Updated , Published at 12:01 PM PHT,
by
Dennis Cabrera
FAQs: How to Polywork and Be > the Value of Your Tasks
Our story
Long before the mode of work known as polywork had been trending, many Filipinos were, in some sense, already "polyworking". One of our own family's small businesses is a simple example.
I was only pre-school-aged at a time when my father, a full-time employee in a local pharmaceutical corporation, and my mother, a full-time microbiology professor in a university, began a small mimeographing business to add to the family's income. After their daytime work, they were mimeographing copies of exam sheets for professors who needed help in printing test papers for the university's final exams. My mother did the typing while my father did the mimeographing. An elderly aunt of the family also helped my parents collate and organize the test papers after the mimeographing process [1].
That multijob situation is like polywork at its simplest and most uncomplicated form. No doubt, other Filipinos also did multijob modes of earning for a living even before my parents' time. But now, with AI deployment in polywork, anyone can do more than the power of the mimeograph. And this is the valuable multiplier effect that polywork can do with AI now. Human skills + Polywork with AI = A You or MSME More Valuable than the Sum of All Outputs!
Unlock Key Pillars to Polywork Your Way to Success W/ AI
This article outlines how you can transform polyworking into a strong pathway for sustained career growth in the AI era. By integrating 1 essential human skills, 2 smart energy management, 3 AI as an amplifier, 4 financial resilience through diversified income streams, and 5 expanded digital reach through community, this strategic approach multiplies your overall value, financial security, and personal fulfillment.
This blog post will show how these five pillars can help you integrate and unlock success with AI in Polywork.
How can I cultivate human skills that AI still finds hard to automate?
How do I master energy management for polywork success?
How to leverage AI as polywork amplifier for income streams?
How to monetize skills among industries/clients in polywork?
How can digital platforms expand & grow my polywork reach?
Cultivating human skills
Filipinos have other unique human abilities aside from the irreplaceable human skills listed above. The values are distinctly culture's gifts in their skills delivery. They form a foundational ecosystem where values guide and motivate the development and application of skills, while the skills, in turn, manifest and strengthen those values in action. Here are some Filipino values that easily integrate in those irreplaceable human skills:
- love of God and family OFWs put into their work to a heroic degree
- the pakikisama of Filipino workers bonding for the common good
- the bayanihan attitude which motivates Filipinos to work together in community
- and utang ng loob that enables Filipinos to be loyal to their employers [2]
Some modern studies report that these values that motivate the irreplaceable skills are on the way out. But they are only seeing the liability side of that "coin". There is greater value when you flip the coin to its bright asset side, with hopes of resurgence.
When you look at the bright side, certain human abilities of Filipinos that are still hard to automate by AI serve as a strong foundation for valuable work with employers and with the self-employed. As Filipino families work hard for the education of their children, the family can work with employers who value their university-educated skills. These university-educated skills can easily embody the global human skills of:
- empathy & ethical judgment (from love of God and family), adaptability & strategic decision-making (from pakikisama), trust-building & brand storytelling (from bayanihan), and emotional intelligence (from utang ng loob) [3].
When Filipino professionals focus on developing their unique human capabilities, they can make decisions and solve problems with AI's output in the context of nuanced human understanding. They forge stronger relationships with clients and teams, infuse their work with authenticity, and craft a unique brand voice that AI cannot replicate. This amplifies the quality and impact of their contributions at work, leading to greater value creation that transcends mere quantity.
Mastering energy management
Managing energy is a concept that was studied well by Loehr and Schwartz in "The Power of Full Engagement". They report that managing your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy is crucial for sustained high performance. They coined a term called "oscillation". This concept involves alternating between periods of intense effort and recovery to prevent burnout and instead build reserves of energy for the capacity needed in work. Practical applications of their study include producing:
- dynamic workspaces where you alternate between desks - one for sitting, the other for standing [4]
- schedules for strategic micro-breaks to recover from a decrease in physical, emotional, or mental energy levels
- time for workouts adapted to build the energy levels you need to sustain the quantity, quality, focus, and force of energy in your work performance [5]
What helps energy management in unlocking the multiplier effect of your polywork with AI is the discipline of self-awareness or mindfulness. With a strong self-awareness, you can consciously manage your energy and ensure that you have the reserves and focus to perform optimally across all your polyworking roles. A strong self-awareness enables you to maximize productivity during peak hours and ensures sustained output and creativity, preventing the "split attention" that can reduce work quality. The ability to consistently deliver high-quality work, fueled by well-managed energy, multiplies your overall effectiveness and earning potential [6].
AI as polywork amplifier for income streams
For web producers and content creators, one important technique is mastering the marketing needed to adhere to the EEAT guidelines used by Google for their AI search algorithms. EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in producing high-quality, people-first content [7].
- Experience: Share personal anecdotes, case studies, or first-hand experiences to add authenticity.
- Expertise: Showcase expert knowledge or verified information from industry experts.
- Build backlinks from reputable sites and ensure content is recognized by authoritative sources.
- Trustworthiness: Base content on accurate, research-oriented data with proper citations.
The application of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) ensures that AI-assisted content remains high-quality and trustworthy. If you integrate the right AI tools, these allow you to free up significant time and mental energy for higher-value activities like brainstorming in content strategy. Focused mental energy is important in producing leads to valuable income streams. Such a content strategy accelerates your output and expands your capacity to take on diverse projects that multiply your productivity-value. AI tools such as NotebookLM can evaluate your content so you can edit them with the EEAT principle in mind. EEAT, properly followed, produces effective answers to searchers online looking for solutions in your niche expertise [8].
Symbolic GEN AI image: Remote-work professionals using human skills, smart energy management, AI-deployment, diversified income stream strategies, and digital platforms for market reach
Monetizing skills in polywork
Polyworking within a Philippine context is possible because of remote work opportunities. Filipinos can engage in 1 or 2 part-time jobs or income-generating activities. One can even add an MSME startup as a strong base for networking. These varied multijob incomes directly contribute to financial resilience.
- Diversified Income Streams: By diversifying, you can mitigate income risk and build resilience against economic fluctuations or job market disruptions, such as layoffs caused by AI advancements.
- Future-Proofing: This blog suggests the combination of human skills, smart energy management, and AI leverage to help you future-proof your career and to allow you to establish a contingency fund [9].
- Leveraging Ideas for New Income Streams: This blog offers suggestions for new income streams that include AI content fact-checking, coaching for MSME startups, freelance writing focused on AI/e-commerce, developing niche expertise guides, and LinkedIn profile optimization services, all in the context of web production and MSME e-commerce. All these support income diversification needs.
Diversifying your income strategies will mitigate financial risk and establish a robust safety net - particularly vital during unpredictable economic times. To opt for diversification means to continuously upskill and search for income opportunities. This direction multiplies not only your skills but your valuable, long-term earning potential and career security [10].
Digital platforms to expand polywork reach
As an MSME or blogger, you can reinforce the value of community building and reciprocal linking as a collaborative strategy for expanding reach and supporting collective success. Just adhere to and align with ethical guidelines for community-building online in various social media platforms. There are numerous channels for marketing and service delivery, particularly enhanced by AI and community building. Our blog, Rosauro's Legacy Archive, can serve as a digital information hub and a platform for social media connections.
For the production of content to expand market reach online, a "zero-click strategy" is suggested as relevant to build brand authority. With zero-click strategy, even if users don't click through to your blog or website, you are making the online community aware of your brand as you optimize for featured snippets, structured data, and high-intent queries. This is where you use AI to build your personal brand. AI can help you craft that effective snippet to qualify for AI Overviews or source links citations.
Zero-click strategy can also broaden your professional network where you discover new channels for marketing and service delivery. You only need to optimize your online presence by adhering to SEO best practices, and consistently share valuable, person-first content. This reinforces your expertise and trustworthiness, making you a recognized authority in your chosen field. It also builds for you better business reputation, attracts more opportunities, and multiplies your impact and influence in the AI Search landscape [11].
Polywork as a Pathway to Sustained Value and Fulfillment
By consciously integrating the five pillars of human skills, smart energy management, deployment of AI as an amplifier, building financial resilience through diversified income, and expanding your reach via digital platforms and community, you can transform your polyworking endeavors into a profitable pathway for sustained growth. This strategic approach enables you to unlock a significant multiplier effect in your overall value, financial security, and personal and professional fulfillment in the evolving AI era.
