All freelancers are familiar with working to tight deadlines. It’s just part of the deal. You need to keep your deadlines if you want to keep your clients happy (or keep them at all). However, this is easier said than done.
In fact, at times it may even seem impossible. Your backlog keeps piling up so badly that, although you keep working your hands to the bone, you just never seem to make it on time.
But don’t worry, you’re not the only freelancer out there struggling with time management issues. It’s all been done before, so just sit back, relax and read this simple guide to getting your time under control.
Be realistic. Goals that can’t be met, won’t be met
This is the first and most important thing to keep in mind. No matter how well organized you are, and no matter how extraordinary your time management skills may be, you’re still going to end up nowhere if your deadlines are not realistic. But how do you know if a deadline is realistic or not?
Unfortunately the art of task estimation has a lot to do with practical experience. If you’ve done something a thousand times, you probably have a pretty clear idea of how long it takes. But even if you can’t base your estimate on experience, not all is lost. You should combine a guestimate (an estimate based on your best guess) with common sense. Leave a hefty margin for slip-ups, as they are bound to happen. And remember. Poor planning may lead to better planning. No planning leads straight to disaster.
Take your deadline seriously from the moment you set it
Even if you give yourself more than enough time to meet your deadline, it won’t happen if you get down to business too late. This simple fact is so often overlooked, that it merits some serious study. It is astounding how many freelancers complain about tight deadlines only because they did not treat their deadline seriously enough in the early stages of the project.
Luckily, there’s an easy remedy to this problem. Employ somebody to beat you with a stick each time you dismiss a task because “you can do it tomorrow”. Oh, and if you can’t afford a personal motivation assistant, don’t worry – there’s an app for that. It’s called OnePageOnly and its waiting for you in your browser.
Communicate your deadline clearly
What if you meet your deadline, but your client fails to notice and still thinks you missed it? That sounds like an unlikely situation but it happens every day. The reason is this: freelancers and their clients often have different perceptions of the deadline. This may results from poor communication, a complete lack thereof, or simply from haste.
Make sure that your client knows when the deadline is and that you both agree on what goals should be reached before it arrives. The best thing you can do is mention your deadline in a conversation with your client on every possible occasion. First, it shows that you are on the ball, which is reassuring for your client to know. Second, it acts as an additional motivation for you to get your act together and start working towards meeting your goals.
Reward yourself for job well done
We’ve already written at some point about the importance of the light at the end of the tunnel, but this can’t be stressed enough. The stick and carrot approach usually works. The stick-only approach fails with surprising regularity. Make sure you have something to look forward to and associate this reward with meeting your deadline. The biggest reward you can get is a happy client, who now believes you are a reliable businessperson and is likely to give you more business. But you can also think about something more tangible, like a last-minute weekend in Paris or going to the movies. Whatever makes you tick.
Meeting deadlines is not rocket science. You are more than capable of becoming the most reliable freelancer out there. Just try and see what happens!
