7 Productive Things To Do With Your Free Time

Do you ever have a weird, unproductive feeling between assignments? Like you should be doing something, but you just can’t put your finger on it. I get that way sometimes when I finish one assignment and have some time before I start on the next. Then it dawns on me, “Oh yeah, there’s some other work I could be doing.”

1. Write some evergreen blog posts. I’m insanely jealous of bloggers who manage to post everyday, especially those who post multiple times a day. I’ve tried, tried, tried to do it but I just can’t. It dawned on me that they probably don’t sit down and write a post everyday. Instead, they likely make up several posts at one time and set the timestamp so the posts will show up everyday. You can spend your free time writing up some blog posts and setting them to drip. Sometimes I have so many ideas in my mind, I just outline drafts of a few posts, then go back and write them. In fact, I did that with this post.
2. Learn something new. When you’re in between assignments, you can take some time and learn a new aspect of your niche. Read up on some news. Research a law. We’re writers, so we can always read more about writing. Learn a new style of writing - press release writing, business plan writing, copywriting.
3. Market yourself. It’s hard to do too much marketing. Even when you’re booked up with assignments, it’s still a good idea to keep your name out there. You never know when the well will run dry and you don’t want clients to forget that you exist. You can plan the strength of your marketing efforts based on how much work you have in the pipes. For example, you would do less marketing if you have a lot of work planned, and vice versa.
4. Read some other writers’ blogs. Though you may not see them face to face or work directly with them, other writers are your colleagues. Just like you’d catch up with a coworker over a coffee break, you can catch up with other freelancers by reading their blogs. You can learn a lot about the freelance writing business, its challenges, and its rewards. Find new ways to deal with clients or collect on payments. I’ve even gotten new writing gigs, just from reading someone else’s blog.
5. Brainstorm new ideas. Use your downtime to come up with some new ideas. Your freelance writing business could always use some new ideas on marketing, running the business, organizing your files. And of course, there’s never a shortage of article ideas, especially if you run your own blogs or pitch to magazines.
6. Update your portfolio. After you’ve spent some time doing some client work, you probably have a few more clips you can add to your portfolio. It’s a good idea to put your best work out there for prospective clients to see. As you complete more work, you might replace some of your other links. Or, if you didn’t have much work to show off, add some more links to show the breadth of work you’ve done.
7. Relax. There’s no rule that says you have to spend your free time working. When you have some time between assignments, one of the best things you can do is take a break from work. You don’t want to wear yourself out with constant work. Take a breather, even if it means leaving your house and your laptop for awhile. You’ll appreciate the renewed vigor once you start back working again.

What do you do during your free time?

9-5ish Work Hours for Freelance Writers

I know that one of the primary benefits of freelancing is escaping the 9-5, but having “work hours” is beneficial in freelance writing too.

Work doesn’t consume all your time. Without a set time for working, you’ll find that you start working when you wake up in the morning and don’t stop until you go to bed at night. It might not seem like a problem at first, but you can easily burn yourself out that way.

Easier work/life balance. If you have a family, you have to balance freelance work and home just like you would if you working outside the home. Work hours lets you clearly define the time you have for work and the time you have for family. That way, you’re not neglecting either.

You get more done in a shorter period of time. When I actually worked a 9-5, I would never actually workthe entire 8 hours. There were frequent breaks, conversations with co-workers, internet browsing that would take up time in the day. I was going to be there 8 hours, what was the rush? Setting your work hours to something like 10-2 forces you to complete your work inside those hours.

You can tell people when not to disturb you. Once I started working at home, leisure phone conversations were not an option anymore. With work hours I can tell people not to call during those times. Otherwise, I would be annoyed anytime the phone rang day or night.

Clients know when to best contact you. There may be times when clients need to contact you by phone, IM, or even email for some immediate information. You can communicate your work hours to your clients and they never, or at least seldom, have to question your availability.

Your work hours don’t necessarily have to be the same everyday. You control your schedule so if you need to work from 6am to 10am one day and 12pm to 8pm another day, that’s up to you. The key is to have some time dedicated solely to writing so you separate your work from the rest of your life.

How I Look and Apply For Freelance Jobs

I should have a banner that says “Work smarter, not harder” printed up and hung in my work area. There are only so many hours in the day and I have to make the best of each one of them. Being productive is highly important to a freelance writer’s success.

One of the biggest time wasters for me was looking and applying for new writing gigs. I would spend half the morning looking and  applying for new writing gigs. Before I knew it, it was lunch time and I hadn’t done any work for clients or myself. Instead, I started looking for gigs after lunch and sending applications at the end of the day.

I’ve spent time on different job boards and from what I’ve seen most of them are updated in the morning. Typically I’ve already looked on a board for a job before the new ones have been posted. I spend about 15 to 30 minutes after lunch looking for jobs. I don’t apply for them. I just email them to myself to work on later.

Then about an hour before quitting time, I go through the jobs and apply for them. Applying for jobs all at once works better because you remain in the “sell myself” frame of mind the entire time. If you were to look and apply at the same time, you’d break the marketing momentum. Make the application process faster by having a copy of your resume open and using prewritten templates. Don’t forget to customize your email for each job.

Using this process to look and apply for freelance writing jobs gave me back at least two and a half hours in my day, quite possibly even more. Pay attention to the way you apply for jobs and see if you can somehow streamline the process.