Xorte logo

News Markets Groups

USA | Europe | Asia | World| Stocks | Commodities



Add a new RSS channel

 
 


Keywords

2025-02-24 05:12:00| Fast Company

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Books offer a compelling, slower alternative to the onslaught of negative news. With terrific new free tools, its increasingly easy to access print, digital, and audio books. Read on for my favorite book sites and apps. The heavy-hitters Libby lends out free e-books and audiobooks through libraries in 78 countries. It works for 90% of U.S. libraries. You can search for and check out nearly anything, instantly, for free, on any device. Audiobooks: Check out and listen to audiobooks at any speed. You may not need to pay for an Audible subscription. Definitions: Click on any word in an e-book youre reading in Libby for its definition or to see where else that name or phrase appears. Highlight: Save memorable passages for your notes. Multiple cards: You can use multiple library cards within a single Libby account. That helps you check which library has the shortest waiting list for a book in high demand. (See where you can get non-resident library cards). Limitation: Libby is digital-onlyyou cant use it for physical books. That requires a separate app or site, like the NYPL app in New York. Kanopy provides free access to top-notch feature films and documentaries. I log in with my library card. Watch on the Web, iOS or Android, or on a SmartTV app like Google TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire TV. Limitation: libraries limit the number of videos you can watch monthly.  Hoopla is an alternative to Libby that works with 3,900 library systems in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Like Libby it hosts audiobooks and e-books, but also bundles in comics, movies, TV shows, magazines, and music. Use Hoopla to read, watch or listen from the Web or on a mobile device. I recently discovered its free Bingepasses, which allow instant access to a collection of magazines or videos for a week. World Cat tells you which of 10,000 global libraries near you have a particular book. It works in multiple languages. Search for books in print, e-book, braille, audio, or other formats. Find your next read Most Recommended Books shows you a list of smart people. Pick an expert or celeb you like and see which books they recommend, along with brief quotes on why they like each book. Check Goodbooks.io and ReadThisTwice for more expert/celeb book picks. Whichbooks World Map offers a creative way to find a book about any part of the world. Select a country and see books set in that region. Where to find book recs is a nice list from a Writing About Reading post. I also like the eclectic recommendations in the New York Times Read Like the Wind newsletter. BookClubs lets you find a book group near you or organize your own. Fable hosts book clubs & communities for sharing what youre reading. Find free and cheap books Project Gutenberg has more than 75,000 free e-books and audiobooks. No registration required. See the top 100 list for free reading inspiration. The Internet Archive has searchable e-books and a free library collection. Bookbub is handy for bargain hunters. It shows discounted and free e-books. Available as a newsletter or check the site for deals. Support Independent booksellers Alibris has 200 million titles from indy booksellers around the world. Powells is the worlds largest independent bookstore. Bookfinder lets you search online to find any book at the cheapest price. Indiebound helps you find a nearby real-world indy bookstore. Abebooks has great deals from independents. Check its bargain books + collections. Caveat: Amazon has owned it since 2008. Tertulia is a well-designed online co-op bookshop owned by readers. Make your own book list Listy is free. Its easy to look up & add books, and later export your list. (See my prior post about it). LibraryThing is free and easy for cataloging books & tracking reading. Free Notion book tracking template lets you customize a collection page. Free Airtable book list template & my Airtable exmple: 30 authors I like. Find great childrens books Sora is a digital library for kids. Schools make e-books and audiobooks available on the app. It works well with graphic novels, picture books, as well as comic books and textbooks. (We also use Libby for kids books). Epic is another popular kids e-book app. Its fun to use, but be aware that it leans into gamification and extrinsic motivationusing points and streaks to entice kids to repeatedly open the app. Kanopy has a great kids section with video versions of books by Eric Carle, Mo Willems and other great authors to spark an interest in reading. It also has math and science lessons. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.


Category: E-Commerce

 

LATEST NEWS

2025-02-23 12:00:00| Fast Company

Middle managers have had a hard go of it over the past five years. There was the upheaval of the pandemic, followed by ongoing changes in the workplace as companies adjusted to remote work and then, in many cases, eventually brought employees back into the office. Amid all these fluctuations, managers have been tasked with mitigating low morale, parrying employee discontent, and juggling their mounting responsibilities, especially as recurring layoffs thin their ranks. It doesnt seem like the challenges middle managers are facing will disappear anytime soon, which could lead to high rates of turnover in the very near future. And its also not clear whether a new generation of workers is readyor willingto take their place if managers leave their posts. In surveys, Gen Z workers have indicated they have little interest in middle management and that high rates of anxiety might keep them from taking on those jobs. As managers struggle, Gen Z sees the toll of the job and backs away, leaving fewer employees to rise into management roles, writes entrepreneur Jan Bruce. This puts more pressure on remaining managers. Bruce argues that many companies could be facing a manager crash this year that would have far-reaching effects, particularly if younger employees dont want to step into those roles. But there are some things employers can and should do to help support their current middle managers, as well as those who might take their place in the future. Invest in programs that support middle managers One thing leaders can do is evaluate psychosocial risk, according to Bruce, which can identify some of the biggest stressors facing managers at the company. That can include everything from tight deadlines to workplace conflict or excessive workloads. Managers are also often expected to oversee day-to-day tasks while also taking on more strategic, long-term projects. Being explicit about mental health resources and other workplace benefits can also be an important aspect of supporting middle managers, who often report feeling invisible and underappreciated. Mandatory vacations or disconnect periods can help alleviate some of the burnout and stress that managers are likely feeling. Beyond that, however, they also need adequate support from their higher-ups. Making sure managers have consistent, supportive check-ins with their own supervisors can help reduce isolation, Bruce writes. Train the next generation of managers In order to make middle management more appealing, companies also need to think about how to cultivate a new crop of workers who are equipped to step into those roles. Bruce notes that it is important to focus on some of the skills that are most valuable in managers and perhaps underdeveloped among Gen Z employees. We have found the employees most skilled in handling change and challengethe realities that managers deal with dailyhave the highest levels of those very skills: emotion control, stress management, engagement, and positivity, Bruce says. These are the specific, actionable areas to focus Gen Z training efforts on in order to improve their ability to handle management demands. What managers can do If youre a manager looking for guidance, there are also steps you can take to better manage your workload and schedule. To avoid toggling between different tasks, management expert Lia Garvin recommends scheduling similar meetings on the same day. When our calendar looks like Swiss cheese, we can get in the habit of slotting in meetings whenever we have a free moment, but this reinforces the overwhelm of having to operate at so many different levels in one day, she writes. Since managers are often hopping from meeting to meeting, it can be difficult to accommodate more strategic work or long-term projects. It can help to pencil that work into your schedule instead of assuming youll be able to carve out time in your day. Senior leaders can also help address this pain point by limiting meetings to certain days. Instead of fitting work in where you can, plan for it, Garvin says. Find and schedule one to two hours every week for project time, during working hours, that you dont schedule over. Perhaps the most important strategy managers can adopt, however, is to delegate more and spend less time involved in the details of projects that dont require close attention. Think of this as a way to give your employees new opportunities while also freeing up time in your dayand hopefully making your job the slightest bit easier. Ultimately, the middle managers role is to empower their teams to grow, Garvin adds. Its impossible to do this when were too stuck in all the details and barely able to come up for air.


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-02-23 11:30:00| Fast Company

Longevity with freelancing is entirely possible if youre intentional, adaptable, and development-oriented. Freelancers should think of themselves as a business of one as opposed to an outsourced employee for other companies. And it’s import to always be improving that business. As E-Myth Revisited author Michael Gerber once wrote, Most entrepreneurs fail because they are working in their business rather than on their business. Theres always going to be more competition, new technology, shifting market conditions, and stuff happening in your life that will impact your career as a freelancer. After nearly 12 years of freelancing, here are my recommendations on how to level-up your approach and ensure self-employment remains a sustainable option in 2025. Look for new sources of leads You dont need to be everywhere, but building a consistent flow of outreach from clients who want to hire you happens when you’re visible on multiple platforms. Any marketing channel or relationship thats led to you landing a project will ebb and flow with time and at some point become less reliable as a way of attracting clients. To offset the risks of a downturn in client outreach, Ive found that actively using two different promotional platforms makes all the difference.  A promotional platform could be a Slack community, social media network, local networking group, hosting a podcast, running a newsletter, or freelancer marketplace. What matters is that its a place where clients are looking for your products or services, and you can show up consistently to communicate the value of your offerings and expertise. Marketing yourself takes time and resources, so identify another promotional avenue where you dont need to start from scratch and could repurpose existing insights there. Provide certainty and reliability Its fair to feel like we live in uncertain times. Now more than ever, you can help offset this shared feeling by aiming to make your engagements and interactions with clients and partners frictionless. Showing up as a source of certainty and reliability can help others see you as a valuable partner whos easy to work with and makes their jobs easier. This can play out in small ways like always showing up on time or sharing meeting invites in a clients time zone to save them the effort, so engaging with you is seamless. And of course, this can be expressed in big ways like delivering outcomes youve promised on a project and when possible, exceeding those expectations. Getting hired again by a past customer is often because you were enjoyable to work with the first time, delivered as expected, and helped them look good for hiring you. Check-in with past clients Its up to you to stay in touch with past colleagues and clients. Often thats the touchpoint needed for them to remember to hire you again and retain your services. Be intentionally persistent by following up with them in non-invasive ways like inviting them to a coffee, interacting with their LinkedIn content, or sending them an email. Sometimes youll pitch them on how you can provide them value through another project, but most of the time thats not the goal. Most of this outreach should be checking in on their progress, delivering them help like free advice or support of some kind, and genuinely maintaining the relationship. Long-term, these connections youve built can deliver more client referrals, provide partnership and mentorship opportunities, and help you grow professionally. Find your own networking style Networking doesnt have to be awful like many make it out to be. In fact, its one of the ways youll be able to sustain a business as an independent contractor when done right. But dont wait until you’re between clients to startthats whats most important. It doesnt need to be cringy or self-serving: Just staying in touch with people you actually like or have common interests with, or ideally both. Its up to you to make it happen though. Most people put it off at all costs, so take the lead here. Dont have clients you actually like or have anything in common with? Put yourself out there and fix it so networking is more enjoyable and less of a cumbersome task. Reach out to someone connected to a colleague, attend a workshop in your area, or tap into your alumni network. Theres no shortage of options. Just get started. Befriend other freelancers Working on your own brings a lot of benefits, like having more control over your schedule. But one downside is that you can feel isolated. It’s helpful to connect with other freelancers. Whether they do the same work you do, or provide adjacent services and skills, these relationships can provide you with motivation, friendships, or opportunities to learn.  Sometimes these connections can even refer you to relevant projects or keep an eye out for opportunities you should considerjust dont go into this looking for that directly. Re-examine your offerings Once or twice a year, I take a look at how Im framing my services in terms of the structure of packages, pricing options, and how Im communicating the benefits. Early in my freelancing journey Id set standards like, Im not taking on this type of work for less than this dollar amount or unless its a project of this kind of duration. It can be helpful to set limits on the kinds of work youre open to so youre not inundated with low-paying engagements or misaligned clients. But sometimes, these self-imposed limitations can be too rigid or misaligned to what the market is currently interested in. As a result, you could miss out creatively and financially. For a while, I only took on marketing consulting projects where I worked with a client on a month-to-month basis and partnered with their team to build out a strategy. Each month was centered on completing a set of agreed upon deliverables from making the marketing plan to training their team to execute on the programs over a few months. While this was a successful way to frame this kind of project for large companies with the budget and resources to collaborate in this way, many other firms couldnt afford to work with me in this capacity. To capture this business, I reframed this offering to include two options, one is high-touch and low-touch consulting.  High-touch was the original offer where I worked closely with the company over a few months to build out their strategy, best suited to large, well-resourced teams. The new optionlow-touch consultingoffers similar support but at a lower cost and provides advice and counsel across a set number of meetings per month. Instead of working closely with the team on deliverables, Im providing them with strategic direction across select meetings, and its up to them to put our work into action. As a result, I was able to land more of these clients when I offered more options suited to businesses with a wider range of circumstances. And at the same time, I’m protecting my bandwidth and ensuring Im not taking on more than I can handle by setting different constraints for these kinds of projects. Structure and limitations are essential to a smoothly running business, but get more creative with how you’r framing your projects to adjust them to your clients circumstances. Look beyond social media Social media is often the go-to method of promoting your work as a freelancer, but its far from the only choice. More professionals, for a variety of justified reasons, are trying to spend less time using social media personally or for work. Theres many other options out there as long as you choose destinations where your audience is spending time and that align with the way you prefer to share your ideas. If youre more of a talker than writer, create your own podcast or become a regular guest of podcasts in your industry. If writing is your strong suit, you can contribute thought pieces to a trade publication. If you enjoy being in front of the camera, you could periodically host webinars. Look out for AI susceptible projects AI hype is exhausting at times. Dont let it lead you to tune out. Whats important to focus on is areas of your work that are most likely to be disrupted by AI so you know where to scale back or adjust. Review what you offer to clients and identify any aspects of your work that are execution-based, repetitive, formulaic, or require a little active thinking. These are the types of tasks most likely to be entirely replaced or change significantly with the integration of AI, and its necessary youre not overly reliant on this kind of work. For a freelance web designer, this might be a task like creating the initial wireframe for a website, which is an outline of sorts that details a sites structure and hierarchy. While critical to the early stages of planning the design of a website, AI can create a comprehensive wireframe quickly and adapt it to a particular clients needs. Combining your expertise and AI might help you deliver quality wireframes at a faster pace and streamline the design process for clients in the process. However, if a majority of your freelance work is wireframing without AI, Id strongly recommend reducing your focus on this output and diversifying your offerings to clients. Thats one instance of the kind of work that is likely to dry up in the not so distant future, and the goal is to avoid being in that position. Instead, prioritize delivering work thats centered on strategic problem solving, leverages your unique perspective shaped by your experience and skills, taps into your relationship building capacity, and draws on your emotional intelligence. And of course, consider hybrid services where youre using AI-powered processes and your professional expertise to deliver outcomes with more speed, efficiency, and accuracy. Always be learning The number one way to maintain a career as a freelancer, and really most career paths, is prioritizing ongoing skill development. No matter the industry, enhancing your existing skills and acquiring new, complementary ones is what ensures you remain relevant in the workplace. Change has always been a constant across industries, but the speed at which conditions are shifting is intensifying and requires you to make learning a regular habit. Direct your efforts towards passive and active learning, two modes of professional development thatll better equip you to stay ahead of the curve. Passive learning is one-way engagement with educational materials where youre not immediately applying the learnings, getting hands on, and engaging with others. This involves asynchronous courses, reading articles, listening to podcasts, and consuming newsletters, and should be a daily or weekly practice of absorbing new information. Easier to incorporate into your workday and completely self directed, you create the curriculum that aligns with your expertise as a freelancer.  Active learning is two-way interactions with instructional materials through engaging with others by discussing, analyzing, and applying the lessons learned. More time-intensive, active learning happens in cohort-based courses, networking, masterminds, group workshops, coaching, and educational bootcamps. Its deeper immersion into the subject matter and focused on collaborating with other learners, instructors, mentors, or coaches to help explore and integrate the material. Aim to incorporate active learning once a quarter or every few months to explore new skills more comprehensively. Adding both to your routine will help make you a more adaptable and dynamic freelancer better suited to meet the ever-evolving demands of your industry.


Category: E-Commerce

 

Latest from this category

24.02The best apps to find new books
23.02Its time to check on your middle managers
23.02How to level-up your freelancing career in 2025
23.02SAG Awards 2025: How and when to watch Hollywoods most heartfelt tribute to actors
23.02Heres how to figure out how much insurance you need
23.02Housing market outlook: What forecasters see mortgage rates doing through 2026
23.02Munich police investigate 1,000 mysterious stickers with QR codes on gravestones
23.02Trustworthy leaders drive organizational success in the face of rapid change
E-Commerce »

All news

24.022 top stock recommendations from Aditya Agarwala
24.02UK and India to relaunch trade talks in Delhi
24.02NTPC Green shares crack 9%, hit 52-week low as shareholder 3 month lock-in period ends today
24.02How to Prepare Your Stock Portfolio for Springtime Using the 6-Month Rule
24.02Global markets moving past tariff fears, dollar weakness may boost EMs: Sandip Sabharwal
24.02What to do with Natco Pharma, M&M, Bharat Dynamics and 3 other stocks? Aamar Deo of Angel One decodes
24.02The best apps to find new books
24.02Eyebrow pencils and primers: Why Japans male police cadets are taking makeup lessons
More »
Privacy policy . Copyright . Contact form .