Lost In The Words

Work, work, work, and more work...what a crazy couple of weeks! I am finally caught up on everything after wrestling with deadlines for the past few days.

I have some regular client work due later in the week that needs attention, but I'm taking a step back tonight to breathe, regroup, and enjoy life for a few hours. Who knows, I might be able to get to bed at a decent hour.

Even with all the hard work and stress I have been under, I am still feeling quite confident about the way things are going. I am starting to put together a mental plan for my professional website and am looking to develop my business even further in the coming months.

I have some small financial goals that I am trying to meet, as well. The first is to finish catching up the bills that have been behind since I took my "hiatus" after having the baby. I should hit that goal within the next few weeks. Yet another pile that I will have crawled out from under. Once that is cleared up, my extra cash is going to purchase a laptop and router, so that I can start taking the kids outside while I work.

Of course there are big financial goals for the future, but I feel like setting these smaller goals and meeting them will help me keep the drive I need to take things to the next level.

Image: http://www.sxc.hu/

Productivity can be the downfall of many freelancers and finding the right formula to crank out the necessary amount of work in a day is tough. Those of us who work from home, particularly those with small children, have dozens of factors that can mess with our productivity for the day. For instance, today my middle child has decided our house needs a bit of seasoning, and half my morning was spent cleaning up that mess.

I have learned to not count on daytime hours, when I'm alone with the babies, to get anything major accomplished. If they are content or napping, I might squeeze in some research or work on a project for a few minutes, but I try to make sure that there is nothing pressing me to complete it during the day. I write at night, after my hubby is home and after everyone goes to bed, so that the daytime distractions have less of an effect on how much I turn out in a day.


The thing that seems to get me the most is procrastination. I tend to put things off, for a variety of reasons. Kristen King wrote a wonderful post about beating procrastination a couple of weeks ago, that I somehow missed until last night. She talks about finding your root cause to help combat the problem of procrastinating. Within her list of causes, I can identify with each at different times. For me, there is no one solid answer as to why I procrastinate. I'm just glad that I work well under the pressure of a deadline!


I have found that if you know a certain time of day or a specific situation is a complete productivity killer, plan your smaller projects for that time. Leave the bigger things for times that you can concentrate and work uninterrupted. If you do that, then you will only have to fight your own personal demons, rather than battling the outside interruptions on your work.

I think I may have finally found my rhythm. I have reached a place as a freelancer where I feel as if I belong. I know what I am doing (sometimes), know what I want, and am heading in the direction that will get me there.

For the first time in my freelance life, I am able to take the weekend off. I am not stressed over deadlines and can enjoy my family fully, until Monday morning. I have cleared my plate and am comfortable with the week's income. This is the feeling that I have been waiting for.

Granted, I have a fairly full plate ready and waiting for the coming week, that I may pick at if I get bored enough, but it is nice to know that I don't have to.

Maybe this will last, maybe it won't, but I am certainly going to do what I can to keep things this way!

Once again, Kristen King has provided me with a way to improve my writing skills and increase my visibility to clients. This time I have signed up for the Lieurance-King Article Challenge. While the challenge began a little over a week ago, I have some extra time right now to play catch-up.

This particular challenge asks that you write and submit 30 articles to directories over a specific period of time. This should give potential clients a chance to see your talents and possibly contact you for future work. There are other benefits of article marketing, as well, but I'll save those for a time when I'm more knowledgeable on the subject!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on all of my progress in both challenges, as I go!

Happy Writing Everyone!

As a motivator for the year, I have decided to join Kristen King's Inkthinker Query Challenge. The process is simple: Keep track of all of my queries, report them monthly, and have a chance to win prizes! The main goal is to send out 120 queries within the year and pray that at least a few are accepted.

I am a very competitive person, by nature, and wanting to "out-do" as many people as possible should keep me going. I may not win, but I won't go down without a fight!

If you are looking for a way to jump start your writing career or just want to have a little fun, with some healthy competition thrown in, why not join us?

This should be a productive writing day! I have two major clients with decent sized jobs for this week, so there's lots to get done. My mom is being nice enough to come and take the baby for the day to give me a little peace and quiet to work. Let's all hope that I actually take full advantage and get some work done.

Besides working on the client articles, my other to-do list item for the day is investigating magazine queries. While my article clients are great for consistent work, I'm ready to branch off in another direction. Step one is learning how to effectively query a magazine to submit my work. I hope to find enough understandable information to have at least one in by week's end. Wish me luck!

I'll be sure to share any tricks and tips here that I discover along the way!

Have a great day!