Professionalism: Somewhere in Time by Angie Poole
"Hard work means prosperity; only fools idle away their time." -- Proverbs 12:11
I remember my first day in public accounting. Driven by sheer excitement and a pot of coffee, I jitterbugged down the brown-carpeted hallway to meet the office manager. What would my first assignment be? An audit? Tax returns? No-wait-an IRS audit! How cool would that be?
A ream of paperwork later, the office manager showed me to my cubicle, then turned to leave. "Oh, I almost forgot!" She handed me a hardback red book entitled 1998. "This is your Time Book."
Smugness oozed from my fingertips and pooled around my new executive chair. "I already have a dayplanner. I've used one since I was in college." I extended the book back toward her.
She gave me the oh-you're-so-cute-but-you-don't-have-a-clue look. "Your dayplanner tells you where you're headed. Your Time Book shows you where you've been."
I remember being disappointed at my Time Book. It looked like a diary-nothing special. I'd read all of the time management books. I'd attended seminars. I had already heard about "time audits." What was the big deal about prioritizing, delegating, and paring down to what counts? I knew all that! Soon, I discovered the office manager was right-keeping track of my time took discipline and I didn't have a clue.
This first lesson in public accounting has proven to be my most valuable lesson to date: A professional knows where she spends her time.
All professionals have grasped this basic concept, from lawyers to auto mechanics. As clients, we've learned the hard way-we pay for their valuable time. They've invested their time in the know-how and we pay for their knowledge in billable hours.
For seven years, each of my working hours has been carefully documented to the last detail: client, project, and problems encountered. From my Time Book, my bosses can see if I'm an asset or a liability to their firm. In return I've learned my strengths and weaknesses, my most and least productive areas, and which assignments are profitable. Being a bean counter, I also have time codes for vacation and sick time, continuing education, administrative work, and-yes-even a time code for the Time Book.
As a writer, where are you spending your time? Are you carefully monitoring your billable hours or squandering them on non-billable emails, web surfing, or blog-hopping? Take a week (or even a day) and track where you spend your writing time. Divide your time into broad categories: researching, networking, administrative, and writing. Customize your sub-categories as needed: emails, blogging, querying, rewriting, mentoring, etc.
The importance of this exercise is to determine where your time is spent. Then determine if this time investment will have a payoff. And only you can be the judge of that.
Can non-writing time be productive? Sure, but make sure you're writing and not just talking about it. Any professional spends time learning and networking, as well as creating masterful literary prose. All work and no growth make Jack a dull boy.
Make your hours count!
Angie Poole is a full-time wife, mother, and certified public accountant. When she's not beancounting, chicken-frying Bambi, or perch fishing with her two girls, she's working on her second novel.