When communication is cheap, it’s easy and quite common for your client to keep in touch, continually revising what they want you to do. Without a way to keep track of all these different requests, freelancing can be a nightmare.
How often does a work project span over all of these:
- Instant Messages
- Phone Conversation
- Face-to-face meetings
As a freelancer, your productivity depends entirely on your own initiative. In an environment with so many distractions, and so many different ways of communicating, it’s difficult to keep up without appropriate productivity tools.
Email Productivity
While some would consider email an out of date technology, we still use it primarily for business communication. It’s lucky that these days email tools have kept up with the way we work.
If you’re using a hosted solution like Google Mail in your workplace, you’re in luck. Google can keep track of every message you send, and organise it hierarchically in a conversation format. The powerful search feature is also a blessing when you’re looking for something in particular, and can’t find it elsewhere.
If you’re still using a desktop client (and I’ll admit freely I am,) there’s still a few tricks you can use to keep on top.
- If you’re juggling projects, delegate each client their own folder. Set up rules to move incoming email to appropriate folders automatically. This will reduce clutter in your inbox, and divide your messages into manageable sections you can focus on as required.
- If you haven’t already, consider reading Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero series, to keep your email account sorted and useful.
Task Management
Project management is a whole kettle of fish I’m not going to open here. As a freelancer, you should already be familiar with the basics of project management, so I’ll focus on a little trick I’ve learned recently.
Take Notes.
Especially when you’re dealing with multiple streams of information, taking notes can seriously reduce the amount of work you have to do later. I’ll often get five or six emails from a client before getting a clear picture as to what they actually want me to do, so referring back to all of these emails wastes a significant amount of time.
You might find that taking notes is initially a bit intimidating, but with a decent on-line or desktop note-taking application you can significantly reduce this stress.
My particular favourite application is Getting Things Gnome, which is a glorified to-do list. It lets me take down points a client makes in real time, and then check them off as they’re completed.
This kind of workflow significantly reduces the stress and frustration of sorting through old emails and instant messages to find answers to questions you’ve already asked.
Down Time
There’s no productivity tool like a holiday.
Sometimes it’s worthwhile to just take a break from your work, and unwind. If necessary, let your recurring clients know you’re taking a few days off, and go away.
Similarly, try not to work on the weekend at all. It’s difficult as a freelancer, because some clients use this time as an opportunity to get in contact you outside of their own work hours, but if you’re burning yourself out week-round, you’re not going to get anywhere. If you absolutely must, check your email once a day, but don’t get bogged down with the details.
Freelance work can be tricky to manage at times, but developing strategies to optimise your workflow and reduce managerial clutter really does help.