Thanks to the increasing job opportunities online, freelancing has become a norm for many people who enjoy working in the comfort of their homes. While there are perks of being the boss or working at your own place and pace, sustaining the level of productivity can be difficult. Some distractions can occupy your attention and focus, especially when you feel tired or bored. Since you are on your own, you must find ways to curb the temptations of procrastinating and be on top of the game.
Here are nine ways to be a more productive freelancer:
1. Have a Dedicated Workspace
Convert a part of your home into your workspace. It should be an area where you can work without interruptions and distractions. Invest in equipment and tools to make your space look professional and motivating. Consider it a dedicated area for your work only with all the essentials. Your work desk should only have what you need for work. Switch off unnecessary devices like radio, TV, or mobile phones when working. Optimizing your workspace fuels your productivity, so create a well-illuminated, clutter-free, physically comfortable spot. At the end of your work hours, clean your desk.
2. Create a Work Schedule
As a freelancer, you can create a life routine around your work schedule. If you are working with multiple clients, making a schedule to prevent an overlap of project deadlines and meetings is essential. You can use a digital calendar to map your daily tasks and goals. If you are a pen-and-paper person, you can write a to-do list in your work journal or planner to keep track of your progress. Your main goal is to accomplish the list of tasks at the end of your working day. Leveraging automated tools is also a great way to manage your work schedule and become more productive.
3. Maintain a Realistic Workload
The more clients and projects, the more income for freelancers. However, too much of anything can drain your energy and productivity juices. Avoid spreading yourself thin by accepting no more than you can handle. An overwhelming daily schedule can cause chronic stress and panic that affect your health, leading to losing projects or clients if you are sick. So, be realistic and manage your weekly workload. Learn to say no or decline a project if you already have a busy calendar.
4. Take Regular Breaks
Work smart by taking breaks to reset your mindset and energize your body. A 10 to 15-minute break helps in preventing burnout and mental fatigue. So, get up and replenish your body by drinking water in the kitchen or eating a light snack. Walking outside for a while stimulates feel-good endorphins if you are in between deadlines. A power nap is also beneficial if it works for you. Use a timer for your work-break-work routine.
5. Eat Your Frog
This concept means doing the least appealing or most challenging task first. Rather than putting it on the last line of your to-do list, tackling the task at the start of your working day is a wise decision. Why? Because your energy is at its peak and helps you handle the necessary steps to accomplish it. After completing the task, tackling the rest of your to-dos will be much easier.
6. Structure Your Work
Whether juggling multiple tasks for clients or projects, structuring your daily workload helps you deliver quality output and meet deadlines. Your output and on-time delivery are vital to your success as a freelancer. You boost your productivity by structuring your tasks, deadlines, and deliverables. You can batch similar tasks at a time. This approach helps increase your focus and makes you complete more tasks in less time. It is also helpful to assemble your assignments in files or folders, which you can click on when it is time to complete them.
7. Invest In Productivity Tools
While your best assets are your brain and skills, using tools and apps to boost your productivity level helps you manage your workload better.
- For managing projects, Trello or Wrike allows you to schedule the tasks for the day, monitor the projects’ progress, and break down current tasks into mini-tasks.
- Motivation tools like Habitica or Beeminder let you set goals and targets and gamify your personal positive habits to optimize your life-work balance.
- Time-tracking tools like HourStack and Toggl help you work on your scheduled tasks and provide insights into how you use your time.
8. Wear Your Work Attire
It is tempting to work wearing your pajamas since you are working at home. But do you know that wearing work attire helps you become psychologically ready to tackle your workload? According to experts, it brings a professional vibe and enhances your sense of positivity. This simple productivity hack works for most freelancers, so try it.
9. Reward Yourself
As a freelancer, you are the CEO of your own virtual services. As a boss, appreciating your effort and accomplishments at the end of the day gives a sense of satisfaction. Assessing your daily performance motivates you to work your best the next day. Pat yourself on the back and celebrate your small and major wins.
It is vital to reflect on your freelancing journey and treat yourself to doing a good job every day. Rewarding yourself is a productivity hack that gives a sense of fulfillment and motivation to improve yourself. Rewards can be in the form of a cup of your favorite coffee or a piece of your favorite cake after work, sleeping more during weekends, taking a weekend trip, pampering yourself at the spa, or other feel-good incentives.
Takeaway
Being productive at all times can be a real challenge to freelancers. Hence, practicing the tested approaches and “hacks” to deliver the expected outputs to clients is crucial. Keeping oneself mentally, physically, and emotionally healthy is necessary to successfully freelancing. Because at the end of the day, self-care is the key to better productivity.
Angeline Licerio
Angeline Licerio is the blogger behind Dollarmize.com. After working online as a writer and SEO strategist, she decided to start this blog to give advise to people who would like to earn money online. She is also the founder of SEO Tutorials for FREE, a Facebook community that helps aspiring freelancers and SEO specialists to kickstart their work from home journey.
