The week between Christmas and New Years Day is one of my favorite times of the entire year. The hustle of the previous weeks is over. We are all full of yummy treats and wearing our new clothes or jewelry or playing with the electronic gadgets that were under the tree. The whirlwind of social obligations seems to come to an abrupt halt and I tend to have a lot of free time. And none of my editors or brands are working this week so my inbox is very quiet.

While I typically don’t work much this time of year, I always try to spend a few hours this week to sit down and tackle tasks that I never seem to get to during the year due to deadlines, marketing and the interruptions of life. I always feel so relieved and accomplished to check off the items that have long been on my to-do list. During the year, it seems I am so busy doing things for other people that I don’t get a chance to accomplish the things I want for myself.

Here are five things to do this week if you find yourself with some free time:

1. Update your website – Look at your website with a critical eye. Would a brand be able to immediately spot your content marketing and niches within 30 seconds? If not, update your website for content marketing writing.
2. Set your 2014 goals – I am actually going to devote an entire post to this next week. This is a great time to start thinking about an income goal (how much you want to make this year), a marketing goal (how many LOIs, calls or other connections to accomplish each week/month) and a bucket list goal (a publication or brand that would make you thrilled to write for).
3. Learn more about content marketing strategy – Previously, writers didn’t need to know much about the magazine publishing industry. All we needed to do was write great stories and editors handled the rest. But with content marketing, writers often need to present content marketing strategy to their brands. It is also essential to stay on top of the content marketing trends and research in order to produce content that will increase trust in your client’s brand. In addition to my favorite resources, I highly recommend carefully reading through the Content Marketing Institute’s 2014 Playbook. This e-book goes through 24 types of content marketing, explains the strategy, and gives excellent examples. It is worth its weight in gold.
4. Determine your niches – I know you are tired of me mentioning this, but if you haven’t taken time to go through your clips and find your niches, now is a great time to do it. Several readers have told me that they identified a number of potential markets that they never would have thought of.
5. Identify brands and agencies to target. It can be time consuming to find brands and agencies that are a fit for your skills and your niches. Take some time to identify brands to target as well as the right person to contact at each. If you want to be ambitious, you can even get LOIs ready to send out in January.

Do you have plans to get caught up this week? Any tips for tasks that will make 2014 more productive and lucrative?