Admin day

I read about this concept awhile back, and at the workshop I took in July (Advanced Master Class, 100% business of being a writer) I talked to a few fellow writers about it. And the more I did, the more it felt right to me. Apparently it was sinking into my brain as a valid work format for me.

The idea is that instead of trying to cram everything into every day (e.g., three hours for writing, two hours for publishing, one hour for editing, one hour for admin, or whatever), you break your week down by days. Let’s say you work five days/week (which for us freelancers is laughable, but hush). That could, for example, break down to three writing days, one publishing day, and one admin day (admin being email, website, publicity, etc.).

I had an admin day about two weeks ago and it felt great. I just looked at the list of “little” stuff and tackled it one item at a time. Plus I cleaned off my desks (it became both a work and home admin day): filing, logging expenses, paying bills, whatever.

So, looking ahead, I’m thinking Mondays are good for admin days, at least right now. A way of clearing the decks for the week ahead (in my world, the week starts on Monday). I’m open to this changing in the future, of course.

Admin days will still include writing at least 500 words (two pages, or about half an hour) and, if relevant, copyediting (I don't like to lose momentum on a project) (one hour). That leaves 6.5 hours for the rest of it.

I’ve been throwing every small project (that isn’t writing, editing, or publishing) into a To Do list. It’s roughly triaged by importance, but I may bounce around based on how long I think something will take, or what’s more fun. I don’t expect to get the whole list done today, of course; it’ll be an ongoing thing. But it’ll be fun to see how much I can hammer through.

Today may or may not include…

• website stuff (my writer website’s down for maintenance, so now’s a good time)
• emails in my Follow Up folder (and In Box…)
• setting up/tweaking various accounts at ebook sites
• researching basic wills
• financial stuff
• filing
• I’d also like to get some home admin stuff done, too; that desk is starting to look a little scary, and I owe everybody under the sun emails…

I’ll report back on the overall success!