Those of you who actually take the time to read this blog might have noticed my recent absence. Well, as a successful freelancer, I fall into the holes that many of my peers fall into – time management.
Before I wrote about how to complete a freelance writing job, and in that article I listed the various steps that were needed to get from concept to completion. Now I want to talk about what happens when you have to run through those steps in a limited amount of time.
Effective Methods to Reduce Turn-Around Time
So how can you go about reducing the amount of time it takes you to write? There are a couple of techniques that I use in my own personal life to make my turn-around time blazing fast and get paid in a matter of hours. Let me share them with you:
Learn Effective Research Principles
Narrow down the keywords and phrases that you need to search for, and then do a sweep to gather information. When writing similarly structured articles, research your information in the order you’ll have to write it. This allows your brain to learn how to automate the process, and it will lead you to faster researching times.
Knowing how to isolate keywords for Google is important as well. Learn how to eliminate stop words, surround important words in quotes, and get rid of unnecessary pluralized words.
Learn How to Speed Read
Now, I’m not a speed-reader by any means, but I can read fast, and when it comes to researching: the faster you can read and process information, the faster you can write the article. Learning how to read faster will greatly reduce your turn-around time, as 80% of freelance writing consists of research.
Create Outlines (Mental or Physical)
Outlining greatly reduces the turn-around time of any written work. If you’re writing multiple articles for a client, make a rough outline of how the information in each article should be structured, and then fill it out.
If you’re like me, and you hate physically outlining things, just keep a mental checklist of the order of information. It could take some time to commit to memory, but once you understand the arrangement of each article, the writing process is 100x faster.
Learn the Copy, Paste, Rewrite Method
Now, plagiarism is wrong, always. However, there is a major difference between plagiarism and research. When writing an article that requires a ton of research, copy the information that you need, paste it into your document, and paraphrase the needed content into your article.
Once you have all of the information needed, delete your copied text, and move on to the next section of the article. This allows you to do research and writing all in one fell swoop. This method works effectively with the outlining technique.
Focus, Focus, Focus!
Teenagers inherently have a problem focusing. We are a part of the “ADD” generation where every other child was placed on Ritalin in seventh grade. However, I force myself to sit down and focus on completing one goal a day, so you can too!
Create an overall “goal for the day” and get it done! Time management and productivity is about producing something, whether it’s an article for a client or an invoice to get paid. While to-do lists work for many people, accomplishing just one task a day causes less mental strain.
What About You?
What are your time management tips for freelance writing? Do you have any questions about increasing your turn-around time? Share your thoughts and opinions below!
Well said
Time Management is extremely critical to proper functionality in both business and life in general. We have a limited amount of time to use in our lives and it’s best to make the most of it.
Well I used to be a freelancer (at some point in time) before and one thing with writing is that it can be time-consuming. The good thing is that once you get over the initial humps, you’d be able to be more productive in the long run
For me, outlining has become invaluable. If I’m working on anything beyond just a single article – whether it’s an ebook or a series of blog posts or whatever – I can literally cut my writing time in half by spending five minutes creating an outline.
Great post!
Freelance writing needs a lot of focus. You’re right about this.
By the way Corey, how are you able to read fast? I wish I could do the same.
I learned how to read faster through school. Reading an entire chapter takes up a lot of time, so when doing research, you can usually read the first and last sentence of a paragraph to see if what you’re looking for is there.
In addition, simply forcing yourself to scan the page faster will get you used to processing the information faster, but don’t go at lightening speed right off the bat.
I actually hate physical outlining. I don’t really know why. However, if I do a mini-outline, or a quick mental outline, then I’m good to go. To each his own I suppose.
That’s true. Once you fall into a rhythm, you can get a lot of work done.
I suppose the same goes for all types of freelancing.
That’s true. Time can slip by if you let it.
Reading faster is a great way to get a lot done. Taking a speed reading course is definitely worth it! I took one through my university and it was a fantastic investment of my time. Espeically now that I am in law school… 300 pages of legal statutes a night!
Time management is so vital to doing well online and in life.
Thanks for the writing tips Corey…I’ll try to apply these tips and see how it goes.
The most time consuming part for me is just getting things started. Once I start writing, time is hardly an issue.
I’ve studied a fair bit on time management and organizing is very important but what we really have to do is “Manage Ourselves” as Steven R Covey said in his book The 7 habits of highly effective people.
Manage yourself by controlling your thoughts and prioritizing what you need to do each day. Most of us humans procrastinate so if we can manage ourselves effectively, then nothing will stop you because you’ll put “first things first”