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I’m a freelancer, but I have a couple of contract gigs that play a big role in my monthly and daily cycles. I’m the science editor at BoingBoing.net, a technology and culture blog with 6 million monthly readers. I also have a monthly column with The New York Times Magazine.

The rest of the day really varies a lot, depending on what I have on my plate at that given time. I have ADHD and it’s really easy for me to get distracted and be unproductive, so I have lots of little tricks I rely on to keep me focused throughout the day. I used to use a timer on my computer a lot, just to have something that, periodically, forced me to look up and think about what I was doing and what I had to do next. But I find now that the two hours between breast pump sessions actually does that job pretty well. I also jump back and forth between stuff on my to-do list, depending on what I feel motivated to do. If I just can’t get myself to write during a given two-hour block, I’m better off answering email or sending out interview requests than just sitting there, staring at a blank page.

Skype, Call Recorder, and Stickies.

Comment on their posts.

If you want to build a blog, the reality is that Twitter is one of the most important platforms for sharing, probably followed by Google+, at this point. If you’re in a home/food/how-to niche, Pinterest may be important to you as well. If Facebook seems like a place people talk about your topic a lot, it might be useful, too.

There are plenty of tools out there — among the most popular are AddtoAny, ShareThis, and Sharebar (which is what I’m currently using).

Stop making failure a negative thing and start writing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and start creating. And if you do mess up, do your best to learn from it. Trust me, you’ll be much better off.

If you sit down at a blank screen every day and simply do nothing then you are a writer. If you write one word, even better. Some people will disagree. Maybe you will disagree. That's fine. We also can all disagree. Meanwhile, our DNA is telling us we are pretty much exactly the same.

I try to read pieces or chapters in 3-4 books a day or more. I read at least from one non-fiction, one or two quality fiction, and one inspirational. I try to read at the level I want to write. I do this in the morning before I start writing.

Destroy every gatekeeper.

After the pups of the traumatized male mice were born, scientists monitored their behavior. As expected, these pups showed the same symptoms of trauma that their fathers did, despite having never undergone traumatic events themselves. And these symptoms were even apparent in a third generation of mice.

When researchers looked at the sperm of the traumatized mice, they discovered that the microRNAs in these sperm cells were also present in abnormally high numbers. "This means that germ cells — sperm in males and oocytes in females — are very sensitive to environmental conditions in early life," Mansuy says, "and early childhood trauma has consequences not only for the brain but also for the germ cell line

This goes beyond setting goals for individual projects and instead spans all parts of your writing life, from pitching to craft to the business side.

Brainstorm all the things you’d love to see yourself accomplishing as a writer. Once you’ve got your ideas down on paper, streamline those thoughts by writing in one sentence that encompasses your overall objective for writing.

Each big picture requires a different set of tasks. And each short-term goal will flow naturally from your big picture goal.

The author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), continued to work day jobs throughout his life.

Other authors who held down day jobs throughout their writing careers include Bram Stoker, Philip Larkin, T.S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf, among many others.

she wrote the bestselling book Interview With The Vampire while working her day job as an insurance claims examiner.

My trade magazine features can require up to dozen sources, which means many interviews and lots of quotes. Sometime early in my freelance life, I realized I needed a way to keep the sources and their material straight, especially during the cutting and pasting part of the editing process. The solution?  Type the notes from each interview in a different color.

The colors facilitate turning an overwhelming mishmash of perspectives, examples and quotes into a coherent article.