It’s exactly the kind of work that suffers first and most visibly when a team is burned out: Missed errors that should have been caught. Revision cycles that keep spiraling. Deadlines that slip not because of scope but because the people doing the work are running on empty.

If you lead an editorial or communications team, you may recognize some of these signs in your direct reports:

• Decreased motivation or productivity
• Increased procrastination
• Increased number of careless mistakes
• Withdrawal from responsibilities and team activities
• Complaints of exhaustion and difficulty concentrating
• Rampant cynicism and pessimism

If several of those sound familiar, your team may be dealing with workplace burnout. 

Good managers care about the individuals on their team because people matter. But burnout in an editorial environment creates a specific, compounding problem: One person’s bad week doesn’t stay contained. It shows up downstream, in the work, in the reviews, in the relationships with freelancers and vendors who depend on clear direction and timely feedback. 

Burnout is also becoming more common. According to a recent Gallup study, 28% of employees reported feeling burned out “very often or always,” up from 23% in 2018. Another 48% said they “sometimes” felt burned out, up from 44%. Employees in these two groups are 35% more likely to be looking for a new job than those who rarely or never feel burned out.

The aggregate cost of employee burnout in the United States has risen to $350 billion annually, mostly from employee turnover and lost productivity. Companies now lose an estimated $24 million per 10,000 workers in lost opportunities and disengagement. And 80% of medical costs billed to employer-sponsored insurance plans now stem from preventable, stress-related conditions.

The good news is that you don’t need a massive budget or a formal wellness program to make a difference. You just need to know where to start.

Model the Behavior You Want to See

Of all the factors that shape a team’s culture, leadership behavior carries the most weight. Your team is watching how you handle pressure, whether you actually take time off, and whether you treat your own well-being as a priority or an afterthought. When they see you modeling healthy habits, it gives them permission to do the same.

Start with your own behavior:

• Take vacations and leave your computer at your desk.
• Take sick time rather than coming into the office sick.
• Share some of your healthy habits with your team, such as exercise, nutrition, and meditation.
• Acknowledge when you’re struggling rather than pretending everything is okay.

Next, create an environment that is supportive of people prioritizing their well-being. A few foundational changes can make a big difference.

Give your team permission to step away. Editorial and writing work is cognitively taxing in ways that aren’t always visible. The person who looks like they’re just reading is making hundreds of small decisions. Encourage breaks throughout the day, especially a real lunch break away from the screen. Recognize when someone has had their head down for hours and nudge them to get up and stretch. Let them see you doing it, too.

Protect focus time. Meetings and constant notifications create obstacles to the sustained concentration that deep editorial work demands. Consider designating meeting-free blocks or days to give your team uninterrupted heads-down time. When you schedule meetings, ask whether you really need 60 minutes; could you cover everything in 30? As well, build in 10–15 minutes between meetings. Finally, avoid scheduling meetings late on Fridays; giving your team time to wrap up before the weekend signals that you respect the boundary between work and rest.

On the logistics side, offer flexibility for health appointments and actively discourage skipping them for work deadlines. If your team is in-house, offer hybrid work options when possible. And build project schedules that account for time off and the inevitable delays that come with deadline-driven work.

Set a clear standard around after-hours communications. Don’t send messages outside of working hours. If you must, schedule them to arrive during the workday. 

If your organization has a quiet room or can create one, make it accessible to your team. Skip the conference room setup; bright lights and meeting tables send the wrong signal. Aim for something that actually invites someone to decompress: dim lighting, a comfortable chair, maybe some guidance on breathing or short meditations.

Most of these tactics will help with your team’s physical and mental well-being, which is where many well-being efforts stop. But there’s more opportunity for you to support your team and encourage a culture of well-being, particularly through career, social, and community well-being. For teams doing detailed, creative work—the kind where a single bad week can ripple into multiple rounds of revisions—this foundation matters a lot. We’ll explore those dimensions in part 2, “Avoiding Editorial Team Burnout: The Deeper Dimensions.”

This article is adapted from a piece originally published on the Lenovo Pro Community.

The post Avoiding Editorial Team Burnout: The Foundation first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

Writing can be fun, especially when it’s about a topic you’re passionate about. But no matter how much you enjoy it, there will be times when you just don’t have it in you to write. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you just can’t muster up the motivation to be productive. Whatever the case, the result is the same: You don’t feel like writing, and trying to force yourself to do it anyway feels like pulling teeth.

Sometimes, this resistance is your body trying to tell you something. Maybe you need a mental health day, or you need to shift your schedule to do something that will give you energy and do the writing later. If one of these options is available to you, it’s worth considering. But when these options aren’t available, you just have to roll the hard six and get the work done. 

In this post, I’ll talk about my methods for writing when I don’t have the motivation.

Take the First Step

As I’ve written before, the blank page is intimidating, and defeating it is key to starting any manuscript. When you don’t have the motivation to write, the blank page is especially imposing, which is why it’s crucial to get at least something written down as soon as possible.

When you don’t have the motivation to write, writing even a paragraph can seem like an impossible task. Start smaller. How about a sentence? It doesn’t matter where in the manuscript that sentence eventually ends up; just string together some words into a usable combination, and start there. 

Once you have something down, you may find you’ve built up a little momentum, and you just need to keep building your manuscript from there. 

After setting down a sentence or two, I often need to pick one of two different approaches to keep moving. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, so it’s up to you to decide which seems best for you in the moment.

Break It Up

The first option is to continue tackling the project in small pieces. With that first sentence, focus on what comes next and build a paragraph out of it and then keep going. If you’re not sure where to go from that paragraph, write another single sentence that might appear anywhere in the manuscript and try to build a paragraph with it.

Take regular—but short—breaks between the pieces of your project. Once you’ve finished a paragraph, take a few minutes to do something else, and then move on to the next paragraph or sentence. Don’t take a break after each sentence, though. Too many breaks will prevent you from building momentum, and that will make the process harder.

This approach can make the task of writing seem more manageable, but it comes with the risk of distracting you and losing momentum. If that seems likely for you, then you might want to give the next method a try.

Maintain Momentum

The approach I use more often (and the one I used to complete this blog post) is the opposite approach. Sometimes, once I have a sentence or two written, it becomes much easier for me to keep writing. If you struggle to write intros, you might find that starting with a random sentence gives you this sort of boost; maybe you start in the middle of the manuscript, write to the end, and then come back to write the beginning. 

If that happens to you, harness that momentum. Avoid distractions as much as possible, and try to keep at it until you lose steam. The more progress you make, the less intimidating the work will seem when you come back to it later.

As the old saying goes, the only way out is through. Make what progress you can. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you’re moving forward, putting one sentence after another. Sometimes that’s all we can do.

Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar forms of content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars lore for Frontier Media and Star Trek for Trek Central. You can learn more about his work at Imagined Worlds Writing Services and find him on Bluesky.

The post How to Write When You Just Don’t Have the Motivation first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

A business owner decides what the work is and how it should be done.

It’s a fair question. When clients come to us with projects, how can we be the ones deciding what the work is? Let me break this down into two parts.

Advising the Client on What the Work Should Be

Let’s say a client contacts you asking for proofreading. You ask some follow-up questions and learn that they just finished the manuscript, and no one else has seen it yet. You review a sample and, as you suspected, it’s nowhere near ready for a proofread. Maybe it needs line editing, copyediting, or even developmental editing.

As a business owner, you have a choice. You can tell the client what you think the manuscript actually needs and why. You can offer those services yourself or recommend someone who offers them if you don’t. Or you could perform the service the client asked for—preferably after explaining why a proofread alone is unlikely to get them where they want to go.

Either way, you are making the choice about what work you’re willing to do. The client chooses what they’re willing to purchase. That’s a business relationship between equals, rather than an employee following directions.

This can feel uncomfortable, especially when you’re newer to freelancing. But advising clients honestly—even when it means telling them something they don’t want to hear—builds trust and positions you as a professional, not just a pair of hands.

Controlling How the Work Gets Done

The second part of “deciding the work” is about process. By definition, freelancers and contractors supply their own equipment, set their own hours, and determine the steps required to fulfill a service.

A client can’t tell you which software to use, though it makes sense to work in the same format they give you the manuscript in. They can’t dictate how you approach the edit. If your process is to run PerfectIt; then edit the headings, figures and tables, the body, and citations; and then run spell check and PerfectIt again, that’s your call. A client can’t demand you do it in a different order.

Clients can certainly request that you follow a specific set of steps. But it’s up to you whether to follow them. And if a client makes a task that you don’t want to do a condition of hiring you, you can turn down the work.

That’s a freedom employees don’t have. It’s also a responsibility. Owning your process means developing one that works—and being able to explain why it does.

The Mindset Shift

Both of these points come down to the same shift in mindset: You’re not waiting for someone to hand you tasks and tell you how to complete them. You’re running a business. You assess the situation, make recommendations, and deliver results using your expertise and your methods.

It doesn’t mean ignoring what clients want. It means using your professional judgment and making intentional decisions about what you’re willing to do and how.

Struggling to make this shift? I offer business coaching for freelance editors who want to build confidence in running their businesses. Let’s talk.

The post What Does “Deciding the Work” Really Mean for Freelance Editors? first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

It’s officially a new year, which means it’s time for people all over the world to halfheartedly pretend they’re going to change something in their lives and then give up within a month. 

Professionals can be the same way: We set all sorts of lofty goals for our businesses, and then we either fall far short of them or cut them back dramatically as the year goes on.

Now, that’s not always a fault. Goals can be something to continually strive for instead of something to achieve once. If that sort of goal motivates you effectively, more power to you. 

Still, it’s generally better to set goals that are actually achievable with modest effort. In this post, I’ll go through my approach to setting reasonable annual goals for my business and how the goals you set can keep you focused on the things that matter.

Assess the Last Year

As tempting as it may be to do your best to forget the last year ever happened, if you want to create a successful plan for the new year, you need to start by assessing the previous year. Start by asking yourself: 

• What did I accomplish? 
• What setbacks did I suffer? 
• Where was my business at the end of the year compared to where it was at the start? 

As you ask these questions, consider how to bounce back from the bad things and build on the good things. 

What you prioritize is up to you. Maybe your main goal for the coming year is to recoup losses your business suffered in the previous year. In my case, I lost a lot of income from my anchor client last year, so this year my goal is to find new clients to pick up the slack. 

Or maybe you’ll focus on building on your successes to grow your business. If you’re struggling to determine your priorities, consider signing up for a coaching session to get a better idea for where your business is at.

Get Personalized Guidance

Navigating the changing editorial landscape can be overwhelming on your own. Book a one-on-one business coaching session to develop a customized strategy for your editing business. Together, we’ll assess your skills, identify promising opportunities, and create an action plan tailored to your specific situation.

Find What You Need

Once you define your priorities for the coming year, it’s time to set your goals. Always start with the things that are most pressing, be they diversifying your business, boosting your income, achieving a better work/life balance, or something else. What does your business need to look like to fulfill your requirements? 

Next, work on a plan for how to get there. Break your goal up into smaller steps that you can track as you go through the year. Where do you want to be by the end of the quarter? The end of the month? What do you need to do to get to those smaller goals? Start with daily or weekly tasks that build up to the long-term goals. Find ways to track your progress and keep yourself honest, so that you have as clear a picture as possible of how close you are to where you want to be.

For some people, this might be where the process ends. Pursuing a main, necessary goal might take up all the time you have for growth and development. Even if you think you still have room to add more goals, your main goal should still be your focus.

Find What You Want

If your business is in good shape, leaving you with plenty of room for development, then it’s time to dream a little. Think about what you want your business to look like by the end of the year, not just what you need it to look like. 

Once you have that image, pick one or two aspects of that dream to work for and set them as goals. That could look like reaching a certain number of clients, breaking into a new niche, attending conferences or professional development courses, or something else. Then make a plan to reach those goals—just be sure to keep your business stable while trying something new.

What goals you pick and how you plan to get there will naturally differ from person to person, but in every case, it’s important to make sure your goals are grounded and that you’ve prioritized them appropriately. 

It’s also important to remember that plans rarely work out exactly as you envisioned them. You may not reach your goals through no fault of your own. But have some faith in yourself: Even if you don’t meet your goals for the year, with effort you’ll get somewhere. 

Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar forms of content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars lore for Frontier Media and Star Trek for Trek Central. You can learn more about his work at Imagined Worlds Writing Services and find him on Bluesky.

The post New Year, Same Business: How to Set Goals You’ll Actually Keep first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

These contests offer more than entertainment for word lovers, though. They create a linguistic snapshot of our collective experiences, showing us what we puzzled over and what fascinated us throughout the year. For editors and writers, they provide us with insight into evolving language patterns and emerging terminology that may soon become part of our everyday vocabulary. Or not. Some words capture our attention briefly and then fade away. 

From AI-generated content to online behavior to social relationships, this year’s selections tell a story about how we’re navigating an increasingly digital world (as if it weren’t digital enough already!). Let’s explore what the major dictionaries chose for 2025 and why these words matter.

American Dialect Society

The American Dialect Society (ADS) is the originator of the WOTY contests, choosing its first winner, bushlips, meaning “insincere political rhetoric,” for 1990. The contest is held in the January following the year being voted on. Generally in November, ADS accepts public nominations for WOTY, as well as several other categories. (Vote now!) During ADS’s annual meeting, more nominations can be taken from the floor. Then, meeting attendees vote for a winner.

Past WOTYs

• 2024: rawdog (v.) 
• 2023: enshittification (n.) (Cory Doctorow published a book this year about this concept.)
• 2022: -ussy (suffix)
• 2021: insurrection (n.)

See below for ADS’s 2025 winner.

Cambridge Dictionary

parasocial (adj.): “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence”

This UK English dictionary chooses its winner by increased lookups, “driven in part by debate on social platforms about the ethics of marketers and influencers who take advantage of parasocial relationships.” Lookups for parasocial shot up on June 30 when a YouTube streamer blocked a fan he labelled as his “number 1 parasocial.” 

Runners-Up

• pseudonymization (n.)
• memeify (v.)

Collins Dictionary

vibe coding (n., slang): “the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to assist with the writing of computer code”

Another UK English dictionary, Collins makes an editorial decision based on usage and events of the past year. The dictionary’s editors said that vibe coding “captures something fundamental about our evolving relationship with technology.” They also noted that many entries on their shortlist are tech related and how we’re “grappling with authenticity in an increasingly performative world.” (You’ll read more about performative below.)

Runners-Up

• aura farming (n., slang)
• taskmasking (n., slang)
• broligarchy (n., slang, usually derogatory)
• biohacking (n. informal)

Dictionary.com

67 (slang): Pronounced as two words—“six seven”—this slang term means “largely nonsensical,” “ambiguous,” sometimes meaning “so-so, maybe this, maybe that.”

This might have been the first WOTY for 2025, announced back in late October. The folks at Dictionary.com analyzed “newsworthy” headlines, social media trends, and search engine results, as well as dictionary lookups.* Dictionary.com noted that since June 26, searches on 67 “have increased more than sixfold, and so far the surge shows no signs of stopping.” Is this just about numbers? They don’t think so. Other two-digit numbers don’t show the same kind of lookup increases.

Runners-Up

• agentic (adj.)
• aura farming (slang)
• broligarchy (n.)
• clanker (n.) (As an SF fan, I particularly like this one.)

Macquarie Dictionary

Committee Winner

AI slop (n., colloquial): ”low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors, and not requested by the user” 

People’s Choice

AI slop (n., colloquial)

Editors of Australian English dictionary Macquarie created a longlist of words from 13 categories (2025 longlist; PDF download) and then created a shortlist (2025 shortlist; PDF download) from that. A select committee then chose a WOTY. The shortlist was shared with the public who chose a People’s Choice winner.

Runners-Up

• attention economy (n.)
• clanker (n., colloquial)
• medical misogyny (n.)

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

slop (n.): “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence”

Announced just this week, Merriam-Webster editors chose their WOTY by lookups. Which means, in effect, dictionary users are the ones choosing the WOTY. What puzzles us? What do we want to know more about? It’s a fun way to get a sense of what the year was about—or at least what drove us to our dictionaries.

Runners-Up

• gerrymander (n., v.) (My hometown was one of the cities gerrymandered in 1812 that inspired the word.)
• touch grass (idiomatic phrase)
• performative (adj.)
• tariff (n.)

Oxford Dictionary

rage bait (n.): “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account”

Chief among UK English dictionaries, and perhaps all English dictionaries, Oxford Dictionary reviewed data and trends to “identify new and emerging words and expressions” and changes in language. The dictionary’s lexicographers also take suggestions from colleagues and the public. The goal? To come up with a shortlist of words of “cultural significance” in relation to the year. Then they put the list out for a public vote. This year, over 30,000 people voted.

Usage of rage bait grew enormously in 2025. Oxford’s lexicographers felt that this indicated a “deeper shift in how we talk about attention—both how it is given and how it is sought after—engagement, and ethics online.”

Runners-Up

• aura farming (n.)
• biohack (v.)

Worldwide Themes, Worldwide Experiences

Themes seemed to stretch beyond one dictionary or one area of the world. We’re clearly preoccupied with AI and technology: Vibe coding, AI slop, and slop all address our evolving relationship with artificial intelligence. 

Meanwhile, rage bait, aura farming, and parasocial reflect our growing awareness of how online spaces shape behavior and relationships. Aura farming appeared on four shortlists, while variations of slop took top honors at two dictionaries. Clanker and broligarchy also made multiple appearances. 

But it’s not just tech we’re concerned about. Dictionaries also highlighted words about politics (gerrymander), economics (tariff), and even what all the cool kids are saying (67). Language continues to reflect our whole experience.

These words also remind us that language evolves not in academic committees but in daily use—in social media posts, news articles, and conversations. They’re the words we reached for when existing vocabulary fell short.

Want to dive deeper into the stories behind words? Explore more etymology and language evolution in my Word Stories posts.

*Just like it sounds, a lookup is an instance of a user looking up a word on the dictionary’s website.

LATE ADDITION: Society for Canadian English

maplewash (v.): “to make [something] appear Canadian”

The Society for Canadian English is a consortium of organizations, including Editors Canada, the UBC Canadian Word Centre, and Strathy Language Unit at Queen’s University, working to create a new Canadian English dictionary. (The last Canadian English dictionary was published by Oxford University Press in 2004.) Maplewash dates to 2016, but it gained new life in 2025 as Canadians’ feelings toward American products changed.

Let’s hope the society continues to participate in the WOTY fun!

Runners-Up

• elbows up (idiomatic phrase)
• renoviction (n.)
• ding (n. and adj.)

UPDATE: ADS’s 2025 WOTY

On January 9, 2026, 300 attendees at the ADS annual meeting chose the 2025 Word of the Year.

slop (n): “low-quality, high-quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI; also as a combining form for anything lacking value produced in mass quantities”

Yet another WOTY crown for slop! This word clearly resonated with many, many English speakers. As Dr. Kelly Elizabeth Wright of the University of Wisconsin-Madison noted in the press release, “Slop isn’t a new word. It has moved from the pig sty, to the algorithm, and now forms new compounds such as sloppunk, slopification, and friend slop. … This productivity has no end in sight.”

Runners-Up and Other Word Contests

• rage-bait (n.)
• 6-7 (interjection)
• reheat nachos (v.)

In addition to WOTY, ADS votes on other word categories, such as:

• Most Useful: that’s AI (statement)
• Most Likely to Succeed: chopped (adj.)
• Political Word of the Year: icy conditions (n.) 

Nominations for 2026’s WOTY contest is already open. Nominate your favorites!

The post The Words That Defined 2025 first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

The holidays are nearly upon us, and for many people, that means buying gifts for friends and family. If you haven’t completed your shopping yet or are busy wracking your brain for items to add to your own wish list, we’ve got some book suggestions that any writer is sure to appreciate. (And if either of those labels applies to you, you might benefit from reading this other blog post of mine.)

The Conscious Style Guide by Karen Yin 

The Conscious Style Guide is invaluable for expunging unconscious biases and ensuring that your writing is respectful of all people. It helps you identify insensitive language in your writing and, more importantly, it helps you build a mindset that encourages critical thinking, communication, and empathy. See Erin’s post for more information.

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Volger

For fiction writers, Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey is the ultimate resource for mythmaking. Building on the work of Joseph Campell, this book guides you through writing the classic Hero’s Journey mythic structure. 

For those interested in the theory behind this story structure, Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces is also well worth a read.

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

For nonfiction writers, Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction is a useful guide to improving virtually every facet of your writing, applicable to all forms of nonfiction.

The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Peter Clark

The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English by Roy Peter Clark is an excellent resource for better understanding writing mechanics.

Hopefully, one or more of these books can provide inspiration for your favorite writer or you. Have a restful holiday season, and I’ll see you in the new year!

Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar forms of content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars lore for Frontier Media and Star Trek for Trek Central. You can learn more about his work at Imagined Worlds Writing Services and find him on Bluesky.

The post What to Get Your Favorite Writer for Christmas first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

Slowly but surely, the holidays are sneaking up on us. For many professionals, that means a well-deserved break from work. Personally, the prospect of not having to think about anything work-related for a week or two is what keeps me going through the late fall. If you’re the same way, you might already be counting the days to your break.

But taking a break from work can be easier said than done, especially if it’s for an extended period. It can be difficult to keep your mind off the projects you didn’t finish before the holidays, and even more difficult to get back into a project once your break is over. It’s challenging to figure out where your train of thought left off after a weekend. After a two-week break? It might as well be augury.

Fortunately, there are ways to make all of this easier on yourself, allowing you to truly step away from work and know how to proceed when you get back. Here are my three favorite tips.

Plan Ahead

The most important thing you can do in advance of a long break is to find good stopping points for all your projects. Finish any projects that you can. But even if you can’t complete a project before your break, aim to at least reach the end of a chapter or section.

To whatever extent you can, drive your current train of thought for each project to its conclusion. This is for two reasons. First, because finishing a thought makes getting your mind off work during your break easier. And second, because it will make getting back into things in the new year easier as you’ll be starting a new thought process rather than trying to piece together an old one. 

Doing this takes planning. If you haven’t already, set a start date for your break. Then plan out how you will use the time between now and then. Prioritize what you must finish before you go away and, if possible, move those projects to the front of your schedule so you’re not rushing to complete them just before you start your vacation. Next, pick out good stopping points for your remaining projects, filling out the rest of your schedule.

Of course, plans rarely survive contact with reality unscathed, and you may find that you don’t have enough time to reach your ideal stopping points for all of your projects. The important thing is to focus on finishing what you must and then wrapping up your remaining thought processes as best you can. Planning ahead helps with that by giving you a better grasp on what you have to do and the time you have to do it in.

Transitions

If you come to a good stopping point with each of your projects before you go on break, you’ll help yourself not to think about work on your vacation. Another thing that helps with that is creating a clear transition between your last workday of the year and the start of your break.

I like to do this by spending that last day on a task I can complete in a way that feels meaningful rather than ending the day as if I’m just stopping work for the night. That way, I end the day having finished something. I find that this sense of finality helps me put the work year behind and shift into vacation mode. 

Take Notes

Finally, if you haven’t reached a good stopping point on a project, do your future self a favor and take detailed notes about where you’re leaving off. Write down as much as you can about your thought process and where you think you need to go next with the project. Even if it’s something you don’t think you need to write down, write it down anyway. Keeping it in your head will just encourage you to mull over it during your vacation. You want to give yourself as much material as possible to reconstruct your thought process in January. It will make it much easier to get back into the rhythm of things.

Be Free

Most importantly, take a deep breath. You’re closing in on the finish line. You will be free before you know it.

Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar forms of content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars lore for Frontier Media and Star Trek for Trek Central. You can learn more about his work at Imagined Worlds Writing Services and find him on Bluesky.

The post Plan, Pause, Restart: Three Ways to Make Holiday Time Off Truly Restful first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

In part one of this series, we explored simple solutions to combat this chaos and identified three signs your team might be ready for project management (PM) software. 

But what does it actually take to implement PM software? And more importantly, is your team really ready for that investment?

The Cost of DIY Project Management

How does this play out in real life? Let’s look at an example. One of RTE’s long-time clients has a large, complex content marketing program. We produce weekly articles, biweekly newsletters, several long reports a year, and a lot of supporting content, such as shorter blog posts and short videos. The workflow has at least seven steps before a piece of content is moved on to a design or web-development team. Our editorial team includes a VP, a director, a senior editor, six assigning editors, many writers, the RTE editing team, two production editors, and a project manager.

That’s a lot to manage! This would be a good situation for a PM tool. Unfortunately, the client has declined to implement a full-featured tool. Instead, we’ve put together a suite of solutions:

• SharePoint for file storage and sharing
• A complex spreadsheet for project tracking
• Slack for project communication and tracking
• Calendar and Slack channel for team schedules
• Zoom 
• Email 

It works, but everything is a manual process. The project manager must update each row in the spreadsheet and each project channel in Slack weekly to keep us organized. When a piece of content is ready for production, it has to be manually sent to another team. With a full project management tool, updates could be automated, files kept within one system, and outside teams alerted when a piece of content was ready for them.

Making Your Decision: Where Do You Stand?

Before you either spend months evaluating PM software or dismiss the idea entirely, take a moment to assess where your team actually stands. Use these questions to gauge whether it’s time to explore PM software:

• Have simple solutions stopped working for your team?
• Does your team meet the complexity thresholds (high volume, multiple workflow steps, significant coordination needs)?
• Do you have leadership support and buy-in for implementing new systems?
• Can you dedicate someone to own and maintain the system?
• Are your projects long term and stable enough to justify the investment?

If you answered yes to 4–5 questions: You’re ready for PM software. The investment of time and money will pay off in reduced chaos, improved efficiency, and happier team members. Start researching options that fit your team’s specific needs. I’ll cover how to evaluate and choose the right tool in a future post.

If you answered yes to 2–3 questions: You’re in the middle ground. Before jumping into PM software, try combining several of the simpler solutions above. Give this system two or three months, and then reassess. You may find these tools are enough. If not, you’ll have a clearer picture of what PM software features you truly need.

If you answered yes to 0–1 questions: Stick with simple tools for now. Focus on implementing one or two of the basic solutions, such as starting with workflow documentation and regular check-ins. These foundations will serve you well whether you eventually adopt PM software or not.

Remember: There’s no shame in any of these outcomes. A small team managing straightforward projects doesn’t need the same infrastructure as a large team juggling complex, multistage workflows. The goal isn’t to have the most sophisticated system, it’s to have the right system for your team’s needs.

The real win is moving from chaos to clarity, whether that means creating a simple folder structure or implementing enterprise PM software. What matters is that your team can focus on the editorial work that matters instead of scrambling to figure out where projects stand.

Use the questions above to assess your situation honestly, and choose a path that makes sense for your team right now. You can always level up later as your needs grow.

The post Project Management Software, Part 2: Making the Decision first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

We had a week to complete the project, and each day the client wanted a progress report. Because we lacked a tracker, I spent time each day tallying our progress. The client was stressed about not knowing the project’s status and not being able to reassure their leaders. I lost valuable time each day triple-checking the status of each file.

I could have easily saved myself a lot of time and relieved my client’s stress by creating a spreadsheet that I could upload to SharePoint and update throughout the day as I moved files along. Instead, I got so caught up in reacting to the chaos that I neglected to think about how to avoid it.

The Real Cost of Editorial Chaos

When team members can’t quickly look up the status of a project, they spend their time trying to determine it—time they could have spent actually working on the project. Isn’t that just a minor annoyance?

Not so much. Research firm IDC says the cost of such inefficiency can be as much as 20–30% of your revenue.

And without one source of truth, there’s no guarantee that the status they come up with will be accurate. That can lead to more time lost and even missed deadlines.

Don’t discount the human cost to this editorial chaos, either. Wasted time and uncertainty create stress, a stress that’s easily avoidable with the right tools in place. Continue to enable the chaos, and you’ll find your team members burning out and leaving.

Project Management Software Isn’t a Quick Fix

Getting started with project management (PM) software—or any tool that will manage a large piece of your business—is no small investment of time and money. There are hundreds of PM tools to choose from and evaluating even a handful can take months. You’ll want to consider not just ease of use but also the technical setup and financial investment.

Then, you need to design the workflow in your new tool. Will you be able to map your current workflow directly into the tool, or will you need new steps? What about categories and tags to help you search the tool more efficiently? And, perhaps most importantly, who should answer those questions?

And, of course, the editorial team will need to be trained to use the tool and deal with minor issues. Plus you’ll need a point person to address any major issues, either with the workflow or the tech itself, which will require further training.

All of this happens while your project work continues on, squeezed in between deadlines moving slower than anticipated—a lot slower.

Before You Invest in PM Software

There’s a lot an editorial team leader can do to fight project chaos without a big, fancy tool. Whether you don’t have the time or budget for a PM tool or you don’t have the volume of projects to require one, try one or more of these solutions.

Simple File Management

Create a shared drive with project-stage folders. This solution is best for small teams and simple workflows. Be clear about who works in which folder, when files are moved to the next folder, and how team members learn there’s work in their folder. You’ll need a strong communication plan as well, such as daily workflow updates.

Timeline Tracking

Manage the workload by setting up a shared calendar or spreadsheet. Use this solution with timeline-focused teams. Make sure key dates and deadlines are visible and regularly updated. 

Team Communication

Use a communication hub, like Slack, Teams, or Discord. This is best for remote and hybrid teams. Having one place for all conversations and file-sharing makes it easy for team members to stay up to date and access their files.

Process Documentation

Write down your process! No matter what kind of team you have, documenting your workflow will help standardize processes and give team members a resource when they wonder what to do next. Make the documentation ridiculously easy to find, such as storing it in your shared drive and linking to it in the project tracking sheet, the calendar, and your communication hub.

Regular Updates

Have regular team check-ins or use status reports. Again, no matter the type of team, regular communication is crucial for keeping everyone up to date. With large project volumes, limit the updates to active projects or those with current and near-future dates. Keep meetings short and reports even shorter. What do team members really need to know until the next update?

Even with simpler solutions, it can take significant time to create the workflows, get everyone comfortable with the tools, and work out any bugs. But if it helps projects run smoothly and keeps your team members from pulling their hair out, it’s worth the investment.  

Three Signs You’re Ready for PM Software

So how do you know if you’re ready to level up to PM software? Consider one or more of these indicators.

Volume: When Your PMs Can’t Keep Up

Check in with your project managers. Ask about their struggles: 

• Do they frequently have to put in extra hours to keep all the projects moving along? 
• Are they spending most of their time fighting fires and struggling to make deadlines? 
• Are project deadlines being missed? 
• Do your project managers need to see each other’s workloads to schedule shared team members for competing projects?

Complexity: When Projects Have Too Many Moving Parts

How complex are your projects? Does the workflow include, say, five or more steps? Do you have content types, each with different workflows and team members? How long does a project usually take? If we’re talking days, you might spend more time working in your PM system than working on the project. But if we’re talking weeks or months, you may want help tracking all the details.

Coordination: When Team Size Creates Communication Chaos

Even simple projects could require a lot of coordination, especially when you have simultaneous projects. The more people on the project, the more information-sharing that’s needed. Add to that passing projects to other teams and potential varying availability of each team member, and you need a tool to help you coordinate everyone.

So what does implementing PM software actually require? In part two, I’ll share how these challenges play out in a real editorial program and give you a framework to assess your team’s readiness.

The post Project Management Software, Part 1: Recognizing the Need first appeared on Right Touch Editing.

Everyone suffers from burnout now and again. A full work schedule will eventually leave anyone feeling drained, even without all the other nonsense life inflicts on us. 

This is especially true for professionals working in creative fields. Exercising creativity takes a lot out of you, and it requires more than many other kinds of knowledge work. These sorts of tasks demand your full attention, and they often demand imagination as well.

Writing and editing are creative work, and both are draining. This means that professional writers and editors must be able to manage creative fatigue on top of ordinary burnout. We also need to know how to recover creative energy after a project drains it—something a creative writing professor of mine liked to refer to as “refilling the well.” Otherwise, we won’t be at our best for the next project. 

First, though, we need to be able to recognize creative fatigue before or as it happens.

Recognizing Creative Fatigue

The cause of creative fatigue is generally the same for everyone: You don’t have enough creative energy to apply to your particular project. The results tend to be the same, as well: You struggle to complete your work. What work you manage to get done—if you can get it done—is usually substandard.

It’s especially important to catch the signs of creative fatigue early so that you can do something about it before it starts seriously impacting your work. Some common warning signs include:

• Lack of focus. You might shift from project to project or start thinking about your summer vacation. Wherever your mind goes, it won’t stay put.
• Increased procrastination. We all procrastinate to some degree. If you notice it increasing, though, be aware! 
• A lack of passion. This is always the big red flag for me. When you just can’t get into a topic, it might not be the topic’s fault. 
• A lack of words. When it starts becoming difficult to find the right words to use, you may need to recharge. 

Pay attention when you’re writing. What other obstacles pop up that could be a sign of creative fatigue? What’s different for you in a moment of writing difficulty?

It’s also important to keep your general health in mind. Our creative energy will diminish when we’re sick, stressed, overtired, or otherwise not at our mental and physical best.

Once you’ve identified creative fatigue, you’re ready to do something about it.

Refilling the Creative Well

When your creative well has run dry because of poor mental or physical health, focus on getting better. Get plenty of rest, drink your fluids, and follow any doctor’s orders. Only force yourself to be creative when sick when you absolutely must. 

When it’s “only” your creative energy that’s tapped out, how can you refill the well? The key is to do something you find creatively stimulating, especially something you can let yourself get absorbed in. That will be different for everyone, much like creative fatigue itself, but ideally, it should help you get out of your own head. The best ways to refill the well are tasks that provide creative inspiration, a change in environment or stimuli, or another sort of variety in your life.

When you’re doing creative work full time, you’ll need to find a method of refilling the well that you can do every day, or at least very regularly. This could include:

• Reading a book
• Spending some time outside, such as taking a walk or stargazing (my personal favorite)
• Doing something creative in a different creative field, such as drawing if you’re a professional writer

Whatever your preferred method, you’ll also want some variety. If your preferred method becomes stale, it won’t help as much. Be sure to try something new now and again.

Bigger activities like long hikes, vacations, or committing to a really good book series are generally even better for refilling the well. Naturally, these aren’t the sorts of things you can do daily, but making sure you’re able to live a little from time to time goes a long way towards staving off creative fatigue. Even just planning a bigger break can help; knowing that there’s relief on the horizon can give you the extra boost you’re looking for.

Live a Little

No matter what you do, if you don’t get some rest, you won’t be able to work, no matter how hard you push yourself. The same principle applies to creativity; it just requires different forms of rest. Make sure you get enough.

Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar forms of content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars lore for Frontier Media and Star Trek for Trek Central. You can learn more about his work at Imagined Worlds Writing Services and find him on Bluesky.

The post Refilling the Well: Bouncing Back from Creative Burnout first appeared on Right Touch Editing.