Freelance productivity tips you shouldn’t ignore

The first rule of freelance productivity is to work out what gets your groove happening. For me, it’s a case of eating the same thing, starting the same time every day, having a TO DO list written the night before- and sticking to it. I need boundaries.

For others, a little more of a flexible approach is required.
You need to look after you. But there are a few things you definitely shouldn’t do if you want to be a productive freelancer.

Don’t take “the 3 tips to making you successful” articles seriously

The truth is, unless you have the exact same personality and essential life experience as Richard Branson or Tony Robbins or whoever the heck it is they are profiling, how they eat their cereal or walk around the block won’t work on you.

You need to be honest with yourself look for your motivations and de-motivators.

Journal exercise:
Think about a day where you seriously didn’t have the mojo to do what you needed to do. Be honest and write down:

• What you did the day before that may have contributed (did you stay up later? Have a kick arse day? Did something change?)

• Think about what you did when you found yourself distracted and unable to work in terms of negative behaviours. Were you on social media a lot? Looking for ways to call and email people? What was your crutch?

• If you were able to turn yourself around and do your work, how? Think about what you did in terms of action and what you said to yourself.

• What sorts of things happened during the day to derail you? Were there client problems you didn’t expect? Did something happen in your personal life? Did you wake up that way or did something happen to disrupt your flow?

• What can you do to prevent it from happening again?

Identifying the issue and making a clear outline of why and how to avoid it in future is usually the best prevention.

Avoid being hung up on prohibition

I may need a set routine to really be productive, but it doesn’t mean I deprive myself of things. Again, there are a lot of articles that stipulate when you should check emails, why you should block social media and provide advice on ways to restrict movement away from the core work plan.

However, your core freelance offering may be something that doesn’t allow for you to cut yourself off from email or social media. After all, you’d suck as a help desk or community manager if you blocked those things out, right? And maybe you sell yourself on a platform of being the go-to emergency person for agencies- so not taking phone calls during the day is going to ruin that for you.

Besides, there’s a growing body of evidence that prohibition isn’t foolproof in terms of addiction recovery anyway- whether that recovery is from drugs or a love of coffee meetings.

What works however, is self limitation. It works to realise when you’ve crossed the line and to pull back. You need to take accountability for the impact of time wasting or non-essential activities have on your business.

And the best way to do that is be open and transparent about what is failing you.

Exercise:

• Write down your vice(s) when it comes to time wasting

• Have a look at how much time you spend engaging in them

• Look at how you can make them work better for you by reducing time, making those guilty pleasures more efficient and so on

Putting it all back on the client

Not sure when the work will come? Call and ask.

Deposit not in your account? Remind them you don’t start work until they pay.

Still waiting on those changes? Email them to remind them about it, and let them know you have other bookings to schedule.

Getting the work later and later? Take charge of your schedule and push back.

There is a freelance problem where your client doesn’t communicate as well you want them to. Well, guess what? That’s your fault, too. You are part account manager, whether you like it or not. If you want them to pull up their socks in the communication stakes, you need to ensure they know where the boundaries are.

Delete phrases like:
“Its common sense!” or “its common courtesy!” from your language.

There is absolutely no such thing.

If you want your client to behave in a certain way you need to make sure they know about it. Because not only does it set the expectation, it also provides a legal reference point if things go truly off the rails.

Exercise:

• Write your customer engagement policy- when will you follow up? How?

• Review what you have written- do you need to turn any of it into a term for your terms and conditions?

• Write a blog entitled “My ideal client is...” and outline the sort of relationship you would expect from a client to attract them

Minimise instead of invite interruptions

No one has ever died from an email response being sent the day after as opposed to the same hour. They’ve never imploded because they reached voice mail instead of a speaking human. Coffee is not essential to making a business deal.

You know this, I know this. So let’s not let the tail wag the dog.

Exercise:

• Practise lowering the availability you have to your clients to wean them off immediate service and train them better habits

Do not accept responsibility for someone else’s poor planning

If you ask for assets by Monday and they come Thursday in a week where the deadline is Friday, that doesn’t mean you ditch the client you had booked instead and work all night to meet the deadline.

It means that when you ask for the assets on Monday and they aren’t in your inbox by Tuesday morning, you email the client:

“With our Friday deadline fast approaching, I need to have the assets no later by lunch time today in order to ensure we make that deadline. Please let me know if there is a problem.”

If the client’s chosen designer is impacting the delivery of your copy by not sharing mocks and wireframes, you need to send this email:

“I am yet to view the visual design for the website. This means I am unable to start the landing page/internal pages as I am unsure of the spacing and word limits for each section on the website that requires copy. It would be great to see the design progress so that I can begin work.”

This also applies to brochures and anything else where your work is contingent on other peoples. State the problem in short and sweet format. State the impact. Reaffirm what you need to start.

If your client dumps work on you when you’ve already got work scheduled, you email:

“Thanks for this. As we’ve missed your original booking, the earliest day I can begin your work is X/In order to complete your work by the previously agreed date, I will need to charge a rush fee of Y. LMK I have your approval and I shall schedule you in accordingly.”

Always explain and follow up. It’s the best way to remain both productive and stress-free.

Exercise:

• Think about the common ways clients derail your working day

• Think about the ways you can re-train them to have better habits

• Template out some short reply emails you can use to avoid the issues and how to make sure they don’t become your problem if they still happen

The final word on productivity

The most popular ways freelancers engage self distraction are:

1. Attending too many coffee meetings

2. Social media usage

3. Writing too many blogs

4. Being a slave to email

5. Researching too much on the internet

6. Making phone calls

7. Waiting for the client to do something

8. Pursuing perfection in the work we do

9. Cabin fever

How many are you guilty of? What are you going to do to change your ways? How can you make yourself more productive?

Want to get some additional advice on productivity? Check out my side project, Hacking Happiness.