Thursday, July 24, 2008

Do You Have The Multitasker Gene?

I'm a good multitasker. I've always been good at juggling things and I feel I do my best work when there's a little bit of stress. There's a fine balance between adrenaline and chaos though so I have to be careful I don't go from multitasker to stress monster otherwise it ain't pretty. If you don't have a multitasking personality, you can learn the trait and if you want to manage your career well, you will need to learn to multi-task at least a little. But you can't go overboard or you'll get writer's ADHD.

Balancing Between Self and Work in Writing

I'm trying to balance between working for others and working for myself. I try to devote a bit of time each day to updating a few of my many blogs or doing something to do with SEO for some my sites. As well, I try to work regularly to raise my online profile.

Networking with others helps in many ways too for self, for career and for productivity. It is tricky to do it all and not suffer loss of productivity.

The Multi-Tasking Double-Edged Sword

If you don't do enough self-promotion and networking the opportunities can dry up and your earnings can hit a ceiling. If you do too much multitasking, your to-do list will be too long and you can lose focus and you'll never get any work done.

How does a writer manage a wah ghostwriting career, a family and improve their life ?

For me, I try to find balance. I make a weekly schedule that I try to stick to or at least prioritize.

1. Paying work comes first. Gotta pay the bills.
2. Blogging or affiliate marketing comes second because it raises my income.
3. Social marketing and SEO come third.(Although blogging and affiliate marketing also help with my SEO in many ways so are essential for helping me do both number one and number two.)

I was asked how I keep up with it all when I mentioned I was starting a new personal finance blog. I already have 9 registered domains and a whole bunch of hosted blogs as well so it's tricky and sometimes I have to rein myself in a little. I had a great idea for a blog and registered it 2 months ago but haven't done anything yet with it. I registered another new domain yesterday and will probably not start on it immediately. I am not trying to put too many frying pans into the fire. Instead I'm getting little seeds planted and I can do a bit of gardening when I have down time.

How do I manage it? I have a WIP (work in progress) folder for my own work. I put ideas here, potential blog titles or I start side projects that I can tackle later. I have to maximise my productivity so my tips for balance are this:

-Schedule time for paying work
-Schedule time for your own stuff
-Schedule time for play
-Be flexible...flexibility is, afterall, why you decided to work from home.

Right? Write! :)

2 comments:

Malcolm R. Campbell said...

Now I'm tired, looking at all this work.

Malcolm

Dana Prince said...

LOL. Hey Malcolm! Hope life is good. I think I'll mosey on over to your online home and see what you've been up to :)
Cheers,
Dana