Quick Tip: One a Day

If you’re like me — like most people, I’d imagine — your stack of magazines, newsletters and other things to be read is taking over your workspace, as well as other places in your home.

It can get to be overwhelming. How can you ever get through so much information when there’s more coming in all the time?

Well, you can’t. And that’s OK. You just have to accept that not every piece of literature in your home or office is going to be completely digested. And then you have to start getting rid of the things you’re willing to let slide.

This week, and for as long as you want or need to, take at least one thing off the to-read pile every day. Read it, or skim it, or recycle it or pass it on to someone else. Just take action. Once you get started you’ll probably get a little obsessive about it, so limit your time working on this to half an hour or so a day.

You’ll feel so much better as you see that stack get smaller instead of larger, and you’ll realize that a lot of things you’ve been holding onto you don’t really need anyway.

Quick Tip: Meet a Tiny Goal

This has been rather a crazy week for me. Things I thought I would be able to get done haven’t gotten done nearly as quickly as I would have liked. On the upside, I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with the little one.

But this week has reminded me that, important as it is to have big, scary, fun, challenging goals, it’s also good to have itty, bitty, teeny, easily accomplished goals.

Instead of the goal of finishing the sock (which didn’t get accomplished last weekend), I changed my goal to finishing one pattern repeat. When I managed to do that, I felt a lot better, even though I wasn’t where I really wanted to be.

The same works with writing. Instead of writing the whole article, try to write the first two or three paragraphs. Or e-mail one source. Or organize your notes. Or organize your desktop. Any little thing that can make you feel like you’re making progress is a lot of help for those days when you feel less than productive.

Quick Tip: Stretch Yourself

We all have certain types of writing that we do regularly to pay the bills, and that’s great, but it can also be a fun challenge to occasionally write something that’s out of your comfort zone.

If you’re a straight nonfiction kind of person, try writing a poem or short story. If you write for businesses, try a personal essay. If magazines are your venue of choice, try a different topic or style of story.

These exercises won’t necessarily turn into paying opportunities, but stretching your creative muscles in this way is a lot of fun and will change your approach to your regular work in a positive way.

Saving is Key for Freelancers

Tax season is a great time to be reminded why it’s so important for freelancers of all stripes — not just writers — to save a lot of money throughout the year. Not only do you need money to pay your taxes, now and throughout the year if you pay estimated taxes, there are several other sorts of savings that you ought to have.

Emergency Savings

None of us like to think about the prospect of not being able to work, not being able to get work, having a spouse who gets laid off or hurt and can’t work, a sick child or a disaster that means we need a lot of cash fast, but all of those things can happen.

It’s often said that people need to have a cushion of at least six month’s living expenses (some say six month’s salary, but at least enough to live on) for those “just in case” moments, but very few of us actually do.

It’s a great idea to set aside 10 or 20 percent of each paycheck you get into savings for this purpose. If you get a big job that outside of your norm, try to save all of it.

Taxes

Anyone who’s done much freelancing of any type knows that taxes take a huge bite out of your profits. Not only are you paying your share of the taxes as you always did when you were an employee, now you’re paying the share the company you worked for used to pay as well.

Again, putting aside a 15 or 20 percent chunk of each check for taxes is a great idea so you won’t have to scramble at tax time — or estimated tax time; remember you have to pay taxes quarterly in most cases or face fines from the IRS.

Big Purchases

It always seems that your computer or printer goes out when you least expect it, and when you can least afford to replace it. If at all possible, it would be great to have money in the bank that you could use for such purposes without dipping into your emergency fund. (Or it can be part of that fund but keep $1,000 or $2,000 out of your calculations when you’re looking at the goal of having enough for six month’s expenses.)

Health Care

If you don’t have insurance through a spouse’s plan, you’re officially in charge of buying your own insurance or saving enough money to pay cash when you need a procedure. The costs can vary widely, so this is something you’ll have to do your homework on — ideally, you’ll have researched this and have a plan before you quit your day job.

Retirement

This is probably one of the most neglected areas for freelancers and others who work for themselves: saving for retirement. And I have to admit I’m guilty of ignoring this part of my financials. I haven’t contributed anything to my retirement since I quit working my full-time job about two and a half years ago.

But I also know that I don’t want to keep working forever, and now that the markets are smoothing out a bit, it’s more than time to get back in there. I have a bit of a 401(k) that I intend to roll over into something, probably a SEP-IRA (retirement accounts specifically for self-employed people). It’s always a good idea to check with a financial planner to find out what’s right for you.

Money Talk is No Fun

All this talk of money — particularly when most of it is saved for a rainy day — isn’t that fun, but when those bad situations arise you’ll be so glad that you had a system in place for saving that should help you get through times when you aren’t making as much money, you need a new digital camera or your child needs braces.

Make saving a habit and you’ll feel a lot more secure about living the freelance life.

Quick Tip: Keep Up with Your Markets

Try to devote an hour — or an afternoon — once or twice a week to market research. This can be done with a market book, the market listings in writing magazines, an online markets database, the listings in writing newsletters or ezines, even just doing web searches or browsing the magazines at your local bookstore or library (or your coffeetable).

Challenge yourself to come up with at least four ideas you could pitch to each market, then follow through with queries as soon as possible.

Quick Tip: Keeping Track of Notes

The other day I mentioned that a simple piece of paper is a great way to jot down notes or even article drafts when you aren’t at your computer. If you use a notebook or random pieces of paper to jot down article ideas, try to go through once a week or two and compile those pieces into a computer document or single physical idea file or notebook.

And remember to read back through these regularly to find the gems you might have forgotten about or not take action on right away.

Quick Tip: Don’t Put Off Financials!

Don’t leave your bookkeeping or tax preparation all til the end of the year — designate one day a week (or at least one a month) to input receipts and payments into your bookkeeping system and file all receipts and paperwork promptly between sessions (or at least have a dedicated place for this stuff between sessions so you can find it all to input when you’re ready).

Quick Tip: Paper is Good

Don’t discount the importance of a piece of paper. Yes, computers and sell phones are great, but for me paper is still tops for jotting to-do lists, writing down ideas as they come, brainstorming and even drafting articles and blog posts when I’m away from my computer.

Whether it’s a fancy notebook or the back of an envelope, paper can’t be beat — as long as you have a way to keep track of your snippets.

Who Would Make Your Acceptance Speech?

I don’t usually watch the Academy Awards, but this year I was trying to calm a fussy baby during the first hour or so of the presentation, and it got me thinking about gratitude.

There aren’t a lot of opportunities in our lives to thank the people who mean the most to us. It’s no wonder the stars get flummoxed when they have to condense a lifetime of appreciation into a 45-second soundbite. You don’t want to leave anyone out.

In our lives, we’ll probably never get such a chance to thank the people who mean the most to us in a public way. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. There are opportunities practically every day to thank people who have helped us, given us encouragement, made us who we are.

But for the most part we pass these opportunities by. We don’t take the time — and it doesn’t really take a lot of time — to say thank you or tell someone they’re appreciated.

Of course we almost all end up regretting that we didn’t tell someone what they meant to us when we had a chance to.

A Mission of Gratitude

So this week, try to think about who you would thank in your acceptance speech if you were given a chance to thank everyone who was important to you in front of a live audience. Give yourself more than 45 seconds, though. You’ve probably got a lot more people to thank that would fit in that small space.

Think about your family, friends who have supported your dream, editors who have shown faith in your ideas and potential, colleagues who show interest and make you smile when things are rough.

If it feels too cheesy to thank someone in person out of the blue like this, send off a quick e-mail. It will make that person’s day and make you feel better, too. It may not be as good as winning an Oscar, but it’s still pretty sweet.

Stop Putting it Off

Have you ever written a query with great enthusiasm only to leave it languish on your hard drive unsent for weeks or months?

I’m sad to admit I do this all the time. Last year I wrote this great query for Sierra magazine about how my city, which had just endured a devastating ice storm, was planning to recover from the loss of thousands of trees in a town known for its greenery.

I was so excited about the potential for this story. I envisioned the interviews I would do, the tours of parks full of fallen trees.

But I never sent the query. It’s now been more than a year since the storm, and though there’s probably still a story in there somewhere, I probably should have been reporting it all year if I really wanted to tell it properly.

On Not Letting Go

That’s one of the more egregious examples, but it’s certainly not isolated. I’ve read editorial calendars, come up with great ideas and never queried them. Or I’ll write a query, find a market and still never send it.

I do this for all the reasons every writer procrastinates: perfectionism (as if there is such a thing as a perfect pitch sent to the perfect market at the perfect time), fear of failure (what if I really do suck at this writing thing?), fear of success (you mean now I have to write that great article?), fear of no response at all.

A Different Approach

This time I’m going to try something different. This morning I wrote a query for a market I know is looking for stories like mine. I know I have to hurry because the lead time on the publication’s editorial calendar basically coincides with now. And I’d really like to see this article — a personal essay actually — get published.

While I’d never advocate myself or anyone else sending a query right after writing it, it is important to get queries out the door as soon as you can after writing them. So my goal is to let this query rest overnight and send it tomorrow.

Of course I have no guarantee of success, just like any other writer. But I also know that there’s no way this article or any other will ever get published if I never query. The same is true of your great ideas.

A Challenge

This week, is there a query you’ve been sitting on that you could send out? Stop putting it off. There’s no harm at all in seeing what will happen. You just might end up with a sale and a clip to be really proud of.

If you take this challenge, I’d love to hear what you sent or simply that you sent. Let’s get these stories out into the light!

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