How to Schedule Freelance Writing Work

Tips to Meet Deadlines & Organize Projects

When you are a freelance writer, you tend to work on several projects at the same time. It can be tough to keep track of project deadlines and remember who you need to contact about what. However, by gathering information in a Google calendar and adding deadlines that send a reminder email 24 hours before the project is due, all will be well.

To Do Lists in Google Docs

Create a weekly article To Do list using the spreadsheet function in Google docs. Columns for publication, number of articles (or blog posts) due, number of articles completed and story ideas. You should be able to see at a glance if the number of ideas match up with the number of articles you need to write that day.

Add a daily To Do list column in your last column. Enter the names of people to interview, research docs, photos to take...whatever has to be completed that day that isn't writing an actual article. As you write an article, enter a short title and publisher info on that day's slot on your Google calendar and then mark it off on your article spreadsheet.

At the end of the day, check your calendar to be sure you've met your deadlines and take a look at the list of articles in that date's calendar box. Check your article to do list. You can see right away if you are on schedule or if you need to get a few more articles written for a specific client by the end of the week.

Routine Tasks:

• While you can use a spreadsheet and calendar on your computer, Google's spreadsheet and calendar can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. If you use more than one computer, this is a must!
• Establish a routine by consulting your organizing tools each morning and updating them as you work. Soon the routine will become second nature and you will be much more organized and productive.