You may be familiar with Parkinson’s Law.
It’s the idea that the work you have will expand to fill the time allotted to it.
For a freelancer, this typically means that once you start landing clients, you find yourself with less free time than expected. There’s always one more thing on your to-do list or a deadline looming or a backburner project that you feel like you should get to or laundry to fold.
I know for a lot of freelancers — myself included — financial success is often accompanied by feeling behind, stressed, and overwhelmed with everything you need to do.
And this phenomenon undermines one of the big reasons you got into freelancing — scheduling freedom and more free time.
If you find yourself in this situation, there is a path out of it.
The first step is to set your work hours each week and contain your work to those hours. Let me repeat that key part: contain your work to your set hours.
You don’t have to keep the same schedule every week, but before you go into the week, determine which hours you’ll be working and then during those hours, focus on work.
Tackle your tasks one at a time. Don’t rush. Work through them methodically. And then when your work time comes to an end, shift your gears, and do something else.
Doing this will get you in the habit of staying focused and doing whatever task is next on your list… even if it’s not due for days. That’s how you start to get ahead and make time in your work schedule for backburner and personal business projects.
It’s also how you get to the next step…
Which is to start scheduling some days off or half days, so you can take advantage of your freelancer’s freedom.
I recommend at least once a month as you plan your week, you move your hours around so you can knock off early on Friday (or take the day off completely), and then go do something fun! Go bowling… go for a hike… schedule a massage. But whatever you do, as you get started, take a moment to remember it’s your freelance lifestyle that makes those kinds of days possible.
When you get good about regularly scheduling fun days, the next step is to start being a little more spontaneous.
If you’re working ahead and a fun opportunity presents itself — say a friend calls to invite you for lunch — say yes.
You may have to review your work hours for the rest of the week and shift them around a bit (or maybe not if you’re well ahead), but it’s good to take advantage of that freedom. It means you’re fulfilling that promise you made to yourself when you started thinking about freelancing, that you would be in control of your schedule.
The more you make it a point to take some time to enjoy yourself (without getting behind and generating stress), the more you’ll realize what a great decision you made when you decided to become a freelancer.
New on the Site
Out of every 100 people you contact, only three are ready to buy a given product or service at the time you contact them. Most of the remaining 97% will be ready to buy eventually, which is why follow-up is key. If you implement a good follow-up strategy, you’ll have an easier time filling your calendar… and that means you’ll have an easier time earning money and building your business. Lynelle Suan shares good insights and suggestions for a successful follow-up strategy right here.
If you missed our event last week on writing strong blog posts, the recording is available. You can listen in to learn why businesses place a high value on blog posts, the key things to consider about blog post structure, and a review of blogs posts, so you can see how to strengthen your work in the editing process. Go here to give it a watch.
Are you struggling to achieve your goals? It could be that somewhere, deep down, you’re not sure you deserve success. Suzanna Fitzgerald shares her struggles with self-worth, how they’ve impacted her progress, and how she’s overcoming them. This is a great read for anyone who’s not making the progress they want and isn’t sure why.
Mark Your Calendar
March 21: One of the best intro assignments for a UX copywriter is improving the email sign-up process on a client’s website. A better UX can result in more leads and conversions. There are often a ton of missed opportunities you can help your client capitalize on, and it makes things easier and smoother for the customer. In this event, you’ll see how this project might unfold. I hope you’ll join us!
Around the Web
One of the things Google looks for is well-tended content — content that is revisited and maintained. The Content Marketing Institute shares strategies to keep all your content useful and relevant… even if it means trimming some of it away from time to time.
If you want to rank in the search engines, then backlinks matter. Here are some tips for earning more quality backlinks to your website.
I love the idea of disciplined creativity and this post on Copyblogger is well worth the read.
Helping a client with a product launch plan? Then you’ll love this!
That’s all for now. Make it a great week!
