Freelance writers are responsible for every aspect of their career including buying office supplies. If you work a corporate job this is not something that you have to bother with. Instead, when you run out of something, such as printer paper, you either make a request or head to a closet somewhere in your building and reload. Unfortunately, things are not this easy for freelance writers.
While you don’t want to spend too much on office supplies, it is my belief that you should always be well stocked. I hate running out of something that I need, and in turn being forced out of the office during a busy time. For example, you never want to run out of ink for your printer. If you do you will have no choice but to run to the store right away. To avoid this, I always keep a couple of ink cartridges on hand.
The office supplies you need as a freelance writer are not overly expensive. In fact, they can be downright cheap if you know where to shop. As I look around my desk, the supplies I use the most are pens, notepads, sticky notes, and printer paper. None of these items are overly expensive, and most of them will last quite some time.
If you stock up on office supplies once and for all you won’t have to do so again for a long time. In turn, you will always have what you need and will never be forced to leave your office when you don’t have time to do so.Â
As a freelance writer it is easy to fall into the trap of working on the weekends. This is something that I did in the past, and it was not fun. After all, you need a break just like everybody else. There are times when you have no choice but to work on the weekend, but you should do whatever you can to avoid this. If you don’t give yourself time off you are going to hit a wall, both physically and mentally.
The best way to avoid working on weekends is to complete your projects Monday through Friday. This can be done by having a weekly schedule as well as a daily to-do list. As you move through your list you will get a better feel for what needs done before the weekend comes. In turn, you can adjust your weekday schedule to suit your workload.
Do you ever work on the weekends? I get this question a lot. The answer is yes. But you should know that this is not a regular occurrence. In other words, I don’t work every weekend day of the month. If I do work on Saturday or Sunday I like to make sure that it is not on an extensive project that needs tons of time. Instead, I prefer to work on smaller projects that don’t take up a lot of time and don’t need completed in one sitting.
Staying away from your freelance writing workload on the weekends can be difficult. But if you get your work done during the week and realize that your body needs time to rest, you should have no problem saying goodbye to your computer when the weekend arrives.
What should you do if you miss a deadline set forth by one of your freelance writing clients? The first thing you should do is avoid this at all costs. You never want to miss a deadline even if it means staying up all night to complete a project. That being said, every freelance writer runs into this situation sooner or later. For one reason or the next you will miss a deadline. What will you do about this?
If you know that you are going to miss a deadline you should get in touch with the client as soon as possible. Explain what is going on, and ask them if you can have an extension. You may be surprised how understanding many people are if you have a good reason for missing a deadline. But remember, the longer you wait to break this to the client the worse things are going to get. You want to give them enough time to make for other arrangements, if need be.
On the other hand, you may miss a deadline and realize on the due date that this happened. What are you to do in this situation? Your only option, if you can’t get the work done, is to come clean with the client. Tell them you are not going to be finished, and apologize for missing the deadline. Is this going to be good enough? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on your relationship and the situation that your client is in.
You never want to miss a deadline. Keeping this in mind will allow you to avoid awkward situations in which you have to break bad news to clients. But if you do miss a deadline, give your client as much notice as possible and be sure to explain yourself. This may not make things any better, but smoothing the situation over is important if you find yourself in this position.
