"Time is money is especially true for freelance translators. We have collected 5 tips for you on how you can simply translate faster.
Jonathan
Internationalist, language enthusiast, passionate chef, and an avid Oxford Comma supporter. +49.721.7880.8533 [email protected]
Jonathan
The saying "time is money" is truer than ever today. Speed, whether in the development of new technologies or in customer service, is a keyword that characterizes us as a society. Speed is required everywhere – even when translating. Because more translated words usually also mean a better salary. But how to learn speed? We have put together a few tips.
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1. You have ten fingers! Use them all!
The best way to get faster is to learn to type faster. In the meantime there are many softwares that support you. This skill can save you a lot of time, not only when translating, but also when answering emails and messages, which sometimes turn out to be the biggest time wasters.
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2. Concentration!
Answering emails can take up precious time, but worse – it’s also a total concentration killer. To achieve higher efficiency, you not only have to be fast, but above all, you have to be focused. Keeping your phone out of reach and turning off all desktop notifications makes it much easier to focus on what you’re working on without getting distracted and losing sight of what’s important.
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3. Take a breath!
Working without rest and quiet sounds like the perfect solution to increase your efficiency. More time invested, more work done? Sounds nice, but is only partly true. Although the human attention span is quite large, it is unfortunately not inexhaustible. Therefore, don’t forget to take breaks – and no, not to answer the emails, but to treat yourself to something – some chocolate, a walk, a phone call with a friend or a round of playing with the pet. No matter what it is, you should reward yourself for the work you’ve done and make yourself want to keep working again.
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4. Buy yourself a plant!
A beautiful environment can reduce stress levels and radically change your mood. As a freelancer, you have the freedom to set up your workspace however you like. Work better with music in the background? Do you like to have a lot of plants on your desk? Do motivational sayings encourage you – or even better, do you want to change your workplace frequently?? Do everything you want and can to feel comfortable at your workplace. Because a beautiful environment makes you happy and a happy person works better.
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5. Upgrade!
If speed typing hasn’t worked for you, or just isn’t enough for you, take a look at the latest speech-to-text inventions that turn your spoken word directly into text. These tools have evolved massively in recent years and score high in the areas of speed and accuracy.
Besides, browser-based CAT tools are always a reliable help when you need to work faster on a large volume of work. SDL Trados has proven itself over the years as the standard software for many translators – but due to the high cost and complexity of the application, we recommend MateCat – a free browser-based CAT, based on an initiative of the EU, which already has many common functionalities of CAT tools and is constantly improving.
In the end, everyone has to find their own rhythm and find out for themselves what is good for them and what increases their own productivity. Some swear by yoga between meals, others by a bar of chocolate or a Fidget spinner. Again, the most important thing is: Listen to yourself.