Every professional author requires an effective time management skill to produce quality work, complete tasks promptly, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Having deadlines to meet while being surrounded by many distractions can be a daunting task to handle. Time management helps to ensure work productivity and a fulfilling life.
Hence, this article aims to explore some effective time management tips to help busy professional authors.
Set Realistic and Achievable Goals
Goal setting is an essential prerequisite for time management. It gives you clarity of purpose, thus, helping you maintain focus and a clear guide on what you plan to achieve. As an author, setting goals boosts your motivation, minimizes writing stress, and eradicates writer’s block. Your goals can either be long-term or short-term. This will help keep you on your toes in meeting the required deadlines. However, your writing goals must be realistic and achievable to avoid wasted efforts or unnecessary procrastination.
Prioritize Tasks
Your ability to set clear writing goals helps you prioritize your tasks. You’ll be able to categorize each task according to its level of importance and urgency. Knowing the most important task on your to-do list makes you wake up each day with an awareness of what to do and the eagerness to get it done. Hence, you tend to focus on the task with the highest priority.
Create a Work Plan
As a busy professional author, having a work plan is an effective key to managing time. Plan your day, week, and month based on your writing activities. Schedule specific times to carry out writing tasks, researching, editing, etc. To achieve this, you can divide your projects into bits and allot time for each. While allocating time for each writing task, ensure you stay dedicated to it.
Stay Focused
After you have created a work schedule, focus on a particular task at a time. Avoid switching in-between tasks. For instance, while editing a chapter, do not make the mistake of making a draft, checking out book sales on your email, or reviewing another chapter. It drains you mentally, reduces your speed level, and sucks up some percentage of your productive hours. If you allocated 2 hours for a specific task, be consistent enough to exhaust your time on the task before switching over to another.
Shut all Distractive Doors
In writing, distraction is a major time killer. As a professional author who is dedicated to a productive work lifestyle, you must ensure to shut down all forms of distraction while writing. Put away whatever might prevent you from giving full attention to your work. First, be sure to look out for a quiet working environment and shut your door. If you work within your house premises, inform your family that you’re working to avoid disturbance. Also, put your phone on silent mode and turn off all notifications on your social media handles and email. Additionally, you may choose to turn off your internet data or use any website-blocking tool to block disturbing websites. By closing all distractive doors, you’ll be able to focus on your writing and manage your time effectively.
Outsource Tasks
If your writing activities seem to be overwhelming, outsourcing some tasks is the way to go. By this, you’ll ease the stress accompanied by multiple projects and be able to meet deadlines. You can hire the service of an editor, researcher, or administrative assistant to help reduce your workload. When you delegate responsibilities, you can focus on the most urgent task at hand. However, it is necessary to communicate your expectations clearly to your delegates to ensure the writing goal is achieved.
Take a Break
Irrespective of the fact that time management is crucial to you as a professional author, self-care is also of utmost necessity. Do not forget to take a break while writing. In between your work schedule, you can decide to take a walk, have a short nap, watch TV, or gist with people around. This helps to avoid writer’s block which can cause delays in completing a writing task. Taking a break is also a way to get yourself refreshed and refilled with new ideas to continue your work.
Monitor Your Progress
Keeping track of your progress is a way to access your time management strategies. Check your writing duration and word count at intervals while writing. Also, be sure to check how far you have gone in achieving your set goals. These steps would help you manage your time and meet up with your busy schedules.
Conclusion
Time management is a useful skill that helps for productivity and fulfillment. It is also very important to employ discipline while following these practical steps. However, you must remain consistent in applying these tips until you figure out what works best for you.
Written by Emily Cyril