Freelancing typically allows you more freedom and flexibility than a regular 9-to-5 job, especially regarding the hours you work, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of not making the most effective use of your time when you are working.
Good time management for freelancers is essential. It helps you focus on priority tasks that move the needle for your business and improve cash flow while being more productive at the same time.
Here are 5 simple but effective time management tips for freelancers.
1. Plan in advance
It makes sense to plan ahead and know what needs to be done in your business for it to run successfully on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Knowing what needs to be done and when and planning ahead accordingly is a simple but effective time management strategy that can also help you visualize your goals.
You don’t need any fancy tools to plan ahead, either. A simple calendar or wall planner will suffice, although there are plenty of free and paid online tools you can use, too.
At the beginning of each week, simply plan out what you need to get done in the following days and schedule time for it.
You should also ensure you plan for chores outside your work schedule that need to be done, such as doctor or dentist visits, school runs, and grocery shopping trips, as these will all impact your available time.
2. Know how much time a task takes
In addition to knowing what needs to be done and when you’ll also want to know how much time is required to perform each task.
When first starting out freelancing, you might not know how long a specific task takes, so make sure you track time spent on each individual element within a task or project and write it down for future reference.
You can also map out each task to form your internal business processes. Having a checklist of all the things you need to do to perform a task will save time in the future.
Remember to add buffer time for unexpected events, project overruns or scope creep.
The key is not to be running up to the wire on every task, as this could lead to freelance burnout and impact the quality of client work. Instead, give yourself plenty of time to work on essential tasks.
You can track time spent on billable work with Invoice Ninja. Our task time-tracking feature allows you to accurately record every second spent on each individual task and quickly transfer timed data to the relevant invoice. When you’re done with a task or series of tasks within a project, simply click and send your work time to an invoice with 1-click!
We’ve even got a helpful Google extension so you can manage all of your tasks within Chrome.
Check it out here.
3. Prioritize tasks (and avoid multi-tasking)
You want to work on tasks that make a noticeable difference for your business. So, make a sensible to-do list of your most important tasks. It can be tempting to do the ‘easy’ tasks first or multi-task, but generally speaking, this isn’t an effective use of your time.
You may also want to block out time on your calendar each week to dedicate your time to work on specific tasks. This helps stop multi-tasking, and if you have a shared calendar, it means others can’t book you into meetings at inconvenient times.
Likewise, you might want to perform certain tasks on specific days or batch tasks in advance. Having a solid schedule and work routine will mean you get a lot more done without distractions, being pulled off into different directions, or firefighting.
If a task or project seems too big or daunting, break it down into a series of smaller tasks. You’ll achieve your goal much quicker and without the overwhelm.
If there are tedious and time-consuming tasks that need to be done, such as invoicing, consider outsourcing or automating these types of business processes as much as possible.
Invoice Ninja is a leading free invoicing software developed for freelancers and small businesses like yours.
It includes professionally designed invoices, multiple payment gateways, client-side portals, quotes, recurring invoices, automatic invoice payment reminders, time and task tracking, and lots more to ensure you get paid quickly and hassle-free.
And now, if you prefer, you can even get paid in Bitcoin!
Try Invoice Ninja out for free here.
4. Work out times when you have the most energy
When planning your schedule, it makes sense to identify your optimum working times.
It might be that you are an early bird who is most energized and productive in the morning, or you might be a night owl whose creative juices really get flowing at midnight and into the small hours.
Work out when you are at your most productive and set your schedule accordingly.
Likewise, be sure to schedule regular breaks into your day to boost productivity, get some healthy exercise, or just get some fresh air. And don’t forget to plan time off for vacation.
You can read more about taking time off work as a freelancer here.
5. Minimize distractions and learn to say “No”
Perhaps one of the biggest time stealers nowadays is social media, so minimize your time scrolling or have a set time duration to use social media and stick to it.
It can be challenging if you are using social media platforms to market your business, but even then, you can make use of online social media schedulers and create posts in advance directly from the scheduling tool.
Likewise, if you work remotely from home, ensure you have a dedicated workspace, let other people in the household know when you are working, and set appropriate boundaries. If your household is busy or you lack adequate space, consider co-working at a local co-working space or even at a local library.
And finally, it’s perfectly okay to turn work down as a freelancer. If you haven’t got the capacity to perform work to your best, let your client know that you are fully booked but will let them know when your schedule is clear. Or refer them to another freelancer. They’ll likely appreciate your honesty and hire you in the future.
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Of course, there are other effective time management strategies and tools, such as the Pomodoro Technique, to name just one, that you can apply, and some are more advanced than others. Throughout your freelance career, you’ll likely come up with your own efficiency hacks that suit your way of working, but we hope you found these simple time management tips helpful and a useful starting point.
