2 Strategies To Make Your Writing Schedule More Productive
This isn’t a story about how my writing jobs needed so much from me that I burned out, had a reawakening, and decided to quit.
This is a story about opportunity and how I’m ensuring that I’m doing everything I can to be the best writer for my clients while maintaining a healthy relationship with work.
There’s no drama.
There’s no resentment.
There’s nothing negative to say.
There’s just one thing: the actionable plan that has helped me do more work, in less time, while taking on more responsibilities.
Here’s how I’m doing it.
I Cut Down My Working Hours
For the majority of 2019, I would sit myself down at my computer and not let myself get up until the sun went down. It didn’t necessarily matter what I got done, as long as I was sitting in that chair with the screen open—I was where I was supposed to be.
The problem was, I wasn’t productive. I would scroll social media for hours, watch Youtube videos, listen to podcasts and distract myself.
While thinking I was forcing myself into productivity by sitting at my computer for so long, I was actually giving myself an out to be less productive.
My working time was allocated to 8 hours per day which was too long.
With 8 hours, I could easily procrastinate my work by doing busy tasks (like organizing my accounting or answering my emails). I could push off working until I had 2 more hours left in the day and suddenly I would go on a rampage to get everything done.
Not anymore.
My work schedule is no longer 8 hours long. It’s specific to the amount of work I need to get done each day. For example, if I have to write 2,000 words of an ultimate guide, 1,500 words of an article for a client, answer Instagram DM’s, and create a launch email for my Content Writer’s Guide, I know that I need:
2,000 word ultimate guide: 60 minutes
1,500 article: 45 minutes
Answer Instagram DM’s: 10 minutes
Create launch email for Content Writer’s Guide: 15 minutes
This means that I need to allocate 130 minutes to working that day, which is 2 hours and 10 minutes.
That’s 130 minutes of deep focus work, and then I’ll do my busy work afterwards.
This part of a mental game I play with myself as a remote working freelancer. If I want to be productive and get everything done, I need to limit the amount of time I spend working—in order to make sure that I get everything done.
If I don’t, then the busy work takes over and I tell myself, “I’ll start writing later.”
I Became Realistic With How Much I Could Write In A Day
Every day I write down every task I need to get done that day and how long it’s going to take me. This is for 2 reasons, so I know:
- How much deep work time I need to put into my schedule
- How much work is realistic to expect from myself
I have a tendency to create to do lists like: Write 2,000 words of an ultimate guide, 1,500 words of an article for a client, answer Instagram DM’s, create a launch email for my Content Writer’s Guide, write 2 Medium articles, and post 6 Instagram stories.
And when that list lives in my head, it’s easy to look over how ridiculous it sounds. When I write it down and start looking at how much deep work I need from myself in a given day, I can say be honest with myself and say, I probably can’t write 6,000 words today. Especially if this is the middle or the end of the week when I’m starting to slow down.
Some days, certainly.
Other days, no.
And that’s what makes having this list visible so essential.
I can look at everything I want to get done and tell myself,
“If you think you’re going to be able to do the research for your client’s 1,500 word article, write an extensive ultimate guide, and get 2 Medium articles written—you’re not setting yourself up for success.
You’re asking yourself to fail. And who are you to set yourself up like that?”
When it comes to being a writer, and particular to this article a freelance writer, you have to be your biggest fan. You need to be the person that tells yourself you did a good job today and you were exactly as productive as you needed to be.
Because nobody else is going to tell you this—and that’s okay. It just means that you have to be focused on being that person for yourself.
The Results
I started this new scheduling strategy a month and a half ago and it’s changed things. When my clients ask me to take on more work, I don’t timidly say yes and think about the extra caffeine I’ll need to get it done. I can confidently say, Yup!, because I know that I have plenty of room in my schedule for it.
These are the types of writing tips that I give writers in my writing mentorship community. It’s the hard lesson that you don’t need to learn on your own—let me show you how to avoid it.
Being able to say yes to these opportunities means that I’m able to take on more responsibilities with my clients and become writer linchpin that I aspire to be. My goal is to make working with as easy and seamless as possible, and that can only be done when my schedule is completely situated.
So, while this isn’t a story about a huge burn out that led me to go writing crazy, this is a story about a writer who used strategical scheduling to get her writing done and to make herself feel good at the end of every single day.
Because writing is an outlet. It’s a creative art. And it deserves to make you feel good.
Isn’t that why you started?
