Freelancer #Tip 6 – Time management, How you spend your time, defines who you are.

APRIL 27, 2020 - FREELANCE, TIPS

We all have the same 86,400 seconds in the day and value of that outcome is HOW you manage your time.

When you have those video deadlines and you have an overly ambitious deadline, a workflow needs to be in place to tackle it effectively. 

 

Why

 

Being effective at time management is something I would always discuss with freelancers because their personal and professional life is so demanding, that without a strategy to manage their time, it just seems to evaporate away. 

 

Mindset

 

Your time is valuable.

 

To utilise your time effectively, having a strategy will increase productivity and allow for more free-time.  

Especially if you charge by the hour, the faster and more effectively you can do your work and tasks, you will have more free time to focus on your goals. 

 

Dare I say, have more free time to spend it not working! 

 

Speaking of time, let’s begin...

Tips

 

When it comes to getting your head down to business, as a freelancer, you are the captain of your ship, the CEO. 

 

Using your time effectively is possibly the most important and first point of call. 

 

The day before you dive into work, create a full list of all the tasks you have to do in no particular order.

 

Done, you’re nearly there buddy.

 

Now we’re going to create a priorities list into the following 4 quadrants:

 

  • Not IMPORTANT not URGENT - this, as you can guess, is the least paramount to your success, this is the bottom of the list.

 

  • IMPORTANT, NOT URGENT - Now we’re cooking, place the tasks that are important but don’t necessarily have a deadline attached, these are the 3rd most vital on the list. 

 

  • URGENT not IMPORTANT - So these tasks have a time-pressure associated but hold your horses, they’re not life or death, these need to be done although place this into the 2nd list of to-do’s, follow these tasks up soon.

 

  • IMPORTANT and URGENT - These are the TOP priorities. Don’t hesitate when it comes to these tasks, tackling the mountain before the easy path will ensure your sense of achievement. These big victories will pay off and tend to allow for easier time management when it comes to smaller, bite-sized less important tasks. Go you, you just climbed a mountain!

Lastly for productivity and a cool birds-eye view on your tasks, I’d highly recommend Trello - a software to organise and prioritise your projects and creating 'cards' as goals to tick off and get that sweet, sweet serotonin boost as you tick them off.

 

Using the model above you can simply organise your boring to-do’s into an exhilarating feeling of accomplishment. You definitely deserve to treat yourself. 

  • Trello - Organise and prioritise your projects effectively. 
  • Toggl - A simple time tracking app.
  • Clockify - Free time tracking app for freelancers.
  • Due - An online time tracking tool.

 

Action

 

Draw out on a piece of people the 4 quadrants, then list out all the tasks you currently have to do.

Create IMPORTANT and URGENT tasks into the free app Trello, then act on them. 

I look forward to hearing how this has helped you, post how you got on in our Facebook community group here.

 

Till next time,

NK

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