One of the most common problems with freelancing is procrastination. Freelancers have the ability to work whenever they want, but sometimes this can work against them. People are generally lazy (unless you’re some superhuman with incredible powers to go on forever) and so you need a system in place to help you along the way to get things done. Some people find creating a to-do list helps, whilst others simply break up their work into small chunks in order to make it easier on themselves.
I’m going to go through a system which you can use in order to make yourself more productive, and stop yourself from procrastination.
OK, let’s say that you have 3 web designs to do for multiple clients – rather than working through them one by one, going through the design process and then the coding process – instead you can simply do all related tasks together. So, in this case, you would do all 3 designs together on Photoshop, so that you do them when you’re in that design-mood. Then, you can move onto coding the designs altogether after. This should help you become more productive overall.
There are a couple other methods you can use in order to become more productive and get out of a phase of procrastination.
If you’re finding it really hard to get started on some work, or just end up scraping every design idea in Photoshop, then you need inspiration. For example, if you’re a web designer, a good idea would be to visit websites such as CSSRemix; look at some of the well-designed sites there. This usually inspired me personally, and then I proceed to create something in Photoshop. Be careful not to visit these websites just to copy designs though, that is not good practise as you’re not developing your skills well when doing this.
If you’re a freelance writer, you can try reading a few pages of your favourite novel in order to get your creative juices going again, or maybe head down to your favourite blog and read a post or two. Both writing and design are creative processes, and therefore need inspiration and enthusiasm from the creator in order to produce high quality work.
Procrastination is a major probem for many, and a freelancer’s livelihood depends on the production of quality work in a timely manner, so it is absolutely necessary to get out of the cycle of procrastination and get down to doing what you do best.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Its kinda funny really that as I was procrastinating I stumbled upon this post!
To alleviate my procrastination I tend to use spider diagrams or create a wall chart where all my projects can be seen. I usually list them in order of importance and manage to get through them one by one that way.
I can see the benefit of working on projects at similar stages of design, that would certainly be a good technique to try in the future.
Thanks for the post!
June 24th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Very nice article, loved it. Thanks!
June 25th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Amazing! Not clear for me, how offen you updating your http://www.freelanceapple.com.
GlenStef
June 25th, 2009 at 4:28 am
http://www.tadalist.com/ is much better option!!!
anyway, This article is nice.
June 25th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I actually aim to update FreelanceApple daily if possible, or if not, every other day.
Thanks for all the positive comments so far!
June 30th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Like the article. Good tips.
Visited http://cssremix.com/ and tweeted it.
I like the idea of grouping jobs like for like.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:23 am
Great blog. Very inspirational!
July 6th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
How soon will you update your blog? I’m interested in reading some more information on this issue.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
We aim to update the site daily. Regarding procrastination related posts you have mentioned, I will be writing my thoughts on Inspiration tomorrow morning. Hope that information will be h3lpful. Please subscribe to the RSS, if you haven’t already, and you’ll see when the article is up, im sure you’ll love it.
July 25th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Try working a regular job and then freelance. You’ll realize that your livelihood depends on producing in the real job and then you’ll see how it transfer over to freelancing, just a much, MUCH more flexible schedule. Same thing with homework, procrastinate too much and you’ll fail. Producing solutions and results is apart of work, no matter what field of work that may be. Generally it’s a good idea to take small breaks between processes, maybe 8 breaks a day for a glass of water for example?
I love the marketing/business tips on this website, as opposed to the technical “know how” of many other blogs, quite refreshing.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Thank you so much for providing this article, it’s great to finally find something worth reading.