Freelance Apple

Without any exaggeration, time management is the most important thing in the life of a freelancer or any entrepreneur. No-one in business, or in fact any field can deny the importance of time. This week’s content will illustrate how you can double or even triple your time, become more efficient and effective with your time and spend more time with your loved ones. I will begin by guaranteeing one thing, and that is that this week  will not be a waste of your time and should help you for years to come.

There are many types of freelancers and they all collect into two major categories, which are firstly the freelancers who have too much free time and secondly freelancers who can’t find enough time. A year ago I definitely fit into the second category, but now I find myself in a third category which is a more comfortable one, where you have the right amount of time to get things done.

It took me a significant amount of research to start managing my time properly and I read books and attended seminars. For the readers of FreelanceApple I have amassed the knowledge I learnt on my journey, into a summarised form so that everyone can benefit from the most important of issues in a businessperson’s life. I will be sharing this knowledge with you as part of ‘Productivity Week’ from 2nd – 9th March.

Does analysing time save time?

A research team found that on average Americans will waste up to two hours a day due to disorganisation. This means looking for things which if they had been properly placed would have saved time. Two hours a day are wasted on looking for things and going through the clutter on your desk. On average Americans watch 151 hours of TV a month, which translates to five hours a day! That is more than a quarter of the time you are awake in the day! On average people spent up to 6 hours of Facebook and nearly 4 hours of Youtube a month. (Source: Nielsen)

This demonstrates the need for organising time in the life of a freelancer. Time management cannot be done without adequate analysis as this will just impede on every effort you make toward making the most of your time.

If I asked a freelancer for their financial budget then I am sure that they would have no difficulty in showing me. If, on the other hand, I asked for a ‘time budget’, many would be stuck. Time is more important than money. Once time has gone, you will never get it back, but money will come and go. It is mandatory for every freelancer to make a ‘time budget’.

Before we get on to how we should budget out time and spend our time in the best possible way we must find out the best use of our time. This is more important than actually budgeting your time as the basis of your budget will come from seeing where you are most effective with your time.

15 Minute Checker

Perhaps the best way of checking your time is to make a note every fifteen minutes of what you are doing. This may seem OTT, but it works. Try making a note of your activities every fifteen minutes and you will be shocked at the results. For only three days carry with you a small piece of paper with the table I have made below and write a simple note of what you did in the last fifteen minutes every fifteen minutes.

Click on the image to zoom in or save.

You don’t have to make detailed notes and you don’t have to do it every fifteen minutes. For example, I went to the gym yesterday for two hours and when I left the gym I could make a note for the last two hours that I was at the gym without having to take a pen and paper out while swimming (!).

When you have done this analysis for three days you will soon realise that it wasn’t about what you were doing in those fifteen minutes, but rather it gives a larger picture of what you do all day. By knowing what your activities are during the day you can easily see where you are time-wasting. When I did this for the first time it was full of ‘Sleep’, ‘Babies time’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘TV’. This is perhaps the one thing which single handedly drove me to become more organised with my time.

Action Points

Print the three copies of the image above and fill it in from tonight every fifteen minutes. Make a note of the time you went to sleep and when you wake up, make a note that you slept during that period. Make a note of every single thing and ensure consistency with it for three days. At the end of these three days you will be able to see clearly how much of a time-waster you actually are. The truth was shocking for me as I genuinely believed I was always efficient with my time.

Make sure you come back to FreelanceApple (subscribe to RSS) after the three days or during them and find out exactly how you can change time-wasting habits and start making the most of your time.

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