If there is anything worse than no work, it is too much work and too many pressing deadlines. Work overload can make anybody’s life a misery — but you, as a freelancer, have more say over how much work you take and how you distribute the load.
Good scheduling is key for both your successful business and your good mental and physical health.
1. Estimate How Much Work You Can Take
The first step to successfully making a reasonable schedule is to (correctly) estimate how much work you can take. You can’t make a schedule if you don’t know your limits. Though this certainly varies from week to week, you need to have a general idea of many hours a week you have for work.
For instance, can you work 50, 60, or 70 hours a week and still be productive? Or do you have other tasks to consider, such as family/personal matters or health issues, that drastically cut the number of hours you have available per week?
Next you need to decide how you split your schedule between projects. You might try to manage 70 hours of difficult projects at top pay (knowing that you won't be able to keep this up forever). Maybe you'll aim to dedicate 10 to 20 hours a week to difficult, lucrative projects and spend the remainder on projects that are less taxing but likely less profitable.
Of course, the projects available to you have a big hand in determining what you end up doing — but knowing your limits, and having a good idea of how you'd like to distribute the work, will allow you to make informed decisions about them.
2. Reject Projects That Will Overload You
It might be hard to say no to a lucrative project but unless you have absolutely no other options, you are better off without certain projects.
For instance, I don’t take full-time projects or projects that require a daily commitment. I've done it a few times in the past and it’s way too stressful — it’s like a 9-to-5 job without the benefits.
I also avoid taking projects I am not quite familiar with. These tasks require more research and frequently, even with plentiful research, the end result is far from perfect. It’s simply inefficient to do so.
Sometimes it's not the project that prompts you to drop a gig — it's the client. I guess you’ve heard “Poor planning on your side does not constitute emergency on mine”? There are clients who are so chaotic that working with them can turn your schedule upside down. If you land such a client, you’d better get rid of them — you are much better off without the additional stress such a client inevitably introduces in your life.
3. Know Your Most Productive Hours
People are not robots (at least not yet!) and your efficiency fluctuates with time. There are times of the day when you work best and times when it’s a drag. If you were in a 9-to-5 job, you wouldn't have much control over this, but as a freelancer you can make optimisations based on the factors that have you performing at your peak.
If you haven’t discovered them by now, try to find your most productive hours and schedule the important tasks for then. Your most productive hours could be the mornings, evenings, or at night — you just need to spend a few days paying attention to when you're at your sharpest.
4. Consider Seasonal Variations
There are quite a lot of external factors that influence your schedule, such as work availability. Though this isn’t set in stone, there are seasons for every industry when there is generally less work available.
Continue reading %7 Scheduling Tips for Stressed Out Freelancers%
by Ada Ivanoff via SitePoint
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