Are You A Morning Or Afternoon Worker?
You know when you work best. Whether you’re an early riser or a night owl, as a freelancer you can plan your day around when you feel most productive, even if this is a 3am burst!
Plan Your Working Hours
Once you’ve figured out your best productivity time periods, plan out your working hours for the week ahead. This may be a standard 6 hour working day for 5 days a week or 3 hours one day and 8 the next, work around your commitments and energy bursts.
Plan Your Breaks
Equally, if not more important is planning your breaks. It’s easy to forget to take breaks when you’re not working a routine 9-5 job in an office. Planning breaks around your working day can help avoid burnout and helps you to prioritise your workload. As a freelancer you may feel like you need to be available for clients at all times as you work from home, having scheduled breaks in your working day (and sticking to them) sets a time schedule, not only for you but for clients as well.
Start With The Most Difficult and Time Consuming Tasks
Starting your day with the most difficult task may sound daunting, however it helps you complete the ‘worst’ of your work load earlier on so you don’t have to worry about completing it later on (and procrastinate doing it!) Once this task is complete, you can feel more productive earlier on in your day, freeing up the rest of your time for easier and enjoyable tasks. You may even be more focused once the largest task is done!
Schedule Client Meetings
Start your working week by scheduling any calls or catch-ups with clients on days you know you have no prior commitments. Once you have scheduled these calls you’re able to plan out which tasks will need to be done first, helping you ease your workload. Some people prefer to book all meetings on one day so the rest of their working week is flexible.
