31 Ways a Freelance Writer Can Increase Productivity (And Earn More Money)

Its your year to start freelance writing. Yes, youve mulled it over and finally have taken the first step to becoming a freelance writer. But, theres one that that can hurt your chances at ever making a living as a freelance writer. Its the distraction. Distraction from people and social media. Even after three years as a freelance writer, I still have to stop myself from diving into Facebook or spending a few minutes on Pinterest. I know that if I allow myself that time, an hour will be wasted. So, how do you increase your productivity as a freelance writer? Lets look at 31 ways freelance writers can be more productive and earn more money. 1. Have a Workspace This might seem like a silly thing, but there are a whole bunch of freelancers out there trying to have a business on their couches! Please dont do that. Create a dedicated workspace to do your client work. My husband works downstairs in his office during the day, and I work upstairs in our bedroom. Nowadays you can pick up a desk and computer chair second hand or if you are bootstrapping it work in your kitchen. Be careful though. The height of your table when youre typing can ruin your hands and cause pain. Standing may be a better option. 2. Have Your Necessities Near By Distractions will creep up when you have to leave your workspace to get a drink of water or grab a snack or get your phone. Instead, decide beforehand what necessities you need to have a productive workday. For me, they are: Water bottle Hair tie Headphones Fruit Pen Notebook Whenever I take a quick break, I have everything I need nearby. 3. Listen to Music Music improves your mood and gets you focussed. Peoples minds tend to wander, and we know that a wandering mind is unhappy, Dr. Sood said. Most of that time, we are focusing on the imperfections of life. Music can bring us back to the present moment. Listening to music helps you write faster and come up with more content ideas. I still listen to the same album whenever I write for my clients. I have conditioned my brain to associate this music with writing, and as soon as I hear it, I am in my writing zone. And whats more important, the type of music you listen to Baroque music improves concentration and productivity. 4. Use a Productivity App If classical music isnt your thing, try an app instead: Brain.fm Coffitivity [emailprotected] Brain Upgrade 5. Create a Habit The best thing you can do for your freelance writing is to make it a habit of writing every day! When you write every day, you become a better writer, learn to optimize your time better and be more efficient with your learning. But, how can you write every day if you work 40+ hours a week that sucks the creativity out of you by the time you come home? First, decompress with whatever you need to do spend time with the kiddos outside, bike ride, shower, TV, music, books, etc.. Then, read a blog post or two to ease yourself into the writing mode. From there, get your necessities and write anything like: A Tweet A LinkedIn post A Facebook post Your to-do list on Trello An outline of a sample piece A blog post (dont have a blog? Start one here!) Respond to an email you received Your freelance writing pitch A guest post 6. Get Dressed This is for the stay-at-home moms like me 🙂 I tend to lounge around in my classic yoga pants and sweatshirt. But, you know what? When I look frumpy, I feel frumpy. And this zaps my creativity. So, I found that if I just do a little better with my dressing you know, nicer yoga pants and a nicer fleece or wrap depending on the weather and a touch of makeup that my creativity shoots through the roof! And even though I promote writing in your pjs (because thats really the best!), only do that occasionally 🙂 7. Remove Distractions To be more productive as a freelance writer, try removing the most distracting parts of your day. For example, social media is a HUGE distraction for me. As a way to limit that distraction I can remove my Facebook news feed. And thats another reason why I listen to music so I dont hear the doorbell ring or my husband in the kitchen cooking his lunch. 8. Have a Work Schedule and Stick to It Working for yourself will feel very liberating. Taking that break in the middle of the day will be exhilarating. It was for me! But, I learned I wasnt as productive as I could be if I had a schedule to follow. Now I do. My schedule has changed over the years, but for now, its: 8-9 am chores + get twins ready and off to school 9 am- 12 pm Email, client work, blog posts, Pinterest graphics 12-1 pm lunch + chores 1-3 pm Client work, learning time, blog post writing, social media 3-8 pm chores + family and kid time, supper, bath, bed for twins 8-11 pm Blog post writing, course lessons 9. Plan Out Your Projects One of the things freelance writers need to know is how to structure a blog post. I go into this in Write Your Way to Your First $1k, but for right now, what I can mention is to work on the core parts of a blog post or whatever your project is. For example, if a client wants a blog post, I would make sure to work on: Headline Hook (introduction) Subheading points CTA Screenshots of what Im talking about Source links When you have a system of how you handle your projects, youll work faster overall. 10. Write When the Kids Nap For the moms out there, no house cleaning during nap time! This is the time you need to work on your freelance writing business. I know, its tough when youre staring at a sink full of dishes or a bucket full of clean laundry. When my twins napped, I did as much as I could with them awake. My twins enjoyed spending time with me helping me sort the laundry and playing with the pots and pans while I put the dishes away! I was less guilty, then, when they did finally nap, that I could get the time to find freelance writing jobs. Figure out what works for you. If that means only working during nap times 3x a week, thats better than working during the fringe hours of the day. 11. Use the Pomodoro Technique The Pomodoro technique is a lifesaver for work at home moms with little ones! Children have a short attention span, so if you can work when they are playing and then take a break when your children lose focus, its a win-win in the house. The Pomodoro technique goes like this: Work uninterrupted for 25 minutes (I did it for 20 minutes as my twins were little at the time) Take a 5-minute break ( I took a 10-minute break to do an activity with my twins) Work uninterrupted for 25 minutes Repeat Do a few chunks of this and then take a longer break 25 minutes to 1 hour depending on your needs. This is a flexible schedule that you can adapt and it works! It keeps you focused on what you need to do during that time. 12. Hide Your Phone Im going to age myself here, but after my twins were born and I started freelance writing, I lost interest in my phone. Before twins, I used my phone constantly because I worked outside the home and my husband and I would venture out around the town. But, with twins, I stayed home more and now that I freelance write, I dont venture out as much (although now that the twins are older, we are going out more). So, if you live by the phone, try moving it to another room while you do your work. It will be hard I know, but trust me, you wont implode without your phone! 13. Drink Copious Amounts of Coffee Coffee is my vice. On bad days I can drink up to three cups. Its not good for the nerves, but coffee can help you be more productive. You are more alert, and you can act on your actions easier. So, if you can, start your writing with a cup of coffee. 14. Automate Parts of Your Business I love my business tools! They help me streamline my business, increase my work production and decrease my stress. I feel that part of the investment in your business should go to tools and services. My top three are: Tailwind for automating my pinning strategy ConvertKit to grow my email list Contena to help me find freelance writing jobs quickly (as this mama has NO time to search countless job boards) 15. Create Templates When I write my content pieces, I generally follow a template. This just makes writing easier and faster. You can also create templates for your pitches. As a new freelance writer, youre going to be hustling hard and pitching many times a day. As a way to maximize your time, you can create a standard template for your pitch emails. I dont suggest you send the same pitch to multiple job offers. Instead, use it as a framework to write a personalized pitch. You can draft one up in Evernote or Google Doc or your notepad. Just have it handy when its time to pitch. 16. Create a Swipe File A swipe file is a place where you store: Reference sites Landing pages Sales pages Blog posts Screenshots of social media posts Business blogs You can save whatever you like as long as its a way to help your freelance writing (and save you time). For example, I have a swipe file of sales page copy. I like to view other sales page and their copy techniques to help me with my sales page copy. Similarly, you can swipe blog posts that you find well written or have good sources. 17. Bulk Your Blog Post Content When I have a large chunk of time, I like to bulk up my content. This means I pre-write several blog posts for my blog. If you have a blog as a way to help you land clients, you can spend a day or two writing blog content and drip this content out over several months. In my first year as a freelance writer, I had a full plate of client work. But, I wanted to continue to grow this blog, Elna Cain. So, I asked other freelance writers if they would like to contribute to a blog post. I interviewed several freelance writers, and this helped me get content on this blog for a whole month or more. 18. Track Your Time Do you know that if you simply track your time when you work, you can effectively double your productivity? Alexa of Single Moms Income, tried this method out When I decided to start tracking my work from home time I made a rough list of things that I had to get done for the week and began working. I would write down the exact time I started, what I was working on and when I finished that particular task, Id write the exact time again. I wanted to be thorough so I could report back accurately. Only, writing down what I hadactuallyaccomplished made me want to keep adding to the list. The first day I tried this method I had myentire weeksworthof freelance articles done in one day with time to spare. (I normally space these out from Monday through Wednesday!) I havent tried this tip, but am interested in trying it out this year. 19. Wake Up at the Same Time If you do this full-time, you might be inclined to wake up whenever you want. While this is fine for the short-term, it wont help take your business to the next level. Waking up at the same time conditions your body to be ready for work. It also helps divide your day into your work tasks and personal tasks. When I started freelance writing, I made sure to wake up around the same time each day. And while my twins usually dictated when we woke up, I relied on my internal clock to wake me up. 20. Go to Sleep at the Same Time I know many bloggers that stay up until 2 or 3 am to write that blog post or email. Again, this is fine in the short run, but the best time to work and be productive is in the morning or mid-morning. And if you were up late last night, youre going to be groggy in the morning and probably not feel like writing. So, try to go to bed at the same time. For hubby and me, we try to be asleep by midnight. 21. Batch Your Tasks Batching refers doing one task at a time. You can batch your days out or hours out, or whatever metric is suitable for you. I typically batch my days out: Monday: blog post ideas for clients and my blog Tuesday: outline ideas + pin graphics Wednesday: email copy + social media + writing Thursday: writing, graphics, email questions Friday: course ideas, learning, email questions Try batching your tasks to help you streamline your tasks and be more productive. Heres what Lois of Fox Glove Avenue says about batching: OK, this one I borrowed -stole- from Elna. And its gold. For my blog-a-thon,I broke down the blog writing process into chunks and completed them in batches. I wrote all the headlines and outlines. Then I found all the links I wanted to include. Then I made all the graphics. Then day by day, I wrote the posts. Now that my blog-a-thon is over,I still batch all my posts for the month.Trust me, its a time saver. It does mean you have to have a basic content calendar in place. If the thought of this freaks you out, go and read the One Hour Content Plan by Meera Kothand. Ill eat my tutu if you dont love it. 22. Outsource There might be a time when youll get more inquiries for your content services than you have time for. This is a great time, and you should celebrate! But, instead of turning down work, why not outsource? This is what I did, and it helped grow my income. You can outsource parts of your service to free up time for you. I outsource writing and research mostly. Everything is run past me before I submit to my clients ensuring that its in my voice. 23. Sign Up for a Paid Job Board Look I dont have time to hustle anymore. I have several blogs, several courses, several Facebook groups, Pinterest groups, Facebook pages, clients andmore! Instead of checking many job boards, I just go to one. I can look at all the jobs curated all over online, filter them for just my niche and price point (high-paying of course) and find leads in under 3 minutes. 24. Type Faster An easy way to increase your income is to increase your typing speed. The faster you type, the more content you can pump out in a day, which can increase your daily income. Go to Key Hero to practice your typing speed and accuracy. 25. Find Your Writing Rhythm When you find your writing groove, youll type faster, make fewer mistakes and ideas will flow better. You are optimizing your writing skill when you find your writing rhythm. For me, when I have my associated music and am in my dedicated workspace, I can get in my writing rhythm pretty quickly. 26. Write First, Proofread Later This is a hard one for many writers. Their writing process may show that they self-edit too much, inhibiting the free flow of thoughts. For me, this is the hardest part of freelance writing. I tend to mull over sentences, change things up as I write it and it slows my process down. Im getting better though. The more writing I do, the better typer I become, helping me make fewer mistakes. Also, once Im in my groove, nothing can stop me! So, write first and let it sit. Have lunch, take a walk, cook dinner or whatever. You can go back to it the next day or later that day. Usually, youll have a better picture of what you need to change. 27. Create Public Goals Do you have a Facebook profile? Maybe a Twitter account? Use those social media platforms to share your goals with friends, family, and followers. Others can hold you accountable, making you increase your chances of succeeding. These goals can be writing goals, pitching goals, or client goals. Give your goal a timeline too. For example, For the next two weeks, Im going to cold pitch 5 companies a day. Root for me! 28. Give Yourself Deadlines One of the things I do with my client work is have the client deadline and my deadline. My deadline is usually three days before the clients deadline. Why do I do this? It motivates me to get the job done as fast as possible without ruining quality and when I can turn in my work early, I get big Brownie Points from my clients! And wowing your clients can mean more money in the long run! 29. Be Excited to Work This is for the old-timer freelance writers like me! Ive been doing this for three years, and there are days when this is just a job. I have no creativity to write, and it hurts to get those thoughts out. I have to stop all of that and fill my cup up with creativity and joy before I can write. This might be running, exercising, eating better, playing with my twins, going to the park, or having dinner with my hubby. The biggest help, though, is starting a blog! I meet new people, write whatever I want and have fun doing it! When Im happy, and my life isnt crazy, my work thrives. So get healthy inside and out before you write. 30. Use a Tool Your writing should be error-proof for your clients. I suggest you invest in a tool like Grammarly to help you with your editing process. I use the desktop version for my content pieces and whats nice is that Grammarly follows you online too! So, as Im writing this in WordPress, Grammarly is working, or when I write a message on Twitter, Grammarly follows! 31. Do the Scary Big Thing First This is based on the book, Eat That Frog. What this means is that instead of waiting around for that one big scary thing, just get it over and done with in the morning or before lunch. For you, it might be sending out your first pitch or doing a Skype interview with a client or writing that sample piece. Yes, its scary, but once you do it, youll feel relieved and exhilarated. And when youre happy, youre more productive 🙂 Increase Productivity in Your Freelance Writing Biz Today To make a living as a freelance writer, you need to handle the distractions that come into your life. If your home is too distracting, try going to the library or coffee house. If you gravitate towards your phone, hide your phone while you work. If Facebook calls you, kill the newsfeed. There are ways to limit distractions and increase productivity as a freelance writer. Now its your turn tell me your biggest productivity killer and what you do to stop that. Id love to hear it! Please pin me!

Changi Beach Essay Example

Changi Beach Essay Example Changi Beach Essay Changi Beach Essay Changi Beach is one of the longest natural beaches in the north-eastern part of Singapore. The northern part of the beach is extended as a spit, a landform of coastal deposition. Spits are accumulations of beach material which result from longshore drift. Longshore drift is a process which causes beach material to move in a down-drift direction, due to waves approaching the beach at an oblique angle. This causes the swash to carry material in the direction of longshore drift, the process continuing such that material is transported along the beach. In the case of the spit at Changi Beach, longshore drift occurs in the north-west direction (refer to figure 1 and 2). Figure 3 illustrates the oblique angle at which the waves approach the beach. This study aims to examine the development of the beach profile, with focus on the amount of beach material along the spit in the direction of longshore drift. While most studies would consider longshore drift along a beach, this study differs slightly as the beach face on the spit itself, as a landform of deposition, is being investigated. The gradient and length of the beach face can be hypothesised to increase in the direction of longshore drift, as the amount of the beach material contributes to a steeper and longer beach face. The increase of beach material along the beach can then be deduced using the gradient and length. According to Bird (2008) on beach budgets, conventional methodology can be used in this way to calculate differences in amount of beach sediment along the beach by looking at the cross sectional area of a beach profile. This case study investigates the extent at which the hypothesis that the amount of material increases in the direction of longshore drift, is applicable to this spit. There may also be interesting findings on the amount of material in the area of the spit facing the channel leading to Changi Creek Reservoir. Even though such an investigation of how amount of sediment increases in the direction of longshore drift is seemingly tautological, according to Schwartz (2005) on longshore sediment transport, the phenomenon is regarded as â€Å"almost impossible to discern directly†¦ and viewing the whole beach face does not provide any clues†¦ only when transport rate changes along the shore, because of a barrier such as groin, does the beach change in a manner that can readily be detected.† As such, since preliminary analysis on-site seems to support the hypothesis that beach material does in fact accumulate in the direction of longshore drift, not only can this research examine the relationship of this concept of increase of beach material in relation to the gradient and length of the beach face, but also bring attention to a possibly unique situation on this particular depositional landform. Methodology The gradient and length of the beach face was measured at several transects each 20 metres apart along the spit, from the area facing open waters, to the tip of the spit to the area facing the river. For the approximate location of these transects, refer to figure 5. The data was collected within five hours around the time of low tide. At every two metres from the edge of the berm crest until one meter above the low tide level, the gradient of the slope was measured using two ranging poles and a clinometer (refer to figure 4). This procedure did not take into account breaks of slopes, which in the case of the beach face here, was negligible. The average of the values measured was calculated, deliberately leaving the value to 1 decimal place to analyse small differences along the spit, as the length of measurable area is short in comparison to other longer stretches of beach, and thus the difference in gradient is small between transects. This value is then taken to represent the overall gradient of the beach transect. The length of the beach face in metres was measured using a measuring tape from the berm crest to approximately one metre above the low tide level. The value was rounded off to the nearest 1 decimal place. Results and analysis The gradients of transects each 20 metres apart are shown in figure 5. On the figure is also marked three areas on the beach, A to represent the area facing open water, B to represent the tip of the spit, and C to represent the area facing the channel. It can be seen that the gradient seems to increase generally in the direction of longshore, ignoring certain anomalies due to the small distance on which data is collected. It can also be observed that the part of the spit with the steepest gradient is at the curve of the spit facing the prevailing wind direction. This implies that longshore drift predominantly occurs at the stretch of beach facing the open sea. Refer to figure 6 for the lengths of the beach face taken to approximately a metre above the low tide level. It can be said that the increase in length along section A of the spit is comparatively more obvious than the increase in gradient angle, the values having fewer anomalies. It can be said generally that the length of the beach face can be seen as possibly more reliable a gauge of the direction of longshore drift than the beach gradient. Unlike the gradient of the beach, the longest beach faces can be found on the tip of the spit at section B. These two values of gradient and length of the beach face can be used to mathematically calculate the cross-sectional area of each transect. While the resultant values may not be completely accurate, and the base of the cross-section is more or less arbitrary, and follows the mark used for measuring the length, observations can be made based on the differences between the values. Representing the gradient of the slope as     and the length of the beach as   , the formula for calculating the cross sectional area is as follows (refer to figure 7): The formula     gives the vertical height, represented on figure 7 as   , and     gives the horizontal distance, represented as     The values were computed using MS Excel, refer to figure 8 for table. The values are represented on figure 9. It is by looking at the resultant values shown on figure 9 that the effect of longshore drift on the amount of sediment on the spit becomes immediately apparent. The individual values of gradient and length do not show as clearly the amount of sediment, as both depend on the deposition of material at different places on the beach face, i.e. generally a steep gradient is caused by more material further up the beach face, and a longer beach is caused by more material deposited lower down the beach. It is interesting to note how in certain transects, for example the sixth transect from the east in section A, an abnormally steeper gradient has a shorter beach face. Thus, the calculated cross-sectional area provides a good gauge to the gradual increase of beach material in the direction of longshore drift, rather than relying on the individual values for gradient and length. The amount of beach material peaks at the transect marked by a cross on figure 9, and starts to decrease at the tip of the spit. It can be deduced that material is transported along section A by the prevailing winds from the northeast to the tip of the spit facing the open sea. There is comparatively lesser beach material at section C of the spit. Facing a narrow channel which does not have much of an immediately observable current on its own, analysis can proceed with an assumption that the amount of material transported into the area by the channel further upstream is negligible. It can be said that the amount of beach material can be seen to be decreasing from section B to C. As longshore drift occurs primarily along the length of beach facing the open sea, only the curve of the spit nearer to section A receives the bulk of beach material. The tip of the spit at B seems to as a whole have more material than the other sections. The amount of beach material decreases along section C of the spit until the transect marked with a circle in figure 9. Following that, the presence of a manmade stone wall causes accumulation of sediment, thus both the gradient and length of the beach face increases (refer to figure 10). It is interesting to note that while this area is against the predominant direction of longshore drift, since longshore drift acts mainly on section A, the situation along section C is rather different. This channel of water can be characterised as mainly calm, as it does not receive the waves, situated away from the predominant directions of wind. Still, a small degree of longshore drift can be seen to occur, away from the assumed direction of longshore drift, which can now be concluded as applicable only in section A. Longshore drift at C occurs to a certain extent due to passing boats which create waves that approach the beach at many directions. A weak swash and backwash can be observed parallel to the beach when boats to not pass the channel. While the focus of most studies should be on natural waves, a certain degree of longshore drift does in fact occur at section C. In order to represent the actual situation at this section of the spit, human factors have to be taken into consideration. Refer to figure 11 and 12. Conclusion There are several limitations to this study. Firstly, as measurements to do with the length of the beach face was done as the tide was falling or rising, estimations had to be continually made for each transect as to how much the tide level had changed. Also, the lack of a long stretch of beach made it necessary to not disregard any small changes in beach gradient between transects, which would usually be considered negligible. Furthermore, the accuracy of the measurements may be hindered by a variety of factors such as human error when taking gradients, and measuring a transect that is not fully perpendicular to the berm crest. In this study, no concrete measurements were taken to form a complete picture of how the beach profile changes in the direction of longshore drift, and calculations were made only based on the beach face as a whole. Preliminary observation seems to suggest that the phenomenon of longshore drift has an effect on the location and length of the berm. Section A can be characterized by a marked, flat berm and a sudden slope at the storm beach, while the berm seems to be less obvious progressing in the direction of the tip of the spit; in section B the berm is steeper and the storm beach is longer (refer to figure 13 and 14). In fact, the lack of an actual berm in section C led to a small amount of confusion when taking the readings for the length of the beach face. Future research could consider the effect of longshore drift of the beach profile of the spit as a whole. It can also be said that the idea that both length and gradient of the beach increases in the direction of longshore drift is true, though to interpret it another way, it would be more of the case that, due to increase of material, the beach face is thus steeper and longer. In conclusion, though the effect of longshore drift on gradient and length is not always clear, but these factors, as well as the calculation of the cross sectional area based on the values; have been proven to be reliable in estimating the differences in amount of beach material. The hypothesis that beach material increase in the direction of longshore drift has been proven to occur on the coastal depositional feature of a spit. The amount of beach material increases along section A and accumulates at the tip of the spit. It is likely that with the continual process of longshore drifting, section A would continue to extend in the future. Further studies are required to fully understand whether the hypothesis of beach material increasing in the direction of longshore drift is in fact exclusive to spits, as highlighted in the introduction on the fact that change to the beach face in the direction of longshore drift is not normally observable. Possibly, this is a unique case where changes in the beach face are observable in the direction of longshore drift.