Working from home, setting your own hours, taking a day off without filling out paperwork or asking a boss—these are some of the most wonderful benefits of freelancing. But these can also be some of its greatest problems. When there’s no time-clock to punch, it’s easier to push the work aside and do it later. When there’s no office to call for a sick day or a vacation, it’s easier to take that day and tell yourself you’ll work longer tomorrow, or work over the weekend, to make up the time on those projects. It’s also easy to take on too much work, get behind in the bookkeeping, or become so disorganized that every day seems to be nothing more than one frustration after another.
Organizing your freelance life might seem daunting and will take a little time in the beginning, but once you get a system in place, every day will go much more smoothly and you’ll get more done in less time. The more organized you are when it comes to time and money, the more you’re freed up to do the creative work within that frame, and the more successful you’ll be.
Make a schedule and stick to it. Look at your projects, and block out hours of your work day for certain tasks. A common freelancing mistake is underestimating the time a project will take, so in the beginning, make a guess and add a few hours of extra time to your estimate just in case. At worst, you’ll allot too much time and have that left over to do more prospecting or get a head start on another project.
Another common mistake when scheduling freelance work time is to only consider the actual work. If you’re scheduling your writing or design time, and it’s going to take you 14 hours to do a project, it might be tempting to schedule two days to complete it at 7 hours each, and call those your work days. But you have many other tasks to complete in a day like dealing with emails or phone calls, prospecting for new clients, billing completed projects and hey, don’t forget those breaks! Schedule all these things at specific times within your day so you have an accurate picture of what you need to do, and it will be easier to stay on track, be more efficient, and avoid squandering away your valuable time.
