I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

                                                                 — The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Like the celebrated science fiction writer Douglas Adams I too love the whooshing sound made by a deadline when it passes by. But my clients do not share this view, and I am sure, neither does yours. And thus we are forced to work around time. But despite all our good intentions, we fail to meet deadlines, at time.

This particular problem chases many freelance writers, and quite many of them fail to out-speed it, which leaves them panting and gasping for more air. And at this point they wonder — is it possible humanly possible to meet the deadline?

Because of dejection, they get no as an answer despite the fact that deep in their hearts they know it is possible. This article is for those people. It will help them manage their deadlines, and if you are one of them then for sure, you will stop fearing deadlines after reading this.

Do not chew more than you can swallow

I know this is oft quoted maxim, but still it is not oft used. People, more often than we think is possible, end up taking more than mouthful. And this cannot be truer for anyone than for a freelance writer. Partly because of greed, and partly due to morbid fear of losing a client, a freelance writer ends up taking more projects than he can finish in a day.

Allocate adequate time

This is another problem. In a rush to convince oneself of having free time available for one more client, a freelance writer often end up allocating adequate time to a project, in the planning phase, which come to haunt him when he starts working on it.

Cannot say no

This is another reason behind a freelance writer’s failure to meet the deadline. It is the fear of losing a client, a freelance writer end up accepting unrealistic deadline, which they can never meet.

These are the three main reasons why you are constantly behind your deadlines. Remove them from your daily routine, and you will always be on time.

Unlike big businesses, customer base of a typical small business is located in one particular area. A small business need to break the spell and stretch its wings to reach out as far as possible should it want to become a big business.

And how can one do that?

A small business can break the tyranny of space, time, and working hour by going online. Just take your business online and see how your business fares. There are measurable benefits of taking your business online, which I am going to show you below.

Benefits of taking a business online

1. You will not be dependent on your clock to open your shop. Your business will remain open throughout, and it can take order 24X7.
2. You can exponentially increase the reach of your business by going online. Your business will not be confined to one geographic location, nor will it be dependent on local buyers for profit.
3. By going online, you will level the playing field because the Internet offers you the same opportunity that any big business gets over here.
4. Your online business will help you maximize the return you get on your investment by opening doors of new market for you.

By going online, you will add wings to your small business, which will help your it fly higher and higher. And taking your business online is not that big a deal. It is just a three step process.

1. You buy a domain name
2. Purchase web hosting account on a reliable server, and
3. Find someone to design, develop, and deploy your online store.

Yes, the process is this simple, but it will take some time for you to get hang of. But, it is worth the effort. And if you want to save some money on web hosting and domain name registration then you should consider going with Gossimer.com. The web hosting plan of Gossimer will cost you a mere $4 a month, and you will get everything that you will need for successfully running your online business.

In the following paragraphs, I am going to talk about 3 indicators that tell you that it is you who is stopping you from getting hired, and when I said you, I meant your habit.

3 reasons you are not getting hired

Too high an expectation

Nothing is perfect in this world; neither you nor any job. If you are waiting for a perfect job to fly from the land of fairy and set down in your lap then I am afraid to say the wait is going to be rather long. Meanwhile, I would recommend bagging a not-so-perfect job that matches your skill set, and which can provide sufficient money for you to survive on.

Be realistic. Weigh every aspect of the dream job you want, and see what all you can let go. You will soon be employed.

Too small a net

Are you relying on just one technique to search for the job? Do you feel uncomfortable trying out different job-search tools and techniques?

To catch a lot many fish, a fisherman needs to have a net that is wide enough and strong enough. Similarly, a job hunter needs to widen his net using all the possible tools and techniques to land up in a good job, which sadly enough, very few people are doing, for they are slave of their habit of using one tool.

Too Egocentric (I, me, and myself) cover letter

This is stupendous mistake committed by a job hunter. No one wants someone who has an ego as big as the size of the Milky Way. I know your ego is comparatively smaller in magnitude, but why does not it reflect in the cover letter you send out? Why your cover letter is talking too much about “I”?

Writing I, I, and I will not land you up in a job, forget about a good job, as no one cares how smart, talented, Einstein-esque you are. Your interviewer cares only about his needs, and about an employee who can meet that need. I know what big a dork he is, but at the end of the day, he is the one who will sign your paying slip, month after month.

Wouldn’t it be smart then to satisfy his needs by talking about his company and how you will add solve the problem he has in a cover letter? From where I am standing, it would be smarter, far smarter to this than to talk about I, me, and myself.

If you, unknowingly, committed any of these mistakes then it is time to undo them, should you want to get hired. After all, we call it habit because we do it unknowingly, as a habit.

Learn to impress your boss

• Always be pro-active. Don’t wait for order to work. Find solution to problems even if not assigned to you. It will unveil your potential and dedication too.
• Always attend the training sessions. Broaden your horizon. It will help you to learn and grow. It also shows your interest.
• Take good care of your health. A bad health could run down your productivity and all career dreams.
• Know your boss’s priorities. If he judges quality by quantity, quantify your result. If he is inclined towards client satisfaction, treat client as the sole purpose of your work. Customize your working style as per your boss’s attitude towards work. No boss likes contradicting employees.
• Follow your boss. If he is more comfortable with telephonic conversation that email, follow the same. Study him or her for a while before grasping and adopting his style of conduct.
• Always ask questions. It will reflect your interest in work, curiosity towards new things. Ask unexpected questions reflecting your intellect and deep analytical skill. Your boss would flaunt you everywhere then.
• There’s no problem in seeking or providing help. When you need help ask for it. If you are capable of lending a helpful hand, don’t hesitate either.
• Do everything with a personalized touch of yours. That’s what makes you different from the rest. Do the same job in your own style. But don’t let the logic fly off. Within given limitations try to add your own style. It could be your superb style of writing or even just a small entertaining act before the big presentation.
• Be punctual throughout your career life except few emergencies. Always come on time. You could reach earlier too. Reach meetings on time. It reflects responsible behavior. Don’t be absent often.
• Always meet deadlines. Make sure you complete your task before the due date. At the same time quality shouldn’t be compromised.
• Don’t be afraid to voice your thoughts and ideas. Your observations and ideas could be very important for the company. Speak up with confidence. Raise new points. He will definitely appreciate your concern and interest. It will also set a good tuning of yours with your boss. If he sees good potential in you, he may consult you every time when he needs to decide upon new things.
• Last but not the least, always be his fan. Every boss needs a little stroke of his ego, little appreciation, little admiration and lot of flattering. Following his examples could fetch him great compliments.

Follow the tips I have shared in both the articles, and you will always make a place in the good book of your bosses.

Keep track of all your personal associates.  Keep a good record of when and where you first made contact, how often you usually keep in contact with them, and the last time you had a meeting.  Usually programs like Microsoft Excel are good for forming a quick chart that you can change and read on the fly.  All of this can be useful later.

You have to keep using your business contacts so that they do not forget about you, but don’t call them everyday.  Keeping an accurate record of how often you communicate allows you to keep on that system, so that you maintain the relationship by keeping up with them as often as you should.  You can also keep track of their opinion of you this way.  If they usually call you right back after an attempt to contact them, you are high up on the importance list.  If you find they do not usually make an effort to contact you, you’re not that high priority.

Make your contact time count.  Remember, you are not friends; the whole purpose of this relationship is to keep advancing each other professionally in some way.  So keep your messages short, and to the point.  Provide valuable information quickly, and they will return the favor, and turn to you more often.

But make sure that the business relationship is a two way street.  It’s called a relationship for a reason, both of you are looking to benefit from what the other offers.  So if your contact is there for you, make sure to return the favor.  That’s one of the most important ways to keep a business relationship over a long period.

Investing in computers and computer networks enables you to develop more convenient ways of carrying out day to day operations.  IT tools can help you automate functions that normally someone would have to go through each time, enabling a person to focus on a more important task.  This way you save money for the time they don’t have to spend on a pointless task, and also allow for that person to be free to attend to a more pressing concern.

Information Technology will allow you to create a broader spectrum of easy collaboration with your staff.  By networking their computers you enable everyone to communicate quickly, and more effectively on the fly.  This way they can accommodate for changing needs and services as the changes happen in real time.  All enabling you to keep relevant no matter how quickly the times change.

Finally information management will completely change with the influence of modern IT methodology.  Through IT you can effectively store your information and vital business data in a different way, allowing you to access your archives faster with more accurate information.  This could prove invaluable, and just another reason that your business should make sure to have a plentiful IT budget.  With Information Technology you could change the face of your business, and maneuvering yourself for success like never before.

Years before, Internet Explorer introduced DHTML or Dynamic HTML to allow these kinds of effects to be done from within the browser. However, this was available to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer only. There is a way to implement these effects via Javascript however, you had to know about animation and mathematical and physics equations to create them. However, with the arrival of Script.aculo.us, these effects can now be easily created.

Script.aculo.us is not only for animation though. It also has several functions that allow the programmer to add drag and drop functionality, in place editing, dynamic creation of Document Object Model(DOM) elements on the page, AJAX functionality, playing sounds, and unit testing. That’s quite a mouthful of useful features that could not only make pages you make attractive but also make it functional and easier to program.

Checking out the homepage of Script.aculo.us, we can find links for all the features of the framework. They are categorized into 6 groups. These categories include: Core Effects, Combination Effects, Effect Helpers, Behaviours, Controls, and Miscellaneous.

The functions for the animation effects are found in the Core Effects, Combination Effects, and Effect helpers groups. Some of the effects that can be created include:

• highlight
• morph
• move
• opacity
• scale
• parallel
• queues

Parallel and queues are not really separate effects but are instead a way for the programmer to string together several effects to create the illusion of one continuous effect. Combination effects are a mixture of the core effects that have already been customized in a way so that they appear to be one smooth effect.

As for behaviors, script.aculo.us includes the following functions:

• draggable
• droppable
• sortable
• form element dalayed observer

These functions allow the programmer to create elements on the page that can be dragged and dropped using the mouse, sort values and text, and provide a way to monitor page events and respond to them after a specified time delay.

For AJAX programmers, the controls group of script.aculo.us would be beneficial. These functions include:

• in place editor
• in place editor for collections
• auto-complete
• auto-complete with results from a local array
• slider

The in place editors allows the programmer to allow the user to change values of elements on the page and save them immediately. The auto-complete features on the other hand allows the user to experience a more responsive system while typing information in the form of auto-suggest lists. Finally, the slider feature allows the user to use slider bars to choose from a range of values instead of typing in the values manually.

The miscellaneous group of features are truly varied. The builder feature allows the programmer to insert new elements to the page, while the sound feature provides a way to play and stop music on the page. Finally, the unit testing features allows the programmer to test sections of their program without much difficulty.

So if you’re a web programmer looking for a way to integrate great effects and features to your page without the pain of creating them all from scratch, you may want to give script.aculo.us a test drive today!