I think I’m in the middle of a transition. I’m trying to find ways to streamline freelance writing so that it is more of a business and not just a passion. I need to increase productivity so that this becomes a viable business and not just a way to earn extra cash. I also find that I spend too much time researching and too little time actually writing. I have to transition writing from a preoccupation to an actual occupation.

Where has my productivity gone?

Despite the creation of To-Do lists, the removal of distractions and the use of different productivity tools I still find myself taking twice as much time as I planned on to finish my writing projects. Because I insist on never letting a client down, I find myself working into the late hours or during dinner and putting my family on the backburner. And I want my family time back. I want to see my 14 month old wobble his way across the floor on his own two feet, and race cars around the living room with my three year old. In order to do that I need to become more productive during my work hours.

Some Suggestions

So I decided I would spend 5 minutes bookmarking sites that had suggestions. Then, after I completed a task for a client, I would go back one at a time and see what tips they had to offer. Here are the top five tip sites I found:

• LifeHack 50 Ways to Increase Your Productivity
• IncreasingProductivity.org (The name says it all!)
• Freelance Productivity Do One Extra Thing Each day
• Chrisblogging.com Freelance Writing Productivity
• CopyBlogger What to Boost Your Writing Productivity? Have a Baby!

The last one is a particularly enjoyable read… though I have no plans for more babies at this time! Perhaps you, dear reader, can share some of your productivity tips and we can get over this bridge together? I look forward to overcoming this obstacle with you!