Time Management Archives - Productive Writers

How to Renegotiate a Freelance Writing Deadline

John Soares — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:14:39 +0000

If you stay in the freelance writing business long enough, you’ll eventually have to renegotiate a deadline with your editor. Whether you are a freelance writer or a book author or you work for someone else, missing a work deadline is bad. I pride myself on meeting or beating deadlines, and I use that as […]

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Why Freelance Writers Must Avoid Perfectionism

John Soares — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 15:01:24 +0000

As a freelance writer you definitely need to do high-quality work, but you need to know when to avoid perfectionism and stop working on an assignment, a story, or a blog post and call it good enough. There’s a saying I’ve encountered many times, a variation on a Voltaire quote: “Don’t let the perfect be […]

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How to End Writing Interruptions

John Soares — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:59:36 +0000

Whenever something interrupts you from your writing, your concentration is broken and you lose time as your mind tries to recover that productive state you were in. And, of course, you also lose time dealing with whatever distracted you. Good time management is a top priority here at Productive Writers, so let’s discuss the major […]

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Create Time Blocks to Do the Small-But-Important Things

John Soares — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 13:59:14 +0000

As a writer you need to write: that’s usually the most important activity for your career. But there are also many other important things that support your writing, and there are many important things that you need to for the rest of your life to flow smoothly. We’ve talked about scheduling time for doing your […]

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How Deep Work Makes You A Better and More Productive Writer

John Soares — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 14:59:59 +0000

Applying “deep work” principles allows freelance writers and nonfiction authors to get more high-quality work done in less time, and that’s what we’re all about here at Productive Writers. So What Is Deep Work? Cal Newport’s highly successful (and highly recommended) book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World came out in […]

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Secrets of Successful Meetings with Freelance Writing Clients

John Soares — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 14:59:42 +0000

As a freelance writer, you will occasionally or frequently have meetings with clients. It is vital that these meetings are well planned and well run; otherwise both you and your clients will waste valuable time. I’ve had hundreds of phone meetings and face-to-face meetings with freelance writing clients. I’ve learned the importance of following the crucial […]

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Freelance Writing Daily Best Practices

John Soares — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:27:21 +0000

Note: In this post, freelance writer Mark Ellis describes how he developed his own best practices to maximize the quality and output of his freelance writing. I think we can all learn how to be more efficient and productive. Read on… A few years ago, I started freelance writing for a living. I’d waited for that moment […]

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7 Myths of High Productivity

John Soares — Wed, 04 May 2016 13:29:17 +0000

We all want to be more productive in our freelance writing businesses. Increased productivity — of the right type — leads to increased income and increased satisfaction from our work. That’s why I’m happy to share this excellent infographic from Quill.com. It does a great job laying out seven important myths of higher productivity and […]

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How the 80-20 Rule Affects Freelance Writers

John Soares — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 13:29:46 +0000

As a freelance writer, you have likely noticed that some of your writing and marketing activities bring outsized results, while other activities give you a very small return on the investment of your time and energy. There’s a reason for that… 80-20 Rule = The Pareto Principle The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto […]

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Time Management and Productivity Twitter Hashtags

John Soares — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 14:29:02 +0000

Effective time management and high productivity are very important to me and most readers here at Productive Writers. That’s why I put together this list of the most important relevant hashtags for Twitter and Google+. Using Twitter Hashtags You can use these hashtags for your own tweets and Google+ shares, or you can use them […]

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