How do you split your time between different writing projects?

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   Ethan Greenposted 11 years ago

   I have 19 hubs to date, with more ideas rattling around the inside of my head like wasps caught in a jar. I also have 2 websites, neither of which are anywhere near the point where I can pat myself on the back and take a breather. I just moved from wordpress.com to wordpress.org and now need to learn how to use the complicated premium theme, and of course move my 2 websites across and hope that it goes smoothly.
   So my question is, how do other people manage their writing time? How do you decide where to focus? Do you focus on one area at a time, or drag them all slowly through the mire of time?
   Answers on a postcard please:-)

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      kekesolisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I find it easier to budget my time. Not sure if that sounds strange or not. I have a certain amount of time designated for writing and writing only each day. This is what works for me. Otherwise, there were days I would spend all of my time writing and other things wouldn't get done, or I would spend days upon days of working on other things and writing would take a back burner.

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         kekesolisposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         By the way, VERY new to Hubpages. Day 2 and counting.

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      Dale Hydeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have learned that if I attempt to budget my time, I get very little done. I prefer to use what I call the spur of the moment technique.  Whatever comes to mind when I have time to write, I write, then I post it where I feel led to post it.  I seldom plan ahead.  It always seems like when I do that that I stumble myself and have problems.  Just my two cents worth.

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   Shadesbreathposted 11 years ago

   Prioritize. You can't have five or seven goals and do any of them well, there just isn't time, and all the stuff you "could do today" becomes an overwhelming sea of possible choices. So, you have to decide what ONE or TWO things are the most important and do those first. Finish them, then move on to the third and fourth most important goals, which will then be the most important, since you will have completed task one and two.
   
   Decide what the big one (or two) is, and decide what you want it to be by what time. "I want 50 new hubs by December 31, 2010." Or "I want 25 pages of rocking content on such-and-such.com." Then plan out daily work to get you there. You have roughly 98 days to accomplish that goal, which means you divide 50 hubs (or code writing and content generation) by 98 days, and you'll see you have to write just over a half a hub a day between now and then. Never, ever let anything else prevent you from doing that first. If you don't know whether you should do this thing or some other thing... the answer is neither if you haven't completed your main task first. That is basically called "keeping your eye on the ball."
   
   That is how you control your time.

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      Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have to prioritize my bread and butter living, that is (I'm a northerner so I don't know if that phrase is used widely internationally ) the jobs that give me a weekly income and keeps the wolves from the door. Then, I procrastinate about where my time is best invested (this is not a good habit, I might add)
      
      I've recently, over the last few weeks that is, decided I'm going to throw myself into online writing. Unfortunately however, Goggle have just crushed me with their new algo. So now, I'm thinking that the stuff I've penned is probably crap, and I need to go back to the drawing board.

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         Shadesbreathposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Just write and put it up. If you write for Google, you will always been at its mercy. If you write for you, write what matters, make it as good as you can, and THEN do what you can to be smart when it comes to search as you tweak and revise, I think you'll be fine. Google will be chasing you rather than the other way around.
         
         Google keeps saying they want quality. They keep trying to get it so the search algos can find quality. If they ever actually get that right, think how lovely you will be sitting if all your stuff is written from the place of your highest writing integrity.

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            Hollie Thomasposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I've been trying to achieve my highest writing integrity recently. Not the commercial stuff obviously, but really detailed hubs which I thought would be helpful. I'd looked at the keywords searchers were using to find them and then asking myself if I've answered the question- if the searcher would have felt satisfied when they left the page. In fact, before I bombed, I wrote one hub that had received 30 odd facebook likes in 12 hours, that's some going for me. I didn't even post it on FB. Alas,  it's now buried in the serps. I'll wait it out though, this new also hasn't settled down yet. I've still got so much to learn.

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               Shadesbreathposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Well, I have the advantage of knowing nobody is going to find my stuff on Google, so I confess to having the liberty to just write with search impunity. I am at liberty to be true to the message with no, or at least infrequent, concern for serps. I enjoy the irony of it when somehow something shows up anyway.

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                  Ethan Greenposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  How's about this then. People may not find your stuff on Google, but I just checked out your profile, then went over to Amazon, checked out your book reviews, and decided that it would coincide nicely with the fact I just finished my latest sci-fi book, and so bought the Galactic Mage.
                  Shame it's only on the kindle edition in the UK Amazon site because shipping was expensive!
                  Anyway, point being, Google may not work for you, but Hubpages might:-)

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                     Shadesbreathposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Hah, well, see, there you go. That's what I get for trying to be a whiner.
                     
                     Hope you enjoy the book!

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   Ethan Greenposted 11 years ago

   Thanks for the replies folks. I wish I was able to focus on one thing at a time, but when I try that, I get stuck with the thought of 'oh, but maybe the other project would be more fun, or easier to complete, or more 'successful''. But I like the idea of setting a Hubpages target by the end of the year. I reckon I could do that, and then feel free to procrastinate and dip in and out of the other projects;-) I guess when you start websites that need lots of content, the trap is realizing there is no real finish line; they will just keep growing, so you get sucked into a world of endless page building...

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   austinhealyposted 11 years ago

   When I run out of ideas for one of the projects I work on, I move to another one, I always have 5 or 6 stories "open" at the same time. Sometimes, it's the opposite. I get too many ideas at the same time and I need to walk away for a while to order my thoughts. In other words, I tend to follow a natural process and not prioritize or organize too much

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