Honestly I was one of those people who thought expireds were the only way to go for a while lol. But you make a solid point, getting to them before they're all jaded from other agents makes so much sense. Might have to give that a shot.

That thing about "random Slack messages" hit me hard, Perry. I used to roll my EYES at people who tracked every 5 minute task, thought it was overkill and a waste of time. But last month I finally caved and logged everything for a week and I couldn't believe it. I found myself doing these quick little browser searches and copying text between tabs that I never counted as real work. By Friday I had an extra 2.5 hours I would've just forgotten about. It definitely changed my mind and now I'm the guy logging every stupid 5 minute thing.

Has anyone tried keeping a backup spreadsheet synced to the cloud for exactly this kind of emergency?

Maybe it's just me but I wonder if those free boards actually work as a negative signal. Like if a charity can't afford even a cheap job board to find someone for a super specific role like grant writing, that might tell you something about how much they value the position or how organized they are. I've noticed the paid boards have way more filters and require the org to put in a little money which weeds out the ones who aren't serious. Could be that the free ones attract orgs that don't really have their act together or are just casually posting.

lol I feel this so hard. @taylor.brooke your buddy Derek is me except I didn't listen the first time and got hit with a $3,200 surprise my second year. Now I stash 18% of every freelance check into my SEP before I even look at the balance. Seeing that refund go from zero to actually getting money back feels like winning a stupid game I should have just played right the first time.