Freelance Writers: Are You Sticking to Your 2011 Freelance Writing Goals? 3 Reasons to Pull Out the List & Assess Where You Are

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March 15, 2011

Back in December, in anticipation of the New Year, I laid out my list of freelance writing goals for this year. As we’re about a quarter of the way through the year, I thought it was a good time to go back and assess how I’m doing.

Why now?

Freelance Writers: Where Do You Stand Compared to Others When Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions?

The vast majority of us fail to keep our New Year’s resolutions. Some scientists have blamed our inability to keep resolutions on the way we’re wired; our brain. Following are some sobering New Year’s resolution stats:

Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved [them].  A . . . study in 2007 by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol showed that 78% of those who set New Year resolutions fail.
 

 

So if you’re struggling a bit, know that you’re not alone and hey, the way you’re wired is responsible for some of it. This is not an excuse, mind you, but just an explanation that can help you do better.

3 Reasons to Periodically Review Your Freelance Writing Goals

Periodically assessing where you are with reaching your freelance writing goals does three things:

(i) It allows you to refocus if you’ve fallen off the wagon;

(ii) It allows you to revise your goal list if some things have changed for you; and

(iii) It allows you to celebrate the goals you’ve achieved along the way, which fires you up to keep achieving.

So, how have I done?

My 3 Freelance Writing Goals for 2011: A Look at How I’m Doing

freelance-writing-goals-chartWell, I had three goals for my freelance writing business this year. Following is how I’m doing.

Freelance Writing Goal #1: 50 Ebooks on Amazon: The first goal I had was to get at least 50 titles on Amazon by the end of the year. And, I’m not doing so great with this one. Although I had hoped to move into a strictly managerial role at New Media Words, my SEO writing company, this year, it hasn’t worked out that way.

Seems that old clients have come out of the woodwork and my little firm is busier than ever; this means I’m still doing client writing. I’m grateful for the work, but it does means some long days as I try to keep working on my own ebooks.

I’ve fallen severely behind, but have put a plan in place to make this up. Summer tends to be slower, so I’ve switched my monthly writing goals to get more titles done during June, July and August instead of spring, which tends to be busier.

FYI, here is the workflow cycle of the editorial industry.  

Freelance Writing Goal #2: Start a YouTube Channel

I did it! Yes! I started to upload videos of the Girl a Go Go “Living in Jamaica” series. View Inkwell Editorial’s YouTube channel. Right now, there’s just video of the living abroad series. Soon, I’m gonna start doing broadcasts about freelance writing.

Freelance Writing Goal #3: Time Block My Days

Started off great with this; now have fallen off the wagon a bit because I keep in my head what I want to do the next day. But, I do so much better when I time block, so I’m refocusing on doing this.

All in all, I’d give myself a C+ when it comes to sticking to my goals. Even though I’ve faltered a bit on two out of the three goals, getting the YouTube channel up and going was big for me because I don’t like to be on camera, and it was also another medium that I had to learn how  to function in.

Now that I know how to upload YouTube videos, I’m working on fine-tuning my methods so I can drive even more traffic. Of course, there’ll be new software to buy and probably some new equipment to purchase (eg, lighting). Again, this is why I put it off for so long.

Freelance Writers: How to Avoid Procrastination So You Reach Your Goals

But one thing I’ve learned is that to avoid procrastination, you should “go with what you know;” “work with what you have.” Then, fine tune/upgrade as you can. For at least two years I put off marketing on YouTube because I didn’t have the right camera, I didn’t like the way I looked on film, I didn’t want to deal with learning how to maneuver in YouTube’s interface, etc.

“Stupid Is as Stupid Does”

Simple s**t that kept me from getting my freelance writing business on one of the largest, free marketing outlets on the web.

How stupid is that?!

But, I’m learning.

How’re you doing with your freelance writing goals? Exceeding, fallen off the wagon, abandoned them altogether? Advice to others about how to stay focused?

Sound off in the comments section.

This Week is Gonna be Hell!

I have 7 articles to write today, in addition to updating a couple of my blogs. Tomorrow, have a web editing project to tackle, then some writing on my current ebook that I’ve been trying to finish for the last four weeks. I’ve scheduled the next few days for just writing and some peripheral marketing.

I say all this to say, if you contact me and I don’t get back to you, it’s because I’m gonna tune out of the next few days as much as possible so I can get back on track a little with my writing.

Have a great rest of the week. It’s gonna be a long one for me!

P.S.: Living in Jamaica Series – New Post: In case you missed it, a new post was added to the series this past Saturday.

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2 Responses to “Freelance Writers: Are You Sticking to Your 2011 Freelance Writing Goals? 3 Reasons to Pull Out the List & Assess Where You Are”

  1. Heidi says:
    March 19, 2011 at 7:41 am

    I am moving slow in my efforts to become a freelance writer and the next step is to think about and write down my goals. Thank you for the inspiration!

  2. Yuwanda Black says:
    March 22, 2011 at 9:48 am

    Good for you Heidi.

    FYI, don’t let “thinking about” your goals become a stumbling block/a procrastination tactic. Get them down on paper — then get busy achieving them.

    Good luck!

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