Apr 03 2025
- Time management
- Lifestyle Design, Time management
Articles about Time management for freelancers
Long form content on Time management for solopreneurs
Jun 27 2024
- Lifestyle Design, Time management
Nov 23 2023
- Burnout, Mindset, Time management
FAQs from solopreneurs about Time management
"What is the most effective time management secret you’ve used all your life
I used to be obsessed with productivity hacks.
Then I read 4000 weeks, you read it?
I’d also read The 80/20 principle
Here’s a 5 second summary of time management that goes beyond “productivity hacks”
The better you get at your job, the more things you’ll have to do.
You think by being more productive you’ll be able to complete tasks quicker and clear your plate.
But here’s the secret:
Tasks lead to tasks.
The more productive you are, the busier you get.
There will never be enough time to do all of them.
You need learn to focus,
and do only the 20% of stuff that makes a difference.
And get ok with letting the rest slide.
It’s easier said than done though hahaha
As a completionist myself, this is hard.
Welcome to the joys of solopreneurship.
Get in.
Do the important work.
Get out.
- — from Success Oluwanifemi
- Brand Identity Designer
- Read full Q&A
"How do you balance your daily schedule with life & business goals?
Hey Priyesh,
Lifestyle design is not the car you want, or the money you earn or your travel plans.
I like to say your life is just what you do every day.
So your daily schedule = your life.
I think about what you want your day to day to look like,
Then I figure out the long-term goals I need to make that happen,
then reverse engineer them into the actions I need to take every week, or every day.
I plug those actions into my schedule, around whatever non-negotiable responsibilities I already have.
BOOM, now you’re living your ideal life every day.
Repeat for a year or so
then reassess and readjust as needed.
If you’d like, I run a workshop on solopreneur schedule design,
here’s how I run a 6 figure business on a 22 hour week,
plus subscribers can download my daily schedule template
- — from Priyesh
- Web Designer
- Read full Q&A
"How do I meet Deadlines?
Ok, Here’s what I would tell you if you were one of my team.
Lifted directly from my team SOPs
Here’s the Deadline Policy
I want you to take the time to do good work, I don’t want you to feel rushed.
But timeliness is very important.
It’s critical that we show clients regular progress, especially in the early stages after a project, when money has just been exchanged.
So don’t wait until the deadline to start the project.
As soon as you are given a job, start it.
Set your own internal deadlines to be proactive.
Things will come up, feedback will be delayed etc.
So always be as far ahead as you can.
Time only runs one way,
so if the client comes back with feedback late, we adjust the timeline to give us more time to work on the project.
But if client comes back with feedback early, we don’t bring the deadline forwards.
The client gets the results earlier, but the timeline will stay the same which buys us time for future unforseens.
We make sure the client knows we are ahead of schedule.
But we don’t squander this extra time by waiting;
We move ahead with the project and build ourselves a safety buffer.
Agreeing Deadlines
We will agree deadlines that work for both of us at the start of a project.
All tasks and subtasks will have deadlines set in Clickup.
I will try very hard to make sure that you are not rushed in your work, that you have plenty of time to think about things, and that the pace is relaxed. Good work can’t happen in a rush 😊.
Once a deadline has been set we need to meet the deliverables for that deadline.
Client Deadlines
Please note deadlines in Clickup are client deadlines.
“due dates” are the final dates by which the phase should be complete, so includes feedback, mistakes, revisions etc.
You should be working to “review dates”.
Internal review dates are about halfway between formal client review dates.
Review Dates
The review date is the date by which you should have progressed as far as you can,
and then you share the work with me for internal feedback.
There may be informal reviews or feedback needed before that deadline, so please factor this in, and don’t leave work until the client deadline, as this may be too late.
If you’re working by yourself, you can set internal dates for yourself to keep yourself in check:
- Pretend you are the client
- set your own internal review date ahead of the deadline your aiming for.
- Self critique your own work
- Roleplay and ask yourself what I’m going to say, and fix them in advance.
Changing Deadlines
If you think a deadline is too tight
Please tell me so I can factor this into my communication with the client. I don’t bite. 😁
I would much rather you told me a task will take 4 weeks and complete it in 4 weeks, than tell me that a task will take 2 weeks and instead take 4 weeks to complete it…
If things are running behind schedule
Sometimes the client is slow to respond, people get sick, and you might have creative block.
If you feel you will be unable to meet a deadline or feel you are falling behind.
Please let me know as far in advance as possible so I can adjust my response to the client, and adjust any future deadlines to suit.
The earlier I know, the earlier we can find a solution or manage client expectations. 😊
The Key point
If you plan well, optimize your process,
and set internal deadlines well in advance of the actual deadline then you should rarely miss a deadline.
Unforeseen stuff comes up. Always make sure the client knows about it, why, and what the new timeline is.
This way you’ll always be ahead of schedule.
Always underpromise and overdeliver.
That’s how you get happy clients that keep coming back for more.
- — from Sharls
- Web designer
- Read full Q&A
Shorter articles about Time management
A honed routine is a safeguard against chaos and overwhelm
My entire life has changed after baby.
Once I was a highly optimized solopreneur,
Now, a dishevelled moosh.
I spent years designing a highly optimized routine like an addiction and now I crave all my daily habits.
Instead of crisps and chocolate I crave some quiet time to sit and read, or a slow lone walk to order my thoughts.
But although my routine may have been chipped away, but it survives and adapts.
Micro-versions of my old habits have emerged in the chaos, and I’m using a cut-down version of my routine to make a 4 hour workday (mostly) stick.
Instead of a 30 min workout in the morning I do 5 mins of rowing at 3am when I’m on babywatch.
Instead of daily reading, I’ll listen to an audiobook whilst cleaning bottles.
When I don’t have time to write, I’ll do a braindump instead.
My new mini-routine is keeping me sane, I think without these small nods to normalcy i’d probably go mad.
The thing about routines though?
It’s easy to ditch them when things are good:
You don’t need the dentist while your teeth are good.
But brushing your teeth everyday means you’ll never need the dentist either.
When the unexpected happens, or when things get tough,
A well-built routine makes the difference between stress and chaos on one hand and keeping your shit together on the other.
You see those people that look like insanos,
the power couple who have 2 kids and still somehow find time to go to the gym?
That’s the payoff of maintaining good habits.
And it’s a self fulfilling loop:
- When I’m healthy, I have more energy.
- So it’s easier to resist eating crap,
- So I’m healthier,
- So I have more energy,
- So I get more things done,
- So I have more time to rest or exercise,
- So I have more energy
- And so on and so on…
Like anything great it takes time, and effort,
and I know I slip, and I won’t keep up the routine everyday.
But I also know when you set out to design your lifestyle,
A good routine takes a long time to take root.
Routine,
becomes habit,
becomes a lifestyle,
becomes part of your identity .
So start building up your dam, one day at a time.
How to spot fake leisure vs real leisure
How to spot the difference between fake leisure and real leisure
Do you have less energy or more energy after doing it?
A mutilplier for life
Your daily routine is a multiplier.
Bad habits = chaotic life
A good day = a good life
Your “life” is the foundation you build you business on
So design your routine,
Stick to it every day.
A good routine is how you live a good life
When willpower fails…
I spend all day manipulating myself
“do x1 press up then you can stop
“work for 10mins, then you can play games
“You don’t even like crisps
“You’ll deal with this
Mental gymnastics get you through,
When willpower fails.
Habits make your life
Good (or bad) habits
=
A good (or bad) life
When you hit the hump, seek clarity.
This week I hit a major crisis of clarity.
I’ve made some quick wins, but my momentum has halted as I hit the hump.
I was feeling like I’d lost my way.
All week I sat at my computer, distracting myself with busiwork,
but not knowing what to work on.
Listening to a chapter of Dan Koe’s Art of Focus brought me clarity.
I opened it at random and just so happened to land on a chapter specifically about hitting the hump in any endeavour.
I realised the problem I was struggling with was not having too many tasks, the problem was I had no clarity.
I didn’t have anything to guide my focus and so my efforts all felt random.
Without clarity, I was trying to work on everything that came my way.
I was struggling mentally because my skills hadn’t yet developed to the point where I’m ready.
Which means I’m not getting the results I want.
Which is normal.
My anxiety was coming from the fact I was resorting to seeking new activities,
cramming my day with admin and busiwork,
Instead of just recommitting to the things that work.
I just need to stay the course and keep doing the right things every day.
As soon as I realised this I felt a wave of relief and joy washing over me.
I was already in the right place doing the right things.
I just need to keep doing it for a few more years haha.
Most stress is not caused by a lack of time or lack of skills, stress is caused by lack of clarity.
Now the path was clear.
I had moved away from my schedule so I was opening myself to choices.
Which was allowing lots of random non-needle moving tasks into my day.
So I set aside an hour,
I sat down and redesigned my schedule a bit as I have to get back to doing the same things every day.
My schedule gives me clarity on what I *should* be doing instead of what I *could* be doing. Follow the process.
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