Time Wasters and your Freelance Writing Career
As a freelance writer, every minute that you work should put you closer to reaching your goals. There are many time wasters that can hold you back from achieving success. I try to keep these out of my career as much as possible, but they always try sneaking back in.
Yesterday morning I spend entirely too long checking and responding to emails. For whatever reason, I had five or so miscellaneous emails that bogged me down for roughly 30 minutes at the start of my day. While this may not seem like a big deal it pushed back my entire morning.
Every freelance writer who I speak to says the same thing about checking and responding to email: it can be a huge waste of time! Notice the word can. Even though you can waste a lot of time checking and responding to email, it is something that you have to do. But remember, you don’t want to go overboard. I am a big believer in getting back to people as quickly as possible. Checking my email is top priority, but only during certain times of the day. You should have designated times for checking and responding to email, and then stick to this schedule no matter what it takes.
While there are other time wasters that come into play, I have found email to be the number one killer. It may not seem like a waste of time, but if you check your email 12 times per day at five minutes per session it equals one hour that you will never get back. Imagine how much work you could have completed in that same time frame.
Everything you do during the day should help you advance your freelance writing career. Don’t waste time. I know this is easier said than done, but it is something you should always be thinking about.
