Take the Time to Value Your Time
It started with a $24 paper check — the first check I got for a freelance copywriting job back in 2014.
Okay, technically, it actually started before that. I’d gotten paid to write a couple times before that — winning $200 in a playwriting contest, another $200 for helping a colleague out with a project, but that’s a whole other story I’ll save for another time.
This $24 check was the first time I thought to myself, “Huh. I could get paid to write.”
I started taking more projects from a copywriting website I had signed up for after that — wrote some product descriptions for eBay, some community descriptions for real estate websites, and some general content blogs for other websites like Coupon.com. I didn’t hate the work at all — most of the jobs were pretty easy, honestly, and I could usually knock one out in an hour, hour and a half. Because I was a full-time social worker at the time, making $25 to $50/hour on these jobs was worth it to me — that was more than what I made as a social worker if you broke down my salary on an hourly basis.
But by 2016, that story had changed. My financial state that year was, well, less than ideal — again, a story I’ll save for another time. Suffice it to say, I had to start doing ride sharing to make sure I could pay the bills. And what I discovered was that, on average, I was making about the same hourly rate driving as writing — about $25-$50 an hour — but with more regularity.
So I stopped doing copywriting jobs because, well, our family needed the regular money and I couldn’t depend on there being a ton of copywriting jobs all the time — and also because we were desperate. Just to be honest. So for the next four years, I did ride sharing on a regular basis — not every day or even every week, but since my writing work wasn’t regular, I had to think about my family’s needs first.
Now, if I had to go back and do it all over again, I would ask myself two questions:
What’s the true value of an hour to me?
How can I maximize the value of that hour?
Ultimately, this is something you have to decide for yourself — I can’t tell you how to value your time. But I wish that earlier on in my writing journey that I’d sat down to think about how I valued an hour.
First, because it would’ve saved me time chasing after copywriting jobs that weren’t worth my time pitching for or writing. Because I never factored the “pitch time” in, which means that the time I spent looking for articles, applying for the opportunity, and so on — I didn’t put a value on that time, meaning I wasn’t really making $25 - 50/hour. I was really making about $8/hour. At best.
If I’d realized that sooner, I would’ve changed my strategy about what kind of opportunities to chase after and better value my time.
You can’t get your time back so make sure you know it’s value to you — don’t let someone else determine it for you.
Second, I would’ve looked at my ride sharing gig differently. Later on in that part of my life, I got smarter and started taking my laptop along. I’d make sure I had a project to work on while sitting around waiting for a ride request so that I could capitalize on the time when I wasn’t driving — which was really smart if I do say so myself. But I wasn’t that smart in the beginning, and I wasted a lot of time mindlessly scrolling on my phone waiting for ride requests when I could’ve been doing something to help my writing career, whether taking one of those copywriting tasks, building my portfolio, or at the very least, searching for entry level opportunities for ghostwriting.
If I’d had the right perspective on how to value my time, then I would’ve maximized my time sooner — or I would’ve been more intentional in setting limits for how much time (and when) I would drive compared to how much time (and when) I would spend on writing.
You might be at the beginning of your professional writing journey and if so, I can’t say it enough — TAKE THE TIME TO VALUE YOUR TIME. You’ll be surprised how this one simple decision will (A) save you from chasing the wrong opportunities, and (B) help you find the right opportunities.
When I started valuing my time, I was a bit scared — I was afraid I was setting the value too high and that no one would pay me what I was asking. But the opposite proved true. I ended up avoiding clients and projects that would’ve taken time away from the clients and projects that wanted to pay me based on the valuation of my own time. Had I done that sooner, well, I probably would’ve gone full-time a lot sooner.
I know, I know. This sounds obvious. But just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean you’re doing it. So here I am, saying “Do it!” Sit down and really assess what your time is worth — and make sure you account for everything: the time it takes to find clients or writing jobs, the time it takes to apply for those opportunities, and then the time it takes to complete them.
And before we end today, I need to make sure to say this — this is not a one-time activity. You should revisit the value of your time at least every year. At least. Because as you progress in your writing journey, as you build up more clientele and a bigger portfolio, guess what? You’ll be able to also increase the value of your time.
That’s really the goal here — scaling the value of your time so that five years from now, you’re not doing the same work at the same price. And if you’re still making the same amount now that you were two years ago, but you’re afraid people won’t pay you more, just give it a try. Raise your prices and see who bites. You can always go back down if you need to, but I think what you’ll find is that by raising your prices, you’ll not only make more money even if you have less clients, but you’ll have better clients who will become fans of your work.
You can’t get your time back so make sure you know it’s value to you — don’t let someone else determine it for you. So, seriously — find a specific dollar value for your time. Memorize it. Write it down. Stick it up on the wall. Tattoo it on you if you have to. No, don’t do that actually — because your dollar value will grow as your self-value grows. Alright, that’s enough for now. Time to get out there and actually write!
