Downtime during the Day: What do you do?
As a freelance writer you want to stay busy day in and day out. This means that you have a lot of work on your plate, which is always a good thing. But there may come a time when you run into some downtime during your workday. If this happens you need to ask yourself a very important question: how am I going to make the most of this time?
When I have downtime, even though this is not very often, I always turn to my marketing plan. After all, if there is time in my day that is not filled a new client would fit in nicely. The way that I market depends on what has been working for me, how much time I have, etc. For instance, some days I may write a query letter or two. But other days I may spend my time searching online for new clients. Either way, it is important to note that I stay busy in hopes of finding more work.
Some freelance writers who face downtime look at this as a chance to rest. While there is nothing wrong with taking a break, you don’t want to spend all your free time during the workday staring at the television. This is waste of valuable time, and you will find out soon enough that you made a mistake. If you want to take a break, so be it. Just make sure that it does not last too long.
In a perfect world you would be able to work eight hours per day on projects, and then call it quits after that. Of course, this is not the case now and in the life of a freelance writer it probably never will be. When you have down time, time when you are not working on projects, make sure you do something that can better your career.Â
