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How to be a freelancer without killing yourself.
I am freelancing since more than 6 years by now and i worked in and on many many many (sometimes i even forget some) different kinds of projects, companies, environments.
Recently a friends asked me how i get my work done without being stressed out. This is no bullet proof manual but just a brief summary of what i learned and i want to share it with you. And i am not saying that this is the only way how to do it, but it works for me.
Do one thing at a time (at least try to)
If that won’t work split your week in to pieces by day and work on project A for 1 day, project B for 3 days and then another day on project C or A again.
You could also split each day into parts: 1 Hour for communication (writing Emails, IM, twitter, all the social media interaction while you are “working”) and then another 2 or more parts that you work on projects. You could do a 30/70% ratio or by working 4 hours on 2 several projects. Give it a try, play with the values. But be aware that this might change with every new project. But you are freelancing because you want to be flexible, right? Here you have it.
Focus
Disable Email/IM/twitter/any notification.
At least if you are on a sprint or you need to concentrate. You do not need to be available anytime anywhere for everyone.
Get a decent workspace
Do not work from home. It might work for a weekend project, your friends little band website, but not if you are professional. Pay for a desk, rent an office. If you have a big house it might be OK to work from home, but you need to have a separation of those two environments anyhow. Go to work, go home. Time to commute between those places will help you to think as well as leave work behind for the rest of the day.
You need social interaction (yes, in real life!). You do not sleep on your desk, why would you work in your bedroom?
Talk about your work
It does not help the client, the project or you if you are sitting in front of your computer, working on whatever for a week and you do not give (and get) feedback. Interact with people. Show your office mates, friends, co workers what you are doing (unless you signed a killer NDA). Even if they work in another business - it helps you to have a clearer image of what you are doing and what the current status is.
Have a todo for each project
How you do it does not matter for now. Might be in the code, a things-like app, lighthouse, a text file, piece of paper - you just need to be aware of the missing pieces.
Do not forget the basics
Your client probably has a budget and you agreed to do a certain piece of work for him - for a certain amount of money. This is it, that simple. Give and take.
At least in the very first step.
Scopes will change, no matter what you and your client agreed on. Be aware of that. Either by saying no because that was not agreed on or by recalculating the budget and time you need.
To be able to do that wisely:
Document
A am not talking about source code in this case but about the scope of a project. In an ideal world a scope will not change but we are not living in an ideal world (mostly).
If a client is asking for too much, something else, wants to pay less… (you name it) you need to have arguments. So whenever something (!) changes within the project that was not agreed on initially write it down. Note with whom you talked, who made that decision, what that means for your part of the job - time and money wise as well as project wise. You do not need to share that notes with your client but it is a good timing to do that. It might help them as well.
Tell your client that it has an effect to deadlines if you need to change a button 2 times. Yes, it is done in 2 seconds by changing a value in a CSS file but that is not the only thing that you have to do. You have to talk to them about the button or read the Email, change it, reply to them, wait for feedback. What a nasty loop! Now we are talking about minutes and there is more to change than just the color of a button.
It is your responsibility to be clear about that. Most of the time your client will say/think: Hey, i am giving you $$ to create that whatever-thing for me. That is it. But if you need to change colors, rearrange layouts, add new pages - all that is on top of the initial scope.
That leads me to:
Plan your time and budget
Calculate more time than you think you need. You will need it anyway. No exceptions.
If you planned wisely and you have some extra time just change the color of that button. That is OK!
But you have to draw a line. Changing a color is one thing, but adding features, pages, themes (you name it) is another.
Say no to projects …
… that have a deadline in 2 weeks and the scope/concept/planning is not at least at 90%. It might be hard to figure that out, but by talking about a new/upcoming project you will probably be able to figure out if the client already has a very clear idea of what they want or not. If they don’t and the deadline is close or they do not have a budget that is OK or at least fair to spent some more time after the deadline to improve things, add features: Say no. You will save yourself a lot of time. You do not need to take every job.
Be clear about your time
Tell your clients when you are not available. They do not need to know why you are not available. Another project, vacation, your family is visiting, you move, whatever. That is your thing. They only need to know that you can’t and won’t work for them whenever because they need to be able to plan as well.
Be clear about your skills
Do what you are good at. If you are a designer and your client wants you to move a WordPress installation to another server (or even update it): Do not do it. That is not your job. Tell the client and explain why not. Most of the time they are simply not aware of such differences since you might be “the web guy” and for them “the web” is one big thing.
If your parents build a house they have all kinds of craftsman as well.
What if it is too late and you are stuck in a messed up deadline, have 5 projects that are killing each other.
Rule #1: Do not panic!
Rule #2: DO NOT PANIC!
Rule #3: Get pen and paper, leave the office/your workspace. Go to a cafe, park, whatever, and outline what needs to be done. Prioritize that list. Of course you need to get them all done but you can not accomplish that at the same time. Try to find a solution with the clients, ask them very very nicely if it is OK to postpone a deadline by a day.
Rule #4: Finish it. One after the other. You have to.
Rule #5: When you are done: Play. Give yourself a reward.
