When you’re a busy freelancer, keeping up with everything on your plate can be tough.
At any given time, you might have a few small things due for one client, a larger project or two you’re working on for another client, and some things you want to do to grow your own business.
If you aren’t careful about how you manage your time, you can end up always dealing with the next urgent thing on your list.
That can lead to feeling like you’re always scrambling… like you’re neglecting the work you want to do on your business… and like you’re struggling to hit your deadlines.
Not a fun place to be.
Fortunately, a few slight shifts in how you organize your day can change everything.
These shifts can help you make steady progress on your big projects, so you can dance gracefully up to your deadlines…
They can help you consistently put time into growing your business…
And they can help you stay on top of the day-to-day tasks and shorter, due-this-week kinds of projects.
If you’re already a busy freelancer, these time-management methods will help you bring more balance and calm to your work schedule.
And, if you’re working on becoming a busy freelancer, implementing these habits now will make a world of difference later.
Get in the Habit of Working Ahead
Part of the joy of being a freelance digital copywriter is having a lot of freedom, when it comes to your schedule.
But it’s hard to fully enjoy that, if you’re feeling stressed about getting your work done.
One simple shift you can make is to start working ahead on things.
When you’re in charge, there’s a big temptation to identify what needs to be done today, to do that, and then to knock off early and go have fun.
You absolutely should do that… sometimes.
But here’s the problem with doing that too often…
Inevitably, you’ll end up with a day or several days where you have an impossible number of things you need to get done. You’ll end up working late and feeling stressed out… and wondering how you got in that position. (Ask me how I know.)
Instead, determine your daily work hours (which can be different from day to day), and then work during those hours. When you finish what’s due today, start working on what’s due tomorrow… or put in some time working on a big project.
Do this consistently and you’ll find yourself comfortably ahead of schedule most of the time. Then, when you want to knock off early, you can do it without worrying about falling behind.
Start Tracking Your Time
When you’re working on a project, keep track of how much time it takes to complete. Be sure to include everything: research, brainstorming, drafting, meetings, editing, and anything else that comes up. Track the time you put into working on your business, too. (You can find some free time-tracking tool recommendations here.)
By tracking your time, you’ll:
- Get a feel for how long each type of project really takes you, which makes planning for future projects much easier.
- Know how much you’re earning per hour on each project — and you may discover you need to raise your project fees.
- Figure out how much you’re earning per hour overall — because, even though you don’t get paid for working on things like marketing, it’s still work!
When you diligently track your time, you’ll also get a feel for if you’re working more or less than you’d like. The data you collect can help you make informed adjustments to your schedule, your rates, and the types of projects you want to take on.
Chunk Your Day
No doubt, you’ve heard recommendations to block your time. This is a variation on that approach.
When you block your time, you schedule the time you’ll spend on certain activities or projects, and often you group similar activities together. So, you might have a block on your schedule for working on project A, another block for working on project B, and a third block for following up on pitches you’ve sent out recently.
I take a slightly different approach. My work tends to fall into four buckets:
- Business building — things like marketing, networking, audience research, and education.
- Daily and small tasks — things like social media, answering email, and making appointments.
- Short, near-term projects — these are projects that can usually be completed in just a few hours and aren’t usually scheduled out more than a week or two in advance. Often, there’s a recurring aspect, like writing a weekly blog post for a client.
- Big, long-term projects — these are projects that demand 20 hours or more of work and may have a timeline of one to three months or more.
If you fall into the habit of always tending to the next, most urgent thing on your list, it’s easy to neglect your big projects. Then suddenly your deadline is uncomfortably close, and your big project becomes very urgent. And your own business-building work gets stuck permanently on the back burner.
By breaking my day into four big chunks with breaks in between, I can make sure I’m tending to my business-building projects and those big projects every day, while still staying in front of the smaller projects that are due sooner.
If you find yourself scrambling to complete big projects and never getting to your own, think about why that happens. If it’s because your small tasks and short projects are always taking priority, a combination of chunking your schedule and working ahead may solve the problem.
One more note — the chunks don’t have to be equal. You might put half your day into small, upcoming projects and then break the other half of your day into three shorter chunks to work on big projects, your business, and small tasks. But, if you’re doing something each day on a big project — even if it’s a small step — you’ll still be moving forward steadily, which will mean less deadline stress later.
Schedule Breaks
In between those daily chunks, be sure to schedule breaks. By taking a break, you give yourself a chance to reset. That makes shifting gears into the different demands of your next chunk easier.
Your breaks can be fun, productive, or restful. Really, you just want to step away from what you’re doing and put your focus on something completely different. I break up my daily chunks with:
- A workout
- A walk
- Lunch
- Reading time
But you could also work a puzzle, call a friend, do some housework, go out for a coffee… aim for at least 20 minutes away from your laptop, so you can come back refreshed and ready to tackle the next project or task.
Maintain Flexibility
Finally, be flexible. You didn’t become a freelancer to rigidly adhere to a system every single day.
If you find yourself needing to put more time one day into small tasks and you don’t manage to make time for big projects, that’s okay.
If you have a day where focus is hard to come by and you want to finish early and go catch a movie, do that.
But try to make those days the exception. If you apply the habits I share here consistently, you’ll find deadlines are easier to hit, your own projects get the attention they deserve, and that scrambling-to-get-everything-done feeling starts to subside.
Then, you can really start to enjoy all the benefits and freedom that come with being a freelance copywriter.
