Is business slow? Do this one thing tomorrow

You're welcome.

As a sole practitioner, I’m very familiar with the cycle of feast and famine when it comes to workload. Many times throughout the year, I’m inundated with a deluge of deadlines and projects (which periods, of course, invariably tend to overlap with a complex travel schedule or dearth of childcare — because Murphy’s Law).

Then there are some times throughout the year when things are slow — eerily slow. These times freak me out and bring out the worst in me. I sit with my fingers perched over my keyboard, refreshing email more times than I’d willingly admit. I have time to cold pitch stories, but my mind goes blank. I’m like a deer in headlights.

This happens (I presume?) to all of us from time to time. And yes, there are things we can do over the long term to manage these scenarios — beefing up marketing, networking, continuing education, all the things. But implementing new systems can seem daunting when work is slow and scary (see also: deer in headlights). And it’s a long process.

So what’s one thing you can do tomorrow — or even today — to make an instant breakthrough?