Scott Oldford Site

Tag: routine

  • Tracking Freelance Earnings: June Income Report From Nicole Dieker

    Tracking Freelance Earnings: June Income Report From Nicole Dieker

    Hi! If you’re new to this column: I track my freelance income every month and share it with all of you. This is my third year of public income tracking, and my first year sharing my income with The Write Life.

    You probably have a daily work routine, right? Get up, make coffee, check email, that sort of thing? Are you satisfied with your routine, or do you find parts of it frustrating?

    This month I got rid of a really frustrating part of my freelancing routine, and found this change helped me work fewer hours.

    But before we get to that, here’s the monthly roundup:

    Completed Pieces: 54

    Work Billed: $5,808.25

    Earnings Received: $6,413.35

    In June, I wrote fewer pieces for more money. I only wrote 54 pieces this month, compared to last month’s 80. I also wrote 40,704 words, compared to last month’s 57,000. And I billed $5,808, compared to last month’s $5,336.

    Here’s some even better news: My average per-piece earning climbed to $108 (from last month’s $67), and while my lowest-paid piece is still $35, my highest-paid piece is $751.

    Wait, you might be asking yourself. How did your highest per-piece rate go from $300 to $751?

    Well, I got a new client.

    But, you might continue, didn’t you say that you weren’t taking on any new clients unless they were offering a dream job?

    Yes. It is a dream job. I’m writing for a major company and getting paid $1 a word, so I’m pretty pumped.

    How’d I get this dream job? Via a recommendation from another freelancer, of course. The best jobs have nearly always come this way.

    The best part about taking on this new client was that I didn’t have to let any of my regular clients go. Right now I like everyone on my client list, and so I made space for this new client by pulling back on new pitches and one-off pieces.

    This was also one of my goals for June, and it worked; everything I wrote was for a client with whom I had an established relationship. I expect this to continue through July, and don’t anticipate sending out any new pitches or taking on new clients. But, as we’ve just seen, it’s hard to predict what might happen.

    Writing fewer pieces and working fewer hours

    The other way I made room for my new client was by taking on fewer pieces from existing clients. Two of my clients put out a big list of potential article topics every Monday, and writers can claim as many or as few as they want — have you worked for clients like those? — and so I’ve taken on fewer of those articles.

    This, in turn, has helped me pull back on my work hours. I still get the occasional day when a difficult assignment pushes my work into the late evening, but I feel like my freelance workload is a lot lighter than it used to be — especially if you compare it to that monster week I wrote about for The Freelancer, where I spent most nights working until 9, 10 or 11 p.m.

    In March, I tracked my hours and discovered I was averaging a 50-hour workweek and spending about 25 of those hours writing. (I also wrote 90 pieces in March, so I was doing a lot more work back then.) It would be interesting to track my hours again and see how they’ve changed, so that’s something I’ll do for July.

    Building a routine (that gets me out of my pajamas)

    The other big change I made in June has to do with my personal routine. I live in Seattle, which means I work on Pacific Time, but a lot of my clients work on Eastern Time. Because of that, I often felt compelled to wake up and start working right away, without changing out of my pajamas. After all, if my 9 a.m. was a client’s noon, I wanted to make sure I caught up.

    But that also meant that I often stayed in my pajamas until 1 or 2 p.m., when my Eastern Time clients began winding down their workdays and I felt like I could take a little break. Some people really like working in their pajamas, but I don’t, especially when it gets into the afternoon — I feel sweaty and gross, and all I want to do is take a shower.

    So I decided to change my routine. I would set my alarm for 8 a.m. instead of 8:30, and start my official workday at 9:30 a.m. instead of 9:00. That gave me 90 minutes to wake up, do yoga, shower, get dressed and eat breakfast. Then, I’d be ready to start work at 9:30 without wondering when I’d find time to do all of that important stuff.

    Did my Eastern Time clients notice that I was getting in touch with them a half hour later than usual? Nope. I do scan my email as soon as I wake up — don’t we all? — so I have occasionally responded to an urgent message at 8 a.m., but otherwise, putting off my workday by a half hour has made the whole day better.

    And no, I haven’t had to make up that half hour at the end of the day either. This new routine has given me a momentum that carries me through my entire day and helps me finish my assignments more quickly. Today, I’ll end my workday at 6 p.m., making it an eight-hour workday plus a 30-minute break for lunch. That’s an ideal schedule for a busy freelancer.

    How about you? Have you tested out new routines until you found one that improved your workday? I’d love to hear about all of your freelance routines in the comments.

    Share your freelance routines: Are you a pajamas-wearer? A coffee-drinker? Do you check your email as soon as your alarm rings? Do you take lunch breaks?

  • Should You Wait for Writing Inspiration, or Stick to a Routine?

    Should You Wait for Writing Inspiration, or Stick to a Routine?

    Do you wait for inspiration to strike before you write, or sit down on a regular basis and write regardless of how you feel?

    It’s great to feel inspired — to be almost obsessed with your writing, eager to get words down as quickly as possible. When you’re really in the writing zone, you might find yourself losing track of time and being highly productive for hours.

    But let’s be honest, for most of us, this isn’t a daily or even a weekly reality. Most of the time, we do want to write … but we somehow struggle to get on with it.

    If you only ever write when you’re inspired, you probably won’t produce much. That’s fine if you’re happy writing an occasional poem or short story, but if you’re working on a blog, a novel, or an entire writing career, you’ve got to make writing more of a routine.

    And yet, sitting down and forcing out 1,000 or 2,000 or 3,000 words a day could just be a recipe for hating both the act of writing and what you’ve written.

    Here’s how to get the best of both worlds.

    Step #1: Schedule regular writing sessions

    To keep up your momentum, you need to write regularly. That doesn’t necessarily mean writing daily.

    Some writers thrive while working on their book, say, for 20 minutes per day, without fail. Others do much better with two hour-long sessions each week.

    Find a writing rhythm that works for you — not your best friend, your creative writing tutor, or that author you follow on Twitter. Experiment with short daily sessions one week and longer twice-week sessions the next. Which do you prefer?

    You may even find your rhythm shifts over time, especially if other aspects of your life change, so don’t be afraid to experiment again occasionally.

    Step #2: Make your environment work for you

    Something that writers often don’t realize about inspiration is it generally doesn’t just appear out of the blue.

    You might always feel inspired after a long walk, or a relaxing bath, or when you listen to a particular piece of music.

    As much as possible, make your writing environment work in your favor. When you sit down to write, you want to feel like you’re instantly getting into that writing zone.

    This could mean:

    • Removing distractions from nearby — if you have a bunch of half-read books on your desk and they tempt you away from writing, put them somewhere else.
    • Playing music, white noise, or other sounds that help you focus. I often pick an album (or a band) to listen to just while I’m working on my novel-in-progress, and sometimes use Noisli if I’m struggling to focus on other writing.
    • Using reminders of your writing goals: inspirational quotes or posters on your wall, vision boards, or your total word count so far on a Post-it note on your desk; whatever works for you.

    Step #3: Give yourself a break when you need it

    While it’s great to form a strong writing habit, if you have a particular day or week when you’re really struggling to write, let it go. Take some time off before you risk burning out. You may just need to let your work sit for a day or two while you give your subconscious a chance to come up with some new insights.

    Personally, I sometimes find it hard to distinguish between feeling a bit lazy and being genuinely in need of a break. If that happens to you too, I suggest setting a timer and writing for just 10 minutes.

    If you find your initial reluctance to write has faded, or entirely gone, keep going! If those 10 minutes were a real grind, stop and give yourself permission to have a writing break.

    Step #4: Stay connected to your writing in busy times

    Sometimes, routines get interrupted. Maybe you’re ill, or your kids are ill. Maybe you’re moving house or starting a new job or working on a big non-writing project.

    If you know you’re going through a busy patch, and you won’t have the time or energy to write on a regular basis, look for ways to stay connected to your work.

    That might mean:

    • Keeping a notebook of ideas for blog posts.
    • Reading books or blogs about writing (or listening to podcasts).
    • Sharing excerpts of your writing with other people.
    • Jotting down a single sentence in a journal every day.

    You might find you feel inspired to write a blog post or a new scene of your novel — if so, great, go with it! If you don’t, that’s fine too.

    Ultimately, there’s no perfect blend of inspiration and routine that will work for every writer, but all of us need both the spark of inspiration and the momentum of regular work to produce finished work that makes us feel happy and satisfied.

    How do you balance inspiration with routine in your own writing life? Share your tips in the comments below!