Productivity and Systems Hacks for Freelancers

A major disruption brought about by the global pandemic was implementing remote jobs and the popularization of freelancing. Prior to now, a select few were freelancers, but this is not to be the case at present. There are many benefits that come with being a freelancer, prime of which is extra freedom and more time. Unlike the traditional corporate world, you get the freedom to do more things that you love.

Being a freelancer could also be burdensome, especially if you are just starting. You have excess time and freedom on your hands, you have no one to be accountable to but yourself, and there is a chance that you might be unproductive. To succeed as a freelancer, you must be able to effectively manage your resources for optimum productivity. This article aims to share some system hacks for productivity.

Productivity Hacks for Beginners

For people who are new to freelancing, it might pose quite an overwhelming task. True, you are your own boss, but this comes with responsibilities. First, you must understand what your goal is. Have a solid foundation and know your why.

Also, do not neglect baby steps. It is not mandatory that you have everything perfectly set up before implementing productivity hacks. For instance, if you feel overwhelmed by how much you have to keep up with on a daily basis, use a project management tool. Once you feel comfortable with this, you can proceed to utilizing other tools. Slowly, you integrate these tools into your daily activities, hence becoming more productive.

CRM Tools

CRM stands for Client Relationship Management Tool. The CRM tool helps you manage anything that has to do with your clients. This could be creating invoices, making payments, setting up contracts, scheduling, email communications, etc. Using CRM tools means that you do not have to go back and forth between different applications such as signing documents and sending emails to clients, setting up reminders, or using PayPal.

The recommended CRM tools are Dubsado and HoneyBook. HoneyBook is recommended for beginners as it is user-friendly and very intuitive to get started with. However, if you want to dive into the automated side of things, then Dubsado would be great for you. Both help to create a seamless client experience. Both are great for service-based businesses.

Business Time and Freedom Time

Another hack you need to know as a freelancer is to differentiate between freedom time and business time. Several applications allow you to focus on a particular thing at a point in time. An example of this app is Pomodoro.

Chronotype is another application that could help you understand what periods of the day you are likely to get things done, i.e., productive. For example, some people tend to accomplish creative tasks in the morning and work on admin-related activities towards the end of the day.

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Emails

Knowing when to answer emails is important. A good practice is to assign a block of time to deal with emails (DMs, comments on social media, and the likes). This is because answering emails on the go puts you in a reactionary state. It distorts your flow state, i.e., when you are supposed to be at peak creativity.

Once these emails have been answered, it is considered best practice to turn off notifications and put the devices out of sight. If this cannot be done, then close the tabs so you can focus on accomplishing other things.

Organizing with Calendars

Have specific days of the week assigned to content creation and some days when you decide to pick calls. You can choose to use paper and pen or go digital. With the physical paper, many people use color codes to easily identify what activity has been assigned for each day.

Financial Hacks

It is imperative to learn how to manage finances. Isn’t this the goal of every business, to make profits? Use the profit first method. The profit-first method teaches you how to allocate resources for certain expenses and being able to fully understand how to run your business on a budget.  Also, prioritize paying yourself and set money aside in savings. Quick tip, Lunafi can help automate your bookkeeping and manage all finances in one place and see your self employment tax and income tax. Download it and start using it now.

Community

The importance of relationships cannot be overemphasized. There are bound to be times when one could feel discouraged on the journey. Having people, you can be accountable to could prove to be very important. You may feel that you need to figure out everything on your own, but you do not need to. Having a sense of community could go a long way. It could be a friend, a mentor, a coach, or a group program. Whatever it might be, having these resources are so valuable for when you are getting started, up to when you are making 7 or 8 figures. You can never discount how important it is to have a community and backup for you.