In this article and video, I’ll share some of my favorite tips I have learned while working as a freelancer.

What is the most important thing that you should do every day to find success? Emails? Social Media? Education? Well, that’s exactly the question that the book The One Thing by Gary Keller addresses. If you've ever wanted to read this book, or if you're looking for a few quick ways to improve your life, you've come to the right place. The One Thing is an incredible book and will help enhance your productivity, time-management, and better your character.

16 Time-Management Tips for Freelancers Video

Below is a video covering 17 awesome tips to help you manage your time as a freelancer.

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17 Time-Management Tips for Freelancers

Want to see a full list of all of the tips? Here's a full breakdown of the list.

Tip 1: Identify Your Optimal Work Time

Every person has a different time in which they focus best at on their work. If you're like me, you probably have a better time focusing in the morning. However, if you're like Shelby you may focus better in the evening. Instead of forcing yourself to become a morning or night person, listen to your body to determine your optimal work time, and prioritize your most important work for that period. If you're a night owl, your 'workday' may start at 4PM which is totally fine. In fact, People like Bob Dylan, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Prince followed a similar schedule. What's important is for you to be consistent with your schedule. An inconsistent schedule will make it very difficult to get work done.

Tip 2: Track Your Time

Sure, you may feel like your workday is packed full of productive tasks, but odds are you're probably not spending as much time as you think on your most important tasks. As humans, we are painfully ignorant to where out time goes. So it's important to properly track how much time is spent on your most important tasks.

This is where a tool like Sunsama comes into play. Using the app I can track the time it takes to complete each one of my tasks. At the end of the day I can review how long it actually get my work done and note if I had any distractions.

I encourage you to track how long it takes you to do your tasks this week. Especially reoccurring tasks like checking email or writing newsletters. This information will make it a lot easier for you when you are creating a schedule for your day.

Tip 3: Scope Your Work

Freelancers are notoriously bad at predicting how long it takes to do their work. Unfortunately, this also means that you may be getting underpaid if you quote a client a specific amount of time and then end up going over.

Before you begin a project you should always scope out exactly how long it's going to take you to complete the task. Take a look at your previous time logs to determine how much is a reasonable amount of time and add 30% more time than you think you need.

Things can always go wrong, so it's important to give yourself flexibility in your schedule to prepare for the unexpected computer crash, hard-drive failure, or frustrating client.

I always find it better to over-scope how long something will take and then finish it early, rather than under-scoping and feeling rushed or stressed out.

As a wise person once cliched, 'Under Promise, Over Deliver'.

Tip 4: Time Blocking

If you are a freelancer you probably wear a lot of hats. Maybe you spend some of your time working for a client, other time working on content, and the rest of your time learning a new skill.

It's next to impossible to balance all of these things at once. So I'd like to share a little productivity secret called time-blocking. Time blocking is pretty simple. At it's core, you need to set aside specific amounts of time in your schedule to focus on specific tasks.

For example, you might spend your afternoons working on client work. This means from 2PM to 4PM your time is completely blocked out from doing anything else.

If someone requests a meeting, they can't book it with you at that time.

Go through your schedule and try to figure out what time blocks would work best for your goals. Add them to your calendar and stay focused on your work during those times.

Tip 5: Plan Your Week in Advance

It's a terrible idea to just show up to your desk and get to work without planning your week. Whether you plan your week on Sunday or Monday morning, always take the time to look at your schedule for the upcoming week to determine any scheduling conflicts or issues that may arise.

Tip 6: Do the One Thing First

It's completely normal to avoid your most important tasks and focus on the tasks that feel more urgent and fun. For example, you may not like doing sales calls, but a sales call may be vital for you to grow your business.

So one technique that I like to use to grow my business is a technique from the book 'The One Thing'. It all starts by asking yourself a simple question, "What is the one thing that I can do today, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

Every freelancer has a core task that is far more important than anything else. If you're a graphic designer, it might be posting to your portfolio. If you're an influencer it might be doing a photoshoot. For Curious Refuge, it's creating video content for YouTube.

At the beginning of your day always ask yourself the magic question. Then, do that thing before you do anything else. Your one thing should take about 90 minutes to complete and allow yourself to work for 90 minutes straight at the beginning of your workday without interruptions. If that means you need to show up 90 minutes early, so be it.

This focused time will do more for your long-term success than almost any other tip in this video.

Tip 7: To-Do List

If you are only doing tasks that come to you off the top of your head, you are seriously wasting your time. It is vital for you to keep track of everything you need to do in a To-Do list. Some people prefer to use a pen and paper and other people like to use digital tools.

Keeping track of everything you do in a to-do list will not only help you stay organized and on-task, it will also allow you to reflect on everything you accomplished during your day. Many days I'll feel like I didn't accomplish an adequate amount, and then review my completed to-do list only to realize I accomplished much more than I realized.

Tip 8: Not-To-Do List

Similar to a To-Do List, it's also important for every freelancer to have a no-to-do list. A Not-To-Do list is simply a list of things that don't help you achieve your goals during work. For example, my no-to-do list includes YouTube, Facebook, Phone Calls with Friends, and Long Lunch Breaks.

It can also be helpful to write your not-to-do list on a sticky note and place it near your workstation.

Tip 9: The Pomodoro Technique

One of the most popular techniques for getting work done is a little system called the Pomodoro Technique. Essentially the Pomodoro technique is a method of working where you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes.

There are plenty of timers out there that will give you notifications about when to work and take a break. If you find yourself getting distracted easily, Pomodoro may be a helpful way to stay focused on the task at hand.

Tip 10: One Minute Manage

This is a great tip if you hire employees or contractors to help you in your freelance work. There's a great book called 'The One Minute Manager' that you should check out and read. This tip is basically a very quick summary of that book.

In short, great leadership is all about training and empowering people to become self-sufficient problems solvers. It doesn't require micro-managing or hovering.

Assuming you've already trained your team, simply give yourself one minute of conversation with each of your employees to discuss what they accomplished and what they have in the works for that day. Of course, you can go a bit longer if you have to. But I've found that 95% of my management time was reduced when I adopted this simply strategy for management.

Of course, you should have a weekly meeting to open up the door for further discussions, but for day-to-day work you should try to take only about a minute of your employees time. A well-trained team should be empowered to work without you.

You should be focused on long-term vision, not becoming a bottleneck.

Tip 11: My Ideal Schedule

It can be hard to figure out an ideal structure for your day. However, I've found the following a 6-part structure to be perfect for my own personal working style.

My day starts with my One Thing. Like I said, my one thing is the task that makes all my other tasks feel unimportant by comparison. I usually find it best to do my one thing before I even open up my email or communication channels.
next I move on communication. This is when I will batch all Slack or Discord messages, respond to any DMs, Texts, emails, or comments. I don't want to be a blocker for other collaborators, so it's important to communicate all information towards the beginning of my day.
Now I move on to managing. Like I said before, using a simple one minute manager technique. I can check in on everyone who I've hired for the project and clarify our daily objectives. If I need to train or give creative feedback, I'll use this time to do so.
Maintain - Every freelance business has things that have to get done each day and week. During my maintenance block, I'll use the time to prep reoccurring tasks that are important like email newsletters, social media posts, or sales outreach.
Learn - It is vital for you to spend time learning each day. If you don't make learning part of your daily routine, you are going to eventually fall behind. Give yourself a monthly budget to buy courses and books that will help you specifically in your career. Make it your mission to learn for at least 30 minutes each day.
Play - I like to end my workday with a bit of fun. I don't mean ping-pong games. I simply mean spending some time working on fun tasks that don't have any given immediate value to the company. This might be messing around with a new tool, reviewing the news from around your industry, or brainstorming fun new ideas for content. It's important to not just force yourself to constantly work. Have fun and explore new areas in your work.

Tip 12: Wake Up Routine

If you don't have a wake up routine you are doing yourself an extreme disfavor. If you read any productivity book they will talk about the importance of having a defined and consistent wake up routine at the start of your day.

Take some time to write down all of the important things that you need to do in your life to properly take care of your physical, spiritual, and emotional health before starting work.

Maybe you:

Get Up

Work Out

Make Breakfast

Journal

Read Your Bible

and Meditate

Before starting your One Thing ritual.

Write down how long it will take to do each thing and work backwards from the time you want to start your workday. This is your wake up time. Be sure to set your alarm for this time and give yourself some extra time if you are prone to snoozing.

And for the love of all things Apple, please plug in your phone in a different room. Simply, get a boring alarm clock or an Alexa with a clock face. We use both in our house and it has made a huge difference. That tip is for free.

Tip 13: Start Up Routine

Just like a wake up routine, a start-up routine is a defined sequence of events that you go through at the start of your workday. Typically I start my 'Start-Up' Routine after I've already completed my isolated and alone One Thing task.

My Startup Routine includes checking messages, emails, project boards, and business social media.

Tip 14: Wind Down Routine

Set a timer at the end of your workday to begin a wind-down routine. Perhaps around 4:45 you begin your wind-down routine by checking your email, responding to any outstanding customer support, double checking your daily sales, and preparing your tasks for the next day. A proper wind down will make it way easier to step away from your desk at the end of the day.

Tip 15: Nighttime Routine

The best way to have a good morning routine is to have a good nighttime routine. First determine what you want to do every night to care for your health, relationships, and home.

Perhaps you want to:

Pick Up Your House
Walk Your Dogs
Shower
And Read a Book

Determine how much time you want to dedicate to each task and count backwards. Assuming you've already determined your wake up time, subtract 8 hours (or whatever optimal sleep amount you need), then subtract the amount of time your nighttime routine needs. This new time is now your bed time alarm. Set a reoccurring alarm on your phone for this time and try to stick to it at all costs.

Tip 16: End Your Week with a Ritual

Whether you work 3, 5, or 6 days a week, it's important to let your subconscious know that your work week is complete by ending your workweek with a ritual. Some people will get a weekly massage, others will attend happy hour at their local bar. It's completely up to you. Do something that is restorative and fun. This will help your brain transition from work-mode to relax-mode.

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Thank you so much for joining us for this Time-Management video and article. If there is a video you'd like us to cover in the future please feel free to ask us below. Also, if you have any other time-management tips that you'd like to share, please let us hear about them below.

Best of luck on all your putting these tips into practice!