A critical factor of success in many roles is how well you can manage your time. Like loads of people I\u2019ve experienced huge shifts in working patterns over the last few years, from going part time with condensed hours around the kids, to sliding scales of homeworking through the pandemic. Going freelance has presented another shift \u2013 working (ideally) for multiple clients, with different commitments each week. So, it is all early-morning yoga and caf\u00e9 lattes freelancing or is the reality a little less glamourous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bulk of my career and now the focus of my freelance work is supporting charities. Charities by their very definition are philanthropic \u2013 they\u2019re out to be a force for good, whichever area they\u2019re working in, and whichever methods they take, whether its mentoring or campaigning, advising or advocating. I definitely think it adds to the challenge of keeping to set hours, when the to-do list is long and you see what great work the charity is doing. It’s also hard knowing that the rest of the organisation is carrying on, beyond your hours that day or other days, its hard not to get swept up in that and offer extra time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the moment I\u2019m not working to full capacity with the contracts that I have, and that\u2019s a very odd one to navigate. Being really firm about when you \u201cclock off\u201d from a contract is hard to do, particularly when you\u2019re in the midst of stuff, or when it gives you less flexibility for meetings for instance and you have to say because something\u2019s outside of your agreed days. I recognise that I can bit of a people-pleaser and a bit of a perfectionist, and just personality-wise it means its hard sometimes to draw a line under work and mentally agree it\u2019s good enough. I\u2019ve had to give myself a few speeches about this being the agreement, particularly because with another contract about to start, soon I won\u2019t have the flexibility to let my existing one spill over. I\u2019m trying hard in these next few weeks to keep that time boundary in readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one is definitely in the category of \u201ca nice problem to have\u201d but there\u2019s a certain challenge that comes with balancing multiple clients. I\u2019m really grateful that I did so much project management in my last employed role because I haven\u2019t found this one as big as I thought it was going to be. Similarly to managing different projects corporately, with different work leads, different sponsors and stakeholders, working with different clients is a lot about having the right plans, the right check-ins with the right people, building relationships with people and balancing your time effectively. Most of the time I\u2019ve found this okay, the stumbling blocks I\u2019ve had are more around balancing different calendars across different accounts (personal and professional), so if you\u2019re trying to book something in working out when you actually, actually have a gap is a lot harder. Another is things like swapping between laptops, where I\u2019ve unexpectedly been issued with a laptop for a contract and on a lot of days, swapped between mine and theirs as I split my day. This was especially hard with some previous contracts that weren\u2019t locked to set times, so when queries popped up, you just had to mentally switch between projects\/email accounts\/laptops, especially if they\u2019re urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other challenge in time management is that this whole business is me. It\u2019s a huge misnomer to think that you\u2019re just freelancing to do the thing you\u2019re freelancing in. You\u2019re also a whole business\u2019 communications and marketing department, HR department, finance department, legal and contracting department and administrative department to name just a few. When you think of even small organisations, these are often at least distinct roles so the idea of being all of them all at once is quite daunting. If anything this is the area that\u2019s pushed my hours out from where I\u2019ve wanted them to be over the last month of fully freelancing, because you never really make huge dents on that to-do list while doing the actual work, and life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One technique I\u2019m trying, especially at the moment while I have the space to try it, is actually scheduling three blocks of time in my diary each week: one for business admin, one for CPD and one for this blog. I\u2019m maybe managing this 50% of the time, but it\u2019s proving a useful reminder at least of the importance of trying to focus on each of these three things each week. I think the \u201cbackground business\u201d bits are the most likely to get neglected if I let them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A great example of this is building my network and engagement on LinkedIn, which is yet another ask each week that takes research\/thought\/prep on top of everything else you’ve got on your to-do list. But I’m hopeful that by consistently investing in it now, I’ll reap the benefits later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something I think that helps massively is that being a freelancer means you\u2019ve often side-stepped some of the extras that come with corporate life \u2013 the plethora of different meetings, the set compulsory training, all the different initiatives that need people to run them or contribute to. There\u2019s a much more focused feel to freelancing, even now where I\u2019m doing more of an interim role \u2013 my ability to dip in to just the essential bits reflects that my time is very limited (and valuable) and it helps focus others, I think, in deciding whether you really have to be part of x committee or y meeting. I think it\u2019s a huge help to be do task-focused, given the risks of Parkinson\u2019s Law<\/a> I\u2019ve experienced in various jobs \u2013 of the work around you expanding to fill the time you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been doing hybrid working for a few years now, balancing working from home with being onsite once or twice a week. But fully freelancing has meant I’m fully working from home. I’m lucky that we’ve got a little office at home so our set-up is decent – it’s a dedicated space with a proper desk and a laptop riser, and is a room where you can shut the door and concentrate. One of the things I need to get better at is committing to only using that space in the house, rather than my mash-up over the last few months of working whenever and wherever I could. I think it’ll definitely benefit my long-term work\/life balance to keep work just to the office, and hold that boundary of that’s work time and what’s my time. I love the idea of starting to use some collaborative work spaces eventually. There\u2019s some great ones locally. I like the idea of mixing up my view for the day, as well as meeting other self-employed people<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alongside this, I\u2019m trying hard to keep work email notifications off my phone \u2013 I learnt this one the hard way from employment. Having work emails on your phone is really handy, its great for flexibility, responding to urgent items, or staying in quick contact, but it\u2019s also in danger of making work omnipresent. My brain got hardwired into responding that little ding of a new message. My personal balance is keeping the email account on my personal phone but without notifications, it means I\u2019ve got all the access in case but with some of the prompts while I\u2019m meant to out and focusing on life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another aspect to support this is that I\u2019ve treated myself to a stack of new books and even started two in a very deliberate move of giving myself other focuses away from the laptop. With the intensity of the last few months finally settling, I\u2019m trying to make some more screen-less choices. Although, let\u2019s be realistic, I also probably need a couple of mindless new Netflix series for decompression\/escapism too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the challenges I\u2019m getting used to is the uncertainty of where work (and money) is coming from next. It\u2019s a bit omnipresent. It\u2019s hard not to constantly search, both to find interesting new projects to pitch for, and for reassurance that there\u2019s enough work out there. It might be another one where I try and dedicate a set period to each week, in an attempt to keep it a bit more boundaried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The verdict is that each week is trying to juggle a lot of different aspects \u2013 whether its current contract work, searching for, and pitching for new work, marketing yourself, resolving another IT issue, networking with other freelancers to build your community, investing in your CPD, writing a blog or developing a new idea. The skills you need as a freelancer definitely include tenacity to drive things through and the ability to balance a lot of competing priorities. So far so good \u2013 I\u2019m still standing and still have a decent income – but as I take on more contracts, I definitely know there is huge room for improvement so am adding more investment into online tools for my CPD and a rethink of some of time management approaches to help tighten up. As more of my working week is taken up with contracts, I\u2019ll need to be careful not to let the other aspects drop off (or eat into my personal\/family time).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A critical factor of success in many roles is how well you can manage your time. Like loads of people I\u2019ve experienced huge shifts in working patterns over the last few years, from going part time with condensed hours around the kids, to sliding scales of homeworking through the pandemic. Going freelance has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28],"tags":[13,11,15,21,10],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity","tag-charity","tag-consultant","tag-founder","tag-non-profit","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWork\/Home Boundaries<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Hunt for Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A balancing act<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n