Professional Writing: 3 Tips to Help You to Manage Your Time and Your Writing

During these tough economic times your writing can provide a great second income and will develop into a full-time income very quickly. However, the first thing you’ll learn about professional writing is how much extra work it involves, and that often this work isn’t billable.

Here are three tips which will help you to manage your time, and develop a professional perspective.

1. Writing Time, Housekeeping Time, Marketing Time, Thinking Time

Your time is all you have. Your time is worth money.

Please put the previous two sentences on a sticky note and glue them onto your computer monitor. You need to be aware of just how much money you’re making/ losing on an hourly basis. For example, if your time is worth $150 an hour, you’ll realize that that half-hour gossip-session with your best friend just lost you $75.

Your writing time is billable. However you can’t spend 40 hours a week writing. You also need to do housekeeping chores related to writing, as well as marketing chores.

In addition, you need to think about what you’re doing and how to do it most effectively. Your thinking time is “sharpening the saw” time: it’s thinking, studying, and giving yourself time to breathe.

Few writers schedule their thinking and planning time. It’s vital. If you realize how important it is from the start, you’ll build thinking time into each and every day.

2. Your Home Office: Respect Yourself and Others Will Too

Although working from home is great, there are pitfalls if you have a family. Although your family may claim that they’re very supportive of your writing career, you’ll be amazed at how annoyed they become if it cuts into the time they consider you should be spending with them.

Therefore, establish some ground rules. Here’s the key: stick to your own rules no matter what. Your partner and other family members will only respect the time you spend writing if you respect it. Even if you’re not earning a cent from writing yet, establish basic ground rules now.

3. Don’t Forget: You Can Bill Project-Related Thinking and Research Time

In my copywriting services business, one of the services I provide is tagline creation. Since a tagline is often just five words long, it always amuses me that some prospective clients think that I should charge by the word. Unfortunately writing an effective tagline can take anywhere from five to 10 hours, and clients are not aware of this until I make them aware.

Much of your “writing” is actually thinking and research. If writing didn’t include thinking time, it would be called “typing”.

When you’re setting your rates, don’t forget to include both thinking and research time in each and every project. This time is billed at your usual hourly rate, whatever it may be.

So remember, if you’re chatting with a friend or browsing the web it costs you money when you’re a professional writer. Keep a time log. Set writing goals. Professionals are ruthless about protecting their time, and you should be too.

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

“Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I’m quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2007! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I’ve got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…”

“Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you’re writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.

Technorati Tags: writing, professional writing, writing career, time management

Photo