By on 14th December, 2007Filed in Writers' Resources
Jenn is a professional blogger and freelance business writer. She has worked as a freelance writer since 1999, and has been an active business and niche blogger since 2004. She owns All Freelance Writing as well as several other sites and blogs covering PR, small business, and related topic areas. She is also currently writing a nonfiction book for freelance writers called The Query-Free Freelancer, and is the author of the Web Writer's Guide e-book series.
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Each year, OrganizedWriter.com publishes a new free writer’s calendar. The 2008 calendar is now available. Click the link to get your own free copy, and have a more organized freelance writing career in the new year!
The calendar reminds you of important tax dates for the self-employed, and offers inspirational quotes, holidays (good to keep track of to plan your marketing), and a resource box for each month where you can keep track of your queries or words written that month as well as monthly focus ideas (like when to organize your desk, purge old books, etc.).
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About the Author: Jennifer Mattern
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What a good idea. I needed to get a new planner and have been meaning to do it for weeks. Being the unorganized person that I am, it keeps getting put off. Maybe I can use this instead. Thanks for the link.
Thank you! That’s an excellent idea, and worth a look. I definitely want to be more organized next year. How simple can it get with this calendar?
I just bought a desk planner but this by far is much more resoureful – Thanks for the “free” gifts.
PRINTED OUT AND READY TO GO.
Glad everyone’s finding the calendar useful. It’s certainly nice of OrganizedWriter to put it out every year.
Love the calendar, thanks! After I downloaded it, I realized I’ve used it in the past! Not sure why I didn’t stick to doing that every year. At some point I think I switched to a virtual calendar, but the truth is that I do much better when I put things on paper. I always lose track of things I organize virtually, but if it is on paper, I can actually visualize it better.
I’m a “paper” girl too. I use a monthly and weekly planner / calendar, and have more than one white board calendar, all tracking different things and deadlines. White boards are my favorite, but the paper calendars are great for taking with me. I’m better at remembering things when I physically write it down. Doing it digitally just doesn’t work well with me.
I def HAVE A PLANNER & a calendar — Calendar is more deadline based and events — planner is step by step how to get to that deadline! I actually just wrote a article about this for a client
I thought I was the only one without a virtual “inclination”
I used a board last year but it felt a little disorganized. I’ve been thinking of getting a large desk calendar (sort of like the one from the Organized Writer but much larger) so I can write everything there and see it in black and white. I have a planner too, but that’s more for my entire life, not just for the writing side of it.
Hahaha
Virtual inclination, so perfectly stated.
Planners and to-do lists are my life. Organization keeps me sane.
I’m actually SO impressed by people who can have a life without lists. I mean, how is that even possible?! If it’s not written down somewhere, chances are I will either forget about it, mistake it for something else, or confuse every single deadline and topic. The other funny thing is –I’m not exactly the most organized person in life, but when it comes to my writing, it’s a different story.
No kidding, however some people have straightforward lives. I think working for yourself causes a lot more of “extras” to be taken care of. Agreed?
Probably, yes. Do men keep lists as much as women do? Does anybody know? My boyfriend owns his own business, works 10 hours a day and runs a large number of employees. He doesn’t write anything down. I know other men who do the same. I’m wondering if it’s a writer’s thing, a woman’s thing or something like that…
That’s interesting Diana. Thinking about it, I can’t come up with a single male I’ve worked with or for who has been big on writing things down, but most of the women did. My b/f is big on notes, but he keeps them on his PDA (and it’s only because he forgets everything right after it’s been said lol). I still refuse to use a PDA. I need some time away from digital things. I got rid of my cell phone a while back too. I found my family and a few clients were hounding me so much it was nearly impossible to get anything done. It was freeing. I’m going to have to break down and get another one though. I’m just holding off as long as I can.
As for white boards, I’m a total junkie. Right now I have two large ones and three small ones that hold to-do lists or calendars. One of the big ones is my running master to-do list, and the other holds a weekly chart where I write blog post ideas and check off which blogs I posted to on which days. I haven’t used that one in a few weeks, but when I do, it really keeps me on schedule.
I knew it
My bf uses a PDA too (actually, he has a smart phone, so the phone doubles as a PDA), but lists… no. Maybe it truly is one of those things in which the sexes differ. I gave up my phone for a while too (actually, a couple of years), but eventually decided I needed it again (not sure if that was a smart decision or not).
Do you use white boards as impromptu calendars? Do you actually write on them or do you write on paper calendars and master lists and then simply post the papers to the board?
I USE WHITE BOARDS for a running to-do list for myself – and have another BEHIND A DOOR of my overall list — not to hide it, but to keep it out of mind when i have deadlines looming…
Yeah, that’s what mine has two – a treo. I don’t think he’d be able to survive a day without it.
I actually write on the white boards. I also have a bulletin strip (used to have a big bulletin board) where I put up any paper notes, post-its, etc.
I need a huge one – but my work space is in the middle of my dining room and living room so it’s public and I don’t have stuff on the walls, hence the BEHIND THE DOOR TRICK haha
I use a cork board and pin everything to it. Of course things stay pinned to it forever, so eventually they just go on top of each other. Pretty sure the system is not working. That’s why I was thinking of moving to a large desk calendar, so I could actually write deadlines and basic info on it without having to worry about extra paperwork.
Yeah definitely find something that actually works, I used to have the pinboard and all it did was make me mad at myself hahaha
I don’t actually hate my cork board
In fact, I think I may like it too much. It’s pretty and convenient, so I end up putting other things on it, such as inspirational quotes, letters, comments from editors. Somewhat related to writing, of course, but not exactly helpful when it comes to deadlines. Maybe I need a second one? Now, if I could actually find a place to put it…
I have a huge tapestry in front of me, in fact, at the first of the year I’m going to do a blog on what my desk looks like
I think it’s pretty cool in fact hahaha
One of my favorite little books out there is one called “Writer’s At Work.” It’s basically a series of photographs of the desks of famous writers. Some of the pics have a short caption, some just the name of the writer/author. It’s a fascinating little book. Stephen King has piles and piles of papers everywhere (desk, floor, windowsills), while others are extremely organized and clean.
By the way, here’s a look at some VERY messy desks
I thought mine was bad, but boy… 
Maybe these people could use some boards?
http://www.singletrackworld.com/article.php?sid=2129