All the Things I’ve Created That Make My Freelance Writing Life Easier

From an editorial calendar to a writer’s bucket list

I’ve been freelance writing for long enough to know that it’s not just about the writing. It’s about the organisation, the planning, and (frustratingly) the admin. To make things easier, I’ve created a few things that help me stay on track and make a living as a full-time writer. Here’s how that looks.

Monthly planning sessions and an end-of-year review

I’ve written recently about how I conduct an in-depth end-of-year review, where I look at everything I achieved with my writing business over the last 12 months, and the goals I want to hit in the coming year. With that to hand, I also do a monthly planning session on the first day of each month, so I know exactly what my focus is for the next 28 to 31 days.

I plan it out. I write it down, organize it, and prioritize it. If it looks like too much for a month, I move some of it onto a list to be addressed next month. I aim high, but I keep it realistic.

In addition to noting how many articles I want to write, which publications I want to pitch, and what training I want to do, I write down a long list of ‘just jobs’. These are the small tasks that need doing, but that can be worked on in small chunks of ten minutes or so at a time, like blog admin tasks or tidying up an old account or profile I want to start using again.

An editorial calendar for my blogs

Most writers have at least one blog. Some have several in different niches. Many of us write regular blog posts for pay. Some of us guest post frequently as part of our marketing strategy.

If you run or write for more than one blog, it’s even more important to have an editorial calendar for each one. Plan your posting schedule in advance as part of your monthly planning sessions. Know what you’ll be blogging about, and what the aim of your posts will be.

I like to keep some flexibility to allow me to blog about breaking news or accept guest posts. I plan everything out using the weekly blog planner I created as part of my Busy Blogger’s Success Kit.

A publishing schedule for each project

If you’re publishing books, ebooks, reports or anything else you need to project manage yourself, work to a publishing schedule.

Working on an ebook?Know when you’re due to finish up your final draft and have your editor standing by. Know when you’re due to finish editing and have your proofreader ready to start work. Have your cover designer working while you finish up production tasks. Work on marketing tasks while your manuscript is with your beta readers, editor or proofreader.

Even though I’ve only published short, non-fiction ebooks, having a publishing schedule worked out ahead of time has helped me manage them so much more efficiently (and with a lot less stress) than if I were just winging it.

Even smaller projects, like a long-form article for my blog or a digital product like one of my printable planners or journals has a mini version of a publishing schedule to keep everything on track.

A research file for each project

This is usually digital but occasionally physical, and for some projects it’s both. Each article, book or other project has its own file where I put links, reports, clippings, quotes, interviews and anything else I need to complete it.

If you’re working on longer projects and reading several books as part of your research, keep a list of them in your research file too. It’s not unusual for me to do a round-up article and read a few different books for it. While I do a lot of reading on my Kindle, I also love reading physical books when I can. That means my ‘research file’ for relatively short articles (like the one below) could be a pile of books marked all the way through with sticky notes.

A well-organized ideas file

Again, this can be physical or virtual, or both. As you become a happy, growing, thriving writer, you’ll get more and more ideas. A truly ridiculous amount of ideas. More ideas than you will ever use.

Don’t lose them. File them. In a way that you’ll understand when you come back to them. File them by topic or genre or theme or perhaps by type of project (articles, short stories, books). Just be sure you know where to start looking for your next idea.

Go through your ideas file regularly and discard any that you know will never work. The scientist Linus Pauling once claimed that the way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas, and then throw away the bad ones. Learn to recognize and discard bad ideas and your readers will think you’re full of good ones.

A well-organized admin file

Being a writer isn’t just about writing (if only). It’s about invoices and contracts and keeping receipts for writing related expenses.

Keep a well-organized file with all this in. If admin really isn’t your thing, consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant, or a even a family member with more talent for it than you.

Just remember, as a freelance writer it’s ultimately your responsibility to be able to put your hand on that contract or invoice or receipt, and it can be frustrating to have to spend writing time looking for it.

A realistic daily to-do list

Most of us run a to-do list, and many of us are doing it all wrong. In fact, I recently tried re-framing the whole idea of a traditional to-do list and replaced mine with these three alternatives.

However when it comes down to it, it turns out I do need a daily to-do list of some sort, even if it’s simply the three highest priority tasks I’m aiming to get done in any given day, written in my old-fashioned paper planner.

Whatever form your daily to-do list takes, it should be a separate entity from your other lists and only contain what you can realistically expect to get done today. The tasks on your daily to-do list should be very specific and take a fairly predictable set amount of time to achieve.

Many people find it works best if they limit their daily to-do list to just three to five tasks, depending on the time required for each one. Run a master to-do list (that contains everything that needs to get done at some point) or your want-to-do and get-to-do lists (see the above article for details) alongside your daily list and pick the highest priority tasks to move over each day.

Just make sure your daily tasks are specific. If the tasks on your to-do list are very loosely defined, it’s hard to know when you’ve done them. If your to-do list says ‘work on my book’ how do you know when you’ve finished? If it says ‘finish chapter 6 and outline chapter 7’ you know exactly when you’ve finished.

A writer’s bucket list

This is bigger than a daily to-do list, and vaguer than a master to-do list. It definitely ties in to your want-to-do list, but it’s all about writing.

Put everything you ever want to achieve as a writer on your writer’s bucket list. It could include:

• Write an epic fantasy novel
• Attend a writers’ retreat in Costa Rica
• Run a writers’ retreat in Costa Rica
• Write for The New Yorker
• Sell 100,000 books
• Get 100,000 subscribers to my blog
• Change the world with my writing

Putting everything you’d like to do, but can’t do right now, on this list acts as a ‘brain dump’ and creates a wish list for the future.

We all have things we’d like to get done but can’t right now because of other commitments, family circumstances or financial limitations. Write them on your bucket list to come back to when your circumstances change.

That way, your dreams and wishes aren’t leaching energy from your day-to-day writing projects. They’re tucked away safe somewhere waiting for you to get around to them. Want some inspiration? I recently suggested 100 things to consider putting on your writer’s bucket list. Check them out.

For more articles like this follow me on Medium, and feel free to take a look at my lists. There’s one all about writing and blogging.