Working for yourself takes discipline and focus, and you’ll need both to ensure your days are productive. Which means you'll need to consider how to plan your working day.
Your first step is to make a list of goals. These are the things you’d like to achieve in the short, mid and long-term. Goals help you stay focused and on track; keep you motivated and give you a sense of satisfaction when they’re achieved.
‘Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.’ Tony Robbins, entrepreneur and life coach
Set your goals
A good goal is something that’s well-defined, within your reach and measurable. Effective goals are characterised by the acronym SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based. Here’s an example of a SMART mid-term goal for a freelance handbag designer:
To see a 25% increase in Etsy sales of the new ‘Mindy’ tote bag by 31 December 2018.
Let’s break this down into each element of the SMART model:
Specific: This involves defining your goals as precisely as possible. Rather than the above goal being simply about ‘increasing sales’, it’s specifically about the new ‘Mindy’ handbag being sold through Etsy.
Measurable: How will you measure the success of each goal? You’ll need to include figures, percentages, or, for example, an indicator of a competency level, so you can measure how successful you’ve been. The example above sets a ‘25% increase in sales’ as the goal - clearly measurable. An example of a goal indicating a competency level could include something like, 'speak at B2 level in German on the Common European Framework of Reference for languages'.
Attainable: If you set goals that you have no way of achieving, you’ll feel de-motivated when you’re unable to reach them. A 25% increase of ‘all stock’ for example may not be as achievable.
Relevant: Goals should make sense for your business plans. Maybe you are testing the market to see whether it makes commercial sense to launch a larger range of bags. So, it’s relevant in terms of your business development.
Time-based: You need to fix a deadline for your goal. In our example, it’s the last day of 2018. You have a clear date to work towards.
In addition to the SMART model, there are three other tips to help you establish and work towards your goals.
1. Write your goals down
'If you have a goal, write it down. If you do not write it down, you do not have a goal - you have a wish.' Steve Maraboli, behavioural scientist & author
I love this quote from Steve Maraboli. Something very interesting happens when you write stuff down. Committing something to paper makes it instantly more real and achievable than when it’s simply a collection of thoughts rolling around in your head. As well as writing your goals down, display them somewhere that’s clearly visible so they’re a constant reminder.
2. Keep them positive
When goals are positive, they keep you motivated. So rather than: ‘Stop doing my expenses once a year’, say what you WILL do instead: ‘Do my expenses monthly until fiscal year end’. Regularly using positive words can actually change your brain and propel you into action, according to research carried out by Dr Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist, and Mark Walderman, a communications expert.
3. Prioritise
Nothing is more important than being able to prioritise as a freelancer. Once you’ve made your list of goals, decide which ones are the most important each day and highlight them. If you have a work deadline tomorrow maybe today’s priority is to finish that project. On another day, it might be to contact five new clients.
The Eisenhower Matrix is a tool you can use to help you prioritise tasks based on urgency and importance. See how you can apply it to your working day in the video below.
Allocate your time
As we’ve seen, prioritising will help you decide which tasks are the most pressing. However, if you find yourself with a number of equally important tasks, you’ll need to consider how to efficiently plan your day to get everything done. There are two approaches to this.
Task-oriented
Client-oriented
1. Task-orientated
This is when you organise your day into chunks of time doing similar tasks. If you’re a freelance content producer for a number of clients, you could block out two hours of time for social media posts - say, an hour per client; spend a few hours writing blog posts or an hour checking each client’s analytics.
2. Client-orientated
This is where you focus on just one client, prioritising and planning the work into a list of tasks you need to complete for that specific project. Here’s my client-orientated plan for one of the days I worked on this course:
Time-track your tasks
If you’re charging a client by the hour or day, it’s important to track the time you spend so you know:
How much time you’ve spent on a project
Exactly how much to charge
This can be as simple as using the stopwatch on your smartphone or starting and stopping at set times as in my diary example above. You can also use time-tracking apps such as Harvest or Toggl which help you track how much time you spend on each task each day.
Improve your focusing skills
Part of the discipline of working as a freelancer is having the ability to focus. If you work at home, there can be lots of distractions: the laundry, daytime television or the temptation to take an extended afternoon nap. And on slow days, you may just do all three! But there are ways you can hone your focusing skills.
1. Stamp out distractions
Yes, smartphones have become one of our major distractions. There are countless ways we can be contacted which can mean notifications coming through every few minutes. Put your phone on silent when working or disable notifications. And when you’re working, never keep separate tabs open on your computer to check your social media accounts. You’ll spend way more time doing this than you think.
Do any chores before you start work in the morning, at lunchtime or when you finish for the day. Set the hours you work each day and stick to them!
2. Take a break
It’s completely natural to lose focus when you’ve been working on something for a long time. There’s only so much time we can concentrate on a task before we begin to lose interest. Schedule short breaks in your daily routine where you physically step away from what you’re doing.
3. Exercise
Physical exercise is said to make your brain work better. Go for a run or to the gym in the morning before you start work or do some yoga or go for a walk at lunchtime. Exercise will energise both your mind and body and help re-focus you.
4. Listen to music
There have been lots of studies into the effectiveness of music on focusing the brain. The phrase the ‘Mozart effect’ was coined after results showed the ability to carry out certain kinds of mental tasks were improved after listening to Mozart. Listening to music without lyrics is thought to be more effective, so you’re not distracted by the words.
5. Drink water
When your body is dehydrated, it can also cause your focus to wane, so drink water to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day.
Now you’ve mastered how to plan your day and stay on top of your work, you’ll need to figure out how to manage the multiple roles you’ll be faced with as a freelance business owner. We’ll explore how to do this in the next chapter.
