Bryan Connor - Young and Freelancing

Vices & Freelancer Bad Habits to Avoid

In any given day there are a myriad of things that can get in the way of actual freelancing work. If you can avoid some simple vices of everyday productivity you can be a more effective freelancer. The bad habits listed below, like any bad habits, are oh-so easy to fall in to and quite a bit harder to claw out of so beware of these corruptions now and you can be free to practice your freelance work in the future without any trivial distractions.

We live in the age of information and an obvious danger of our time is too much information. Being bombarded with all the data available to you can be a major distraction.

Statistics

Alexa – We all dream of being among the most popular folk on the Internet but checking every day isn’t going to get you there any faster. It’ll probably slow you down. Tracking the growth of your site is important but not at the cost of valuable daily time.

Analytics – There are some google analytics addicts out there (some of them I know personally ) who check their stats many many times each day and watch their daily visitors climb. There’s no need to look at your analytics more than once a day, if that. When you do examine the numbers, don’t only go in seeing how many countries have been to your site. Study the day’s or week’s data and try to actually glean something from it other than whether or not you are having a slow day on the Internet.

Feedburner – As some of my colleagues can attest, feedburner isn’t always reliable in reporting the number of subscribers in any given day. I’ve seen massive fluctuations on a regular basis that can’t be a reflection of reality. In any case logging in and checking this number every day takes up valuable time that can add up.

Feed Reader

RSS Overload – This is another one of those masses of information that can distract you from the task at hand. With blog posts and cool images streaming to your reader all the time it can be very tempting to peak in there every time something new pops up. Beware the temptation and save up your unread items for when you can dedicate you attention and scan through it all very quickly like a good Internet reader.

Unread Dread – If you’re like a few of my friends, the thought of letting unread items pile up over a day makes your blood run cold and it probably means you are subscribed to too many things. If emptying your feed reader becomes a time consuming, tedious task, it means you have too much to consume on your RSS plate which takes up valuable time.

Other Internet Distractions

News and Humor – It’s good to know what’s going on in the world and to get out of the freelance and design news bubble now and then but news and humor sites can be a big time suck in any given day. Have you ever been doing client work in a place where there is no Internet? I find I get things done exponentially faster in most cases, even if parts of the task require the Internet. It forces me to get a lot done out of boredom and efficiency.

Communication is, without question, an enormous part of freelancing. That being said, there are certainly some harmful habits that arise in that vein.

Chit Chat

Conversation Conduct – In the multi-tasking days of yore you might be encouraged to get as much done simultaneously as possible. Today, however there is a much stronger push towards absolute focus on one task and the quality of your attention to it. This concept can be applied to a great many things on your daily to-do list, keeping in touch being one of them. Chatting is a part of our culture that’s hard to ignore in a few ways but it is especially true if you’re having a lively conversation while you’re doing client work. Your attention and efforts towards both things are divided in half leaving something to be desired in both cases. I always suggest avoiding chats during normal work hours and then freeing yourself up to socializing in the evening.

Email Compositions

Messages not Essays – This is for certain one of the vices that I have fallen into and am trying to rid myself of. The tendency to write long, well composed and highly edited emails ( although I’m not sure how much of of wide-spread problem it is ) is an issue for me. I’ve found I spend too much time in a given day responding to client emails and I’m consciously trying to be concise and efficient as I write them.

Inbox-itus

1 New Message – I know the feeling, you’ve just sent off a big email to a potential client with work samples, a quote, it’s beautifully written, to the point, and you know it’s a great bid. But then the waiting starts. You refresh your inbox a few times just to make sure the guy didn’t immediately respond with and emphatic “hell yeah!” and close the window for now. Later you find yourself checking every four and a half minutes and you know you’ve got inbox-itus. The glowing email you are looking for will get here when it gets here.

Removing ourselves from the world of bits and bytes there are several bad habits that apply to the real world in which we all freelance.

Food and Nutrition

Snack Distraction – The benefits of being a freelancer are numerous – working from home, flexible hours, work you actually want to do – but it has a few downsides you should be aware of. One of which is easy access to snacks and food. Like a bear in a campground, distracted freelancers wonder about the kitchen looking for whatever they’re craving. I find myself doing this a lot when I am stuck on a problem and what I end up eating is never really good. Eating can be a time suck but when you do, eat healthy.

A Healthy Freelancer – On the other end of the spectrum you might have a tight deadline coming up and everything is, as always, behind schedule. Even in these extreme times, you need to fuel your creative juices with a full, healthy meal. Skipping meals will make you feel more sluggish and result in slower, sloppier work on the whole. As simple as it sounds, taking the time to eat right is important to remember.

Being a Bump on a Log

Activity & Awareness – While working we’ve all had periods when we’re in the zone, our eyes are focused and unblinking, and our leg muscles have atrophied from lack of motion. In a more or less sedentary job like freelancing, it’s very important to stay active throughout he day whether you exercise at any other point or not. Getting your body moving and pumping blood will help you be more alert and more aware throughout the day. If you find the clock moving ahead a few hours without your butt moving, get up and do a few jumping jacks. Not moving at all is just as bad as moving too much.

Workspace

Comfortable and Productive – There is a fine line between a comfortable, productive workspace and one that will make you less productive. Freelancing from your bed would be on the end of the spectrum where the environment is probably overly comfortable and will not be a productive space for you. The same problem applies to a sterile concrete chair at a cold table. Find a workspace that allows you to feel at home and comfortable as well as serious and productive. Problogger has a cool article about the workspaces of 27 bloggers.

Ergonomics – Working from home, I’d say most of the time us freelancers don’t have someone from ergonomics with a ruler come and certify our work space. The raging obsession for ergonomics in the office is a little out of control but it’s founded in good principles of conditions for your body to work in. The screen’s relation to your eyes and head is important and sometimes things like lap desks and platforms can make a world of difference. As you work one day, pay attention to how your back is supported and how comfortable your legs are. What’s comfortable generally relates to what is good for you so find what works.

Music for the Mind

The Perfect Play List – I know I like to play music while I work in an effort to keep myself focused and attentive. This is not to say I choose every song in succession as I have seen some people do as they work. This takes up quite a bit of time as you can imagine, finding the right song every three and a half minutes. Make a quick play list, shuffle, and skip when i-Tunes decides to play that one Spice Girls song in your library.

The Sound of Focus – There are some types of music that aren’t really conducive to working and you probably know which types those are for you. Try to avoid them and stick to things that motivate you to work and let you do so without headbanging or reciting every lyric.

Every item on this list is important to be aware of because together they can take a very large chunk out of your billable day. As young freelancers we want our clients to value out time but first we should value our own time by keeping it clean of most of these distractions. Uninterrupted work can produce some of the best pieces so steer clear of these pitfalls if you can.

What are some of the vices you freelancers fall into on a daily basis and what do you do to use your time better and keep track of yourself?

Getting Things Done – To-do Lists & Priorities

With tasks piling up and emails coming in faster than you can respond to them, you might feel like you are starting to be buried. A mountainous and unkempt to-do list breeds discontent and stress. What Can you do about it? Well, you can either get things done or delete things off your list.

Management of Tasks

Multi-Tasking Can Slow You Down

I know the term “multi-tasking” sounds like you are going to get more things done by doing it. In my experience, however,  it just tends to slow me down. Some multi-tasking slows you down more than others, namely the Internet. Dividing your focus will more than likely slow down productivity for each individual task.

Zap All Your Clutter at Once

On your mountainous to-do list there are probably quite a few pebbles making their own little hills. Zap them all at once with short bursts of time dedicated to these quick tasks. Take a half hour or an hour and churn through these little tasks and knock some weight off of your to-do list.

Dedicate Your Time For Longer Tasks

If you can avoid splitting tasks up over a few days or complete a to-do list item in one sitting than you should do so. Better yet, set yourself a span of time specifically in you schedule to work on the one task only. for those tasks that cast the larger shadows on your to-do list, take a block of time to get started and chip away at them over time.

The List Itself

I am a list person in case you can’t tell, but not everyone is. Some people keep everything up in their heads, others block things out in calendars, individual preferences apply.

See What Needs To Be Done

This point is not for all you people who keep everything in your busy little heads. I feel that being able to see everything that you need to do will allow you to more effectively handle them. This is why I list, over the years using many services like backpack, text edit, and my current fixation – the Gmail to-do list function (They are lovely because they are movable, quick, deletable, and editable).

List Responsibly

Sticking with my “mountain” metaphor, the whole of your task mountain probably has it’s various faces and slopes. that is to say there are probably distinct categories of things you need to do. Personal projects, client work, school work, life tasks, all should never be mixed nor allowed to mingle. This may mean making a list for each facet or only including one type of task on your normal list

Absolute Priorities are King

When you are creating more lists for different types of tasks, some types will always be more important than others. Recognizing this is important especially, for instance, if you are attending school and freelancing. School work should be more important because you’re there to learn. It’s kind of important.

ASIDE: A lot of What I’m Describing is a form of “Time Boxing.” Time Boxing is, according to the Litemind Blog, ”simply fixing a time period to work on a task or group of tasks. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, you commit to work on it for a specific amount of time instead. For those new to it, time boxing is simply fixing a time period to work on a task or group of tasks. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, you commit to work on it for a specific amount of time instead.” Time boxing has also been reviewed by Dave Cheong, as well as J.D Meier and Steve Pavlina if you are interested in learning more about it.

I don’t follow this way of thinking as strictly as some, which speaks to the face that you should develop your own system of time management. Find works for you.

Get Rid Of Tasks

Who said you have to do every task on your list? Have fewer things to do by deleting things from your list. Novel idea, I know, but it’s not as crazy as it may sound.

Give Your List Items To Other People

If you are too busy, think about giving or forwarding freelance work to others. It’s a great way to lighten your load and build relationships with like minded people. If you’re too proud, get an assistant or “web-intern” to help you out. Having underlings does sound like a good bit of fun and is excellent for productivity.

Automate Your Digital Life

Many of us freelancers in the computer biz can use this shiny box to our full advantage to get our things done faster. With the advent of actions, hot keys, time saving apps, and features like ‘spaces’ the freelancer can create his own work flow and create tools to expedite much of his process. Some of what we do can become tedious and in many cases unnecessary when you can do it once, record it, and repeat the process. Don’t underestimate how much time these minor adjustments might save you.

Delete Future Items From Your ListBryan Connor › Edit Post — WordPress

Getting existential now, I know, but stick with me. It is possible to change the future! All you have to do is make changes and adjustments now that will make things easier for you later on. For instance, create a way, either through teaching or other utilities, to give a client the power to make future adjustments instead of you. Usually if you do something right the first time (not necessarily the quickest route) you’ll save yourself a good deal of time in the not so distant future.

What do you do to stay on top of things?

Do you have other strategies you use to trim the to-do list? Have you used Time Boxing and what do you think of it? Add your habits and tricks that help you prioritize and get things done.