Tips for Organizing Your Freelance Projects by Jennifer Janechek

Successful freelancers often juggle multiple clients and projects simultaneously. Without an effective organizational system, freelancers risk falling behind on work, missing deadlines, and working at less-than-desirable times to compensate for poor planning. Below are some tips inspired by chapter 6 of Rachael Doyle’s Organize Your Business—Organize Your Life (2017) to help you better manage your freelance projects. 

1. Project plan for maximum effectiveness. 

Answer the following questions: 

• What are the objectives and goals of this project? 

• What is the deadline? 

• What is the priority level? Should this take precedence over other projects I currently have, either because of the client, the due date, or the client’s explicit directions? 

• Do I have a budget (or an expected maximum numbers of hours the project should take, as specified on a purchase order)? 

• What are the components of the project? Write a list of steps that must be executed to complete the project. Consider using a free project management software like Trello or some sort of visualization tool like a flowchart, a mind map, a Gantt chart, etc. 

2. Schedule work time in blocks. 

Ask yourself: “How many hours do I need to work each day to complete this project on time?” Then schedule your work time in blocks on your calendar. Consider using an hourly agenda, an electronic calendar, or a whiteboard with Post-it notes that are color coded for each client or project. That way, you’ll make sure to dedicate enough time to each project every day so that you complete your projects on or before their deadlines. 

Make sure to check in with yourself about the status of each active project at the beginning of every work day. 

3. Determine how you will store all the information about your project. 

Will you create a project folder on your computer’s desktop so that all associated files can be easily accessed? Or will you have a folder for each client on your desktop and then individual project files within those larger folders? Alternatively, do you want to avoid clutter on your desktop and place project folders in your “Documents” section? 

4. Use a time-tracking software. 

Toggl is one great (and free) option. You can assign projects to specific clients, use a stopwatch to track your exact work time on each project, and then produce a report that charts the amount of time you dedicated to that particular assignment. This is particularly helpful if you are switching between tasks throughout the day and want to make sure you’re noting the time spent on each. 

5. Organize your finances. 

Give your invoices file names that enable them to be easily located and that cause them to be arranged in a logical order (e.g., by client name and date submitted) on your computer’s hard drive. Consider also printing your invoices and storing them in a physical filing system organized by client for quick reference. You might also create a spreadsheet with individual pages for each client that documents the dates of invoices, project title (if limited to a specific project), amount billed, date received, and amount received. This will greatly help when it comes time to estimate quarterly or yearly taxes. 

For more helpful tips on project management and organizational strategies, pick up a copy of Rachael Doyle’s Organize Your Business—Organize Your Life, available at Amazon and other retailers worldwide. 

Get Into Position and Excel! By Adrean Turner

There are certain aspects of success that involve chance or luck. For instance, someone you know has a personal relationship with a hiring manager of a company that you want to join. They provide a referral, and you are able to bypass the cumbersome online application process and receive an immediate interview. That’s a benefit of chance. 

But in many cases, success doesn’t just happen. It is dependent on you! You are responsible for setting the stage and positioning yourself for opportunities that can lead to goal achievement. 

Consider this situation. After being frustrated for months with her job, one of my group coaching clients packed up her entire family and moved to the West Coast for a new opportunity. Although it wasn’t her ideal position, she was confident that it provided an environment where she could fully contribute and excel. Just as luck would have it, three months later, her director resigned, creating an opportunity for a promotion. Because of the work ethic she demonstrated and the relationships she built in that short time period, she was offered the role. She made a choice to take a chance to achieve the change she desired in her career, and it paid off. She positioned herself to succeed. 

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” ~Seneca

No matter what you are trying to accomplish or become successful with—a career transition, a promotion, more time with family, better relationships with others, or a healthier lifestyle—these tips can help. 

1. Pursue Progress and Forget Perfection
   The goal is moving forward, not how fast you go or how well you do it. Small steps forward add up to a lot of mileage over time. As you succeed, you’ll learn and improve along the way. Get your footing and follow through on the tasks you’ve identified that will help you to excel. 

2. Manage Your Time
   If your activities don’t align with your vision or mission, it’s time to make some changes. When you’re bored, how do you amuse yourself? What do you do when you procrastinate? How can you add more time to do the things that are helpful for achieving your objectives? Write them down so you can see the impact of your actions or lack of action. The sooner you’re able to stop yourself from indulging in time-wasting activities, the better the odds of success. 

3. Schedule Time to Get Things Done
   Someday is not a day of the week. Eliminate non-essential tasks that are clogging your calendar. Be purposeful in allocating time to get things accomplished. Begin by starting small (if it’s necessary). Schedule 30 minutes a day for working toward accomplishing your goals. Focus on staying engaged, and record your progress daily to stay motivated. 

4. Meet More People
   You often hear that it’s what you know or who you know that leads to success. Another contributing fact that matters is who knows you. Surveys reveal that personal referrals are the top means of how jobs are filled. One survey conducted in partnership with LinkedIn reveals that up to 85 percent of jobs could be filled that way. Networking helps you connect with mentors, customers, colleagues, and people of influence. Get the word out about who you are and what you are trying to accomplish. Use every opportunity to increase your exposure by sharing valuable information and insights that demonstrate your brand and that supports those who engage with you. 

5. Build a Support System
   Reaching your goals will involve talent, persistence, patience, and other people. According to Nielsen’s Trust In Advertising report, 84 percent of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services—making these recommendations the highest-ranked source for trustworthiness. 
   
   In order to sell yourself or a product, create your own advisory board. Surround yourself with people who challenge you, inspire you, make you laugh, add value to your life, and who will vouch for you. The strongest method of success is when others do the work for you, whether that is through encouragement, information, or a recommendation. If you can get others to support you, the chances of your success are multiplied. 

Don’t sit around idling…waiting for success to knock on your door. Move forward and be your best self! Get into position and excel. It’s time! 

Get more information and inspiration in Adrean’s book, F.I.T. for Success: Fearless, Inspired, Transformed for Success, or visit www.coachadrean.com. To receive this e-book, click here and get it now. 

Creating a Daily Work Rhythm by Jennifer Janechek

As the mother of a toddler, I have been reading a lot of parenting books lately, and I have been struck by a notion introduced in a few of them—that of the importance of creating a daily rhythm. In Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids, for instance, Kim John Payne suggests that “by surrounding a young child with a sense of rhythm and ritual, you can help them order their physical, emotional and intellectual view of the world.” According to him, cultivating a daily rhythm provides a strong foundation for children, giving them the security to explore their world confidently and allowing their creativity to flourish while keeping them grounded in home values and traditions. 

I started to wonder: How might a daily rhythm be beneficial to my adult life—and more specifically, to my adult work life? 

I began implementing a daily work rhythm where I scheduled my day according to ebbs and flows, dedicating periods of time to different tasks that best suited my energy levels and creative rhythms. I quickly realized that the days I was the most productive, at peace, engaged in my work, and present with my family when at home were those in which I maintained a rhythm at work. I suppose acclaimed poet Mary Oliver was right—“Rhythm is one of the most powerful of pleasures, and when we feel a pleasurable rhythm we hope it will continue.… When it becomes reliable, we are in a kind of body-heaven.” 

Below are some ideas for how to cultivate a daily work rhythm in your life: 

1. Determine the core activities of your day, and dedicate a block of time to each one. 

While companies often value employees who can multitask, this activity can leave us feeling harried, stressed, and frenetic. If your work situation allows you to do so (not everyone’s will), try to engage in only one “core activity” at a time. Your core activities are the basic work activities in which you engage on a regular basis. For me, this is communication, research, creation, and revision. Various activities fall into these larger categories (e.g., communication entails responding to e-mails as well as participating in conference calls, and revision includes both copyediting others’ writing and reworking my own), but stick to performing one mode of work at a time. This is similar to business and organizational expert Rachael Doyle’s advice in Organize Your Business—Organize Your Life: “I recommend creating blocks in your daily calendar that are set aside for all like activities: there are blocks of time to answer email, blocks of time to work on projects, blocks of time to make phone calls.” Which leads to my second suggestion… 

2. Don’t check your e-mail (or social media) throughout the day. 

And don’t keep your e-mail open in your browser (unless of course you work in customer service or another industry that requires quick response times). Or if you want to keep your e-mail open, silence the notifications: the noise and distraction they cause can unsettle rhythmic work patterns. The same thing goes for social media notifications—giving in to one alert can lead you down a wormhole of mindless newsfeed scrolling. Doyle recommends checking your e-mail either at the beginning or at the end of your work day. This was very difficult for me, a chronic e-mail checker, but I noticed that on days when I saved e-mails for certain times of day (for me, both the beginning and the end of the work day), I actually found pleasure in reading and responding to e-mails, was better able to process their content and give thoughtful responses, and made greater progress on work projects. 

3. Make sure your daily work rhythm correlates with your circadian rhythm. 

The Harvard Business Review published an article a couple years ago about how the ideal work schedule is one in tune with your internal bodily clock. According to it, studies suggest that attending to how our internal clock affects our energy flows and organizing our work time accordingly enhances employee performance. The author’s advice was that

employees should take their own circadian rhythms into account when planning their own day. The most important tasks should be conducted when people are at or near their peaks in alertness (within an hour or so of noon and 6pm). The least important tasks should be scheduled for times in which alertness is lower (very early in the morning, around 3pm, and late at night). 

This is why I said at the beginning of the article to first chart your ebb and flows and then organize work time accordingly. Below you will find a sample work rhythm chart that I made, but keep in mind that everyone’s natural rhythm is different. Try to create a work schedule that honors yours. 

Do you follow a daily work rhythm? How has it benefited your work and/or home life?