When I first started my writing career, I found it so hard to put things together, and manage my time. Once I learned the value of a schedule and how much more productive I could be, there was no stopping me. It took time, don't get me wrong. It takes ten times actively doing something or twenty-one days (depending on which old lady you ask) to learn to make or break a habit. Think of the glass as half-full. If you go ten days and stick to a schedule, you've got it. You're doing it.

Schedules are important for writers because they help them stay organized and make the most valuable use of their time. Most of the working productive world uses some kind of scheduling device, or nothing would ever get done, and the world would be in chaos. For professional procrastinators, those who don't manage their time well or are easily distracted, getting into the habit of following a schedule could mean the difference between a golden career opportunity and a hobby that never goes much of anywhere.

Anyone who operates their own business, whether a writer or a plumber, has to operate on some kind of schedule. There are professional scheduling systems and software, and then there are simple spreadsheets with chunks of time blocked off in thirty-minute or one-hour increments, for instance.

When I decided to get organized, I turned to none other than the queen of organization herself, Julie Hood. Julie gives away one of the most detailed, helpful organization kits I have ever seen. She has everything in there the professional writer could need to keep up with their time, their expenses, jobs completed, you name it. She even gives some printables that are invaluable to the new freelancer about how to manage time. The kit is free, but Julie offers classes and other books for sale. She also sends out the occasional newsletter telling what neat stuff she is going to be offering next.

After trying several different kinds of scheduling and note-taking systems, I seem to have found myself back at the old school, so to speak. I have a plain schedule with thirty-minute increments of time blocked off. There are no bells and whistles, but there are two blank columns, so I write my schedule on the left side and my notes, to-do list and phone calls on the right. As far as note-taking goes, here again I am not very technologically-inclined. I can do all of it, don't get me wrong. I have just found sometimes the old way works better. For instance, when I am reading my feeds, I take a fresh sheet of lined paper and put a label at the top with the date, that says, "Feed Notes". Then I write down the name of the site, and I write down any interesting headlines. Chock this up to my obsessive need to clean things out. I can't stand to leave my feed reader half-empty, for lack of a better way to put it.

Sometimes you find technology simply won't cut it, and the old way is still the best way. I love all these funky new electronics that will keep up with every aspect of your life for you, but for me, I'm still going old school, I guess. I write my notes on legal pads, and my handheld is a leather dayplanner. I like to tell myself I'm pretty technologically advanced with the dayplanner. Hey, it's not scraps of paper, right? But the point is, no one in business for themselves, especially freelance writers, are going to make it unless they are successfully able to keep track of all their appointments and to-dos.

What do you think? Do you have a snazzy little Palm, iThingy, or other such electronic device? What is your success story for managing your time? Leave a note and let us know what do.