If you are intending to become a professional writer you need to realize something.
Everything you sell has its origin in time.
Billing based on time may not be optimum but your costs are going to be time based because you only have so much time to spend on your writing.
That means you need to closely manage your time.
In this article I'm going to give you seven time management hints for professional writers.
Of course, everyone is different and you may find that the five half-day writing schedule used here isn't for you.
That's okay.
Just take the reason for the tip and adjust it for your schedule.
1.
Leave your email until the afternoon.
Never start off checking your email.
We've somehow lost touch with the reality that immediate response is not necessary.
Don't fool yourself.
If you start off by checking email you'll never get to writing.
2.
Do your research in the afternoon.
Research and email are similar.
Start off the doing one or the other and you'll never get to your writing.
There's always something more fun to research.
3.
Allocate your mornings to writing.
Your writing is your most important function (other than building the business).
So start your day off with it and focus on writing first.
If you write in one day bursts then start your week off by writing.
4.
When you're writing write.
Don't answer phones.
Don't answer the door.
Don't allow any interruption other than the 15 minutes per hour break.
5.
Schedule one to two afternoons to building your business.
Make cold calls.
Make customer calls.
If you don't work on building your business your business will slowly disappear.
6.
Outsource as much as you can.
How much is your time worth? If you are a typical technical writer you're getting roughly $45 to $75 per hour.
That means if you spend a half day per week you'll spend somewhere between $9000 and $16000 per year for accounting.
You can get a lot of accounting support for $10,000.
Thinking of cold calling? The best time for cold calls is also the best time for writing.
Get someone else to put up with the rejection.
Focus your efforts where the best return is.
7.
Plan out your writing and your day.
If you're a real professional you never start any writing without planning it out.
Why? Because it's an inefficient use of your time.
The same thing applies to your day.
Always end your day (or start it if you prefer) planning out exactly what you are going to do and when.
Then live to your schedule.
Save the unstructured time for after work!