Write Off Days and The Bigger Picture

Some days, no matter how well intentioned you start it just ends up as a write off. Oh, it's not that I didn't get anything done today but I didn't get nearly as much done as I should have. I was easily distracted and although I started as I meant to go on (with a cheerleading approach on my Twitter status, even !) I just didn't get nearly as many check marks on the 'ole dayplanner as I wanted.

Despite today, it's been an interesting week. A bit frustrating based on the previous post (which I'm done talking about. And, this post is admittedly partly written to begin the burial process of the last post!) but interesting and eventful.


This week I got a handful of additional applications for new team members. I don't have enough overflow at the moment to read any samples but Gmail has the lovely label feature so I'm labeling before archiving so that I can easily find the resumes when I'm ready to add to the team again.

I had a crummy week financially. A bunch of invoices that should've been paid at the start of the week didn't get paid (praying tomorrow's the day!) and one that should've been a live payment came in as an e-check. Rough. Reminds me that I should have a rainy day fund and that's something this freelancer plans to work towards!

A bigger client of mine sold their company. I'm hoping it'll be a great relationship with the new owner but not counting any chickens before they hatch.

An old client that disappeared got in touch. I thought I'd lost this client due to a malfunction when I had to deal with my very first rewrite request but it turns out they just changed focus for a while. Or so it appears. I'm going to be doing more work in a favourite niche so that's fabulous!

A new client is in the works. This client came from a very wise move by me to follow up on a great conversation from a few months ago. Had I just let it go, I wouldn't have the new client as they wanted to get in touch but didn't know if I would perceive their reaching out as honest. As a freelancer, I am free to accept new clients even if they are introduced to me by old clients. Nothing improper has or will result. I'm hoping it'll be a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

So, while I didn't hit the money or wordcount targets today that I had planned if I look at the week as a whole it has been rather productive. Tomorrow I have to make up for today's poor word count but with any luck, there will be PayPal notifications in my inbox in the a.m which will give me some gusto so I can reach all tomorrow's goals.

When you have a day that feels like a write off, look at the big picture. Maybe you were needed by a loved one or maybe you just needed a bit of 'you' time. Whatever the case, measure success more than by day and as long as you recognize where you need to pick up the pace or are able to truly focus when it counts you're fine! This writing life is supposed to be flexible and freelance does contain the word 'free'.