Freelance Writing and Research

Coffee Drinking 3 Writing Nil

It is already the fifth of January and of course your new year's resolution was to get more writing done - not just work writing if you are a writer, or if you write your own web content (when you should hire a professional); but your personal writing. Remember personal writing? It's that journal you bought which is still full of empty pages, or that half written novel or ebook tucked away out of sight - but not this year. This year the journal will be filled and the novel will see the light of day; and your income will have improved because of all the extra articles you have written - but first you have to put down the cup.

Keep A Time Log

You have got your goals laid out and you are feeling virtuous but how do you intend going about fullfilling them? For the next twenty four hours, and the next, and the next until you have got through a week you are going to keep a time log. Split the day into thirty minute sections; or twenty if you like, don't forget that you will be sleeping some of those hours so cut those out first - then every twenty or thirty minutes stop for one minute (that's all it takes) and write down what you are doing. Repeat this throughout the day and then throughout the week.

Win, Lose or Draw

A time log tells you just exactly how you have spent your time. When it comes to the end of the week tot up where the time went. How long did you spend on your writing, work and personal, and how long did you spend chatting on the phone, surfing the internet; or giving the game to the other side by drinking too much coffee. Take another week with the time log and use it together with your to do list. If you have spent too much time drinking coffee, you lose (because you won't be meeting your goals and you will berate yourself and waste energy and time) if it is about equal betwen writing and whatever your must have is then it's a draw. Did you really spend all that time writing - even half a page of the journal? Congratulations you are a winner. Demote the coffee team to second or third division and you won't be chasing yourself to catch up all the time.