Time, Money and How to have Both

Time is money...

Whether or not you credit the rather skewed existential outlook at the basis of this saying, it seems to be referring in particular to the lot of the freelance translator. This is because in our industry we usually get paid by the word. This means that our earning capacity is directly linked to how fast we can translate, or, more precisely, how fast can we translate well. (Quality should not be a casualty in this equation as this will certainly reduce your earnings in the long run.)

Therefore, it makes sense that every translator from the fresh-hatched fledgling to the seasoned pro should be constantly looking to increase their speed. This is the best ways to increase your earnings, other than searching for better clients. Yet the former is an immediate sure bet. (There are many factors that make a client "good" and their rate of pay is only one of them, so don't be too quick to neglect reliable, steady clients in favor of the promise of fabulous riches if you can just turnaround that 10,000-word doc by tomorrow 9am!)

There a many ways that you can start working faster right now. I've already mentioned a few basic translation aids in previous posts, such as online dictionaries and CATs. Another way to increase your speed will be to improve your Internet research skills. On an even more basic level, simply by improving your general computer skills, e.g. typing speed, keyboard shortcuts, you will soon start to work considerably faster.

Here's one small feature that has saved me quite a lot of time in recent weeks: Desktop Search. This allows you to do lightening-speed searches of every nook and cranny of your memory. If you wrote on a document or email years ago and need to find it, you could do some sorting in your sentbox or use the search feature in Windows Explorer. This will certainly take you 3-4 minutes, maybe more. With Desktop Search, this will take miliseconds. In fact it will probably find your old file before you've even finished typing in your keyword!

Yesterday it took me the blink of an eye to find an attachment whose name I didn't know sent to me by someone 4.5 years ago - that's two dead computers ago.

To see a demonstration of Desktop Search, click here.