Do you find that you’re constantly up against the clock? Is managing your work / life balance an ongoing battle?

Freelancers frequently find the main barrier to developing and growing their client base is their own time.

William Penn, businessman and philosopher said “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst,” few of us would argue with this sentiment.

Even in this day and age of technological advancement, no one has yet discovered a way of fitting more than 24 hours in one day, so here are some tips designed to help us maximize the benefit of the hours we have available to us.

Here are five tips to help you manage your time.

Tip 1: de-clutter: Clear your desk of everything that you don’t use every day–you don’t need to throw it all away, but either file it or put it in a drawer.

Tip 2: Make a List: It is a good idea to take ten minutes at the start of your day and create a list with everything you need to do on it, then prioritize the tasks by evaluating whether they have to be done today. When you complete a task, cross it off your list–You’ll feel like you’re making progress and it will give you a sense of satisfaction.

Tip 3: Set a Deadline and Stick to It: Be realistic when setting a deadline. If you give yourself one day for a task that will take at least two, you’ve already set yourself up to fail, either in the quality of work you produce–because you are rushing, or in managing your time successfully.

Tip 4: Manage Interruptions: In his renowned book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr Stephen Covey introduced the concept of the time management matrix, consisting of four quadrants representing where we spend our time.

• Quadrant 1 is important and urgent tasks–such as pressing problems & deadline driven projects.
• Quadrant 2 is important but not urgent tasks such as relationship building, planning and recognizing new opportunities.
• Quadrant 3 is not important but urgent tasks including activities deemed to be interruptions (i.e certain calls or emails).
• Quadrant 4 is not urgent and not important tasks such as trivia and time-wasters.

Activities from quadrants 3 and 4 are to be avoided wherever possible. If you don’t know where your time goes, draw up your own version of the matrix and be honest with yourself, it could help you identify those things that consume your time but don’t add any value.

Tip 5: Collaborate: If you find yourself in the fortunate position of being offered more work than you can manage, instead of reluctantly turning it down, why not build relationships with other freelancers and get them to carry out the work for you. This is a win-win situation.

See: Freelance Folder