No, not the Sheryl Crow song, the Newsweek/Daily Beast Column. Maybe I just love reading about other people’s mistakes, but the last-page “My Favorite Mistake” essay is my favorite part of the redesigned Newsweek. Written by famous people of various flavors, these columns just reinforce the fact that whether it’s Madeleine Albright wearing her “three [...]
Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category
My favorite mistake
Posted in Freelancing, Getting started as a translator, Productivity, Professional development on January 9, 2012 | 13 Comments »
5 things to do before 2012
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing, Money, Productivity, Rates, Working from home on December 5, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Hello readers! Thoughts on Translation is back from an incredible two weeks in Costa Rica: we visited Corcovado National Park and the Arenal volcano area and it was truly amazing. I highly recommend Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp and the Sirena ranger station for a truly off-the-beaten-track experience. Think wild tapirs wandering down the beach and [...]
The ten essentials of freelance translation
Posted in Freelancing, Productivity, Working from home on September 22, 2011 | 21 Comments »
There’s something about the number 10. Not just the connotation of “perfect 10,” but the number has an undeniable appeal. This year’s American Translators Association Translation Company Division conference was focused on the number 10 (10 sessions that each featured 10 tips on a certain topic), and people really seemed to enjoy the manageable scale [...]
Vacation recovery: library arrest
Posted in Productivity on July 20, 2011 | 11 Comments »
The Thoughts on Translation household recently returned from a great vacation; a 337 mile bike ride across our home state of Colorado, finishing with a camping trip in Dinosaur National Monument. This vacation was 100% unplugged (a concept that I wrote about last summer): no Internet or cell phone access for 10 whole days! The [...]
Some thoughts on hourly and salaried pay
Posted in Clients, Money, Productivity on June 21, 2011 | 12 Comments »
In the early days of Thoughts on Translation (March, 2008 to be exact), I wrote a post on charging by the word versus charging by the hour. For a long time, it was the most active post on my blog and it inspired some interesting and heated discussion. Get Rich Slowly’s post today is on [...]
What types of incentives work best for you?
Posted in Freelancing, Productivity on June 20, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Especially when you work on your own, incentives can be an important part of succeeding in business (and in life, for that matter!). It’s important to figure out what kinds of incentives work for you, so that you can use them to advantage. For example, you might encounter some of the following types of incentives [...]
Staying comfortable in the office
Posted in Freelancing, Productivity, Working from home on April 22, 2011 | 24 Comments »
One of the appealing aspects of working from home is that you’re free to configure your work environment however you want, especially if you have a dedicated office room in your house. Readers, what are some of your favorite strategies/configurations/products for staying happy and comfortable in your office? I recently gave my office a thorough [...]
The importance of aiming low
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing, Productivity on April 13, 2011 | 21 Comments »
…well, maybe not “low.” Maybe “The importance of setting realistic expectations” is a better way to put it. Over the years, I’ve noticed that many translators fail to reach their long-term goals because (paradoxically) they aim too high. Typical case scenario: a translator who has been in the business for a few years wants to [...]
Webinar question: how many words per day?
Posted in Productivity, Technology, Webinar questions on January 20, 2011 | 22 Comments »
This is post #4 in my ongoing series of questions from the webinar on “Getting Started as a Freelance Translator” that I presented for the American Translators Association in December. A participant asks: For a translator who doesn’t use CAT tools, what is the average turnaround/output in words per day? Short answer: If you want [...]
Happy 2011: Are bad habits a form of self-protection?
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing, Productivity, Translation quality, Working from home on January 5, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Happy 2011 to everyone out there in the translation blogosphere! To start the year off, here’s a very interesting interview I came across: sports writer Bill Simmons interviewing New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell. Both Simmons and Gladwell draw some interesting parallels between sports and the rest of life, but my favorite is Gladwell’s take on [...]
-
If you enjoy Corinne’s blog, check out her book!
Corinne McKay is an ATA-certified French to English translator specializing in international development, law and non-fiction books. She launched Thoughts on Translation in February, 2008 as a way to connect and share ideas with freelance translators around the world.
-
What’s new on Thoughts on Translation?
