Whether you’re a freelancer or run a large business, you need to set a schedule and find a way of tracking your opportunities. I’ve heard a lot recently about freelancers not knowing how to keep on top of their day.
Without managing my freelance schedule and opportunities, I’d never be able to do as much as I usually do. There are only so many hours in the day.
Here’s a look into my life:
Make Lists Throughout the Day
Lists are a really important part of managing my freelance schedule and opportunities. I have a diary for the day and make sure I always buy one that is broken down by the hour and has a full page for each day.
Every night, I’ll look at the next day. I’ll assess the work that needs doing and look at the opportunities that I want to take advantage of or the businesses I want to market to. I try to break it all down into hours but it doesn’t always work that way.
Set Business Hours
I tend to run on set business hours. I’ll work from 8am to 5pm, with an hour for lunch during the day. This gives me a way to manage my time for family life and studying when I have to.
What if I haven’t gotten through my list by the end of the working day? I’ll go through it and determine what needs doing. Anything that has a tight deadline or has to be done on the day, I’ll do it; usually once everyone else is in bed. Anything else, gets moved onto the next day.
Setting business hours is really important for me to manage my freelance schedule and opportunities. It allows me to set times to leave “the office” and switch to my family time, study time or whatever else I need to do.
Using Note-Taking Apps
I love Evernote. I have it on every single device that I use for work for managing my freelance opportunities.
I’ll have separate notebooks for the different niches that I write in and then had separate notes for guest blogging opportunities, writing ideas and job leads. It’s really important to have it on all my devices since I never know what I’ll be using to do some searching.
I also use it for adding links for my research, especially when it comes to my history pieces.
Track Your Links and the Opportunities You’ve Looked Into
I use an Excel Spreadsheet to then track everything. I’ll include links of all the posts I’ve written for easy copying and pasting and have sheets for all the opportunities that I’ve used.
This has become a recent important way for me to manage my freelance schedule and opportunities. Before, I found it hard to keep track of who I’d emailed or where my articles were posted. I would spend hours searching for the information through my old sent emails and places that I usually post.
Since using the Excel sheet, the time to do all this has dropped. I’ve streamlined it and spend more time focusing on the writing.
How do you manage your freelance schedule and opportunities? We all do it in different ways and I’m always open to hearing others. It might not work for me but it might help other readers so share your methods below.
Image by Smart K Jain
