I’ve recently become much more productive as a freelancer, publisher and editor. I have a secret weapon, which has freed up literally hours of free time for me on a weekly basis.
I suspect I don’t need to tell you what a scarce resource time is! Like me, you probably have a lot of calls on your time. For me, it’s my wife, children, dog and the unending whirl of my social life that all conspire to make time spent actually running (or writing for) Raging Swan Press a precious commodity.
Thus, when I’m actually in front of my beloved shiny Mac, I want to be as focused and productive as possible.
That’s where Freedom comes in.
Simply put, Freedom is an app for your computer or smart device that enables you to block access to certain websites or apps for a certain amount of time. For example, I’m a news junky and can regularly waste 30 minutes bouncing around between various news websites reading stories I’ve already read to keep up with events. With Freedom, I’ve set up a schedule in which access to all those sites is automatically barred on weekdays between 9 and 5.
I really shouldn’t need an app to do this. In fact, I’m annoyed with myself for needing Freedom—why can’t I just *not* visit those sites? Where is my willpower or sense of focus? In any event, it took me ages to take the plunge and buy Freedom, but I am delighted I did. Not only is it saving me loads of time, it’s also saving me loads of cash!
How?
Well, over the past year I’ve increasingly struggled to actually write much for Raging Swan Press (which is both annoying and ironic because I basically started Raging Swan Press to write). Freedom is giving me the time to write. I’ve noticed a sizeable uptick in my writing of both articles for both cb.com and rsp.com since I installed it. I’ve also found the time to finish several new Raging Swan Press supplements (Places of Power: Tumblestone Inn, Village Backdrop: Greystone and Village Backdrop: Lanthorn) that are coming out over the next few months. The sub £20 annual cost of Freedom pales into insignificance when stacked against the cost of commissioning the three books in question.
But more importantly than the savings that, Freedom gave me the—well—freedom to write, which is something I love doing!
I highly recommend Freedom. If you want to see what other tools I recommend, check out my toolbox. I hope you find something useful therein.
And as a final note, none of the Freedom links in this post are affiliate links and I get absolutely nothing for recommending Freedom. Simply put, I’ve found it incredibly useful and I think you might benefit from it as well. They have a free trial so give it a go!