Writers Unbound

Sometimes you need a change. If your current scheduling method doesn’t work, or if you don’t really have a method, change something. Try out a different plan for a week and evaluate the results. Successful scheduling should have you setting reasonable goals and making steady, trackable progress toward those goals.

No one method of scheduling is right. A system that worked for you might quit working as you mature, as life happens, as you take on different kinds of projects. Family life is, of course, a significant factor for a work at home freelance writer, especially if you are a work at home mom freelance writer. (That would be me.) My oldest (2 years old) doesn’t need a morning nap anymore. This has affected my writing schedule. I can fight it and try to keep things as they were, or I can look at what is happening and make the best adjustments.

Before you can change what you are doing, you need to know what you are doing (at least vaguely). Which of the following options sounds like you?

Option A: The Nibbler

The Nibbler doesn’t like to limit herself to just one project per day, or even per hour. She will eat a little out of many pies everyday, which means that she makes steady progress but it is hard to track. The Nibbler stays fresh on everything, because it never sits alone, but she also distracts herself and finds it hard to get over “the hump” in longer projects because she is not used to concentrating on one thing for so long.

Option B: The Prioritizer

The Prioritizer is all about the A-B-C priority list. He sets his priorities, checks them daily, and can rattle them off at any moment. First Priority projects will get most of his time in the day, and he will work his way on down the list. However, sometimes The Prioritizer can’t prioritize well enough (what if two projects have a tomorrow deadline?) and sometimes he uses his priority system to avoid the stuff he just doesn’t want to do.

Option C: The Snowplow

The Snowplow borrows her scheduling method from the big trucks that roam the streets after a snowstorm. She attacks her pile of articles to be written the same way they attack that snow: pushing straight ahead until they reach the end of the street. The Snowplow makes good progress through the early part of the day, but tends to get bogged down as her energy diminishes. And sometimes she ends up with a pile of papers bigger than that pile of snow.

Option D: The Time Blocker

The Time Blocker is the ultimate consumer of the hour-by-hour day planner. He actually defines the use of every single one-hour-block on the page. 1 hour on Article A, 1 hour on Project B, 1/2 hour on Marketing, 1/2 hour on Research, 1 hour on Book. The Time Blocker knows what he has going on and has a place for every single part of it. But not every opportunity merits a block of time, and The Time Blocker has trouble dealing with those pesky little items that are too small to schedule but too big to ignore. Like eating lunch.

Option E: The Scheduler

The Scheduler is a sophisticated combination of The Prioritizer and The Time Blocker. She breaks down the projects and papers according to a carefully estimated plot of time needed for researching, outlining, writing, and editing for each one. Then she plugs in the various parts of each project into her calendar, leaving herself a few days’ cushion before the deadline, just in case. Her careful planning keeps her on track, but sometimes her lack of flexibility causes her to miss one-time opportunities. She tends to underestimate her own abilities and her break down of projects can cause her to miss out on “the flow” that can happen during sustained work on one piece.

Option F: The Procrastinator

The Procrastinator checks email, and answers email, and checks email, and then rearranges papers, and then flips open a notebook, and then gets a cup of coffee, and then sits down to start working. Instead of tackling the big project that is due in a week, though, The Procrastinator will write a dozen little paragraphs that don’t serve much purpose, outline a new marketing campaign, and do preliminary research for a book he doesn’t plan to start writing until next year. When he realizes the project is due tomorrow, he will stay up till the wee hours finishing, all the while mumbling about being too busy and too stressed.

Which One Are You?

Which style sounds like you? And is that style working? Every scheduling system is full of flaws, but also full of possibility. Successful scheduling should result in you able to work without feeling panicked, accomplish what you plan, and get your work done in time.

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: Calendar Card from Joe Lanman.