Many freelancers have problem managing their time effectively. Most times it seems like the 24 hours in a day is not enough to get things done, as there are always pending projects and tasks to complete. To settle this, many freelancers have adopted the culture of working till midnight to cater for the insufficient time.
While I can’t boldly say if 24 hours is enough or not, I can at least say, 24 hours is enough to get things done and continue the following day. And unlike several other things in this world, I think time is one of the few things we have equally. What matters is how we all manage it.
As a busy freelancer in Nigeria or elsewhere, it is essential you know how you can appropriately manage your time, especially on activities you can easily outsource, like laundering and cooking. Also, you need to know how to cut out distraction and focus on only productive activities.
To offer you the best in this article, I will be giving you 5 practical tips on how you can manage your time effectively as a freelancer in Nigeria.
5 Tips to Manage Your Time Effectively as a Nigerian Freelancer
1. Plan your Day After Waking Up
There is no way you will achieve a productive day without having your day planned out. Once you wake up in the morning, the first thing you should do is plan your day. Pick up a diary or use your phone notepad.
Write out things you want to achieve that day. Set out time for every activity. The time you want to send your cold mail or apply for jobs on your preferred freelance platform. The time you need to complete the gigs you have at hand.
Meal, break, and also time you want to use to connect and network with other people. Arrange all these activities based on priorities, and cross out the ones that wouldn’t be productive.
2. Outsource the Basic Tasks
One mistake many freelancers make is, turning themselves into jack of all trades. I understand as a freelancer, you must be familiar with the art of learning a skill quickly in order to solve a problem. However, learn how to outsource some basic tasks, especially house chore.
If you work on Upwork for example, and you have a task you need to complete within a tight deadline, instead of stressing yourself to prepare your breakfast or launch, you can just order a good meal a good restaurant close to you.
Also, cultivate the habit of buying other people time with money so you can concentrate on the task you have at hands. Remember, someone is paying you to do a task, you should also pay some people to do some basic tasks for you.
3. Create a Comfortable Working Environment
Having a comfortable working environment is one of the most effective ways you can manage your time as a freelancer. Imagine a home office where you have a studied table and an ergonomic chair to do your works.
This will make you feel comfortable while at the work and also make your work a lot faster. Also, learn how to adjust your room temperature to what fit you best. If you are from the part of the world where everywhere is always hot like mine, try and get a good air conditioned.
All these basic make your work more comfortable and swifter to complete. Plus, they make you more productive since you will be comfortable working on your client’s project. You get to complete lot of tasks within a short timeframe.
4. Get the Right Tools
Just like having a comfortable working environment, having the right tools can also make your work easy and swift. For example, if you are a graphic designer, compare the amount of time you will save if you use an elegant external mouse, instead of your system trackpad.
Consider how deploying Grammarly or some of the other useful content marketing tools can increase your productivity and save you time as a writer.
Citing this simple example is to ensure everyone connects and relate and understand the importance of having good equipment to make ease and speed your work as a freelancer.
If you are into marketing, there a lot of useful marketing automation tools that will save you time and free up some more time that you can use to improve your productivity.
Every business has their required tools that can make your work easy and fast. Get these tools. It is one of the key to effective time management for Nigerian freelancers.
5. Perfect the Skills
I know you didn’t see this coming. But then, you need it if you really want to manage your time effectively. That task that you spend close to five hours on might not take more than three and half hours if you can improve yourself on the skill and learn how to do it faster.
This does not mean you should compromise on the quality of the work. Compromising the quality of the work is not a good strategy to save time as a freelancer, and if care is not taken, the client might reject the work or request for revision.
If you are working on Upwork for example, compromising the quality of the work my result to negative review which will spoil your job success rate. This is why I used the word “perfect the skill”. Because by perfecting the skill, you will know how to do that task within a short time, in a great way.
Conclusion
All the five-time management tips I mentioned in this article can only be effective if you take action and be conscious about each point. Anytime you have pile of task to do on your to-do list, check through the points listed in this article and affect them. You will be surprised you will go to bed earlier than you expected.
