5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Stop Wasting Time and Become More Productive
Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines… As a freelance writer deadlines literally become your middle name. Every single morning many freelance writers wake up to endless deadlines that must be met before the end of the business day and sometimes even sooner and if you’re like me that can be a bit overwhelming.
As a full-time mom, wife, freelancer and everything in between I often struggle with finding balance in order to do it all and do it all well so I made it my mission to create a brand new system that I believed would help me not only become more productive but would eliminate a lot of wasted time.
Waking Up Early
I take pride in being a morning person but I realized that even waking up at 7am was not helping me increase my productivity as a freelance writer, especially when everyone else in my house also woke up at 7am. One morning I decided to suck it up and wake up at 4am and my productivity went through the roof. Not only was I able to complete a ton of work but I was able to complete it without any interruption because no one in my house (or perhaps in the world) is up at 4:00am.
Cutting Social Media Off
Cutting social media off when I need to beat deadlines has been pivotal to my freelance writing career. Often times, social media has been a major distraction for me and a place I can easily jump to when I am severely procrastinating. In fact, statistics actually prove that using social media decreases overall work productivity and that alone forced me to download several apps that will shut social media down for me when I don’t have enough self control to do it myself.
Time Tracking
I had no idea just how much time I was wasting every single day until I forced myself to start using apps that allow me to create my own timesheet. I As a former employee for several fortune 500 companies I used to hate tracking my time but now as a freelance writer I have noticed that it’s even more important now than ever before. Every minute I now waste as a freelancer is literally money that I’m wasting and nobody wants to waste money right?
Taking Mental Breaks
So I know we’re talking about increasing productivity but you literally cannot be as productive as you would like if you are not taking time for breaks. As a writer I often get so caught up in my assignments I forget to take breaks and do you know what ends up happening? Writer’s block forces me to take a break and writer’s block is a writer’s worst nightmare. Studies after studies have been conducted that have actually proved that taking breaks increases productivity. Do yourself a favor, take a break.
Automation Is Your Friend
Seriously, automation is really your friend and if used correctly can actually be your best friend. As freelance writers there are lots of things that we obviously can never automate including the work we do every single day; however, we can automate some of those other tasks that we waste so much time on including: social media posts, emails, pitches, etc.
When it comes to automation one trick that I have found to be successful is to literally take a day (for me it’s Sunday) and automate my social media content posts and also all of my pre-written blog posts for the week. That way it’s one less thing I have to worry about when trying to beat deadlines.
While my system hasn’t been 100% perfected I have seen my productivity climb over the last few months and that alone deserves a pat on the back.
