Twenty-four hours often doesn’t feel like enough time to do everything you need to do—especially when you’re building up your new copywriting career. So, short of bending the rules of time, what’s a person to do?
While I can’t add extra time into the day (yet…I’m working on it), I can offer you some suggestions for maximizing the time you’ve got. A lot of time management coaches will tell you to put everything on your to-do list in three boxes: do, dump (don’t do it; cross it off you list), or delegate. I can’t help you with doing or dumping your tasks, but I do have some advice for delegating.
The time you spend building your business and/or working on copy projects for clients is very valuable. You can probably calculate its literal worth, but it also has worth for the relationships it builds and the work it many help you get in the future. So, the key to maximizing your time is to spend more time on these tasks and less on tasks that are necessary but that don’t earn you anything now or in the future.
What kind of tasks am I talking about? Tasks like grocery shopping, housecleaning, chauffeuring the kids to soccer practice, and that sort of thing. (Note: Quality time with your kids is important, but driving them somewhere probably doesn’t count as quality time for most families.)
1. If It Can Be Done Online, Do It Online
Pay your bills online, schedule appointments online, purchase things online—it all goes much faster online than doing it in person. If you need to purchase something and you don’t need it immediately, might I recommend a little site called Amazon? You’ll probably get it at a discount and you’ll get it delivered right to your door. (And if you have Amazon Prime, two-day shipping is free.) Coffee filters, swim trunks, live ladybugs (really): There’s very little you can’t get online. (Check out this post for other free tools for copywriters to make your life easier.)
2. Get Over the Guilt
I know a lot of people feel guilty about hiring house cleaners, thinking that if they’re able to do it themselves, they should. Well, get over it.
If you can pay someone $30 an hour to clean your house and you can use that same time to earn $50 you come out ahead—and with a clean house.
Plus, you can support another small business by hiring local. Win-win.
3. Let a Stranger Do It for You
With sites like Instacart (a personal favorite) for same-day grocery delivery, TaskRabbit for all kinds of personal tasks like Ikea furniture-building and errand-running, and Fancy Hands or Zirtual (among others) for all kinds of virtual personal assistant tasks, there are a plethora of ways to get things done without doing it yourself. A stranger can pick out just as nice of a zucchini as you can—let them do it and continue with your work.
4. Go Old-School
If driving or chauffeuring or even commuting is on your agenda, start up a good old-fashioned carpool. Share the task of driving the kids with other parents and you can spend more time on your work while knowing they’re still getting to dance class. If you carpool for your commute, you can get in some valuable work time while someone else drives.
5. Make a Change as Soon as You Notice a Struggle
Just when you start to find that cleaning your house, setting up your new printer, getting groceries, or anything else like that is taking too much time, it’s exactly the time to find a way to delegate it. The longer you wait to get it off your shoulders, the more it will weigh on your mind—and you need that clever and creative mind to be fresh for writing copy. Don’t wait until you’re burned out to get help. Treat your career with respect and delegate what you can as soon as you’re able.
Business Builder or Time Waster?
When you’re building your own copywriting business, it can be hard to know how to manage your time. People often like to spend time on tasks that feel comfortable (like finding the perfect Url), even though it’s not moving the needle forward in your business.
In this episode of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, Nicki and Kate highlight some of the common time wasters, provide insight into the activities that are almost always business builders, and remind us to continually evaluate how we are using our time.
Your Turn
Do you have any delegation tips we missed? What are your go-to items to delegate? How has that made your life easier? Let us know in the comments below!
Last Updated on October 5, 2023
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