Good time management is one of the most important skills of every freelancer. If you organize your time well, you will be much more efficient in your work. In his article, Time Doctor explains how to create a time management plan in just 6 simple steps.
Step 1: List Down Your Tasks
Every time management plan starts with the step of listing down all the tasks. If you have a complex task, you can break them into smaller tasks. Don’t forget to update the list of tasks with new tasks when they appear.
Step 2: Prioritize Freelance Tasks
You should prioritize tasks according to their urgency or complexity levels. For example, you can divide tasks into those that are urgent and those that are not urgent, or those that are very important and those that are less important.
Step 3: Schedule Tasks as a Freelancer
You need to create daily, weekly, and monthly tasks and add a time frame for each task. Scheduling tasks into time slots will help freelancer to stay organized, efficient, and focused on your work. Additionally, take note of your productive hours. For instance, some people are most productive in the morning while others work better post-noon.
Step 4: Schedule Discretionary Time
Discretionary time refers to the free time that’s not assigned to any task. For example, if your meeting ends an hour earlier than predicted, you have a discretionary time of one hour. Setting aside some free time will prepare you for the unanticipated task.
Step 5: Note Your Distractions
Small habits, like frequently checking notifications or social media, can keep you from giving your best at work. That’s why it’s important to anticipate and list your distractions.
Step 6: Invest in Time Management Tools
With the right tools, you can check your progress on a project task without manually tracking time, helping you focus fully on your freelance work.
Of course, Time Doctor suggests using their productivity and time management tool. You can check the Time Doctor Features and decide if this is the right software for you.
Since all freelancers have different habits, needs and organize time in different ways, it would be good to check out different time management tools. There is a lot of software for this purpose, such as Focus Booster, Timely, OfficeTime, Harvest… Whichever one you choose, it will definitely improve your freelance time management and productivity.
