It’s not the holiday season quite yet. 

Sure, some stores may be quietly putting up Christmas decorations, and people with full-time jobs might be starting to finalize December PTO requests. But there’s still time before you could reasonably call it the end of the year/the holiday season.

Which means that now is the right time to make plans and be sure that when the beginning of 2024 comes around, you’ll be ready for it. 

Do You Have Q4 Income Estimates? 

The last quarter of the year is expensive. Traveling to see family, purchasing holiday gifts, buying the fixings for big family meals—it all adds up. But as a freelancer, you also have a lot of extra considerations that usually aren’t an issue for people with full-time jobs. You don’t have paid vacation, and you might be in the kind of industry where your regular work slows down at the end of the year, meaning fewer paychecks in addition to the cost of time off. 

If you’re a freelance veteran, you know to take a Q4 slowdown into account all year long. You’ve saved money to make up for end of the year costs, and you have a good idea of which clients will still have work for you come December. 

But planning ahead doesn’t mean that you don’t need to pay any attention to your Q4 estimated income. Start looking at what your November and December income is likely going to be, and don’t forget to take a little time out of the holiday frenzy to note the real numbers when you have them. That way, when you’re planning for the end of 2024 and the years beyond, you’ll continue to accumulate data on what your Q4 generally looks like so you can accurately plan for it. If it turns out that you didn’t need to save as much as you thought you did, you can commit to investing that surplus money next year or using it to treat yourself. 

Have You Committed to Vacation Time?

Whatever holidays you celebrate, end of the year travel plans are often family-centric to some extent. And for many freelancers, that means you might not take Thanksgiving at your in-laws as seriously as your summer trip to the beach. Meaning you might hide away in the guest room and distractedly work to meet your deadlines instead of actually taking a break. 

Not everyone enjoys the holidays, and having work to do might be a nice excuse to get away from those cousins you hate seeing every year. But are you actually getting any good work done sitting on your childhood twin bed? Do you really have clients who are waiting for copy the week between Christmas and the New Year? You might. There are lots of niches that don’t have an end-of-year slowdown. 

But if your frenzied holiday writing has more to do with anxiety around losing money in Q4 than it does with avoiding socialization, take a step back. You’re never going to do your best work when you’d rather be downstairs decorating cookies with your nieces. Unless you’re especially lucky, you’re also likely in the situation of having to be your own editor, which is hard enough on a good day, let alone when you’re writing out of anxiety. 

Try to get drafting done before your trips home. Attach your copy to emails that are scheduled to be sent on the days when they’re due and you’re celebrating. That way, you won’t be sending clients lackluster copy, you’ll get a chance to actually enjoy the holidays, and the hectic pace of Q4 won’t be so overwhelming.

Are You Tying Up Loose Ends Before the Holidays Hit? 

Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and Christmas or recognizes the end of the year as a universal slowdown. However, because Thanksgiving through the New Year has a broad cultural significance in the United States, people from all different traditions and faiths know to expect that people will be slow to answer their email, if they answer at all, at the end of November and December. 

More than that, the federal holidays and scheduled vacation time often means that a lot of office workers are crushed for time during Q4. And for you as a freelancer, that means that cold emails and the beginnings of bigger projects either need to start right now or wait until January. 

Go back to the goals you made at the beginning of 2023. Look for anything you haven’t gotten around to yet or started earlier in the year and haven’t followed up on more. Did you want to ask one of your regular clients to let you try writing different kinds of copy for them? Do you have a list of potential new clients to reach out to so you have more income streams?

Most people who handle freelance contracts aren’t going to have extra time during the holidays to test out new writers or spend extra energy trying you out on social media copy when you usually write newsletters. So give your 2023 goals one last push while your contacts still have the time, and you might find yourself starting 2024 with an extra boost. 

Finish Strong

Whether you’re filling your calendar with fun family activities or gritting your teeth till it’s finally 2024, it’s tempting to let your administrative work fall to the wayside. But as a freelancer, you are the only person in charge of supporting your own writing career. That means giving as much attention to growth opportunities, goal setting, and networking as to proofreading your work. Set yourself up for success now, and then you’ll be ready to coast through the holidays.

Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.