Time Efficiencies Save Time for Fun!
NOTE: Today’s blog is written by Lillian Brummet – as it applies to the job hunt and interviewing process as well as business development. In any endeavor we can always find creative ways to be time efficent.
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Time management is a real biggie for me. There is always so much to do. There is always a new banner ad to design, another radio show needs a promo ad, there’s guests to book on the radio show and outlines for their interviews to create… emails popping in every few minutes with a request to provide articles, an interview or networking opportunity. Keeping records of all of this and making sure that everyone has been followed up on, while finding new contacts, new opportunities – this can eat up a lot of time.
Recordkeeping is the best thing that ever happened to me. Whenever I have queried a media contact, for instance, I’ll head over to the Excel file where I’ll record brief information on name of the media, the contact, the email/web address and then brief notes to myself in the Notes column – such how we connected and what was said. I use color-coding for easy referral so that I can see at a glance whether a project is completed but not yet published, and who needs a follow-up. Every 3 months or so I go through this file and eliminate all the rows that have no colors (this means that if I have not assigned a color code, there was no response to my query) because I no longer have a need to keep a record of those contacts. At the same time, I’ll do any follow-ups that I can.
Research is key for efficiency in my writing process. I do tons of research, glean the best from it, add my own personal twist and then tweak it to suit the audience the project is intended for. Everything is researched… the content itself, the audience, the publication – their departments – their advertisers and their staff… and I make a note of this in the appropriate column. This way, I have a brief plan of action for each project.
It sounds complicated, but the whole thing takes just a little effort; the outline and record-keeping aspects of a writer’s career can make all the difference when it comes to doing things efficiently, effectively, and at a comfortable pace.
~ Lillian Brummet: Award winning author, book marketing guru, owner of the award winning Brummet’s Conscious Blog, and both the host and executive producer of the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show. (http://brummet.ca)
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