Whether it is the economy or the holidays or some other reason that work has slowed down for you, there are dozens of ways to use downtime at work productively.

As a freelance copywriter I work from home, so whenever I tell friends or family that work is a little slow, they say things like, “Well you should go to a movie” or “Sounds like a great time to take a vacation!” Because I have no boss, per se, they assume that downtime equals fun-time. And while their suggestions are tempting, I know that if I squander free time now, I could be completely out of work later.

So when I have a lull in my work activity, I keep a list of things I can do.

If I have a few hours only free, I will:

• do my billing
• follow up on unpaid invoices
• do computer maintenence, software updates, and file backups
• reorganize my desk and my office
• go to the doctor or dentist for checkups (ok, not a pure business task, but my health is essential to my future success!)

If I find myself with days or weeks (hey, it has happened) with not much paying work to do, I do things to try and get me back to work as soon as possible, like:

• review my client list and reconnect with quality clients that I have not talked to in a couple of months
• build a reminder calendar that includes client’s purchases, activities, ads, projects, etc. so I can inquire about updates or new projects
• produce a “give-away” such as a “how-to” document or a whitepaper
• create a list of future “give-away” topics or items
• create a new prospect list, then a letter and phone script to go a long with it
• contact the new prospects on my new list!
• redevelop and streamline my offering, website, newsletter and blog
• write articles for my blog
• brainstorm future blog articles
• gather info for my newsletter (my readers like juicy tidbits and free stuff I often find them) – what do you mean you don’t get my newsletter? Click here to subscribe!
• explore new PR opportunities
• find new networking (in person and on line) opportunities, and update my resume and profile information on my chosen Internet networking sites
• catch up on my business reading

There are probably a bunch more things you can think to do to use your down time efficiently. It doesn’t take long to make a list of things you can do – hey that’s one more thing to add to the list…make a list!

Normally, I get about half way through my to do list before I’m once again too busy with work to get to the rest. That’s why I’ll never catch up on my business reading!