Tips to Organize Your Time and to Make Your Ideas Happen

Being a freelancer implies being your own boss and doing what you want, when you want, right? Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean that you can have a chaotic order for your activities as a self employed. You need to learn how to organize your time so that you can be more efficient in what you do.

Image source: Sxc.hu

You may have noticed that I avoid to say “time management”, that’s because most creative professionals have an allergy when it comes to this notion. I think that “to organize” sounds less dramatic, don’t you? When we hear important people (speakers, professors, great minds) saying big words (like “time management” for example), it seems like they are talking about something difficult to do, that we can’t wrap our heads around. Today I’m going to talk to you about how you can organize your daily activity so that you get things done on time and with less effort.

Every idea you have is a small project

Consider every idea you have as a small project. Each activity you carry out to put that idea into practice is a step of the process of making that idea happen. Just imagine that creative persons are full of ideas, the only problem for them is to put them into practice. You can have 100 ideas in a day, if you don’t know what to do with them, those ideas are doomed to be forgotten or abandoned.

For example, you want to make a Photoshop tutorial with theme “Transformers 3”. This is not a one task idea, this implies doing a series of things, so you can consider it a small project. Included in this project there will be the actions you need to do to make this idea happen: research, find resources, draw a sketch, put the sketch on your computer, use the appropriate program to finish the design, write the steps, create the images for the tutorial, publish the tutorial on your blog, promote your tutorial on other websites, social networks, reply to the feedback you get on that tutorial. You see, there are so many things you need to do to make that idea happen and to fructify it.

Image source: Sxc.hu

Write it down

So, the first step in organizing your ideas is to consider them as individual projects and to WRITE THEM DOWN. Your memory can only keep a limited number of ideas at a time and if you don’t want to lose that thought, put it on paper. As you have seen in the example above, having an idea implies a series of other actions. Maybe you don’t have the time right now to make that idea happen, maybe you are currently working on a design project for an important client. So just grab a piece of paper, a notebook, or write it in your computer so it doesn’t get lost. The important thing is to keep your focus on one task and not jump to another thing, as an idea comes along – write down that idea so that you can come back to it later and then go back to what you were doing and focus on finishing that.

Image source: Sxc.hu

Asides from ideas, you need to write down the things you have to do  – yes, I’m talking about a “to do” list. You can do it in the morning and write down the tasks you need to accomplish that day, or you can do it at the end of a week for the next week, if you can plan so far in advance. This will get you a clear idea of what you have to do and it saves you from forgetting to do something.

Mind maps

Ok, now I’m starting to use some big words, don’t be afraid! This is so simple, it just has a pompous name. What’s this mind map notion all about: pick up a piece of paper, a post-it, whatever you can find and in the middle write down your idea.

For example: the idea can be “Publish an article about time management”. Circle that idea and then think about what you have to do to make that idea happen. Each thought that pops up your mind, draw an arrow from the main idea and write it. Do the same with each new thought. For example, the first thought that runs through my mind is to see where can I get some information about time management, then from this thought I go to “I can search on Google”, or I can “Search on Wikipedia” or “Ask my colleagues” and so on.

The thing about mind maps is that it allows you to put your thoughts on paper and it frees you from that idea for the moment so that you can focus on something else. Because if you have an idea pressing your mind, you can’t concentrate, so just make a quick mind map and put it aside for when you will have time to put it into practice.

Here is an example of a mind map so you can understand better:

Image source: Mindmapinspiration via Flickr

Prioritize your activity

It’s not important only to write down your tasks, you also have to write them in a certain order. As you may have guessed, you have to write the most important tasks first and then the less important. Remember that most people are by default more efficient in the first part of the day because that’s when they are rested and they can function at high capacity.

Here is one way of prioritizing your tasks according to their importance:

Extreme -> High -> Medium -> Low -> Idle

For example, you can include reading emails, making phone calls to “low”, changing my Twitter background to “idle”, finishing step 2 of my design project today “high”, “revising and sending the final project” to “extreme” if the project is pass it’s due date.

Make Your Working Space Family Proof

This one applies for freelancers who work at home and have kids or other members of the family in the house while they’re working. Try to create a room (as small as it may be) just for you. Get everything you need in there – computer, drawing pane, scanner, printer, fax, phone – so that you don’t need to get out to get something and get distracted by the tv or your kids, or your sister and so on.

Let everybody know that you are working on something and you need to keep your focus on that and nicely ask them not to bother you unless there is something burning (literally).

Image source: ChicTip.com Interior Design Online Magazine via Flickr

Learn to say no

Being in a creative field, there is always some cousin, friend of your mother’s who needs your help with something – obviously for free, because he knows you. I know a lot of people that don’t know how to refuse a person and they take on that job, even if they have an important project to finish – even if it means to stay up all night and in the end to make a mess out of both projects.

You have to value your time more! Your time is precious, is the most valuable resource you have – and it’s so limited! There’s nothing bad in thinking about you for a change, not about what others may think of you if you turn them down. Even more, if you tell them nicely that you are caught up in a very important project and you don’t have time for their gig, but you will let them know when you’re a little more free, they might not even get so upset.

In conclusion, if you learn to say “no”, you will have more time to focus on your projects and to make your ideas happen!

Your turn now.

How do you organize your time, what is your secret recipe? Do you find it difficult to make your ideas happen?