, so the next time you’re sitting staring at a blinking cursor you can go online and get the skeleton you need. Then it’s a simple process to fill in each section, and you’re done!

Microsoft Templates

4. TemplateMonster

There’s a lot more online than Office documents, thank all that is holy, and for those you have TemplateMonster. A huge archive of HTML, Flash, and even SWiSH templates available for download you can get a headstart on any web-design project. Because the real point of your website is the details, the features, or just the proper presentation of your content — you shouldn’t be wasting time reinventing the bare bones of the site when you could be making it stand out.

TemplateMonster

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Google Labs

Google has greatly expanded beyond its core search engine to offer a wide range of free online services. Easily one of the most popular of these is Gmail, the ubiquitous web-based email client that comes with loads of storage and the ability to handle multiple email accounts.

As powerful as Gmail may be on its own, the “crazy experimental stuff” being doctored up through Gmail Labs can greatly expand on this functionality and help to improve your productivity. This applies not only to the work setting, but also when it comes to handling personal content as well.

Gmail Labs, according to the official documentation, is a “testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime.” As such, they may still have bugs. Then again, Gmail was in “beta” for five years and it was mostly problem-free.

To access the features being offered through Gmail Labs, click on the “Settings” link near the top-right corner of Gmail. “Labs” is one of the tabs available in the settings menu.

1. Gmail Offline (Google Gears)

Some people prefer desktop-based email clients over web-based ones, because the former allows access to the messages even when not connected to the Internet. Gmail Offline, which works through the popular Google Gears paradigm, overcomes this very concern.

Each time that you connect to Gmail on chosen computer, the Offline feature will synchronize the messages and attachments onto your computer’s hard drive. In this way, the familiar features of Gmail (and your messages) can be accessed when you aren’t connected to the web.

2. Message Translation

It would be nice if all of your business associates were fluent in your native tongue, but that isn’t always the case. Similarly, you may have a pen pal who prefers to write in a language other than English. What can you do?

With Message Translation, all messages received in other languages are automatically put through the Google Translate algorithm. This way, those cryptic messages you receive from international contacts can be more easily understood.

3. Superstars

Gmail already comes with the ability to “star” a message, but Superstars takes this functionality to a new level. Instead of a single yellow star, messages can be tagged with up to twelve different kinds of stars. This Gmail Labs feature can be customized under the General Settings menu, selecting which stars will be used.

Also, it is possible to use the built-in search tool to find all messages using each particular superstar. For example, entering the search term “has:red-star” will find all messages with the red star.

4. Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Why click around with a mouse when you can do the same things so much faster with keyboard shortcuts? Gmail already has a series of default shortcuts, but many more can be personalized through the activation of the Custom Keyboard Shortcuts feature.

A new Settings tab is created to remap the keys for various actions within the Gmail interface, including composing a new email, searching for messages, and so on.

5. Google Calendar Gadget

Just as many people have come to rely on Gmail to handle their email, many have also moved their appointment books over to Google Calendar. This useful gadget integrates the two, giving a thumbnail view of the Google Calendar from right within the Gmail interface.

Sitting in the sidebar underneath the Chat box, the Google Calendar Gadget will display about the next three calendar entries. There is also an option to see a mini calendar for the current month and to add new entries without leaving Gmail.

6. Forgotten Attachment Detector

Have you ever had the experience where you sent out an email message but forget to include an attachment? Never again! The Google Forgotten Attachment Detector pops up with a prompt when you mention attaching a file in your message but forget to do so. This simple reminder can save you from a lot of embarrassment!

7. Undo Send

Speaking of saving yourself from a lot of embarrassment, we’ve all had the experience of sending out an email when we really didn’t mean to send it. By activating the Undo Send feature, you can stop those messages from being sent. After hitting the send button, you have a window of a few seconds to hit undo.

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(Photo: wolv / iStockphoto)

A creative brief is the fastest way to communicate with a freelancer just how you want a project completed. It outlines the final product you expect, ensuring that you and the creatives you’re working with wind up on the same page. It can take a little time to put together a thorough creative brief, but the effort pays off in the time you’ll save explaining the style of copy you want to a writer or the feel and look of a website you expect from a designer.

Overview

The first section of a creative brief is the overview. It should cover general project information, such as the final product you expect – like a brochure or a website – as well as what you expect that product to do. If the objective of a new website is to increase sales by 20%, that information needs to be in the project overview. You should keep the overview only to a paragraph or two, however: you have plenty of information to cover in your creative brief and the overview is just a starting point.

Primary Audience

Any project is created with a primary audience in mind. If your audience is too broad, like individuals who use the Internet, your creative may not be able to complete a project that appeals to the whole audience. Instead, you want to focus in on a very specific audience and describe a typical member:

• Age range
• Gender
• Occupation
• Any other relevant demographic information

Having such information is crucial to deciding what sort of language to use to communicate with your target audience, as well as making aesthetic decisions. If you know of any stereotypes that should be avoided when thinking about and communicating to an audience, include those in your creative brief as well.

You should also describe how you expect your audience to find and use the product. Getting an individual to pick up a brochure in an office requires a very different approach than mass mailing a newsletter.

Tone and Image

In this section, you should include any information and expectations you have for the style or slant of the piece. Do you want something formal? Something humorous? Share that information with your creative, along with any specific imagery or catch phrases you’d like to use in conjunction with the campaign.

While this section of your creative brief may seem simple, it’s an opportunity for you to share your vision of the final result with the writer or designer responsible for implementing it.

Technical Information

Depending on the project you’re putting together, you may have specs that will govern how the project is executed. If you work with a particular mailing house on a direct mailing piece, for instance, it may only be able to handle materials that are folded in a certain way. This is information your designer needs to have from the start. You may have certain requirements within your own office, as well. You may only be able to open and review files in a specific way.

You may have other technical details relating to design that can help your creative work faster. If you use one particular shade of blue for your logo – or you have a logo to use on all projects – tell your designer how you intend to provide him that information.

Message

If you can give a starting point – a description of what your target audience believes or thinks before you communicate with them – as well as a message you want to share with that audience, you can smooth out the entire creative process. Be sure to give enough depth for your message: don’t just describe the value of your product or service. Put together a list of top features and other facts. Compare your business or organization to the competition. Describe all your major points.

Budget and Schedule

Ensuring that your creatives stick to a budget and schedule is easier if you can lay out both the budget and the schedule from the start. In your creative brief, make sure to note the due date for the finished project, as well as milestones along the way. If there’s a particular event or date that the project is expected to launch by, include that information as well.

If your budget or schedule is only tentative, it’s still important to include it in your creative brief. However, make a note of what information has been set in stone and what information is still subject to change.

Process

For those projects that must go through multiple layers of approval, outline that process in this section. Make it clear who needs to sign off at what milestone – and include their contact information, so that your creative can contact them directly in order to get approval. You can also set out details relating to closing out the project: if you need your designer to send the finalized files to the printer, or set up web hosting, or any other details that may be a condition of what you consider a final project, describe those details.

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(Photo: tacojim / iStockphoto)

It’s not hard to find a resume writer to work with — but if you’re interested in working with a writer who doesn’t work with a big resume service that requires a certain sameness in every resume they turn out, your search can be much longer. The resume writers below offer high-quality work and will devote the time necessary to make your resume stand out.

Not only will they help you land your next career gig (and perhaps a fatter paycheck), they’ll also save you considerable time and money. Let’s face it: resume writing can be tedious, futile, and time-consuming work, as you toil away trying to format the document or looking for the right interview-inducing words. Often times you can’t find those words simply because you aren’t able to see the forest through the trees at that moment — and that moment can turn into months.

Professional resume writers make all these problems associated with autobiographic resume writing go away. Some may argue that resumes should be pure self-expression on the grounds that no one can position you better than yourself, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The key to outsourcing your resume writing effectively is supplying robust career information — past, present, and future.

If you’ve started on using the Career Vault, you’ve got a head start on the information that a typical resume writer will ask you for. Most resume writers have a standard profile or interview that they’ll ask you to complete in order to have enough information to base your resume on. However, the Career Vault includes all the information a resume writer might ask for. (The beauty of Career Vault is that you enter your career information once, and reuse it again and again for multiple career management-related tasks and projects. So instead of filling out a new profile for each and every resume writer you hire over the course of your career, you simply hand him or her your Career Vault. Hours saved.)

While there’s no guaranteeing the ultimate quality or outcome of your farmed-out resume writing, the worst you usually can expect is some additional — albeit minor — editing on your part.

1. Don Goodman
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, thank-you letters, resume distribution
   Pricing: $219 to $875
   Specialties: IT and technical industries, management, executive
2. Rose Vargas
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, resume distribution, social media resume distribution, critique
   Pricing: $99 to $895
   Specialties: Nursing, teaching, technical fields
3. Louise Fletcher
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, online portfolios
   Pricing: $299 and up
4. Jennifer Anthony
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, resume distribution, social media resume distribution, critique
   Specialties: Executive
5. Peter Newfield
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, social media, cover letters, resume distribution, critique
   Specialties: Executive
6. Kim Isaacs
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, design, resume distribution, thank-you letters, reference lists
   Specialties: Management
7. Tamar Love
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters
   Pricing: By quote
   Specialties: Media, sales, administrative, technical
8. Michelle Dumas
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, design, resume distribution
   Pricing: $127 and up
   Specialties: Executive
9. Allan Brown
   Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters
   Specialties: Management, consulting, technical
10. Mark Henderson
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, assessments
    Pricing: $135 to $245
    Specialties: Military transition, technical, executive
11. Arlen Crawford
    Types of resume services: Resume writing
    Pricing: $149 and up
    Specialties: Lifetime resumes
12. Kit Samuels
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, thank you letters
    Pricing: $99.95 to $149.95
    Specialties: Sales, management
13. Martin Buckland
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, design, resume submissions, assessments
    Specialties: Executive, management, technical
14. Gayle Howard
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, thank-you letters, social media, critique, portfolios
    Pricing: $375 and up
    Specialties: Executive
15. Paul Freiberger
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters
    Specialties: Executive, legal
16. Barbara Safani
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, assessments, portfolios
    Pricing: $800 to $1,500
    Specialties: Executive
17. Laura Smith-Proulx
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, social media, reference lists
    Pricing: $647 to $1,597
    Specialties: Executive
18. Teena Rose
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, online networking
    Pricing: $647 to $1,597
    Specialties: Teachers, individuals returning to work, individuals without a four-year degree
19. Beth Colley
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, online networking
    Pricing: $385 to $800
    Specialties: Educators, human resources, clergy
20. Ian Christie
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, social media
    Pricing: By quote
    Specialties: Executive, management
21. Steven Burt
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, critique
    Pricing: $150 to $1,000
    Specialties: New grads, executive
22. Jewel Bracy DeMaio
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters
    Pricing: $549 to $1,049
    Specialties: Management
23. Deborah James
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, resume distribution, thank-you letters
    Pricing: By quote
    Specialties: Management
24. Linda Matias
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters, critique
    Pricing: By quote
    Specialties: Executive, teaching, sales, IT
25. Michele Haffner
    Types of resume services: Resume writing, cover letters
    Pricing: $595 and up
    Specialties: Executive, sales, management

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If you’re looking for resume writers with a strong personal branding background, then check out this matrix.

(Photo: JLGutierrez / iStockphoto)

As a follow up to the first 50 freelance writers we listed whom you can outsource blog content to, we have another 50 — who were recommended by freelance writers themselves. Between these two lists, you can find a writer ready to blog on just about any topic you’ve been writing on yourself. These writers can help you provide quality content to the readers of your blog, and eliminate the worry and stress of having to keep up with a busy posting schedule on your own. If you aren’t quite sure where to start in hiring a freelance writer, the article “How To Hire Freelance Writers” can get you started.

51. Allena Tapia
Topics: Health, writing, parenting
Where She Writes: About Freelance Writing

52. Annette Fix
Topics: Parenting, writing
Where She Writes: WOW Women On Writing

53. Gina-Marie Cheeseman
Topics: Politics, environment
Where She Writes: Politics With a Purpose

54. Rebecca Laffar-Smith
Topics: Web design, web technology, parenting, family life, writing, editing, programming, business, freelancing, past life studies, mental illness/health
Where She Writes: Future Tarot, Past Life Studies, Simon’s Auctions

55. Celine Roque
Topics: Technology, personal finance, productivity
Where She Writes: Web Worker Daily, Vagablogging

56. Meryl Evans
Topics: Technology, games
Where She Writes: The Game Zen

57. Miranda Marquit
Topics: Technology, games
Where She Writes: Yielding Wealth, All Business

58. Jennifer Gniadecki
Topics: Parenting, networking
Where She Writes: Everyday Networker, Beyond Mom

59. Dustin Wax
Topics: Productivity, technology, education
Where He Writes: Lifehack, Writers Technology

60. Mary Lewis
Topics: Books, parenting
Where She Writes: Virtual Word Smith

61. J.T. Dabbagian
Topics: Technology

62. Rebecca Leaman
Topics: Technology, non-profits
Where She Writes: Wild Apricot

63. Julia Temlyn
Topics: Music, writing
Where She Writes: Musical Reviewer

64. Marijke Vroomen-Durning
Topics: Health, seniors, pregnancy, writing, dogs, quilting, nursing
Where She Writes: Seniors Support, Help My Hurt

65. Dan Romanchik
Topics: Technology, engineering, software development
Where He Writes: Auto Test News

66. Susan Johnston
Topics: Careers, writing, women’s lifestyle
Where She Writes: The Urban Muse, AOL’s Lemondrop, Freelance Switch

67. Lori Widmer
Topics: Risk management, commercial insurance, business, marketing, writing, vegetarian food

68. Michael Schultz
Topics: Comics, technology
Where He Writes: Comics As I See It

69. Cynthia Morris
Topics: Travel, development, creativity

70. Anu Karwa
Topics: Wine
Where She Writes: Tasting Table

71. Michele L. Tune
Topics: Health, writing, green living, inspiration, alternative medicine, natural beauty
Where She Writes: Healing With (Raw) Juices, Writing the Cyber Highway

72. Sara Aase
Topics: Money, family, health

73. Wendy Korn Heppt
Topics: Beauty, fashion, fitness, budgeting, health
Where She Writes: We TV, Mom Talk, Health.com

74. Mary Theobald
Topics: Healthcare, Kansas City, Des Moines
Where She Writes: Kansas City on the Cheap, Des Moines on the Cheap

75. Charmian Christie
Topics: Food, travel

76. Elizabeth King Humphrey
Topics: Parenting, family, real estate, retail
Where She Writes: Wilmaville, Coastal Carolina Moms

77. Debbie Koenig
Topics: Food, fitness, diet, parenting

78. Derek Walter
Topics: Mobile devices
Where He Writes: App Craver, Bright Hub

79. Cheryl Alkon
Topics: Diabetes, infertility, pregnancy, parenting
Where She Writes: Managing the Sweetness Within

80. Kerry Dexter
Topics: Music, the arts and humanities, the business of the arts, education, history, broadcasting, travel
Where She Writes: Music Road

81. Heather Kenny
Topics: Style, fashion, Chicago

82. Debbie Abrams Kaplan
Topics: Family, travel
Where She Writes: Frisco Kids

83. Claudine M. Jalajas
Topics: Family, travel
Where She Writes: Life As a Supermom, Skirt!Blog

84. Lisa Jaffe Hubbell
Topics: Health, the healthcare industry, food, nutrition

85. Sal Vilardo
Topics: Technology, self-help

86. Amy Lemen
Topics: Travel, home
Where She Writes: Austin Relocation Guide, Texas Real Estate

87. S. Kay Bell
Topics: Personal finance, taxes, NASCAR
Where She Writes: Bankrate

88. Michel Hudson
Topics: Non-profit fundraising

89. Julie Tereshchuk
Topics: Fine arts, travel, minority issues
Where She Writes: Austin Woman

90. Beth Goulart
Topics: Food, dogs
Where She Writes: Eating Out of the (Local) Box, Travels with Moxie

91. Liz Carmack
Topics: Travel, science, environment

92. Rachel Dickenson
Topics: Falconry, nature, poetry
Where She Writes: Falconry on the Edge, The Haiku Diaries

93. Julie Sturgeon
Topics: Travel

94. Rachel C. Weingarten
Topics: Fashion, marketing
Where She Writes: Rachel’s Blog, What Michelle Wore

95. Roxanne Hawn
Topics: Dogs, lifestyle, green living, wedding, relationships
Where She Writes: Champion of My Heart

96. Stephanie Stiavetti
Topics: Food
Where She Writes: Wasbimon

97. Jenny Cromie
Topics: Freelancing, writing, business, career
Where She Writes: The Golden Pencil

98. Elizabeth Kricfalusi
Topics: Travel, technology
Where She Writes: Embrace Adventure, Tech for Luddites

99. Karen Reddick
Topics: Parenting, writing
Where She Writes: Grammar Done Right

100. Joel Falconer
Topics: Productivity, new media, art & entertainment
Where He Writes: Lifehack, FreelanceSwitch

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(Photo: abishome / iStockphoto)

The very first message on the Internet was “Lo.” The second was a list of 10,000 lawyer jokes. The first was an attempt to “Login” to a system that would help mankind be more productive than ever before. The second was the opposite, and consisted of jokes that would be booed off the stage at a Christmas cracker convention MC’ed by Carlos Mencia. You know that because you got it, too: it’s circled the Earth enough times to reverse the planet’s rotation, had more forwards than the entire NBA, and even now no-one has ever actually read the whole thing.

It’s rumored that the cure to cancer is hidden somewhere around the four-thousandth joke, but since you lose an IQ point for every line you read no-one’s ever gotten that far. The average victim zeroes out before a hundred, becoming an empty husk bereft of any intelligence or ability to contribute usefully to society — which is why they hit “forward” and sent the list to you instead.

There’s no proper response to an immense email forward, as it’s not yet possible to send a punch to the throat as an attachment, but there are strategies which can save you time. Each email excrescences destroys your concentration with the Inbox OCD of “gotta check new mail!,” so circumventing this social spam boosts your productivity. (As you’re well aware, batch processing your email is the most productive way to manage your inbox, but some lines of work and circumstances simply preclude this approach.)

1. Custom filters

We’re not talking about standard spam filters — your email already has those, and they’re the only reason you can ever get any real mail at all (3/4 of ALL email traffic is pure spam). You need craftier filters to block the more damaging spammers, a.k.a. “co-workers,” who think the best way to get the invoices out in time is to forward funny pictures. You can’t just block their address (or you’ll miss anything important they might accidentally send between Sudokii), but every stupid “Look at the cute cats!” they send proves why they shouldn’t be a colleague, they should be a subordinate. To a fry cook.

Gmail - Custom Filter

Services like Gmail now offer easy custom filter creation — just click on “Create a filter” (to the right of the search box at the top of the screen). You can set up your own rules and test each search before applying it. It’s a really good way to grab garbage because you can add rules for the “To” field as well as the “From.” Not every message from Manny in Accounting is spam, but you can bet he isn’t sending work files to his mother and “sillygurrrl@botnet.nl <mailto:sillygurrrl@botnet.nl> ” as well — just set the “To:” filter to include any obviously non-work addresses they inflict their garbage on and you’ll be free forever.

Gmail - Custom Filter

And these filters aren’t risky “all-or-nothing” nukes. While it’s tempting to set every message to “Mark as spam,” “Delete,” and “Kneecap sender with a rusty pipe,” you can instead park them all in a temporary holding folder. At the third step of “Create a filter” you can choose “Apply the label.” Create a label for suspected time-wasters. You should also check the box “Mark as read” — that way, every time Manny sees another cute kitten jpg, your concentration won’t be shattered by all those OCD-inducing “New Mail” notifications.

2. Secondary email address

To project a friendly fool-fooling face, ask any junk-posters to dump their garbage on a secondary email. (Protip: Don’t use those exact words). Explain that you just can’t be seen enjoying their incredibly informative dictionary of blond jokes at work, but if they send it to your other email you’ll be able to read it in your own time. Try not to be offended when they believe you really have nothing better to do.

A second address is just good productivity advice — half the Internet demands an email to use, and none of that’s anything you want turning up in your official inbox. “Yes, boss, as you can see over my shoulder, I’ll finish the February report the very second I finish this urgent NFL Update!”

3. Politely ask them to stop

The first thing to remember about social spammers is that whatever they are — friend or relative or spouse — they are also a filthy spammer — and you’re certainly not the only target on their trash delivery route. Having to remove your email isn’t a massive offense for them; it’s one less address on a contact list that’s four pages long and they won’t even notice the next time they spew YouTube links forth on all and sundry. Nine times out of ten a polite request* will get you out, and you’ll never again have to curse, hit “Delete,” and try to remember what you were doing.

(*Note that in this case “request” will mean repeating it four or five times as these people spend 20 times the effort on mindless output than they ever would actually “reading” things. They certainly don’t actually read all the rubbish they’re sending you, or they wouldn’t have time to do it.)

This has the double-advantage of getting you out of discussing “funny clips” in public places. Because if sending your friends clips of every kitten you see is sad, opening a conversation with a real live person with “So, did you see that video I sent you today?” is sad enough to kill all the Care Bears and plunge the Earth into permanent shadow.

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