Find other writers by asking for referrals. Who to ask? Try librarian at your local library, an editor at your city’s newspaper, an English teacher at a nearby college, or professionals in subject area of your book. Or place a classified ad in a writers’ magazine. And of course, be prepared to remunerate your contributors.

Method Four: Hire a Ghost. As I stated in my book, "The Art of Hiring Someone to Write Your Book: A Step by Step Guide to Successfully Collaborating" (Instant Publisher, 2004), “A ghostwriter will gather content for your book by handling research, poring over books and articles, conducting interviews, and launching Internet searches. They extract information that best meets needs of your project, organizing it, reshaping it, and giving it a creative twist. After they put it all together, they go over their own work, polishing it to flawlessness. As project develops, they invite your input and seek your approval. Because you have final say over project, they comply with whatever changes you suggest.”

Whichever method you opt for, happy authoring. I’ll see you in print.

Michelle McGee-Jones is a freelance business writer, marketing consultant and author of "The Art of Hiring Someone to Write Your Book: A Step by Step Guide to Successfully Collaborating." The book is available for $9.95 online at Amazon.com. All rights reserved. This article may be freely reprinted provided this entire byline is included.

Most people keep their e-mail programs open and running all day long and are alerted to incoming messages. In addition, a recent study found that 75% of these people would cease other activity to take care of incoming e-mail.

This is highly disruptive and prevents you from being truly efficient. Researchers asked study group to refrain from handling each incoming e-mail as it arrived; instead, they were allowed to read and answer new e-mails only five times a day. The efficiency level of this group increased by 35%. Turn off your incoming e-mail alert, therefore, and open your e-mail only at regular intervals. Do not let e-mails dictate what your working days should look like.

Managing Meetings and Visitors

It is widely acknowledged that about one-third of time spent in meetings is wasted due to poor meeting management and lack of planning. Reliable estimates indicate that that average executive spends about 17 hours a week in meetings, about 6 hours in planning time and untold hours in follow-up.

One senior executive recalls being summoned to meetings every single day of business week: one meeting per week was labeled product marketing, another was called strategy, then product testing, then customer review. In addition, one of five weekly meetings had no fixed agenda. And this does not count ad hoc meetings on issues that might crop up from time to time.

When this executive was not able to convince CEO to scale back number of meetings, she decided to work from home 50% of time; her productivity (measured by closing of contracts) doubled! It is not necessary to eliminate all meetings, but up to half of internal company meetings might profitably be dispensed with. Take a few minutes to write down how many meetings you attended last week, how many you have planned for coming week, and how long you think they are going to last. Add up hours, and slash number of meetings by two, and/or number of hours spent in them by 30%.

The same rule for incoming phone calls applies to personal appointments and visitors. If you have a secretary or PA, set a clear policy about who should have access to you and with whom else they might be able to speak instead.

If you have an unexpected visitor, establish at start why they have come to see you. Stand when they enter room, so that they also remain standing. If it is indeed necessary for you to deal personally with them, suggest a later meeting, at your convenience. Set a time limit to your discussion and avoid engaging in small talk. If you really can't get them out of your office, make a polite excuse and leave office yourself.

These tips are by no means exhaustive, but they represent a good start to managing your most precious resource: time.