Updated , Published at 12:01 PM PHT,
by
Dennis Cabrera
FAQs: How to Polywork and Be > the Value of Your Tasks
Our story
Before polywork had emerged as a modern mode of work, many Filipinos were, in some sense, already "polyworking". One of our own family's small businesses is an example.
I was pre-school-aged when our father, a full-time employee of a local pharmaceutical corporation, and our mother, a full-time microbiology professor at 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 the deployment of AI tools 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 multi-skilled You, more valuable than the sum of all your tasks!
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.
How can these five pillars help integrate and unlock your success with AI in polywork?
Q: How to cultivate human skills that AI still finds hard to automate?
Q: How do I master energy management for polywork success?
Q: How to leverage AI as polywork amplifier for income?
Q: How to monetize skills among industries in polywork?
Q: How can digital platforms build & grow my polywork reach?
Cultivating human skills
Filipinos have unique abilities aside from the irreplaceable human skills listed above. These are values that are distinctly Asia's cultural gifts in their skills delivery. These values form a foundational ecosystem that guides and motivates the development and application of their skills, while the skills, in turn, manifest and affirm those values in action. Here are some Filipino values that easily integrate into their irreplaceable human skills:
- love of God and family, which 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]
A few modern studies report that these values that motivate Filipino's irreplaceable skills are on the way out. But these reports only see the liability side of that "coin". There is greater value when you flip that coin to its bright, asset side, which gives light and hope of a resurgence in times of disruption or crises.
Looking at the bright side, certain human abilities of Filipinos are not yet automated by AI, and they serve as a strong motivator for valuable work with employers and with MSMEs. As every Filipino family works hard for the education of their children, the values defined above come easily into play in their children's university-educated skills at work. These values, majority of which are Catholic in its roots, contribute to being integrated with:
- 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 Filipinos focus on developing their unique capabilities, they 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 a higher valuation of skills that transcends mere quantity of hours worked.
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 strong self-awareness, you can consciously manage your energy and ensure that you have the reserves and focus to perform optimally across all polyworking roles. A strong self-awareness enables you to maximize productivity during peak hours and ensures sustained output and creativity, preventing a distracted state 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 strategy needed to adhere to Google's EEAT guidelines. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in producing high-quality, people-first content [7].
- Experience: Sharing personal anecdotes, case studies, or first-hand experiences to add authenticity.
- Expertise: Offering expert knowledge or verified information from industry experts.
- Authoritativeness: Building backlinks from reputable sites and ensuring content is recognized by authoritative sources.
- Trustworthiness: Referencing content with accurate, research-oriented data, complete with proper citations.
The application of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) ensures that AI-assisted content remains high-quality and trustworthy. As you integrate the right AI tools, it allows more significant time and mental energy for higher-value activities like brainstorming for new content strategies. More focused mental energy combined with new content strategies can produce the leads needed for valuable income streams. Examples of these AI tools are NotebookLM. NotebookLM helps evaluate your content so you can edit it with the E-E-A-T principle in mind [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 many 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.
- Diversifying 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 using AI to help future-proof your career by allowing 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.
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 also your valuable, long-term earning potential and career security [10].
Digital platforms to expand polywork reach
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 a 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 craft that effective snippet of 40-60 words to make it qualify for AI Overviews or source links and citations.
Zero-click strategy can also expand, then zero in, to target a specific network that aligns well with your marketing and service delivery goals. This is attained by optimizing your online presence and adhering to:
- SEO best practices and
- a brand voice that consistently shares valuable, person-first content.
- offers to market your expertise and trustworthiness,
- guidelines that make you a recognized authority in your chosen field.
- concepts that build better business reputation, attract more opportunities, and multiply 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.