 Do you love listening to music while you’re working? I sure do. Not only does it help keep me awake but it can help set the mood if I need a certain mindset. Unfortunately, my favorite music can be distracting. Whether it’s Darius Rucker, Chris Stapleton, Mose Allison, or 70s disco tunes, it’s easy for me to concentrate more on the song lyrics than on my proofreading and copyediting projects. Being distracted when you bill by the hour doesn’t work and isn’t fair to clients. Luckily, there’s a simple solution. All I had to do was create some awesome playlists—with instrumental music. Mine are on Pandora and Spotify. They’re perfect for those times when I need to focus, whether it’s for my clients or this blog post. Don’t mistake instrumental for only classical tunes, although I do enjoy Chopin. There are so many lyric-less options! Here are a few of my favorites:
Want to know what else works for me? Sometimes I turn on sports or a news station that I’m not interested in. For me, it’s often sports on ESPN or hardcore economics on Bloomberg. The sound serves as the perfect background noise. Podcasts and foreign language stations also work well. As long as the voices are pleasant and neutrally-toned, it’s easy to stay engaged with my work without letting the content interfere. Give some of these playlists a whirl. See if any work for you to pump up your productivity, minus those distracting lyrics! Enjoy!  Let Your Invitation Shine Just as Brightly as the Event Itself. Planning an event is a lot of work. There are so many details to nail down, and you want to ensure your shindig is a hit with your customers, prospects, as well as your internal stakeholders. I’ve stumbled across several event invitations recently that needed help in a certain area: you probably guessed it, proofreading! On more than one occasion, I’ve encountered this content boo-boo: “The event will have 17 dishes, 17 pairings and 3 cocktails from some of Atlanta’s best restaurants and bars. Get you tickets now before they’re all gone!” Get you tickets now… Oops, the “r” is missing from “your.” And you know what? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this error on event invites. Get you tickets seems to be trending in the needs-proofreading department. Mistakes like this can be difficult for some people to excuse because they’re so obvious. Let’s put this error to the test with three document editors: Microsoft Word When I typed this sentence in Microsoft Word and ran Spelling & Grammar Check (with the enhanced settings, of course, that I teach in my Proofreading Workshops), it did not catch this mistake. That’s right, Microsoft Word told me that Get you tickets now is totally fine. Big fail. Grammarly If the author of this email had used Grammarly, they would have caught the boo-boo. They would also see the handy explanation about the “possibly confused word.” I’m a big fan of Grammarly. It’s not perfect, but it’s usually better than Microsoft Word.  Google Docs
Unfortunately, Google Docs doesn’t excel at catching grammar mistakes, including misused words. I wasn’t surprised when Google Docs told me this sentence was correct after running Spelling Check. The two extensions I often use with Google Docs also overlooked this problem. Big fail on such a simple error. Weirdly enough, one of the extensions identified the problem (and offered the correct suggestion) ONLY when I also misspelled tickets. Make Your Event Invitation Perfect! Next time you’re planning an event, take the extra step to proofread your invitations and promotions. Whether you’re printing beautiful cardstock invitations or sending an email blast, double-check for perfect prose. Run spell check in Microsoft Word AND Grammarly—or hire a professional proofreader. Luminary Works is always ready to assist you with your proofreading needs. Also be sure to spell your company’s name correctly—unfortunately, I’ve seen that mistake, too! |
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