by Rachel Smith
02 January 2014
That little pocket of time between December 31 and February is often quiet for freelancers – and many years ago, when I started working from home, I established a January ritual. I start the new year with a massive de-clutter and Kondo-esque clean-up. Sorting out my workspace really helps kickstart my motivation and put me in the right mindset for the year ahead to start pitching and taking on projects. Here’s the checklist I follow.
1. Head to Officeworks. I feed my stationery addiction every January at Officeworks, stocking up on supplies like pens, printer reems and post-it notes. And, the most important thing: a big monthly Desk Pad Planner, which I stick on the wall instead.
2. List what’s coming up. Once stuck to the wall next to my desk, I fill in the Planner with invites, appointments and stories/projects due for the month. Having this at-a-glance workload guide helps me figure out if I can slot anything new in, if a client or editor happens to call with a last minute job.
3. De-clutter my desk. Pens that don’t work, silly novelty things I’ve collected, unintelligible notes that once meant something but now don’t all go into the bin. I also declutter my corkboard of old invites, pamphlets and business cards I’ve pinned up and file stuff that I’m not tossing out.
4. Organise my email. That means unsubscribing to newsletters, creating filtering rules for messages coming in and organising Outlook folders for each mag or client I work for – to help me to find and file stuff easily. Clients or mags I’m not working for are hidden to keep things streamlined.
5. Tidy my contacts. It’s an ongoing job keeping the huge Rachel’s List databases under control and up to date, but I also update my experts file. This entails going back through transcripts and creating new entries in this contacts file for the experts I might like to interview again, including notes as I go on the stories I used each expert for. It saves heaps of time when working on new stories and sourcing experts.
6. Schedule as much as I can. Leo and I try to plan a few months ahead with blog posts so we have content ready to go if the wheels fall off the trolley – much less stressful than writing stuff at the last minute. We also update the online calendars we share which we can access anywhere.
7. Do all other admin. For me this means vacuuming the dust off the computer vents and in all the nooks and crannies on my desk, answering every email I’ve missed over the silly season, approving new members and sending a new year pitch or two to try and line up work for the next couple of months.
Do you go on an organizing jag in the new year, or just pick up where you left off once your holiday’s over?
Yes, I hate clutter too. As much as I hate plugging products, I can’t help it. I use Evernote on my gadgets. It collates every note, article, contact, story idea, everything. No more clutter.
I loved your home office to-do list particularly the desk planner stuck on a wall, a real live chart. I am fixated on diaries, perhaps too horizontal for you.
A dire need for more storage space dictated the tasks of my break – recyclable and often shreddable print-outs of interviews; clippings through the decades and continents; cities and regions; from magazines, newspapers, journals many no longer published – the Independent Monthly, National Times, Australian Society, Cinema Papers. May they rest in peace.
There was hope though “retired” journalists re-inventing themselves, veterans and relative newcomers. This turned my administrative clear-out into a phoenix of memories creating magic from the mundane, reminding me of why for all the exasperations and worries of our profession we stick with it, schedule our year ahead, contact our contacts, generate our ideas, stay alert and never become complacent.
Paul – I must try Evernote. I keep hearing such great things!
Deborah – Yes, I ditched the paper diary years ago. Very impressed you spent part of your break shredding old clippings, I would find that VERY hard to do 🙂
Love your tips Rachel. My new year hasn’t gone as planned so far so I still have all the clearing out to do. Just giving everything a really good clean though is a great start. Next week come the bin bags to chuck stuff. It’s so true, the more you make space, the more the new comes in. Hope 2014 is a zinger for you!
Thanks Claire, me too. I have to say my office has gone back to being a tip at the moment. I look at it and sigh and just try to zone it out. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted 🙂