Time Management for Freelance Writers

No permanent boss. No rush to get dressed in the morning. Home for the kids after school. Sounds ideal, but freelancing is anything but sunshine and lollipops. Freelancing is tough. You have swapped the corporate safety net for autonomy, and you are now 100% responsible for your income and expenses.

Welcome to the world of telecommuting where, at first, you’ll love the idea of not having to punch in, but soon realize that you are on the clock round the clock. You don’t punch in because you never really punch out; when you work at home, there’s a danger that you never leave the office.

To avoid rapid burnout, learn time management techniques.

Prepare Yourself for Work

Try to forget that you are comfortable and at home. Maintain a work area; keep it as clean and uncluttered as possible. To the extent you can, remove belongings and devices from your workspace if they distract you more than they inspire you to write. You are your own supervisor now.

Prepare yourself mentally for work every day, the same as you would if you were going to an office to do a similar job. Some people can be productive in their pajamas; others need to get dressed; still others, force themselves to get dressed as if they were actually going out to the office, to put them in the proper frame of mind to work.

No matter how you get it done, you must honestly, tenaciously put yourself in a “work” frame of mind, or you will not be consistently productive. To lapse into inefficient work habits will be easy. Every time you skip a bid on a job and head to the park, or watch TV instead of write, you move a step closer to your next job, back at the office to which you swore you’d never return.

Schedule Your Time and Understand Your Capacity

One of the main reasons new freelance writers fail is because they overextend themselves. Turning down money is rough. If you are good, you will likely have to turn down money on a regular basis in order to succeed.

What? Say that again? Sure: you will regularly pass on new jobs, to devote proper attention to current and scheduled projects, or risk failing to deliver what you promised to those who have already hired you. Failing your customers is bad business. They will never rehire you, nor will they refer you to colleagues, both of which represent a substantial loss of future business.

Develop a firm idea of not only what you can do, but also how much of it you can complete within a given timeframe. If you have met your capacity to produce within a given timeframe, you will need to turn down additional offers carrying the same deadline.

Be prepared to walk away from the money if taking it means you are setting yourself up to fail. If you meet or exceed the expectation of clients in hand, they are more apt to become repeat customers. A level of trust develops. As you prove you keep your word to your customers, and deliver them quality work, they tend to become, when possible, more open to you asking, “Ms. Employer, you know I like to do my best for you, and I’d really like to tackle that project. Given my current commitments, I could not finish it by your Friday deadline, but by Sunday night, I’m sure I could.”

You will be surprised, at first, how often you get the job anyway if, and only if, your record of accomplishment attests that you deliver quality work on time. Establishing that track record requires an understanding of your capacity for work during a given timeframe. You also must schedule all aspects of your life to allow time to focus on your clients.

If you deliver your client a rush job, it will likely be sloppy or uninspired. She will know it. Remember, you no doubt showed her an example of some of your best work to get the job. She has a right to expect a certain quality level from your work. Anything less will likely be readily apparent. Freelancers who disappoint are rarely rehired.

In short:

~Know your production ratern~Schedule your days to complete projects on time assuming that ratern~Manage your time to stick to that schedulern~Do not take on more work than can be confidently and suitably delivered per rules 1-3

Minimize Distractions

Freelancers tend to work from home. In the old office, we fantasized about how simply we’d become productivity at home, where we’d encounter none of the distractions so common to the office.

It then grew crystal clear that kids are noisier and needier on weekday than on weekends; the neighbors dogs bark at squirrels all day; you get more calls from marketing companies at home than you did at the office; and the living room suddenly, absolutely must be painted, or you will die from shame. The pantry looks ratty, too.

You will have to manage your schedule around the rhythms of your home, as well as the lifestyles and needs of family members. That might mean you need to adjust your work schedule to utilize odd hours, such as after the children go to bed, or during their naps, or when your spouse goes shopping. You may need to awaken far before dawn to find time to work while you are fresh and otherwise unfettered.

Naturally, you will experience times when none of this is possible. When you must work amidst distractions, proofreading your work will assume even greater importance. While a freelance writer should try to avoid burnout by taking occasional breaks, he also needs to capitalize on every moment conducive to channeling energy and focus on the work at hand.

You thought you would get away from office politics and distractions and so become more productive, but found a new set of obstacles blocking your route to productivity and creativity. Like all other successful freelancers, however, you will adapt to your new circumstances by practicing effective time management.