How to keep track of your pitches

Now that you’re sending pitches to editors, it’s time to get organized. As you scale your workload, you’ll have to keep track of multiple deadlines, conversations with sources, and carve out time for research and of course — writing. 

Pick a project management platform

To manage all of these things, I like to use a project management tool. My favorite is Airtable because it doesn’t just organize your tasks, but creates a database for all of the revolving items you will touch on a daily or weekly basis. 

Options and features for each platform will vary, so choose the one that fits your budget and your needs. The most helpful feature, I find, is the kanban organizer because it allows you to drag and drop each project into its current status. It looks something like this:

On each card, you can keep vital information about the article pitch, including the brief, the deadline, what editor confirmed your assignment and when to expect payment. On platforms like Airtable and Notion, which operate as databases, you can also house attachments, which makes it easy to keep track of your entire project from pitch to draft. Here is how I organized my Airtable cards with details that felt important to keep track of:

Take some time to browse project management tools. Find one that you like and start setting it up. Here are a few to check out:

• Airtable

• Trello

• Notion

• Asana

• Monday

Create a content calendar to stay organized and get ahead

Aside from tracking your pitches and assignments, project management platforms can help you build out a content calendar. A content calendar can be as simple as a spreadsheet that keeps track of the content you’re working on or plan to pitch. 

Content calendars are a great way to plan content around topical events like Women’s History Month or Indigenous People’s day, so you can make sure your pitches will be timely to the editors you pitch to. However, you can also use the content calendar to plan evergreen content — or content that’s relevant all year long. 

Here are some basic details to include on your content calendar and some sample content to give you an idea of what that might look like:

Spend some time building out your content calendar. It’s easy to find a list of national awareness days and trending hashtags with a simple Google search. Choose at least one per quarter that aligns with your ideals or community concerns and think of a few pitches you can send to editors. 

Let’s review:

• You have chosen and committed to a project management tool.

• You have pitches loaded and ready to go.

• You have a content calendar that will guide your pitches over the next.