Working as a freelancer for the past half decade, I’ve struggled to stay productive and focused without burning out. It’s a problem most freelancers struggle with, especially in creative fields.
But how do you juggle everything from client work to your project, with all the unpaid admin requirements of each, and a personal life demanding your attention at the most inopportune moments?
In this article, I go into everything I’ve learned about time management for freelancers, including scheduling strategies that work, such as time blocking with added buffers, including 5 time management tips I’ve found helpful, like:
- Planning mindfully
- Working in sprints
- Tracking your time to see where it goes
- Automating and delegating where you can
- Making the most of ‘waiting’ periods
These are tips that work, without making it feel like your work is sucking the very life from your body. This allows you to enjoy your job and feel like you are providing quality, and, in turn, enjoy your time away from work even more.
Why Time Management Matters More for Freelancers
Time management is vital for everyone, but for freelancers, it is directly tied to their income, making it critical for their survival.
The paradox of freedom and chaos
Freelancing calls to many with its siren song, offering the freedom to work when, where, and how you want.
But while it may seem like a luxurious no-brainer, things can quickly get out of hand.
When I first started freelancing, I would wake up every day feeling a sense of purpose, committed to checking as many boxes off my to-do list as possible and working as efficiently as I could. But by the time we hit mid-afternoon, everything started to get a bit foggy.
Without the structure provided by a traditional office environment, I would often find myself wasting hours on small chores or getting distracted by my phone.
I planned full days, but I was lucky if I managed to get a couple of hours of work done by the end of it.
This is a relatively common issue.
Freelancers vs. traditional professionals: unique time challenges
As a freelancer, you don’t fill a single position with a set number of responsibilities. Instead, you juggle your client’s work, administrative tasks, your marketing, and much more.
The services you provide to a client may grow, organically or at their request, which may even lead to you needing to expand your capabilities and devote time to continued education.
And all of this is on top of any personal commitments that may come up or the occasional existential crisis.
You need to manage your time and optimize your workflows to ensure you don’t fall behind, even when you have multiple projects with swiftly approaching deadlines.
Designing an Effective Freelancer Daily Routine
One of the most essential time management tips for freelancers is to establish a daily routine that suits you. This has the added benefit of meaning that you don’t have to waste time every morning trying to figure out how to separate your tasks; you already have a clear idea.
Determine your ideal working hours.
First, consider when it would be best to work. Many people find it most effective to do their most intense work early in the morning. Others, myself included, find their mind wakes in the evening, arriving like an old friend who knocks on your door unexpectedly.
You may also have an unavoidable commitment that you need to work around, such as dropping children off at school or attending another recurring event.
Organize your day by energy, not just the clock.
Organizing your day by energy levels is key to effective task management. As I mentioned earlier, I enjoy the evenings. This doesn’t mean I do nothing the rest of the day. It simply means that I organize my easier work, or the work that I enjoy the most, and am least likely to procrastinate on.
Build a flexible but consistent rhythm.
Stuff comes up. That’s life. You don’t have to be a drill sergeant. Just do your best to ensure you have some consistency that you can fall back on.
In the mornings, I do my easy writing and editing. In the afternoons, I do administration and meetings, and in the evenings, when I’m particularly creative, I tackle deep work, research, or any strenuous technical writing. Weekends are strictly for personal time, especially Sundays.
However, if things don’t go as planned, I do what I can. And sometimes, when I’m struggling to meet deadlines, I need to work on complex tasks even when I know I’m not in my most productive hours.
And that is fine. After all, routines are just guidelines.
Scheduling Strategies That Work
Even with a routine that works, you’ll still need to schedule specific tasks as part of general project management to help boost productivity.
Time blocking and calendar management
I like to use my calendar like a canvas, blocking off specific hours for deep work, others for administration, and, of course, meetings.
As you build your schedule, don’t forget to add some breathing room. You don’t want to have to jump from meeting to meeting, or have no room for tasks to take a couple of minutes longer than you expected.
I prefer to use colors, but feel free to do what works for you.
Planning buffers and margins for creativity
Planning buffers, as mentioned above, are critical. They give you a little bit of space to breathe, allowing you time to switch your mind from one task to another, and room for variation where things don’t take the exact time you anticipated.
There is nothing worse than feeling like you are rushing one client to finish, because you are already two or three minutes late for the meeting with the next.
Time management strategies, such as inserting a margin, also help you be more creative, as you are not constantly under pressure. Even if you end up doing nothing in that time, you still increase productivity overall because you get time to rest.
How to adapt when your day falls apart
Things don’t go to plan. That’s a given. The important thing is, when you get to that point, you can’t just throw your hands into the air and write the entire day off.
Being able to adapt is a crucial aspect of time management for freelancers and essential for maintaining a healthy work-life balance in the long run.
For example, if you have to rush to the hospital for a family member’s emergency during the period when you would normally do your deep work, know that you will have to complete that work later. Although it may not be as productive or easy to stay focused, the work still needs to be done.
5 Practical Productivity and Time Management Tips for Freelancers: That Don’t Kill Your Spirit
Having a routine is essential, as is scheduling specific tasks, but you still need to be productive to make the most of your time. Let’s look at some of the best ways you can go about mastering time management as a freelancer without completely killing your spirit and passion for your work.
Prioritize and plan your workload mindfully.
It may feel like everything is important, but you need to pick your top priorities. If you would like, create a simple list that includes all the things you need to do, as well as two or three that are your top priorities.
You can also use tools like Todoist or, if you’re working in a team, Trello and Asana.
Regardless of what you choose, clear goals that you can easily complete, even if you have to break projects into smaller tasks to set realistic expectations, will help you know where to focus your time.
Embrace short sprints (Pomodoro technique and variations)
Working in sprints, such as 25/5 or 50/10, is a great way to ensure you are getting the most out of the time spent on focused work.
These periods of dedicated time allow you to knuckle down, while the short breaks allow you to take a breather, which in turn allows you to be incredibly productive when you enter your next work slot.
If you are unfamiliar with the Pomodoro technique, I would recommend trying out 25-minute sprints to start off with. All you need is a timer. If you find this is working well, you can always increase the work time later on. It’s what I do when I’m struggling on a Monday morning. The familiar rhythm becomes strangely therapeutic.
Track your time and learn from it.
Knowing where your time is going is essential to figuring out where you may be going wrong so that you can improve your time management.
You can use tools like Toggl, which has a great free version that’s good enough for keeping track of your time, and a 30-day free trial for the paid versions, which have additional useful features like billing features you can use to invoice clients. It offers both a desktop and mobile app, making it great if you’re on the go.
Clockify is also a popular option for tracking times across multiple projects, and I assume that including both work and personal productivity wouldn’t be too difficult, but I’ve never used it personally. The great news is that it’s also available for free, so you have nothing to lose if you’re thinking of trying it our.
I like to just take a step back and use pen and paper to start tracking my time when I feel like I’m starting to lose some somewhere. You’ll probably find that there are a bunch of holes that are fairly easy to patch.
Automate and delegate when possible
Sometimes, tech can do it for you. If you’re just starting out, it might not be worth it to find scheduling and project management tools or invoicing software. It definitely wasn’t when I first started my freelance writing career.
But, as you start to grow, even using the free version of certain software can greatly speed things up, or sometimes even automate processes that might take up valuable time and even lead to burnout eventually.
Maximize idle time and “waiting periods.”
You may find that there are odd tasks that don’t really take that long, but that collectively end up consuming hours of the day. Making the most of any odd breaks in your day and doing these kinds of tasks can help you achieve your goals, especially if you are doing some sort of remote work.
I don’t mind taking calls while I’m commuting or going through my emails while I’m waiting in the doctor’s office.
Guarding Your Creative Hours Like Sacred Ground
Creativity comes and goes. You can’t always rely on feeling inspired, even when that inspiration is what got you into your field. While flexibility is great, I have found that guarding my creative hours is essential.
Limiting distractions with intention
Silence notifications, put on noise-canceling headphones if you need to, or remove your phone from the room entirely.
You may find that you need to work facing a wall, as unappealing as that may seem, or you should take your water and coffee away from your workstation.
I’ve wasted far too much time sipping on coffee and staring at the trees in my garden. It may work for some, but be realistic with what is an option for you.
Batching admin tasks
Admin tasks don’t take a lot of time per se, but if you attend to them constantly, they continuously interrupt your workflow.
I originally started batching admin so that my time tracking could be more accurate, but it has done wonders for my focus.
Creating digital boundaries
You may find that certain apps distract you, or you just cannot ignore the notification sound.
In these cases, you could set boundaries using app limits or whatever technology you prefer, which is definitely helpful.
It is also a great option to help you turn off outside of your 9-to-5 or whatever working hours you decide on, and maintain a better work-life balance in general.
Balancing Work and Life Without Burnout
When you set your own schedule, you may slowly allow your work time to infringe on your personal time. The result, for both freelancers and solopreneurs, is burnout. I’ve struggled with it in the past and have written an entire article on how to promote work-life balance as a result.
But let’s look at how time management specifically plays a role.
Establishing healthy boundaries
Your free time is sacred. Any time you spend working should be treated seriously, too.
The only way to truly separate the two is to establish boundaries that rely on a specific time to commence each.
You still have the flexibility provided by freelancing, but try to negotiate client expectations early on, communicating your available hours early on. Burning the midnight oil for an international client gets old really quickly.
Scheduling downtime (and honoring it)
You can’t expect free time to result in actual rest when you have your work at home. As a freelancer, I must admit my boss has some highly unrealistic expectations of my required productivity.
It may help to schedule downtime well in advance, but you need to follow through. If you have a trip booked, honor it as you would a client meeting.
When structure becomes suffocating – how to reset
Structure is good, but it is also the reason why many of us leave the corporate world to become freelancers in the first place.
When the structure that you are implementing to keep you sane feels too much, take a breath. Reevaluate how you spend your days, and adjust.
What works for others may not work for you, and that is perfectly fine.
Reclaiming Time as a Creative Act
Sometimes, trying to work for others means that you end up losing the freedom to choose creativity. Unless you have a trust fund, we all need to earn money.
However, devoting time to creativity, to pure art, is necessary to keep you sane.
Success beyond hustle culture
What does success truly mean? Does it matter if you are monetarily wealthy because you can pump out loads of work at once, but you are absolutely miserable?
Sometimes, you need to devote days to focusing on what you love. Take on lower-paying projects, or projects that might take longer than you’d normally like, simply because they are what you love.
In my case, I take the time to focus on my own stuff. Work done for me, as if no one will ever view it. It may not make money, but the time is definitely well spent.
Reflection as productivity
Every day, take a couple of minutes to reflect on where you are, what you’ve done, and the result. What made you miserable? What invigorated you?
See it as time spent productively to gather data that no app or freelance time tracking software could ever tell you.
Rewriting your own rules
Just because something worked once doesn’t mean it will continue to do so forever.
Adjust!
You aren’t failing for doing so. You’re adapting.
Conclusion: Make Time Your Ally, Not Your Enemy
Time is nothing more than a tool. It is crucial for freelancers to make the most of their time to ensure that they don’t waste it.
However, time management for freelancers consists of more than just trying to get as much as possible done every hour of the day.
Figure out how you can use the time you devote to work in a way that is not only efficient but also sustainable. And don’t forget to set aside time for the rest of your life.
Any useful strategies you use for time management? Any mistakes you’ve made in the past you’d like others to learn from? Leave a comment!
Until next time.
