How To Stay Productive as a Freelancer

Kaitlyn: Instead of you going, maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do that, maybe I'll try this, maybe I'll try that. When you're focused on fewer things, you become a master.

Ed: Productivity. Yeah. It's a big word, isn't it? How many letters are in there? 1, 2, 3 yeah it's a lot of letters. For me, anyway, the first thing I do in the morning besides having a big glass of water is look at my calendar right away to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Armando: I've got these templates for the day. Task number 1, task number 2, task number 3. I like to double check how much time for the next task for each of the projects I have. And this way, I get the index number of importance.

Gabrielle: I kinda break them up into this kind of personal and business category. Sometimes I even literally draw a line down the page to separate the two columns, right, to really just give myself a visual of okay this is what I need to do. That physical act of writing things down kinda helps empty the brain and make things real, make it concrete. Like, okay. This is a goal now. Like, this is real. Like, I can see it. Right? So actually putting pen to paper, not taking my phone out, typing on my phone but the old school way of taking notes

This is How to Balance Urgent vs Important

Kaitlyn: You decide what you're focusing on. You decide what you want, how much impact you want, what's really the essence of your business.

Bryan: So there's a temptation to just quickly hop through the urgent things. Urgent things that are both urgent and important, of course, are gonna get the highest priority, and those are those that tend to be the things that fall into the part of my to-do list that I must do today.

Armando: Sometimes things are urgent, but they are not, like, really important. So what I do is I've got a spreadsheet with my clients and their budgets and their deadlines, and I'd like to have a wide view of the projects and tasks I have ahead. So this way, I make sure I'm putting the most important priority first.

Bryan: You wanna make sure that you have, like, blocks in your day where you, you know, get into that flow and focus on those really important tasks. And you're gonna turn off your email, turn off your phone, turn off everything for 45 minutes and focus. And, you could probably get some good stuff done. Then, take 15 minutes and check back on your emails and all of your things and do it again.

This is How to Avoid Burnout

Ed: In the world we live in today, you're gonna be swimming upstream quite a bit. And, so as far as managing my day with other things that I have going on, I try to get that busy stuff out of the way so I can keep my creative process open.

Adriana: And I'm not really strict on how many hours I work or for me productivity is how many things I do more than the hours.

Bryan: The commitment to having a work life balance is really important because I've, you know, received the short term benefits of overworking and, you know, you feel more productive, you can power through more things, especially if you're, you know, working really late into the night and so on and so forth. But that comes back to bite you, as time goes on.

Gabrielle: I think we have to talk about productivity and really expand our idea of what being productive really is because sometimes that could mean taking a nap, being productive to just reset. Right? So there are so many ways to be productive in today's workforce.

Ed: I mean, trash has to be taken out too. And so how do you do that? You know, you gotta step outside. I gotta take out the trash. So, especially if you're working from home and not in an office environment, Then, it's all up to you.

This is How to Know Where You’re Headed

Gabrielle: Like, you can't just be a worker. You have to also be a manager of your own life.

Kaitlyn: So if it gets hard, you might stop if all you're trying to do is just measure the financial gain. But if you measure what truly makes you feel like you're doing something greater than yourself, that is going to pull you forward. 100% go for the money, go for all of that, but really know what it is that's actually driving you to the core of your being. And you wanna make that your focus because when you make that your focus, it expands.

Ed: Some days, you know, certain things, you know, just don't go your way. Well, it's okay because tomorrow is another day. Swing for the fences.