6 Ways for Freelancers to Boost Productivity
As a freelancer, you need to learn good practices and habits if you want to make a stable career. In terms of marketing yourself and improving the promotion of your services, you have to execute sound social media strategies and know your selling points. There are many other freelancer tips you can adopt for a successful freelance career. But, in this blog, we’ll be focusing on productivity.
6 Ways for Freelancers to Boost Productivity
Your productivity as a freelancer affects how much income you’ll receive within a period. Of course, you want to increase your revenue, right? Well, if you say yes, then we’ll gladly help you. We’ll show you six tips for freelance workers to boost productivity.
Set a Quota for Yourself
Quotas motivate sales and marketing teams to achieve the desired revenue and profit rate of their company’s executives. In freelancing, there’s no boss or business manager to implement a quota for you. In that case, the possibility of procrastinating could be imminent. We all know how badly procrastination can affect one’s work. The solution, however, is quite simple. Just set your own quota, perhaps in the form of a to-do checklist for yourself. If you have set of goals that you need to achieve before a certain period ends, that inclines you to accomplish more tasks promptly. A quota will help you have the mindset that you need to finish on time. Setting a quota on yourself will certainly help, especially if you have habits of procrastinating. Moreover, it also boils down in practicing self-discipline.
Prepare a Work Schedule
Time management is essential in boosting your productivity as a freelancer. The most basic approach to manage time is by plotting a schedule. A schedule can help you to budget your work hours and fit in as many tasks as you can finish within your day. Plan your schedule well and estimate how long you think you can complete each project. As much as possible, your daily schedule must be more of a routine. A routine can help in speeding up your workflow because you do it every day. It becomes a part of you, and doing your tasks will seem to be a simple stroll in the park. But, the most important thing is to plot a schedule that works well for you. In that way, your productivity will stabilize and could improve gradually.
Refrain from Multitasking
A lot of people believe that multitasking enables a person to accomplish more work than usual. Well, to some degree it’s true, but not advisable. An analysis in a Harvard Business Review report contradicts the belief of the majority about multitasking. The report states that a person’s productivity could go down by 40% if he or she multitasks. It’s a fair and reasonable point.
When you multitask, you’re not actually doing numerous tasks at once. Instead, you’re switching from one task to another every few minutes. Your mind will have difficulties focusing because its attention is continuously shifting from this to there and vice versa. According to an article from PR Daily, only 2% of people can multitask with efficiency. With that small percentage, it’s safe to assume that you’re not one of those few individuals who are adept in multitasking. So, it’s better to overcome your productivity challenges by managing your time wisely.
Divide Big Projects into Small Tasks
If you have work contracts with big projects, don’t let it pressure you. Big projects can indeed be a hurdle in maintaining your productivity, but it’s a hurdle you can overcome. Most projects with broad scopes have much sooner deadlines to give freelancers more time to complete them with quality. That said, you should divide your big projects into smaller tasks that you need to accomplish daily. In doing so, you’ll have ample time to perform your other freelance duties.
You should make it your mindset that big projects must undergo a day to day process to make their results successful. Don’t cram to finish them in one day and have suboptimal outputs. Suboptimal finished products will dissatisfy your trusted clients and degrade your online reputation. Remember that productivity is not just about accomplishing many tasks within a period; it’s also about producing with quality.
Block Distractions
Freelancers don’t work in a company office; they work at their homes. In your residence, there are a lot of things that can distract you from your freelance tasks, such as your kids, pets, videogame consoles, and TV. Plus, no supervisor or manager is checking on you whether you’re working or not. So, keeping yourself focused can be a problem. The best that you can do is simply block distractions. Work in a quiet space where you can be alone. Refrain from checking on your phone if there’s nothing essential to check unless it’s an email from one of your clients. Do your work in an environment where you can set your mind to focus on your tasks. If possible, you should consider building a home office for yourself.
Use Freelance Apps and Tools
Aside from doing projects, you’ll also do other things such as job hunting in freelance websites, asking for referrals, tracking your finances, preparing quotation bills, and many more. As you may have realized, freelancing requires you to be a dynamic worker. You’ll be doing all the heavy lifting because of your independence, which could affect your productivity. So, if you have the money, consider using various freelance apps and tools that can quicken the process of your tasks. The many benefits of freelancer apps and tools will help you to have a convenient freelancing experience. That includes improvements in your productivity. Choose apps and tools that have project management and time management features.
In freelancing, if your productivity rate reaches certain heights, your chances of earning a work proposal from bigtime clients are very likely. So make sure to practice good work ethic all the time. Maintain your focus and be smart in managing your time. And lastly, always present your clients with results that exceed their expectations. Productivity is a combination of speed, consistency, and efficiency.
More in Freelancer
