Kids, clients and avoiding the chaos: how to master time management as a freelancer

Time management can be rough when you're a freelancer with a lot of responsibilities. We've got some

tips to help you get organized:

Take a few deep breaths, make a pot of coffee, and remind yourself of your priorities. Make a tangible list of what is most important to you, something you can refer to when you start to get stressed out. Make sure you address your personal priorities, your business priorities, and your family priorities.

Tip 1

Line up those priorities.

You, like many other freelancers, have goals for your business. Whether they’re big goals like “make x dollars this year” or small ones like “call accountant,” you’ve got to have time to think about and plan them.

Tip 2

Give “planning” its own timeslot.

Give each portion of your life the respect it deserves by granting it its own time.

Sometimes you’re going to have days where you simply can’t create anything that works. The more you try, the worse your product is, and the worse your product gets the more you start to beat yourself up. That’s not a good cycle to get caught up in, and the best way to deal with it is to pull yourself out of the situation. Do whatever refreshes your brain enough to tackle your project with renewed vigor.

Tip 3

Be realistic, and be kind to yourself.

Make sure your needs are taken care of.

Are you drinking enough water? Moving around enough? Getting enough sleep?

Think of your body and mind like your trusty computer; if you don’t take care of basic maintenance and

upkeep, it’s going to get so buggy and slow that you might as well not even use it at all.

First of all, yes, find yourself some time management apps to help you make the most of your work time. RescueTime, Freedom, and Anti-Social are all time management apps designed to either help you evaluate how your spend your time or actually block distracting applications from your devices.

Tip 4

Be aware of your distractions.

A good supplement to a distraction blocker is a productivity technique.

I’m a big fan of the Pomodoro Technique, which mostly involves working hard for a certain period of time and

taking short breaks in between. Other people hate that technique, though, so it’s up to you to explore your

preferences and limitations. You can try Marc Andreessen’s “anti-to do list”, a method from Jerry Seinfeld called

“Don’t Break the Chain”, or the “must, should, want” method from Jay Shirley.

Freelance project management software can be a lifesaver when working with multiple clients and team members. You can create checklists for yourself and others so that progress monitoring is a breeze, and you can share files and keep them in one place, which is fantastic for teams separated by geography. The most popular are Trello, Basecamp, Slack, Asana, and Wunderlist.

Tip 5

Don’t let disorganization become a distraction.

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