work more efficiently

A few steps toward working more efficiently:

1) When I have writer’s block, write something that doesn’t require creativity, such as product specs or coding.

2) Prepare lists of phrases when I’m working on similar items.

3) Don’t multitask.

I’m a freelance writer and I telecommute so it’s very hard to set aside time to get work done. It’s not exactly the type of job that lends itself to planned work time (i.e., if I’m not in a creative mood, I can’t make myself write quality content). But other things get in the way, like TV, pets, food, smoke breaks…. It’s really hard to get down to it sometimes.

Feeling chuffed as I had a big piece in G2 (the features section of the Guardian) today. I went to Syria to do the research.

If you are in the UK please check out the story “A Marriage of Inconvenience” in today’s G2.

It’s available online as well but without the pictures. You can find it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/12/iraq.syria

Edited to add: They’ve now added a pic to the online version, though there are more pics in the print version.

The GTD system is really helpful for this. I keep a list of all my projects (work and personal) in my Moleskine notebook and write next steps regularly.

I’ve also been keeping track (in the back of the same book) of how much I bill each work, as a measure of productivity.

I just need to stay away from time wasters like games on Facebook.

On my first day at my new job (two weeks ago) my new boss hands me the David Allen book, ‘Getting Things Done: The Art to Stress-Free Productivity’. I’ve skimmed the book, which has tons of ways to get things done, but the biggest is really a change of perspective. I’m so tuned to thinking that productivity is getting the big things done, when actually its more about getting the small things to be small things and making the big things in small things. I’ve only read the first two chapters, but another goal will be to finish this book, and then I’ll review how productive I consider myself.

I’ve really not been doing that this week. I was stuck home waiting for tradesman and deliveries, which is always distracting. But I have also wasted a lot of time playing games on Facebook, which is definitely not productive! It just wastes time and it makes me feel bad about myself but it’s also highly addictive! I do need to put a stop to this.

I think that the main areas of my life where I need to have goals is work, exercise/diet, and writing. I need to work out a daily and weekly schedule to help me manage these three things productively.

The problem when I work inefficiently is that I end up with deadline stress and then that affects the rest of my life. I work for myself so it’s about getting the job done rather than clocking the hours.

Last week I spent until 2am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning finishing features for the following day. I functioned okay, though not optimally, during the day on Thursday when I was on site for a client, but was then too tired to go to the gym.

Action = consequence.

Now admittedly I was sick earlier in the week, but a lot of this was to do with procrastination. I have deadlines coming up again next week and I want to space it more out and even get some of the work done early. I am trying to use the Getting Things Done system to stay more on top of things.

Last week I did a features writing course with the National Union of Journalists. It focused more on the writing side but it did touch on planning and structure and I can see how a little more work up front in the planning stage could save me time in the long run.

What I really need to do is keep track of how I spend my time.

I need to find a way to make this a more specific goal.

Take the amount of time that it takes to get proposals out the door and be more choosy in terms of clients that I take on and people that I spend time working with