Undoubtedly one of the most difficult things a part-time freelancer encounters, trying to juggle a load of things that all seem as important as each other is not only exhausting but sometimes quite terrifying. You're working on a proposal that needs to be sent for your freelance job, you need to contact some more people anyway before everyone forgets who you are, you have a piece of writing/editing/translation to finish by 9am tomorrow, and you've only just arrived home from your 9-to-5. What to do?
First of all: the basics
- Take some advice from Douglas Adams: Don't Panic. It's really, really easy to look at your to-do list and immediately want to curl up in the foetal position in a corner and scream the hours away. Don't. You'll just end up being unproductive.
- Don't procrastinate either. It won't make things happen faster. And look, here are some useful tips to stop yourself from procrastinating.
- Set up your working space in a way that makes you feel ready to do something. Whether that's messy, tidy or anywhere in between, do whatever works for you.
- Make a cup of tea. Or coffee. Or whatever will get you through the piles.
- Take a deep breath.
- Look at your list of things to do. If you don't have one yet, make one. At this point, I often add something I've already done, just so I can cross it off and feel like I've accomplished something. Yes, you may laugh. But try it, it works!
- Order your list in terms of what must be done now, what must be done soon and what could possibly be done later.
- If everything is of equal importance, order them randomly.
- Take another deep breath.
- Dive in.
Yes, it's hard. But the quicker you start, the quicker you'll finish. You might be tired, it might have been a long day already, but it's only going to get longer if you keep putting things off.
How do you organise your list though? Personally, I look at things from within the grander scheme of my life. My thought process goes something like this:
OK, many things to do. Some for my day job, some for my freelance work, some just general life admin. If there's anything urgent for my day job, I do that first. I can't afford to lose it, nor would I want to. Once I've done that, I look to see if there's anything urgent for the freelance things I do. If there is, I do that next. Then I go back to my day job stuff and finish everything that is less urgent but still important. Then I go back to my freelance stuff and do the same there. I carry on down my lists like this until I either fall asleep, run out of coffee or decide I've done enough.
At this point you will inevitably discover that there is something you haven't done. This is Sod's Law, and you have encountered it before at bus stops, in shopping queues and when wearing your best dress. If this happens, go back to the basics, point one: Don't Panic. And repeat the whole process, checking as often as possible to make sure that everything urgent has actually, really, finally been done. Eventually it will be. At that point, don't sit around thinking about all the things you didn't get done. Congratulate yourself on what you did do, remind yourself that all the urgent stuff is out the way, and go to bed. I say 'go to bed' because it'll likely be a weekday, possibly after midnight, certainly after 10, and you'll probably have to get up early the next day to go to your day job, especially if you have a commute to deal with as well.
I'd be interested to hear any tips you have for prioritising. What's at the top of your list? Why? How do you deal with a huge, scary list at the end of the day?
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