From the last bite of turkey and cranberry at the Thanksgiving table to ringing in the New Year on January 1st, a lot of your focus and attention may be toward holiday planning and preparation. This may of course distract you from maintaining a consistent writing schedule or meeting important deadlines and project milestones.

Maintaining your writing discipline while balancing the demands of the holiday season is important if you want to be seen as a credible resource that honors commitments. Although the holiday season happens once a year, your writing commitments as a Writer last the entire year. Striking a balance between your writing schedule and your holiday plans is as simple as staying organized, scheduling time to complete work commitments and keeping your focus.

Organizing Your Writing Schedule  Time for the Holidays
Businesses, individuals and websites have a continual need for original content for their blogs and web based promotions. Long gone are the successful days of content farms churning out copy for the sake of higher search engine rankings. Clients need work that is fresh, topical, on point and relevant to the ideas they wish to communicate to their customers and readers. This demand means that you, as a Writer, serve an important and critical function in helping meet the need for quality content.

Creating a schedule for the holiday season that allows for the completion of work assignments and the meeting of holiday obligations is an important task for all Writers. If done correctly, you should be able to visualize all of the work you have scheduled for the holiday months and commit those hours needed to complete these assignments on time.

Taking a Professional Approach to Freelancing  
Whether you are a full-time or part-time Writer, the approach that you take to your work speaks volume. If you view the work assignments you see in the same manner that any other professional does in the work they perform, you probably have little to no trouble meeting work assignments and turning in high-quality content. If, however, you only see the freelance opportunity as one for occasional pay and do not take the work seriously, this is probably reflected in the quality of your work and a lower ranking in comparison to other writers.

You have to view the freelance opportunity as a professional one. The content you develop is used to meet the expectations of your clients and those users of content management companies to explore issues, share ideas and communicate the benefits of the products and/or services to their customers. As an integral part of this process, you are a valuable added team member. When you see the importance of your role in the creative process, you understand what you need to do to step up your game (sort of speak) and stay on top of your work schedule.

Budget Your Time Appropriately  
Time management is a skill that is learned and is not something we are born with. You know his firsthand if you have children, a spouse, pets or all of the above. This becomes even more challenging when the thought of holiday pageants, parties and celebrations, relatives visiting and present shopping is added to the mix. The only way that you will be able to survive with any holiday cheer is by managing your time well. This can also mean taking on the level of work that you can reasonably complete, on time and above standard.

If you are planning a vacation or know that you will not be writing for a period of time, it is important to let any Users who you have a relationship with know the length of your time away and when you will be available to write again. Communication is key during the holidays and it is important to touch base with Users so that they may plan their content as well.

The holidays can be overwhelming. The ever present challenge to you is to keep in perspective those things that are important in your life (i.e. family, friends and health) and keeping in mind why you chose to engage in a freelance writing career. Determine how best to prioritize your time, commit this prioritization on paper (as a visual reminder) and proceed knowing that you may be able to have it all this holiday season!