10 ways to improve the working efficiency of freelancers

　　Productivity is very important for freelancers because the work you do is directly related to your income.

If you can do more things in a shorter period of time, you can do more work. At the same time, we also have more time to accompany our family members, meet friends, or develop personal hobbies.

High Efficiency for freelancers also means that you can constantly expand your business while working for your current customers. In addition, you have more time to learn, improve your skills, or learn new things.

In this article, I will share with you 10 ways for freelancers to make their work more efficient:

　　1. Organize your work environment

From a practical perspective, a clean and well-placed physical environment means that it is very convenient to find something. You don't have to waste a lot of valuable time looking for urgently needed materials.

From another perspective, the working environment will affect our thinking. If the job is messy, our thinking will be messy and our minds will be restless. On the contrary, if the work environment is clean and organized, it is easier for people to remain calm and concentrate.

　　2. develop short-term and long-term plans

Without any plans, you just get stuck at work, like a trip without any calendar. How do you know when to reach your destination?

On the contrary, with clear long-term and short-term goals, you can easily and clearly set the priority of the work, and then determine the time to spend on that work.

In addition, you also need to mark milestones and celebrate each achievement, which will inspire you to reach a higher goal.

　　3. perform similar tasks together.

When you constantly perform similar tasks, you can take advantage of the momentum. For example, it takes an hour to reply to the email, instead of opening the email for a while, and then reading it again.

　　4. Do not scatter data during working hours

Do not scatter work hours. Instead, we divide the time into blocks, and then concentrate on a job in each time to bring ourselves into a good state of work-> A moment of rest-> and then work, avoid distracting spirit to the maximum extent.

　　5-plus rest

When you want to complete a large task, you may not want to stop and take a rest. However, we are humans, not machines. The longer we continue to work, the more efficiency and productivity we will gradually decrease. We need to stop and fix it so that we can go further.

Of course, the rest also includes vacations. The rest not only keeps us fighting, but also brings us new ideas.

　　6. use tools to systematize and automate common work

Today, freelancers can use many high-tech tools. Such as accounting, invoice and customer management can be simplified through software and applications, or even completely automated.

In addition, it is also a good way to create a template for the documents used in daily use. For example, a template specifically used to reply to customer inquiries, a project proposal template, and the invoices and other email templates.

It is also practical to streamline the work. For example, if you want to create an email list, what are the common steps and what each step will do. In the future, you only need to simply follow these steps.

　　7. Trust

People who do not know how to delegate often think, "they are too bad to do it themselves ". Sometimes I think so. However, I slowly accept the current situation: in fact, I am not doing well in many things.

Therefore, I will entrust (outsource) some technical skills that I am not good at to other part-time engineers. Although their charges are much higher than those of my customers, their work done in that segment is much better than my speed and quality.

Of course, it is best not to delegate something you are good at to others. After all, what you are good at is hard to find a more suitable alternative. Here we emphasize the need to learn to delegate jobs that you are not good at, that someone can do better, and that you do not have to do it yourself.

　　8. match your preferences and biological clock

It is very important to know yourself. Try to understand how you can work better, under what circumstances, how many hours a day, and so on.

For example, some people do not like to work at night, but they are in good morning and morning status. Therefore, they will finish their main work in the morning and morning, and do other things in the afternoon. Do things that do not require too much brains at night.

　　9 do not disturb

Disturbing is a headache. They distract your attention and make a task delayed. Over time, you have more and more unfinished work.

Therefore, try to minimize all possible interruptions before you start your work. For example, disable email, chat client, enable the language reply function of the phone, and close various programs that may pop up windows. (here, by the way, the program that pops up a window from time to time is really annoying, for example: anti-virus, download software), prepare a cup of full (TEA) water around.

In addition, do not just disturb yourself. If you work in a team, do not disturb other members.

　　10 leverage the power of music

Many people in the office must wear headphones to work. I didn't believe that at that time.

However, research has proved that listening to music can greatly improve productivity and reduce the workload. This article by bole online-workplace blog also mentions that office music is still annoying.

These music not only includes classical music, but also rock music.

Try and find music that can help you better work. Sometimes, you may need to listen to different music in different jobs. In my personal opinion, the warm and brisk music, songs, music, or guzheng can all relieve the pressure on my work. However, many popular songs may not be helpful. You will usually follow the songs you like. If so, the songs will disturb your work rather than promote your work.

　　After the article

When you want to improve your work efficiency, there are many blogs and books dedicated to describing various methods. However, the most important thing is to practice.

This means you need to find the methods that suit you. The suggestions for improving work efficiency are very broad. Do not think that the experts have put forward these suggestions. You should follow them one by one.

The feasible method is: Try to practice the methods that may suit you and select the appropriate ones based on the actual results.

How do you improve work efficiency? Welcome to share with us.