Freelancing Without a Schedule: A Recipe For Disaster

Tom
3 min readJun 1, 2021
Photo by Keenan Beasley on Unsplash

The idea of freelancing without a schedule is exciting.

You can work when you want and where you want, right?

Well, no, not exactly.

There are some definite perks to freelance work such as not being chained to a desk or having a boss breathing down your neck about how much time you’ve been spending on Reddit instead of working.

However, if you’re freelancing without a schedule then there’s also the possibility that you’ll be unfocused, unmotivated and not efficient in general because there’s no set deadline for any of the tasks.

If you are anything like me, you will do work at the last minute. With freelancing, there is no urgency. There is no accountability day to day. The same goes for personal projects, like that blog you were going to start.

Stress, tired and not taking care of myself. That’s how my first year of freelancing ended. I had to make a change.

I woke up at 5am, I drank kale smoothies, I bought a standing desk. These things helped (I still use a standing desk to this day and it’s the best thing I have ever bought). But they didn’t solve my issue of being unfocused and feeling generally unproductive.

I was taking twice as long as I should to finish tasks and I was neglecting my mental health.

How I keep a schedule that works:

(All tools here are 100% free for freelance use)

Toggl

Time tracking for better work, not overwork — Toggl

You need to track your time as a freelancer. It’s easy to spend too much time on a project, or get distracted. Toggl is super simple, syncs with your phone app and just works.

Honestly, so many time tracking apps out there are way too complicated and you just waste time setting them up.

Just remember to stop the timer when your finished!

Notion

Notion is life changing.

The app is beautiful.

The templates are beautiful.

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