Going Freelance? Get Organised!
Since making the jump to being fully freelance at the beginning of August (2019), the learning curve has been steep. I found hours of the working day being eaten up by tasks I’d never even previously considered; responding to emails, sending emails (for prospective work), marketing, invoicing, chasing payments, accounts, artwork design for FX releases, social media… all things to be dealt with alongside actual production work. When the workload is low, it’s easily manageable - but when you’re already balancing several different projects all at once with similar deadlines to hit, it can become a problem to your productivity. The key is actually very simple… get organised!
Organisation = Better Efficiency
And when I say organised, I mean in all aspects of your workflow; folder structure, DAW templates, email folders and sub folders, utilising your calendar to its full extent, block booking your workday hour by hour…. everything. This was quite a shift for me, as when I’ve worked for other companies previously I always worked on the fly, one project or task at a time, so I never had to be super organised. It was useful to have a good workflow for actual production work, but the more business/admin side of things wasn’t really needed. Once fully self-employed, the amount of extra miscellaneous tasks became quite overwhelming.
However, once I started breaking things down and creating a daily schedule, my anxiety eased and productivity shot up. Rather than having multiple tasks running through my mind, everything was laid out in front of me. I knew I had everything covered, so could focus on my actual production work. It also helped with accurate quotations for projects, as I began quantifying production jobs in hours and charging appropriately. This ensured I wasn’t spending too many hours on a job that I should have completed in say, one or two hours.
You don’t need fancy software - although much is available!
The great thing is, the vast majority of computers come with all the software you need to get super organised right out of the box - a calendar app and email! I use Calendar on my Mac, Gmail, with the addition of the free app Wunderlist - that’s it (I’ve included links to these at the end of this post). Calendar has all my tasks, appointments etc broken down in 30min segments. In Gmail, I have all my folders and sub-folders organised by client, resource, plus other parameters. And Wunderlist is my ‘to-do’ list in order of priority, for personal day-to-day tasks as well as production projects. I also keep a pen and notepad handy for old-skool note taking, particularly when on phone or skype calls.
Give it a try - and reap the benefits!
If all (or some) of the above is new to you, then give it a try - I guarantee you’ll see productive results, whether it be reduced anxiety or a higher volume of completed work, or as in my case - both!
I hope you find some of these tools and ideas useful. Do you have similar processes, or maybe something different that works better for you? Techniques, software, whatever - let me know in the comments below.
Adam.
Links
Wunderlist: https://www.wunderlist.com/
Gmail: https://mail.google.com/mail/
Plus a great article on the best calendar apps (for mac): https://zapier.com/blog/best-calendar-apps-for-mac/