If we let clients dictate what we work on and when, it’s a recipe for burnout.
We’ll endlessly be jumping from task to task, firefighting from our inbox as clients fire over emails with instructions whenever a new thought occurs to them.
They may not realise that this expectation is unreasonable if they aren’t aware that you have many other clients all wanting their own tasks done as quickly as possible.
So we will have to politely and calmly adjust their expectations on deadlines, by explaining “The Work Schedule”.
Use your work schedule or queue to balance workload effectively.
The client will never know what your schedule is,
But they will understand that you have to work on tasks in an order.
“I’m afraid I won’t be able to action this immediatley, as I have a few other things in the work queue before this. I’ve bumped you up the work schedule as much as I can already;
But to be fair to my other clients I must respect the work queue,
After all, you would be annoyed if I told you I hadn’t worked on your project because another client asked me to do his first!”
Note: if this is a billable task, make sure the client has paid before starting!
“I understand your in a rush so I’ll bump you up the work queue in this case.
So that I can proceed with this quickly I’ll send the invoice after this call, if you could pay that promptly it’ll allow me to move quickly on this project”
