Time management is a crucial skill for small business managers and freelance content producers. You will often need to take on projects with short deadlines because they pay very well.
Remember though, your ability to produce content on time will have a big affect on your reputation. If you repeatedly fail to meet deadlines on time, it will negatively affect your reputation. Clients may give bad reviews on your work and you are unlikely to receive projects with a short deadline.
In many cases these are the highest paying jobs. Losing them could impact your earnings.
In this blog, we look at 7 tips that can help you complete projects on time.
Create a Timeline
Having a book writing timeline gives an overview of when you will begin writing your book and the periods for achieving major milestones. Basically, you are just taking the deadline and dividing it into shorter period timeframes for each stage of the book.
For example, suppose you have structured the book to have 4 main sections, with sub chapters within each section. You have been given a deadline of two months to complete the whole piece.
You should dedicate one week to each chapter (at most) so that you can have the major portion of the work finished within the first month. Add five additional days at the end of the draft so that you don’t go off schedule if one or two of the chapters take a bit longer to complete.
Once you have completed the first draft, you will need to read back everything. You may need to readjust the structure, edit the content and add new chapters where necessary. This process can take additional days.
When you have a timeline at the start, it will help you keep your writing on a schedule. This makes it easier to hit deadlines on time.
Consider Ongoing Projects before Accepting New Work
One common reason why eBook writers fail to meet deadlines is because they take on more projects than they can handle. If you have been guilty of this, then you need to take a step back and carefully reassess your working capability.
There are a lot of work opportunities available right now because people are interested in reading online material. The abundance of work opportunities means new projects are being offered daily. Some freelance writers bid on everything and then get accepted for two or three projects.
It is only when they get down to writing that they realize that they’ve taken on too much work.
Either you will try to overwork and hope to get every writing project completed on time, or you will have to sacrifice one project for the sake of the other.
If you try to work on everything, the quality of your work will go down. You are also likely to burn out.
Don’t Procrastinate!
Some writers can become distracted by what’s going on around them and lose focus on the project work. This is usually the case for new eBook authors or writers who find it difficult to concentrate.
Getting sidelined can be good in some cases when you hit the dreaded writer’s block and can’t come up with anything to write. It diverts your mind and helps you look at the book from a new perspective. It can lead to an interesting new chapter in your book.
However, procrastinating for too long will delay your work and you will end up going over the agreed deadline.
How do you solve this problem?
Consider removing all sources of distraction when you are writing your eBook. You can lock yourself in a room with peace and quiet, away from the TV. If you are writing on your computer, switch off social media accounts and pop ups while writing. Some people even switch their mobiles off while writing so that they can focus more.
Know Your Strengths and Limitations
Some writers can write 4,000 words a day, every day without losing a beat. Others can write only 1,000 words a day.
Some get really focused and write for 8 hours straight without needing a break. Others prefer to take a short break every hour or to clear up their mind.
To meet deadlines successfully, understand your strengths and limitations. Take on projects with deadlines that will be suitable for your writing style, and you will have an easier time meeting them.
Get Projects that Interest You
Have you noticed how people can talk on subjects that they are interested in for hours but stumble and get quiet when you talk about something they don’t know much about?
A sports fan can tell you all about their favorite team’s records for the past 50 years but gives you a confused look if you asked them about the stock crash that happened 24 hours ago.
Book writing is similar in many ways.
Whenever you take on a book writing project, make sure to write on something you already know about and have a genuine interest in. This will save you a lot of time researching key terms in the industry. Ideas will also come to you more easily when you are interested in the subject.
Both your existing knowledge and interest in the subject will help you complete the project on time.
Communicate With Your Client Frequently
If you are writing an eBook for a client, make sure to get in touch with them frequently. Send them drafts at every stage so they are in the loop about how the book is being written.
If you don’t communicate with the client throughout the writing process, you could miss important elements included in the book. If you send them a finished draft a few days before the deadline, there is a chance that it can get completely rejected.
Any gap in communication between the writer and the client leads to problems. Professional eBook writing services understand this and they keep updating clients about how the book is progressing, which keeps all parties happy.
Start Proofreading After Finishing the First Draft
A lot of eBook writers and content producers find it difficult to complete their work because they keep editing and changing everything as soon as they finish writing. Your drive for perfection can make you doubt your work and double check everything for mistakes. This can really delay the work and keep you from meeting deadlines.
The best way to overcome this is to only focus on editing the word AFTER you finish your first draft. Once you have a complete draft of the book, you will find it easier to make improvements instead of doing it while the book is still unfinished.
Conclusion
EBooks are extremely underutilized for marketing and promoting your business. One of the reasons people don’t use them is that they take a long time to complete.
In this blog, we shared 7 effective tips for writing and completing your eBook projects on time. We hope that these tips can be useful for crafting your next best selling project.
