Hey guys – sorry for the late posts. We had internet outage here at TIS HQ yesterday and late Thursday. It’s still incredibly unreliable. I’ll be posting more about why later, because it relates to this site’s mission, and also, I’m mad as hell.

But first: The weekend’s here, and so is your Friday Brief (OK, a day late)! This edition brings us free ebooks and some very sage advice on securing home-office files and information. Read on:

• Matt Homann/The [Non]billable Hour: “Selling Through a Slump” is the title of a new ebook for which Matt contributed the chapter on legal services. Haven’t read it yet but here’s the thing: it has Matt’s name on it, so it’s good. How awesome is it when your name is your brand, and the brand is immediately recognized as valuable? This? Is what we should all aspire to, friends.
• Leslie Truex/Sparkplugging: What’s the difference between being busy and being productive? Leslie shares some thoughts about why we need to understand the gap between the two, and which one makes us cash, while the other makes us crazy.
• Jonathan Mead/zen habits: What three words might be ruining your life? Hint: it isn’t “I love you” or even (for you Grey’s Anatomy watchers out there) “Take care, now”: it’s “I don’t know.”
• Alex Fayle/Someday Syndrome: I love that blog name, by the way. It’s the perfect brand name for what Alex does — helping people get out of that “someday my ship will come in/I’ll make tons of money/I’ll lose weight/I’ll be happy” mindrut. This post is about staying positive when things go bad (say, maybe, the economy’s in the toilet and you’re not converting enough potential clients to paying clients).
• Paul Diamond/Joyful Jubilant Learning: Paul, a career coach, asks us to take a look at the whole journey, beginning to end, and see the big picture of your career as a way to kickstart our passion, if it needs a little boost. Where did you start? Where are you now? How’d you get from there to here?
• Aliza Sherman/WebWorkerDaily: “When to Move Beyond Free” is about your “freemium” apps — those services you subscribe to for free that have premium paid versions with enhanced features. When should you upgrade? Sherman has some good thoughts about making that decision.
• Georgina Laidlaw/WebWorkerDaily: Confidentiality in Your Home Office — it’s a huge concern for many solo practitioners who run their businesses out of a spare room in their homes. In this second clip from WebWorkerDaily to make the Friday Brief, Georgina Laidlaw gives some tips that should be helpful for just about any kind of professional solo.
• Robyn McMaster/Brain-Based Biz: Robyn gives us some great advice on how to create a default mental position of positivity, rather than self-doubt, when faced with work or personal challenges.

That’s it for this week! Now: go outside and enjoy the day. Coach’s orders.