Freelance Writer

Archive for the ‘Work’ Category

Possibly the trickiest aspect of my job as a freelance writer is actually managing my time efficiently. I would estimate that around 70% of my work time is spent on my freelance writing work and the remaining 30% is split between dealing with quotes and inquiries and taking care of administrative tasks such as handling payments and chasing up invoices.

When I took up freelance writing as a new career some years back, I never considered that such a large chunk of my work time would be taken up by anything other than freelance writing. I certainly did not envisage so much time being spent dealing with administrative tasks.

So this week I am going to try something new, I am going to set a 50 minute timer each hour, during these 50 minutes I will only write, I won’t check my email, or any other external function that is part of by freelance writing business. The remaining 10 minutes each hour I will give over to admin and customer communication. Just an experiment, to see how it works out.

Following the complete mess that 1and1 recently made of an update to their Microsoft Exchange Server, is it now time to be afraid once again? I received an information email from 1and1 yesterday which explained that the Microsoft Exchange Server which my account is hosted on is going to be upgraded from the 2003 version to the 2007 version.

I am fully expecting several days of lost email, as 1and1 have proven time and time again that they just do not have the ability to administer this service professionally. I will not be renewing my subscription when it expires in a few months time, I will look for a new Microsoft Exchange provider.

Next week I have a visa run to Cambodia planned, and then Nuth, Leon and myself pile into the sarleng for a seven day road trip to Koh Phangan. One of the things I love about being a freelance writer is that I have the freedom to do things like this whenever I please.

Whenever we do something like this it is always hard to be productive, usually after riding our three wheel scooter come shopping trolley for a few hours in the blistering sun, I’m pretty tired. This time around I have planned my work schedule much better, and only have around three hours work per day on the books for the entire three weeks we are travelling.

Of course, I know what will happen, all of my regular clients will suddenly throw tons of urgent work at me and I’ll be forced to burn the midnight oil once again on the journey.