Tips on Time Management for Freelancers
As many may think freelancers has the advantage of flexible time, working at their own pace, in real time this may not be the case. In order to be a successful freelancer, time management is still the key. Here are some tips for freelancers how to maintain balance on time management.
My own experience
One of the great advantages of being a freelancer, like me, is the flexibility of time. Although freelancers can work on their own schedules, it might also be a trap. Instead of a standard job, 9am to 5pm, I have battles working around the clock and ended working up to 16 hours a day. I might be earning money, but I’m also losing my mind at the same time. Therefore I have made a time management plan to balance my life back.
Are you a morning person or a night owl?
First of all, decide on the preference of time you would like to work in a day and the hours. I’m more likely to be a morning person. I enjoy working mornings to check my emails, brain storm on topic of the day then start researching and writing around afternoon and call it a day around 5pm. Once you have reached the maximum hour of the day, you must wrap up your work and leave it for the day. Sometimes overworking yourself could cost the quality of work done.
Breaks! Who does need a timeout?
Not everyone have the same span of focus. Mine is quite short, I take a break every hour or so to have a smoke, get up and stretch, have a cup of coffee, cuddle my pets or just whatever to stop looking at the screen. This is very important for your health! Remember, your neck, shoulder and back can’t relax if you don’t take a break once in awhile. Sometimes I’m so focus on my work I even forget to eat, which is also not a good sign. So give yourself a break!
Multitasking? Or you are working here and there?
Many freelancers don’t just have one job on hand. Set up a schedule on when you’ll working on job A, job B or job C. A task list might come in useful in terms of judging the amount of time you’ll need for each job. Draw a timeline with milestones of each job and add in reminders. Meeting deadline for each job might be different, work out the hours you may need on each jobs then divide it throughout the day. Not meeting the deadlines means you might lose the job or even ruin your reputation. So prioritize your jobs accordingly and don’t forget to plan for a time to review your work. Do weekly reviews of your timeline to see if you are on track. Handling multiple jobs could be easy to manage if you go by the tips!
