Finding The Time To Write More And Be More Productive

Thoughts of a career as a freelance writer are often very enticing to people considering undertaking that as a new career. People focus on the freedom that a freelance writer may have during their normal work day, and it is true that this is one of the major benefits that many writers enjoy. This isn’t always the case though as most writing projects come with deadlines that they need to be completed by. Often a writer is forced to put off an event in their personal life because an ongoing project is approaching its assigned deadline and must be written or refined so that it will be completed on time. There are a number of times that a freelance writer, especially one that is tackling writing as a part time job while they work full time elsewhere, will feel like they don’t have time to accomplish the amount of writing that they need to do. This is a common problem among writers from all walks of life and experience levels and there are a number of things that can be done to free up more time for writing.

Ways to create more time for actual writing include:

Wake Up Earlier

It may prove costly on the personal energy level at first, but often even waking up a half hour earlier than normal can create, or help to create, the additional writing time that a writer may need to get back on top of their writing projects.

Set Work Times And Stick To Them

It takes discipline, but when a writer can set aside a predefined amount of time to write, whether it be one hour or a full evening, they may find that they are no longer pressed for time when it comes to completing their writing projects. This can also mean that a writer gives themselves a two hour nightly window for writing and they get finished in one hour. Instead of calling it a night, a productive writer should use that remaining hour that is assigned to writing for some sort of freelance writing related activity like research, writing market analysis, freelance writing job searches, or even a personal creative writing project.

Get In The Habit Of Writing Outlines

Many writers find that when they have a writing project planned out in the form of an outline ahead of time, they are able to work more efficiently when they do have the time to do the actual writing. An outline can have the affect of keeping a writer on task and not letting them become distracted by the mechanics of organizing the content that needs to be written.

Write Lots Of Notes

When a thought or idea comes up, a writer is well served in writing them down on a steno pad or post it note near their computer or other writing station. By doing this a writer doesn’t have to waste time trying to remember facts or come up with ideas as the information is only as far away as the note they wrote themselves.

Work Late At Night

There is often available time for writing to be had right before bedtime. This can sometimes be some of the most productive writing time as there are fewer distractions. Freelance writers with children often enjoy this time to themselves and find that the work they produce is of a better quality and produced more efficiently.

Start Your Next Project As Soon As Possible

The general strategy of most writers is to finish a project and wait until the next available work time to start the next project. When you start the next project right away, you eliminate the need for the slow startup phase of writing to be done the next time you have available writing time. In this way, whenever there is even the smallest amount of time available to get some writing done, there is an ongoing project already in the works that can be worked on. There is no longer a need to have the excuse of only having a short amount of available work time, so why start a new project.

Get Rid Of Distractions

Many writers who complain that they don’t have enough time to write also regularly try to write while there are numerous distractions going on around them. While some distractions are unavoidable, especially when working from the home, often a writer can do simple things like turn off the television and try to write when children are in school or in bed to maximize their productivity during the writing time that they do have.

Set And Stick To A Word Count Quota

During times that a writer is having trouble staying focused on a project or devoting the time to a project that it requires, a good strategy can be setting a word count quota and sticking to it. When working on a large writing project, it is often easy to put off the next phase of the work because there is so much work left to do that writers can convince themselves that it won’t make any difference whether they write for an extra fifteen minutes or not. If you suffer from this type of problem, set a word count quota when you sit down to write and don’t stop writing until you’ve turned out that amount of content.

Don’t Forget The Rewards Of Freelance Writing

One of the best rewards a freelance writer has available to them is the flexibility to either work or not work depending on the needs of their writing projects at the time. Sometimes it is great motivation to complete the writing that needs to be done if you can promise yourself that once it is done to your satisfaction, you will take the rest of the day off. Maybe even a weekend out of town can be enough to bribe you into using the writing time you have to its fullest potential.

One of the biggest complaints that writers have is that they don’t have the time to accomplish all of the writing they would like. There are a number of things that a freelance writer can do to either come up with more time to write or to make the writing time they currently have be more productive. While the freedom that a freelance writing career provides is very tempting to take advantage of, the work still needs to get done or you will in effect no longer have a freelance writing career. Making use of every scrap of time, no matter how small it is, is a great way to come up with more time to write. If there is absolutely no way to make extra time to write, sometimes just using the time you have in a better way may make the difference you are seeking.

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