10 Things You Could Be Doing Instead of Reading this Blog Post

by Deb Ng

Don’t get me wrong. I love that so many of you visit our blogs every day and I hope you continue to visit. After all, we’re a great place to network and find leads, especially now with our new forum. However, I’m also aware that we’re a great place to procrastinate as well.

I’m not trying to scare you away,  without you there wouldn’t be us. However, if you find you’re only here because you have no other writing tasks, I’d like to offer you a list of things you can do with your spare time.

1. Troll for leads – There are so many places to look for freelance writing work. Some writers are complaining of slim pickings, but in my travels I see at least 20 to 30 good leads a day. How many are you finding?
2. Network – As we discussed other times, networking is essential for a successful freelance writing career. You can meet people who hire, people who know people who hire, people who know places that hire, people who have ideas and tips to share and more.
3. Go through your accounts – Have all your clients been invoiced? Have all your invoices been paid? Is your paperwork filed away? Tidy up your accounts and chase payments if necessary.
4. Read – Read books, blogs and magazines about writing or the topics you write about.
5. Answer your email – Stop procrastinating! If you’re like me your email piles up if you don’t get to it right away. Deal with it and move on.
6. Work on your book or ebook – Only a few pages left to do of mine, how ’bout you?
7. Do some cold-calling – Local businesses need writers. Find them by cold calling.
8. Work ahead – If you have blog posts or articles that need to be done next week or the week after, do them early and have a stress free end of the month.
9. Research – Research different places to work or topics of interest.
10. Writing prompts – Keep those creative juices flowing with writing prompts. Who knows? An innocent prompt can be the next great American novel!

What should you be doing right now?