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Yael’s Variety Hour: Workplace Culture, Preventing Concussions, And More

February 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Depositphotos 2777272 xs 210x300 Yaels Variety Hour: Workplace Culture, Preventing Concussions, And MoreIt’s that time again, when I corral my favorite posts from the week, do my best to put them in neat categories, and share it with you! Enjoy these links–something for everyone, I hope.

Tech, Culture and Gender Politics 

We Frickin’ Love Science 

Writing, Craft Of

  • Breeding Unicorns and Building Off of OthersNieman Journalism Lab shares some lessons learned from the Journalism Interactive conference… namely, that journalists need to learn how to be nimble and adaptable, and able to learn things on their own.

Writing, Business Of

Fitness

  • Lies You Tell Yourself In the Gym. Sorry, folks, this one ain’t free (unless you subscribe to the Performance Menu). Just my piece on gym lies, in a stacked issue with articles on everything from handstand walking to functional fitness to PEDs… plus the answers to the age-old questions of how much you should be able to lift, and how to make group training work for you. $6.95 for the issue.

Mixed Martial Arts 

Food For Thought

Filed Under: variety hour

Yael’s Variety Hour: Crime. Bullying. Gender Politics

February 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

320px Several varieties of potatoes Yaels Variety Hour: Crime. Bullying. Gender PoliticsWelcome to this week’s Variety Hour, where I cull together my favorite posts from around the interwebs, and place them in one specific non-sequiter post, hoping there’s something of interest for everyone.

Crime

From Seth Godin’s Blog

Gender Politics

  • Why I’d Rather Work For A Man Than A Woman. This woman argues that it’s better to work for men,  because they’re less emotional. Like her. Only she’s not a man. The mind boggles. (How this got on Forbes is beyond me.)

Requisite Fitness Section

Google

  • And here’s a video they shared called Online Checkout. For when shopping online isn’t as easy as it could be.

 

Filed Under: variety hour

Valentine’s Day Variety Hour: Denial! Interviews! Food! Booze!

February 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Antique Valentine 1909 01 Valentines Day Variety Hour: Denial! Interviews! Food! Booze!I accidentally closed a million tabs today, and then opened new ones, so I couldn’t reopen the old ones. Nevertheless, I still wrangled together 15 amazing posts for you. Because I love you.

 Freelance Living

  •  The Best of YGS. No, that’s not my initials, but rather some guys reading misspelled tweets out loud for 19 whole minutes. Hat tip to Emmitt.
  • Punctuation Substitution. It’s not what you think, but rather a funny video on how to deal with people you have to send polite emails to, in spite of what you really want to say.

Denial

Interviews

 From the WTF Files

 Shameless Self-Promotion (Just two this week.)

Food! 

Filed Under: variety hour

Yael’s Variety Hour: Heels, Headlines and Hook-Up Apps

February 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Yaels Variety Hour: Heels, Headlines and Hook Up AppsWelcome to this week’s Variety Hour, where I look at the five hundred bazillion posts I’ve perused over the past week or so, and try to put my favorites in categories. I hope you find something you like.

Tech

  • Should Journalists Learn To Code? I spoke with Josh Benton of the Nieman Journalism Lab and Regina McCombs of the Poynter Institute to get some insight on this.
  • Women in Tech and Empathy Work. For the record, I am female and do not consider myself terribly empathetic–interpersonal skills are something I have had to work hard at. And I also know many men who are excellent with people. However, I thought this post by Lauren Bacon had some good food for thought.

Writing

Biz

  • The No-Brainer Scenario. Trying to decide whether to take on a new client or switch positions? Victoria Brouhard’s post always helps me when I’m stuck in this situation. Oldie but goodie: I refer clients and friends alike to this post at least twice a week.

MMA

  • A Night of Tweets: UFC on Fox 6. Sherdog writers live tweet during events, and one of my tweets from UFC on Fox 6 made it into this wrap-up. Find out which one. 

Truly Miscellaneous

  • Cupid’s Undie Run. If someone’s gonna run in their underwear for charity…how can you not donate?
  • Performance Menu: Journal of Health and Athletic Excellence. Issue 97, yours for $7 (or as part of a subscription, which is a way better deal), not only includes my interview with weight loss coach Adam Gilbert, but also some stellar articles on weightlifting, metabolic conditioning and more.
Filed Under: variety hour

How Was Your Month? (Some Things To Track)

February 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

How Was Your Month? (Some Things To Track)Whether you’ve got business goals, fitness goals or other goals entirely, assessing your progress regularly can help you see where you’re at, and make adjustments if they’re necessary. So If you made a handy list of New Year’s resolutions at the end of 2012, now’s a good time to look back at the month to see how things went. Here’s some tricks I use.

Health and fitness goals

The key for looking back at these is to focus not just on outcome (pounds of fat lost or muscle gained, tournaments won, new PRs reached), but also the process–which will help with the outcome. I track the amount of days I’m at the gym, and set a goal for the following month. Lately, I’m also keeping track of what I’m doing to rehab an old injury–not just on where it’s at, but the steps I’m taking to get there.

Looking at the process as well as the outcome is important because not everything always happens in a linear fashion–and because the process is ultimately the area over which we have the most control.

Business goals

I do a financial analysis each month, looking at how much work I did, how much I invoiced, how much I received, and what my expenses were, by category (education, networking events, paid help such as a virtual assistant)–because it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep. I also list all of my clients for the month, and give them a rating. I have a 10-point system with five categories: pay (looking at both pay per hour and total pay per project), speed (how quickly I got paid), enjoyment (whether I had fun writing and reporting on the assignment or working on the project), PITA factor (a pleasant, simple experience is always a good thing) and whether or not the work was bylined (which is always a nice bonus).  Having a list on hand helps track of these things, because it’s sometimes easy to forget some of the details.

Networking goals

Events cost time and/or money, and keeping track of ROI can be really helpful, although it’s sometimes difficult to track. For me, ROI isn’t necessarily whether I found paying work at an event (unless it’s for a professional group which is expensive–in which case I keep close track), but also how much I enjoyed it, whether I learned useful information in my industry, expanded my knowledge in an area, and made important connections (such as sources to interview for future articles). I also look for fit–places where I feel I can contribute and help others, as opposed to the ones where people stand on their soapbox, listening to their own echoes. In addition, I keep close track of people who have helped me. I’m lucky to have a handful of informal mentors, and keeping them on my radar allows me to at least try to give back, instead of waiting until the end of the year to send a holiday card.

Professional development

When I have time, I spend one day a week on professional development–usually catching up on resources freely available from professional groups I’m already in via webcast or audio files. Making sure I’m consistently working towards my goals in key areas allows me to offer my clients the most value. For instance, I’m taking a course right now on data visualization and infographics, which is on my list of goals of skills I’d like to learn the fundamentals of so I can better communicate with the graphics team on projects we both work on.

Writing goals

I try to take a look at the end of the month to see what successes I’ve had. One way to do this is to take a breathe and look back at the work I did. For example, in January I wrote 20 articles and 10 tests,  did 3 video interviews, edited six articles and one amazing book manuscript, and worked on two additional (secret) projects. On less busy months, I focus more on the marketing I did (query letters and LOIs sent) and assignments received, rather than completed. I also look at my Google Analytics to see which blog posts were the most popular, and use that to guide content decisions for the following month.

Miscellaneous

Whether your other goals are related to volunteering, projects around the house or something else entirely, it’s easiest to look at both personal and professional goals in one fell swoop.

Reassessing

Last but not least, I take a look at my annual goals and see where I’m at. For January, I made significant headway towards my own health and fitness goals, financial goals and blogging goals, but I also have a few goals I made zero headway on, and while some are on the backburner for various legitimate reasons, at least one of them will be a top priority going into next month. Writing them down is a very powerful way to hold oneself accountable the following month, while still allowing flexibility for whatever other circumstances arise.

Happy reviewing and planning!

Filed Under: health, musings, wellness, writing

Yael’s Variety Hour: Negative Thinking, Health Design & Objectify a Man in Tech Day

January 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Yaels Variety Hour: Negative Thinking, Health Design & Objectify a Man in Tech DayThis week’s variety hour is a little late, as I’ve got about a million links to look at. Here are the ones that caught my eye; something for everyone, as always.

Negative Thinking

  • Oliver Burkeman on ‘Antidote’.  An interesting audio interview from MPR on the “negative path” to happiness. For people who aren’t into Tony Robbins or “The Secret.”

Sports

Health Writing & Design

  • Health Design Challenge. More than 200 designers across the country improved the visual layout and information style of the patient health record, and this is what they came up with. Brilliant.

Writing

  • Space Invaders This Slate piece explains why you don’t ever need to include two spaces after a period.

Business

  • Choose Your Masters Wisely. Kate Courageous addresses the trend of hipster bloggers/consultants/biz gurus who write about how you suck to try to sell you their thing. It’s annoying. Vote with your feet!

Gender Politics

My New Favorite Thing

Filed Under: variety hour

Video of the Month: 212°: The Extra Degree

January 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

This video, by Sam Parker and Mac Anderson, is about that extra degree of effort separating the good for the great. At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. Are you ready to turn up the heat?

Filed Under: musings

Yael’s Variety Hour: Psychology, Time Management, Press Releases & More

January 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Snowflake6 Yaels Variety Hour: Psychology, Time Management, Press Releases & MoreNote: Two tragic events hit my radar this week: the tragic death of brilliant internet pioneer Aaron Swartz, and the “alleged” rape (caught on videotape) of a young woman by two of her teammates at Lloyd Irvin Academy. I’ll be responding to both incidents individually, but felt they were a bit too heavy to try to summarize in a sentence with a series of compiled links. 

Post of the Week

For Freelancers (And Publicists, and Independent Contractors of All Stripes)

Health and Psychology

 

Mixed Martial Arts

Filed Under: variety hour

Poem of the Month: He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

January 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Harsh criticism has its time and place. Direct and sometimes brutal feedback is useful, helping an idea (or a book, or a business, or a person) come back stronger.  Given too soon, or with the wrong delivery, can crush an idea which hasn’t even taken form. Just like a seedling needs nurturing and care to grow into a plant, so too do our hopes and dreams. We all go through various phases. If you teach kickboxing, you might not make new people spar on their first day. And yet sparring during a fight camp is completely appropriate. Being able to gauge the reaction of others to your approach is crucial. Hint: if the person you’re speaking with starts crying, you probably didn’t help. This month’s poem explains why.

He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeat by George Charles Beresford Poem of the Month: He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats
Had I the heaven’s embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Filed Under: musings, poem of the month

Yael’s Variety Hour: MMA Monday, Future Journalism, Health Writing & More

January 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

MMA Monday

I didn’t mean to make half of this round-up posts about MMA, but it just worked out that way!

Beating the Odds: UFC 155 is my column for Sherdog, where I write about which underdogs proved the oddsmakers wrong and walked away with improbable wins.

Weekly Women’s MMA Wrap-up is my weekly column for Fightergirls, and I was lucky enough to actually attend Invicta FC4 in Kansas City this past weekend. Below are some post-fight interviews I did.

I attended Invicta Fighting Championships IV this past Saturday. Here are some post-fight video interviews I did with promoter Shannon Knapp and fighters Sarah D’alelio and Alexis Davis.

Journalism

Health Journalism

Food For Thought

Filed Under: combat sports, health, variety hour, writing
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