Time has flown this year and it is time again to close out another year of writing.
This is a great time to take stock of where you are with your writing and get organized for the year to come. Finish our your freelance writing year with a few year-end tasks. Below you will find part one of our three-part series on steps writers and small businesses should take to finish out a year for better success in the new one.
Use this time to:
Look Back
This is a great time to look back at the previous year and assess what has happened. Did you reach your 2021 goals? If not, why? What stood in your way? What have you learned? What do you want to do differently moving forward? Pause and reflect on what has been working for you and what needs refinement. What is working for you? What should you change? What do you need to learn to grow? What is missing? What do you want that you don’t have?
Revisit Your Why
Craft a new mission based on the reasons why you write. This is a great time to reassess your commitment to the craft. Why do you want to write? What do you hope to accomplish? Find your motivation to keep going.
Then Plan
We won’t reach our goals without a plan. A good plan needs a goal, a strategy to reach that goal, followed by tactics to execute. What do you need to do to achieve your goals in the new year?
Review Your Schedule
Are you maximizing your time? Have you found an efficient schedule for your writing projects? Do you have a set plan? If not, set up a calendar now. Base it on the hours that work best for you or the hours you can squeeze out of your life if writing is a side hustle. Planning to write will help you stay on track and be productive. Leaving it to your whim ensures a year of struggle.
Meet with Your Lawyer and Accountant
Review your legal documents and disclaimers. Make sure you are covered. Talk to your accountant to prepare for taxes and to set up systems for better tracking in the new year. Let them guide you in closing out the current year and setting up the one to come.
Organize Your Files
Tackle your files. It’s easy to have multiple copies on various devices and redundancies in the cloud. I take January each year to review my files and reorganize those documents that are still on my desktop or sitting randomly in the cloud. It’s a good idea to review how your are organizing your files too. Is there a more logical way to organize your documents? Are they easy to find when you need a particular document? If not, brainstorm new ways to organize so you don’t waste time this year looking for what you need. A general rule is: If you need to use the general search function on your computer to find files, it is time to reorganize.
Organize Your Physical Files
Get your physical files and piles in order. Sort your business receipts for upcoming quarterly estimated taxes (in January). Clean that desk. Get everything ready for a new year without the disorder from the current one slowing you down.
Organize Your Emails
Clean out your email boxes. It is too easy to let those emails pile up, but the truth is, you will never go back to them. If you do want to save some emails (say from clients about a specific project or emails with subscription details) sort them into dedicated files (or mailboxes) on your computer. I like to use a system similar to what I use for my regular files so I don’t have to think about where to look to find specific emails. The simpler your system is, the easier it will be to use. But don’t make it so simple you have to search through hundreds of emails to find the right one.
Organize Your Business Papers
Get your business documents in shape. Make sure you have your business license, corporation documents, county licenses and permits, legal documents, invoices, receipts and other business papers organized where you can find them. You can do this digitally or physically. I use a hybrid method depending on how I receive the information. I include information about any subscriptions I have with their renewal date, hosting agreements, domain name information, and other business-related information.
Purge Your Office
It’s a great time to do an annual cleaning of everything. It may not be spring, but it is a quiet time that will allow you to purge those bits and files that aren’t relevant any more. Clean, clear, organize. It will help you start the new year more productively.
Sign up to receive the Figments & Fables newsletter and receive a free year-end checklist of tasks.