My freelance writing resolutions for 2009

I am behind. I am still working on a story that I wanted to get done by Dec. 31 so I could bill for it during 2008. I am writing this blog post at 8:50 a.m. when I’d originally intended to pre-write and post it by 5 a.m. The Christmas trees (yes, plural, we go all out here) and decorations are still in the house. The papers I’ve been vowing to file are still strewn across the desk and floor of my office. My 2009 business planning is still half done.

This is not how I wanted to start the year.

I am not a procrastinator by nature. But between the holidays and a couple projects that came my way late in the year – and these days who’s gonna say no to extra work? – I got swamped and now have to play major catch up.

Which brings me to New Year’s resolutions. I’m behind on those too. Most bloggers I follow posted their 2009 to-do lists or not to-do lists back on Jan. 1. I’m just now getting around to mine.

As you could imagine, staying caught up with work is big on my to-do list for the next 12 months. But behind that is doing a better job planning my time. I have a tendency to underestimate how many hours it will take me to complete any given project. So when I go long, the next project doesn’t start on time and then the next and the next and before I know it I’m running a day or two or three behind my carefully plotted out schedule.

So this year, I’m vowing to do a better job estimating how long projects take. If that means I have to start using time tracking software – something I’ve resisted up to now – so be it. (Note to readers: I plan to blog about time tracking software for writers soon – if you have a favorite, let me know.)

My other resolutions:

* Work smarter not harder. I don’t need to work more – I put long hours in already and can’t afford to take more time away from my family and non-work commitments. That means when I’m on the clock I need to focus on the task at hand, and not check my email inbox, blog stats or Twitter follows as often.

* Be daring. I have some ideas for stories that are so good they scare me. And the magazines these stories could run in are also so big they scare me. Enough that until now I’ve shoved these particular stories off in the corner while I work on more mundane things. This year I vow to get over myself, polish these babies up and get them out and circulating.

* Follow up. It’s one thing to have a great idea for a story. It’s a lot harder to follow through with the research to turn an idea into query, turn the research into a pitch, find the right market for the pitch, write it up for the editor, send another letter to follow the query, and if you get the assignment, do the reporting, writing and rewriting. This year I vow to do a better job following through on story ideas so I have less of them floating around on my computer and more of them circulating to editors.

* Put social networks in their place. After just three weeks on Twitter, I can tell what a huge time suck it can be. Helpful, definitely. But it’s just too dang interesting to hang out and listen to what everyone else is talking about. Even so, Twitter doesn’t pay the bills. Neither does LinkedIn or Facebook. So this year, I vow to use social networks for what I need to use them for: finding stories, finding sources, finding editors, but not just because. This might actually be the hardest resolution on my list.

I’ve made other promises to myself about things I’ll do this year, but they’re much more mundane, like pre-writing blog posts more often, starting an e-newsletter, teaching a class and traveling more for business.

What resolutions have you made about your writing business this year?