What do you do if your full-time job is getting in the way of your freelance writing?

If you want to work efficiently and manage both work than you need to make a time table it will helps you to allocate time to all your work

The reality of life may not support traditional time-blocking recommendations, like waking up early or creating non-negotiable appointments. Be honest with yourself and your goals when considering your schedule. Where can you fit 10-15 minutes of work? Writing in short bursts may be a short-term reasonable solution.

If my full-time job is interfering with my freelance writing, I'd try to find a balance by managing my time efficiently. I'd allocate specific hours each week for freelance work and stick to them. I might also negotiate with my employer for a more flexible schedule or consider reducing my hours to prioritize my writing career.

Full time job and freelance writing both of this can go hand in hand. After 9-5 you have to again do 6-9 which seems hectic. Dedicate a fix time to do your work. Do not procasinate and make a routine to complete your work before deadline. Take break sometimes it really helps. Be patient and work smart not hard

To further enhance your writing discipline, integrate short, focused sessions during breaks or commutes. These micro-sessions can boost creativity and maintain momentum, making your scheduled writing blocks even more productive. Embrace this structured flexibility to balance work and writing effectively.

Incorporate a task management tool or app to visually organize your tasks. This can help you quickly identify which writing assignments to tackle first during your dedicated writing periods. Visual cues can streamline decision-making, allowing you to dive into high-impact writing without delay, maximizing the productivity of every precious minute.

This is one of the most difficult areas to master, but it's essential. Sometimes, it can be very complicated prioritizing your full time job tasks. So it becomes very key to be brutally honest with yourself in regards to your freelance writing. Which things are building your network or are for repeat clients? Which things are you more excited to work on? Whatever the criteria you're using, assign everything coming across your desk a number of importance. 1 = not very 5 = high priority and then organize them from 5 downward and tackle them in that order. Just keep in mind that the brutal honesty is absolutely vital to this being successful.

Only YOU know how many hours YOU can dedicate outside of your full-time job for your freelance writing. Set clear boundaries as to what is your time and what is work time. Remember, freelance writing is still work. Establishing boundaries will prevent burnout and ensure you are not jeopardizing yourself by trying to stretch yourself thin.

To reinforce these boundaries, consider using separate devices or accounts for work and writing. This physical separation can help compartmentalize your roles, making it easier to transition between them. It’s a tangible step towards maintaining balance and ensuring each aspect of your life receives undivided attention when it’s most needed.

I still have trouble with this. Like my above contribution, in prioritizing tasks, brutal honesty is key. You can't delude yourself that after getting home at 5 p.m. that you'll be able to write until 2 a.m. You might be able to do it once or twice, but consistently? Your writing and your full-time job will both suffer. Carve out blocks of time for yourself. Delineate them as full-time job, decompression time, freelance writing, decompression time, sleep, and don't forget to put meals in there too. It seems ridiculous, but until you build healthy habits, it's best to remind yourself of everything you should be doing.

Organize your tasks will help you jump in once you have a chance to wind down from your full-time job at the end of the day. Your full-time job will likely take up most of your day, so having a chance to wind down from that job and refresh yourself for your freelance writing is important for your health and creative mind. Organization tools can help ease this stress and keep you on track with any freelance writing deadlines you may have.

Leverage technology to automate reminders and alerts for your writing tasks. This ensures you’re always aware of upcoming deadlines and can prepare accordingly, making your writing sessions more focused and efficient. Automation helps maintain a seamless workflow between your job and writing aspirations.

I cannot stress enough the usefulness of apps and software for keeping your writing organized and separate from other parts of life. There are a host of options out there, some better than others, depending on the person.

In my personal life, I'm full of chaos, but professionally I become OCD. Why? Because it's necessary. I can't be productive without it. It's not just organizing time, it's organizing the files and notes that I'll need for the project. Get as detailed as you require to be at your most effective and prolific. It will make your life so much easier in the long run.

Embrace the power of community by engaging with fellow writers online. Their insights can provide fresh perspectives and innovative strategies to tackle writing challenges. This collective wisdom enriches your approach, enabling you to navigate the complexities of dual roles with greater ease and confidence.

Reflect on your progress and how your scheduling system has been lately. Make note of any necessary adjustments may be need to make in order to create a better work-life balance while still fulfilling your passion for writing and maintaining your full-time job.

The advice in this article is kind of intense: if you dwell too heavily on setting boundaries and time blocks et al. you may develop the kinds of anxiety that prevent you from being productive. Think about the self-loathing you will feel if you miss a check point. Is that going to incentivize you to write, or is it going to make you see writing as a chore. The best advice I got is to set achievable goals. I had a writing teacher tell me that he had a daily goal of writing 100 words. That's because he wanted to make sure that he felt like he was actually accomplishing something, and the positive reinforcement he got from writing MORE than 100 words was valuable. This was a published novelist, so I took his words to heart.

What is a full-time job? Is it a 24-hour commitment? No, it isn't. Hence, proper time management is crucial to balance a full-time job with one's passion for freelance writing. Giving priority to passion over a job, which primarily serves for earning and livelihood, enables individuals to thrive in life. Without passion, everyone becomes dry, unproductive, and lifeless. Balancing work and personal interests requires effective time management and clear priorities.

If your full-time job is getting in the way of your freelance writing, maybe it's a signal that it's time for you to make freelance writing your full-time job.

I would like to think the our lives revolve around other responsibilities outside "work", like family, religion etc and our routine must provide for those as well. Managing sleep is very important. I have learnt that the hours before, and after sleep are tricky. If you sleep late, you will wake up tired and anxious, if you orchestrate 'sleeping early', you will have the luxury of an hour or two of quality writing time at wee hours. If you adopt siesta time, some good writing time awaits you when you wake up. It is not about how many hours you put to writing, but the output.