If you’re a freelancer you know it can be hard to avoid distractions, not just the ones you create for yourself, but the ones that others create for you.
Apart from your own procrastination and frittering away time surfing, playing and having performance panic attacks, the categories and clients that most distractions and demands fall into are:
People Without Boundaries: These are clients, friends, family and people who don’t understand the word, “No,” or who take the word personally. They see your life as an extension of their lives. If they have …

I was listening to some kids (ages 9-12 I guess) talking at the table next to me in Subway the other night. Their mother was talking about all they needed to do for the upcoming weekend and the oldest said confidently, “Don’t worry mom. It’s only Friday night. We’ve got plenty of time.” I loved the look on the mother’s face. Obviously she knew something they didn’t, but she played along in all seriousness.
“Oh,” she said. “So how long do you think it will take you to clean up your …

I was sitting on the couch at my friend Patty Newbold’s house when I got the news I was selected to speak at TED Global 2009. She smiled for the entire time I sat there screaming, “I’m talking at TED! I’m talking at TED!” Then when the fear, shock and horror at having to actually TALK in front of a crowd set in, she was also there.
She was supportive, calm and my rock in a time I was feeling so uncertain. When I wrote my first speech she read it …

“I like you, but we’re not friends.” Ever want to say that? I do. I get requests from people on social networks, G+, Facebook, Triiibes.com, LinkedIn and so on all the time to be “friends.” 90% of them I say “Yes” to, unless there’s some obvious reason not to like, the only information I can find on them is linked to porn, dating sites, enhancement products or pyramid marketing schemes.
If they look like real people and aren’t just a fake profile, I generally say yes. All I do on social …

Believe it or not, your customers aren’t who you think they are. Television and the media would have us believe most of the population is young, hip, upper middle class and pretty good looking.
As of December 20, 2010 (the day before the 2010 Census was released), the estimated population of the United States was more than 310,950,000— or 310 million.
According to Martha Stout, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist, as many as 4% of the population are conscienceless sociopaths who have no empathy or affectionate feelings for humans or …