One of the advantages of being a freelance worker is being able to manage your own time and set your own work hours but this can be a bit of a problem if you do not know how to manage your time effectively. There are a couple of basic rules of effective time management that you should know as a freelance worker that will help you to function optimally and get the work done that you need to more efficiently.
Effective Time Management begins with knowing what you want to achieve
The first rule of effective time management is knowing what you want to achieve. This means setting yourself goals with achievable deadlines, writing these down and then working at achieving them. As a freelance worker you should have both long term goals for your business as well as shorter term goals for each freelance assignment that you need to complete. Once you have your goals for both the short and long term you are able to see more easily where it is you are going and how you are going to get there.
Effective Time Management means having a Time Plan
The next step to effective time management is to have a time plan that you can follow. This time plan should be a table showing the days of the week as columns and specific times in your day as rows. Each cell therefore represents a specific time on a specific day. What you want to do once you have this table is to go through and blot out times in colored pens which will be for different activities related to your freelance work as well as other times for your other activities. These should be general to begin with and categories of activities rather than specifics. By creating a time plan like this you will be able to use it on a more long term basis in order to plan your specific activities.
Effective Time Management includes managing individual activities on a weekly basis
Each week you should take a copy of your time plan as well as a list of specific, individual activities that you need to get done that week. You will then take each activity and slot it into the time zone allocated on your time plan for that type of activity. By doing this you are now creating a more specific time plan that includes activities relevant to that week only.
Effective Time Management every day
Every day sit down with your weekly time plan and check on the activities that you have allocated to that day. If there are any last minute changes that you need to make, make these now. By checking on your time plan daily you know that you will never forget about activities that you have scheduled and you will be able to be flexible and adjust your time plan where necessary without sacrificing your effectiveness.
Effective time management begins with knowing where you are going and setting yourself goals. After you have set yourself goals you should create a time plan where you will categorize your activities and allow time each week for the different categories of activities involved in your freelance work and life in general. This plan should be reviewed on a weekly and daily basis to include individual activities and make any adjustments as they become necessary. With these simple rules to effective time management you should soon be able to manage your time for optimum efficiency as a freelance worker.
