Freelance Writers - Beware The Time Suckers

As a freelancer, you need to value your time. I can't stress this enough. Every minute you waste is a minute you're not making money, and you'd be shocked at how fast those minutes add up.

If you think checking your email won't cost you that much, think again. A few minutes here, a few there, and very easily you've lost an hour to doing diddlysquat. Sure, you can justify checking Facebook as networking, but at the end of the day, it's money that's not in your pocket.

If you want to be an uber-freelancer, treat your work time as sacred and ditch the distractions. Yes, Facebook is great for networking, and can be a water cooler-type Godsend to writers spending much of their days alone, but leaving it open on your desktop as you work on a project is much like leaving an open bottle of booze next to a recovering addict. Why abuse yourself with temptation? Same goes for Twitter. And triple for email! Who can resist the siren's call of new mail? It may only take you thirty seconds to check it, but add on a minute at either end as you shift focus, and multiply that by ten new mail notices an hour. It all adds up to losing money-making time.

Some less obvious time suckers that are just as bad - spell-checking several times rather than once at the end of the work session, grabbing that second (or third or fourth) cup of coffee, or taking phone calls. Voicemail was invented for a reason. Let it do its job, and return calls once your work time is up.

And a big time sucker that is easily justified but just as bad - checking Elance for new job listings. They'll still be there in an hour. They can wait. Job hunt time needs to be kept separate from work time or it's very easy to spend way too much time and energy on the job hunt without even realizing it. More than an hour a day is too much, and doing it here and there for just a moment or two can morph that hour into half a day. Again, resist the siren's call!

Then there's stuff like refilling your stapler, alphabetizing your underwear drawer, or having an overwhelming need to clean your entire house immediately. These don't fall under the time sucker category. These are procrastination tools and are an entirely different beast that I'll save dissecting for another day.

What more can be said? Time suckers. They suck, and they cost you money. Avoid.



image by Robbert van der Steeg