Getting things done: The freelancer’s timetable

You gave up working for someone else for a reason. More than one in all likelihood, but one stood bold and proud: freedom.

Such a noble word; such a bright and sparkling principle; such a statement of hope and promise.

Such a lie

Sounds cynical doesn’t it? But it’s true. I’m a freelancer and I relish the freedom it affords me, but I’m also aware that the jailhouse of 9-5 has been replaced by the open prison of dawn till midnight. I’d rather be incarcerated here though. My friends have a wider choice of visiting hours.

Every freelancer will tell you that you need to be strict with yourself, set your working hours and stick with them.

I’m telling you they need to be longer. A freelancer’s work often arrives in a rush. Your activity is frenzied and frenetic as you deal with the influx, so the next free time you have you’re inclined to indulge as your own. This is fine. We need our treats. Just as a diet doesn’t work when you deprive yourself entirely, you’ll become overwrought without your time out.

But where possible, your standard opening hours should be all about your clients’ needs. Everything else: your admin, your accounting, your self-promotion and planning; has to happen when our PAYE friends are sitting in their cars. You can trade traffic jams for jim-jams, but you’d be better off getting ahead instead.

I’m not being blasé about this, and I don’t want to be completely prescriptive. If you’ve just pulled an all-nighter and there’s yet more to be done, you can be forgiven for ignoring your LinkedIn Q&A session at 8am.

But the problem is that it’s irregularity that destroys our good intentions and allows us to develop bad habits. It’s difficult to allocate an hour during every working day for cold-calling for instance; sooner or later your workload will force you to break your carefully structured timetable. The longer the break, the less likely you are to return to the routine.

My advice is to set up automated reminders in your diary. Something that pings up and prompts you. Outlook’s calendar is a lifesaver. Not only do my friends suddenly think I care enough to remember their birthdays, but I tell myself to read certain RSS newsfeeds at 8am, spend a little time on Twitter at 8:30am and all manner of other instructions. If I can’t spare the time on a particular day because I’m buried under a client’s demands, no problem. I dismiss that eager reminder and I’ll be prompted again tomorrow. There are other options out there of course – mobile reminder services so that even when you’re working on the road or at client site you can be prompted. www.rememberthemilk.com is one such; I use it purely for copywriting project deadlines, but the facility is there to timetable your entire working life.

Create that timetable now on a scrap of paper. If you’ve usually got 6 hours’ client work to do in a day, timetable an hour before 9am for social media catch-up, a quarter of an hour at 11 to check your Twitter and Facebook accounts, throw in two half-hour cold-calling sessions at 11:15am and 3pm, and then some quality time with the evils of MS Excel and your bank account at half five. Of course only you know what additional tasks you ought to complete, but the important thing is to make sure it’s all included, and not at the expense of your working day – 90% of which should effectively be billable.

Forgo the freedom of choosing your every working moment and your improved efficiency will deliver a far greater freedom long-term.

By Anthony Hewson freelance copywriter, copy editor and proofreader.

Image by Mike Rohde cc

What do you think?

Do you plan your working week? Do you find too much freedom and flexibility is a curse rather than a blessing? What do you do to keep yourself productive and in control?

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