Monday, August 10, 2009

Busy, but Productive

person jugglingLast week was very busy, but also quite productive for me. I finally hit my writing groove and managed to knock out almost $100 in articles. I'm well on my way to my August goal of $400 in writing income. I may even end up surpassing my goal. The addition of two more sites at the end of last month definitely helped as I have more options for income.

My new system for writing has helped a lot. Originally, I was grabbing an article or two, doing them and then looking for more work. Now, I sit down once a day and grab several articles with varying due dates. I spend less time looking for work and have work lined up several days out. What's your system for writing?

In addition to writing, I've been helping my husband with his business. After four years of subcontracting pretty much exclusively for one company, he decided to go in a new direction. He went into partnership with a friend. Since they're basically starting a new business from the ground up, they can't afford someone to handle the phones, bookkeeping, advertising and setting up their online presence. That all landed on my plate. I can't say that I mind too much, though, as they've already landed several nice jobs.

With everything going on, my time management skills are getting quite a workout. I'd be lost without my planner. I write down everything on it-due dates for articles, when I need to request payouts, doctor appointments, my classes, etc. Then I block out periods of times to do each thing. I try to take writing assignments on similar subjects so I only have to research once.

One thing I'm considering is setting up an additional monitor on my computer. I spend a lot of time going back and forth between my sources and my word processing program. Adding another monitor would enable me to have my research on one screen and my article up on another. This should reduce the amount of time I spend writing an article, in turn increasing my productivity. Do you have more than one monitor? If you do, has it increased your productivity?

*Photo by Joe Zlomek.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome that you're close to your goal. Never done the two monitor thing, but sounds like a good idea. If you do it, make sure to update us!

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