Note from Jennifer: Be sure to post your marketing tasks to our Beat the January Slump Marketing Challenge. The contest closes on January 31st and then I will give away a gift card. 

Another note from Jennifer: I am looking for writers to write guest posts about writing for associations and nonprofits. If you work for these clients and would be interested (I pay a $50 honorarium for guest posts), email me at JenniferGregory@nc.rr.com. 

I used to think I was the only one who contracted SendButtonitis. You know, that panicky feeling you get when you are about to turn in a story and you just can’t bring yourself click send? It doesn’t happen with every story, but with certain ones it does. I usually become afflicted with the dreaded disease with new clients or on stories that I really care about.

My symptoms include procrastinating, editing obsessively and staring blankly at the email to the editor with the story attached. Your symptoms may vary, but the underlying issue is that you let an excessive amount of time pass between finishing the story and turning it in. More serious cases (which I get more often than I am going to admit) include deciding that you suck as a writer, that your career is over and that all of your previous success has been a fluke.

The worst case I ever had was a story I wrote for the local paper about a my pet sitter who was dying and needed homes for her rescue dogs. I literally threw up all day because I wanted the story to find give her the gift of being able to pass away knowing her dogs were loved. And yes, every single dog got a home and the story was picked up by all the local news stations as well.

My original title for this post was “How to Overcome SendButtonitis.” But I changed it because I think that there is no way to overcome SendButtonitis—at least not for me, anyway. In many ways, I think it means that we care about what we are working on and that we are good at our jobs. But there are some ways to minimize the symptoms.

Here are my best tips for moving past this affliction:

1. Budget time into your schedule to panic. With new clients, I always try to pad my schedule by at least a day so that I can lose my mind. And on the day that I’m submitting the story, I try to have nothing else of importance to do in case I totally go off the deep end.
2. Give yourself a deadline. When I am frozen in front of the computer and can’t seem to muster the strength to hit that send button, I tell myself that I can edit it or panic or whatever I want to do for 15 more minutes and then I must send it. Sometimes giving myself permission to obsess is all I need in order to finally turn the story in.
3. Have a writer you trust look at the story. This has worked for me on many occasions. Ask a fellow freelancer to look at the story and provide their honest opinion. Then you can either hit send with confidence or know that your craziness is warranted.
4. Walk away. This has worked for me many times as well. I get my shoes, put the dog on a leash and head out for a walk. And try not to think about the story. Then, when I come back, I give it one quick read and off it goes.
5. Pull the Band-Aid off quick. When the story is done, don’t allow yourself to think. Just submit it and hit the button. Do it quickly and get it over with. This has never worked for me because I am the obsessing type, but I know other writers who swear by the Band-Aid technique.

Do you get Sendbuttonitis? How do you overcome it? Have you found any way to prevent this illness?