Using Data for Self-Publishing Productivity

[Approximate Reading Time : 4 mins]

You may have often heard the phrase “time is money”. That is particularly true for writers. If you are on a roll, that’s great. However, sometimes getting good-quality content is more of a chore.

So how do you get to a more productive state more often? The answer is data. Tracking your habits, your results, when you wrote it, where you wrote it and how long it took you are all critical data points to get you started to understand your optimal writing situation. To optimize your efforts in writing and self-publishing, you’ll benefit from doing a little sleuthing about yourself.

Document Your Day

Start to make notes on what you do during the day. Do you wake up and write before you go to work, then do it again on lunch breaks? Do you have the flexibility to create your schedule and only write after yoga each day? Maybe you switch it up based on how you feel on any given day.

Log Your Writing Times

One of the biggest challenges of self-publishing is sticking to a self-starting routine. Whatever your schedule, write it down. Maybe it’s only for 15 minutes. Mini-sessions can be great motivators. Log your start and stop times.

Note Your Location

Do you love to write in the park or at your desk? Do you feel more comfortable at home or in the coffee shop? Maybe you write where inspiration hits you. Make a note of where you are at the time.

Track Your Word Count

Once you’ve stopped writing and are moving on to another task, tally your word count. Do this for every writing session. If you divided it up into three sessions one day, compute the word count for each one separately.

Notice When You Are the Most Focused

What did you notice? Were you better in mini-sessions? Did it take much longer to write the same number of words early in the morning or late at night? Make a note of when the word count was the highest for the time you wrote by dividing the total word count by the length of time you wrote in the session.

Create Your Schedule

Now that you can see what your most productive time and locations are harness that information to create your ideal schedule. It can not only increase the quality and volume of your writing, but it can free up other times in the day to do the activities that feed your soul and fire your creativity. You may find that you can make much more money in much less time.

Sources:
1. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/10/productive-writer
2. https://selfpublishingadvice.org/use-data-to-be-a-more-productive-writer/
3.https://amnet-systems.com/amnet-techenabled-services/author-services/