Cover Story
"Time Management for the New Year"
How long does it take you to write an article? A book
proposal? A chapter in your book?
If you don't know, how can you budget your time? Perhaps more
importantly, how can you budget your budget?
If your bank account for your writing business in struggling,
or if you wish to get more writing done, the most important thing
you can do is take a careful look at where your time is going,
figure out how much time it takes to do what, and then figure what
you're making per hour. When you have that information, then you
can work toward increasing your hourly wage. This will help you
manage your time and increase your income.
Take a careful look at where your time is going:
When you want to lose weight, a good place to start is to take
a look at what you are eating. Experts recommend writing down
everything you eat, then figure the calorie count you're taking in
each day. After doing this for a week or two, you can see what
you're eating and what you can cut to decrease your calorie
intake. In a similar way, I recommend that you write down where
your writing time is going. (If you're feeling ambitious, you
might want to track your time outside of writing, too.)
I use a Cambridge brand "At a Glance" weekly/monthly planner.
It is approximately 8 1/2 x 11 inches in size and is spiral-bound
so it lays flat. There's a two-page spread calendar for each month
and then also each week of the year has a two-page spread. Here,
each day of the week is broken down into 15-minute segments from
8:00 am to 9:00 pm. (I pick mine up at WalMart for about $8.00.) I
use my quarter-hour planner to record what I spend my time on by
drawing an arrow from my starting time to my finishing time. Then
I record which article or book project I worked on next to it, or
what I did with that time such as recording submissions of
articles, recording income, or preparing checks for deposit. I
record the time it takes me to take the deposit to the bank and
check the post office box. Whatever I do--run to the office supply
store, spend time researching markets--all gets recorded in my
planner.
Recording where our time goes does several things for us:
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It shows where your time is going and reveals time-eaters--those
things that, like extra calories, add to our time but produce
little of value. Once identified, we can cut down on or
eliminate them effectively adding minutes or hours to our
writing time. |
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It helps us realize even those "little" things we do (while we
tell ourselves it's a perk for working out of a home office)
take time, like putting in a load of laundry, taking out the
trash, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, letting the
dog out...and in...and out again. |
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It helps us get a handle on just how long each project takes.
After you've recorded your time for a while, you can begin to
guesstimate how long it will take you to research, write a rough
draft, polish an article for submission, prepare and submit an
article or book proposal, review sample copies, research
markets, and so forth. |
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It keeps us honest. Are you working "full time" at your writing?
Or do you put in "x" amount of time each week? When we don't
track our time, which is in effect punching a time clock, it's
easy to deceive ourselves into thinking we're putting in more
time than we really are. Someone who wants to get physically fit
needs to spend time working out, but if he or she only actually
works out once a week or once every couple of weeks and tells
himself he's working out regularly, he deceives himself into
thinking he's doing more than he really is. Call me crazy, but I
even record my work-out times just to keep myself honest in how
often I really am getting my workout in. |
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It requires us to have an "account" to "charge" our time to. If
you just wasted an hour and a half playing solitaire, how are
you going to "charge off" that time on your calendar or time
card? Are you going to call it "writing an article" or
"researching"? Or are you going to call it time off or personal
time? Just as an attorney must bill hours to a client, writers
who want to get serious about using their time effectively need
to honestly "bill" their hours to projects or other required
office work. (And there is plenty of office work required for
writing that isn't actually writing! For more about that, see
the Q & A section below.) |
Figure out how much time it takes to do what:
Once we figure out where our time is going, it is easy to
determine how long it is taking us to do certain tasks. From there
I can plan my time much more easily. For example, when I know how
much time I need to research statistics on the internet for my
next proposed book, I can schedule that time on my calendar to get
it done. Then I know I'll time to find resources and quotes for
that proposal and I can schedule that in. When I have an article
cooking that needs polished and submitted...I can schedule to
polish it Thursday afternoon and submit it Friday morning...and so
on.
Another advantage to tracking your time is to help you
determine the salary you are making with your writing and how you
can increase it. Wouldn't you like to give yourself a raise? Read
more about that in the Sidebar article below.
Why not make plans now to track your time for the next couple
of weeks? Then evaluate what you learn and continue to track your
time to increase your writing output in 2008.
Q & A and Sidebar
Q & A: Dianne Answers Your Questions about Writing
Q: Look how much time non-writing writing activities take
up! Marketing, tracking submissions, and all kinds of things take
up a big chunk of my writing time. Is this normal?
A: Yes, most experts I've talked with say that at least
half of our time as writers is taken up by non-writing activities.
There's no changing the fact that writing successfully takes a lot
more than actually writing. We need to do research, find markets
to submit to, and track submissions. We must follow up on
submissions when we don't hear back. We also must manage office
tasks staying organized, filing, and even providing ourselves with
stamps, ink, and paper. E-mail is necessary to stay in touch with
editors and other writers. Most writers must also play the part of
janitor, occasionally dusting, vacuuming, and taking the trash
out. All of this takes time and we need to allow for that in our
schedules. Writing is more than just putting words on paper. But
the better we can manage the mundane tasks in our offices, the
quicker we can accomplish them and the more time we'll have to
actually write.
Didn't receive your e-zine last month?
On occasion e-zines bounce as undeliverable. This happened
with numerous addresses (mostly aol.com addresses) with the
December '07 issue. I worked with aol.com to resolve the problem,
but it took several weeks before I was able to forward the zine to
those who had not received it. Please know I try to have the
e-zine out by the last Friday of the previous month, so if you
don't receive your Dianne E. Butts About Writing E-zine by
the first of the month, please feel free to let me know at
dbwrites@comcast.net.
Sidebar
"Give Yourself a Raise"
Don't you deserve a raise? Wouldn't you like to make more from
your writing? If you answer to either question is yes, here are
some suggestions:.
Figure what you're making per hour:
Tally the time you spent on a particular project then divide
that by the amount you were paid for the project and you'll see
how much you made per hour on the project. But this doesn't
account for all the non-writing writing time we discussed above. I
think a better way is to look at how much money you are producing,
or need to produce, per week or per month. If you wish to make,
say, $10 per hour to start and you work full time (I consider
"full time" 40 hours per week), then you need to bring in $400 per
week. Now, can you submit enough material to enough paying markets
to make that much per week? What is the dollar amount of product
you submitted and how much will you be paid if all are accepted?
Divide that by the number of hours you worked that week. This
method takes into account all the non-money-making activities
included in the week.
To make it easier to tally my time per project, I sometimes
keep a record for each project. I record the same
information on my Project Time Sheet as I do in my weekly/monthly
planner. This makes it easier to see how long a project has taken
me, which helps me plan future projects.
The amount I get paid per project is constantly fluctuating as
I put more time into a project to tweak an article for a reprint
market and then as I get paid as I sell it as a reprint. But
reprints really help my income because I get paid more while
putting in very little time to resubmit it.
Work toward increasing your hourly wage:
Once you have an idea of how much you're making per hour or
per week, what do you need to do to give yourself a raise? Submit
more? Submit to higher paying markets? Cut down on the time
non-paying activities are taking out of your schedule? Put in more
hours? Produce more writing?
Getting a handle on where your time is going and how much you
are making per week and/or hour are the first steps to making your
writing business pay you better.
Period. No buts about it.
Period.
Having a hard time finding a calendar or planner with hours
broken into 15-minute segments? Or do you wish you could start
tracking your time today without having to find such a calendar?
Why not create your own document to track your time? Create a
document, table, or database/spreadsheet with four lines for each
hour of your work day, one line for each fifteen minutes. Leave a
space for the date at the top. Print one for each day (or fit five
days for week on each page). Keep them in a 3-ring binder called
"Time Sheets."
Start tracking your time. See what you can learn from it. And
give yourself a raise! You can do it! Period. No buts about it.
Back Cover Copy
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Bio: Dianne E. Butts has been writing for
publication since 1989 with 200+ articles in more than 50
periodicals and contributions to fifteen books. Her articles have
appeared in Focus on the Family magazine, The Lookout,
Light and Life, The Salvation Army's War Cry, The
Plain Truth, On Mission, Bible Advocate, Live, Evangel, the
Christian Motorcyclists Association's HeartBeat, The Quiet
Hour, Christian Communicator, SpiritLedWriter.com, and more.
Book contributions include stories in Chicken Soup for the
Christian Soul 2, For Better or Worse: A Devotional for Married
Couples by Marlene Bagnull, Beauty is Soul Deep, A Cup of
Comfort Devotional for Women and Mothers, and
Zondervan's New Women's Devotional Bible. Her work has
appeared in Great Britain, Poland, Bulgaria, Canada, and Korea.
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All material in this e-zine is copyright 2007 Dianne E. Butts.
All rights reserved. |
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You may forward this e-zine unaltered and in its entirety to
other interested writers. Better yet, they can get their own
free subscription at
www.DianneEButts.com. |
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For reprint rights contact Dianne at
dbwrites@comcast.net, P.O. Box 8784, Pueblo, CO 81008. |
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Published by the last Friday for the following month. |
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Writing Conferences, Events, and Opportunities
Coming Conferences:
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January 30 - February 1, 2008: Christian Booksellers Association
(CBA) Industry Conference, Indianapolis, IN.
www.cbaonline.org |
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January 31 - February 3, 2008: Jerry B. Jenkins' Christian
Writer's Guild's "Writing for the Soul" Conference, Broadmoor
Hotel, Colorado Springs, CO.
www.christianwritersguild.com |
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American Christian Writers conferences scheduled in Dallas, TX
(Feb. 15-16), Oklahoma City, OK (Feb. 22-23), Memphis, TN (March
15).
www.ACWriters.com |
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More information and more conferences here:
Writers Conferences |
Dianne's Writing News
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I recently made my second sale of short fiction! I sold my first
fictional short story earlier this year. Both stories are due
out in Christian denominational Sunday school take-home papers
in 2008. |
Writing Opportunities
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When Miracles Happen: No web site. Send questions,
requests for guidelines, and submissions to
dmorris@guidposts.org |
Miracles in Tough Times Deadline:
2/4/08
What's happening on
www.ButtsAboutIt.blogspot.com ?
Use your writing to impact our nation. Check out Butts About
It.com E-zine. December issue: Goals and Plans for the New
Year.
www.ButtsAboutIt.com
Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't
Archives of Dianne E. Butts About Writing:
Archives
Next issue: "Attending Writers Conferences"
www.DianneEButts.com
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