Prioritising and planning how you use your time is a key skill for every great freelancer. Unlike most salaried jobs, where priorities and plans are often agreed in appraisals or dictated by a boss, freelancing gives you the freedom to choose what you do and when you do it.
This freedom can have shortcomings however as it’s very easy to be distracted by emails, twitter and other interruptions — and it’s tempting to focus on doing those tasks you like instead of those which may be most useful.
A part of our series on #FreelanceFocus Freelance Advisor and Business Mentor Toby Buckle show us how he balances personal and work tasks and how to make sure we find time for the non-urgent but important tasks.
I am a firm believer in using the ‘urgent/important’ grid by Stephen R.Covey to manage the planning and prioritising of time.
Instead of simply listing out the things that need to be done in a day/week (which invariable turns out to be more items than it is possible to get done in the time), you draw out a matrix as illustrated below. This Matrix has the axis defined in terms of the urgency and importance of the tasks to be done.
Thinking about these two dimensions of work helps me to prioritise and allocate time to tasks.
Often we end up simply doing the urgent things which may not be that important in reaching our goals. Covey believes that successful people find time to do the important things which never become urgent (B tasks) and are great at resisting doing the nom- urgent things (C & D tasks), even if they seem urgent or appealing.
Prioritising getting A tasks done first and then B tasks allows a structure of priority to the day and stops you bouncing from one task to another randomly as helps prevent distractions taking over.
Unfortunately in using this system there are things that never seem to get done. They are personal admin tasks and so not business important and usually they are not urgent.
When I’ve got my business head on these things are like static distortion buzzing away in the background. Sometimes it is good to get rid of this static by setting aside some time to blitz this non-urgent and personal stuff.
I took some time out of running the business recently to do exactly this. I focused on stuff like getting my car a service, using my ISA allowance and fixing up odd jobs around the home as well as going to see the dentist and doctors for checkups. These were things I had been meaning to do for ages. I still did some urgent/important work tasks but mentally work was a secondary priority on those days.
It is important to do this every now and again as not only does it clear the static but allows you space to think about what you are doing and check you are in balance. Make sure you pay attention to health, home and relationships and if you feel they haven’t had attention recently blitz them. It doesn’t need to be a whole day of focus, just an hour or two could do it. Doing this on a regular basis allows the focus to remain on work tasks.
When you freelance you can become so focused on work or trying to get work in that it becomes all too easy to be sucked into being busy all the time and forget about all the other really important things that need doing in your life as a whole.
By Business Mentor Toby Buckle
Image by KayVee.INC ~ cc
