I will, however, chat about making the most of your summer months, a time of the year where we tend to want to operate at a different pace although that doesn’t always mean we have fewer gigs on our plate. I’m very grateful that my workload is full, but I’m just as grateful that I can adjust my schedule when needed.

Summer Schedule

One thing I am not doing this summer is reading…books, that is. I’ve never been one to read much outside as the sunlight just hurts my eyes. And, with the need to be more flexible I’m concentrating on research projects that can be started well in advance of when an article is due. Still deadline driven, but not deadline consumed.

To give myself some flexibility, I have chosen to do the following this summer:

New Customers — Generally, I am not taking on new customers except for press releases through my new site, PRBeam.com. Even then, I had to turn one potential client down whose deadline clashed with other work I had pending. I expect to crank this end of my business up eventually, but not until after Labor Day.

My Websites — Balancing what customers need with what I manage on my own can be a challenge. That is one reason why I’m selling Auto Trends, as I plan to consolidate my work to a handful of sites. When it comes to who pays me, client work prevails. That means my work here will be mostly hit or miss until I get the rest of my stuff in order.

Flexible Schedule — Generally, I avoid evening work and working on weekends. Sunday is out: church and family time, but on some Saturday mornings I find it beneficial to write ahead in order to allow me to stop early some days or start later on other days.

Social Collaboration — I’m still using StumbleUpon and Twitter, but have cut back on using those social networking sites for now. I’m finding that the return on time investment doesn’t justify using these sites at least right now. I’m also limiting the number of guest articles I’m writing, but still accepting a few across my blog network. Again, this activity will ramp up after Labor Day.

How about you? Are you doing things differently this summer or are you maintaining the status quo?