As a freelancer, how to plan your time and make yourself more productive

Whether you are a full-time freelancer or just use it as a part-time job, you need to properly coordinate the relationship between business and life. Successful freelancers have developed a set of personal rules and procedures that help them to work effectively.

Here, we have 10 suggestions that can help you work more methodically and train yourself to work better every day. Make your daily routines more organized.

　　1. Daily Plan

An efficient job stems from a good plan, what are you going to do for the day?

Make a list of your day's work and divide it into several small tasks, one after the other. Think ahead in your mind about how your work will unfold. Plan which days of the week to go out to run business, which days at home to handle work, when to meet customers. Arrange everything so that you can save a lot of time and resources costs.

Remember to schedule a little fun time, which is a must, and you have to take this into account when you set up your daily plans or weekly plans, and no one will be working and not resting. Plan wisely, or you will only become exhausted and depressed.

After the plan is complete, imagine (as a designer, the best thing is this one): "The beginning of the day, I first need ..." put the process in your head and express it clearly will help you understand your work more clearly and do it more clearly.

　　2. Working in the work area

Not all freelancers have the luxury of owning a Home office, but you have to have a workspace, and if not, create one yourself.

Working in the work area, which sounds simple, when you work in a certain work area, you can easily reach the tools you need, the atmosphere of the work can help you get into the ideal state of work quickly, and save you time to set up your office every day.

Once you get into the work area, you start a day of work. Determine your working hours every day, although you don't have a direct boss, but you can pretend that you're working for an invisible boss, fixing your working hours every day, and not mixing up your working hours and breaks.

　　3. Regularly clean up your inbox

Spend a little time each day cleaning up your inbox before it accumulates in the mail to scare you. You can divide all your messages into three categories, and then follow the methods below to organize them.

Spam or no need to reply to the message: Delete directly ... 5-minute Mail: refers to messages that you can finish or reply to within five minutes, and then delete them quickly. Requires more than 5 minutes of Project e-mail: For example, projects that take a certain amount of time to complete, remember to set deadlines to remind yourself not to forget the turnaround.

You will also receive many other types of mail. such as spam and preferential notice, if you do not want to receive the relevant push, remember to mark and then delete, set to avoid interruptions, if you think it may be useful in the future but now do not need, then set to move to a specific folder, the next time to look at the useful time.

　　4. Clear Financial

Freelancers must be aware of their finances, although it is easy to pay taxes or other times, but it is important to know when the money comes and how it is spent.

This includes filing invoices (and ensuring they are paid on time), recording income and expenses, taxes, dues and other bills.

As a freelancer, personal life financial expenses are best separated from working financial expenses. It's hard to do this because many people find it tedious, especially for freelancers who work in creative jobs. Consider finding an accountant to help you with these problems if you feel you don't want to deal with them.

　　5. Check/update social media

At least once a day, you need to look at your social media, interact with fans or users, or post something new. This is part of your overall marketing and branding program, isn't it?

Social media can help you reach a wider audience, including potential customers and other freelancers, but you don't have to spend all day on it. It's enough to spend 30 minutes a day checking or updating your social platform, and you can use tools like HootSuite or buffer to manage your social platform so you don't have to be busy with your social platform all day.

6. Set and stick to the goal

In a traditional office environment, your superiors will give you a long term or short term task to motivate you to complete your work. When you work alone, you need to do the same. Personally, I divide this task into two types: The daily goal and the stage goal.

The daily goal is the task I need to complete every day, which may be different parts of different projects, or different tasks. The daily goal may also be the creation of a new design or the re-composition of the old works.

The stage goal is a big blueprint that you want to achieve in the next year, five years or 10 years in a position. To accomplish a stage goal you have to consider a lot of things, including retirement plans, career growth plans and a range of things, and if the stage target is a castle, the daily goal is to build the castle bricks. Spend a little time each day summarizing your goals and work, making improvements based on your situation and getting closer to your goals.

　　7. Follow the trend

For a freelance designer, the scariest thing is to keep up with the trends. You have to keep learning and focus on the latest technology, tools and design trends.

For me, that means I need to look at a lot of design work and get the latest design information. Of course you can also attend seminars, listen to lectures or focus on designing websites. The most important thing is that you have to maintain a high degree of contact with the industry in which you work (also in related fields).

Remember to keep learning something new every day, no matter how small.

　　8. Take a break

Sitting in front of a computer for a long time does not go anywhere, and there is no point, too tired may make you crash or sleepy, after work you also need to throw away the computer, go out, have a cup of coffee or relax yourself.

Do not just brush Weibo as a form of rest, stand up and move, do some games better.

It's a good thing to have a manual ring or other exercise recorder. Set a goal every day to move out of your seat during this time, to have an alarm clock or a memo, so you don't forget. Research shows that the right amount of exercise makes you more productive.

　　9. Follow up the customer

Remember to reply to all your customers ' emails and phone calls every day. If the customer is fastidious about the efficiency of the person, do not delay doing things. If things have to be pushed until tomorrow to finish, the answer to the customer must also be completed on the same day.

When you are not in the office, remember to set up an automatic reply or notification, so that your customers know you are not here, so you can not reply in a timely manner.

Reply as soon as possible the customer will send a message to the customer: we value you very much. It will increase the user's goodwill and shape a good personal impression. Make your customers feel respected. In fact, these responses don't take much time and can help you organize your own list of customers.

　　10. Calculate the time cost

How long does it take you to attract customers to your job? Take a good look at your time schedule, and then re-make a scientific and reasonable time plan, you may be pleasantly surprised to find.

When working from home, many freelancers are bothered by other things, social media, personal mail and even housework, all in a mess. A reasonable planning time can help you determine the time that is really spent on your work, manage everything in an orderly way, and improve your productivity. When you are carefully regulated, you may find:

• Probably more work than you think.
• The workload may not be as complicated as you think.

While working less than you think can lead to problems, the fact that you have more work than you think means there are some financial problems. The more time you spend on a job, the less you'll earn per hour. Have you ever thought about calculating the value of your hourly work?

　　Conclusion

As a freelancer, you are a resource in itself. Although each of us has different jobs, the definition of success is different, but there are many similarities as a freelancer. It is important to achieve a balance between the individual and the work that is handled correctly throughout the workflow.

As a freelancer, how to plan your time and make yourself more productive