Five time management strategies or how not to lose productivity in freelancing

Most freelancers are faced with a situation where there is a catastrophic lack of time to complete a project. It seems that you are doing everything right – you woke up on time, made a to-do list, lined up tasks by priority, and a fruitful day lies ahead. But by evening it becomes clear that half of the work has not yet been completed. What happened? Yes, there were several breaks during the day, I had to talk with customers and have a bite to eat a couple of times. The clock is midnight and more than half of the cases have to be postponed until tomorrow. Familiar?

If it’s familiar, and worse, it happens regularly, then you have a problem with time management. But do not worry, because this problem is common and can be dealt with. There are five strategies that help you manage your time effectively and stay productive while freelancing.

Information Diet

A freelancer can spend a lot of time searching and analyzing the information necessary for work. At the same time, many of them fall into the trap of believing that researching a topic, communicating with a customer, and gathering additional information is the job. By and large, it is, but if you replace the workflow with secondary matters, then this will not lead to anything good. Therefore, a freelancer must go on an information diet, which consists of three stages:

1. You can allocate no more than 30 minutes per day to view email messages. It is advisable to do this in the morning so as not to be distracted from the main work during the day. Rearrange your schedule and tell clients that you can only be contacted in the morning.
2. Limit the amount of time you spend browsing websites. Of course, a freelancer cannot do without additional information. But often Internet surfing is addictive and it can be difficult to escape from this abyss. Get back to work as soon as you find the information you need.
3. Turn off your phone. Often friends and relatives do not understand what a freelancer does. It seems to them that if he sits at home, he does nothing. Therefore, they believe that you can call at any time. Will not work. Explain to your family as correctly as possible that you are really busy and you can call at a certain time.

If you understand that productivity drops due to information appetite, then the info diet will definitely help.

Become a sprinter

Those freelancers who are fully focused on the work process are very productive. They immerse themselves in the work and do it much more efficiently than their colleagues, who are distracted by trifles. But for a long time it’s hard to constantly focus on work, so you need to take a break.

Such freelancers are like sprinters – their task is to give 100% in the shortest possible time. A freelance sprinter works for 30 minutes without any distractions. After that, they take a short break and again in the fight. This style of work is considered by many to be difficult, but over time, the discomfort disappears, and productivity increases.

Say no

As mentioned above, many people consider freelance work to be nonsense, so friends start calling, parents ask for help around the house, and the wife says to pick up the child from kindergarten. What would happen if you worked in an office? It would never occur to anyone to distract you from work, everyone understands that absenteeism and constant breaks can be fired.

Use To-Do Lists

Every work must be completed on time. Despite the fact that freelancers are not limited to work schedules and can work at any time, you need to know exactly when it is worth “closing the office”.

To-Do lists are a great help in managing your own time. You need to compose them wisely, not just writing down a to-do list for the next day, but prioritizing tasks. At the top of the list, put the most important things with high priority. And place the secondary tasks at the bottom. For example, on the freelance exchange Avtor24 you can find projects of any complexity – long-term, which provide a freelancer with work for several months or even years, and tasks for several days, which you can earn on weekends. You can withdraw funds in any convenient way, and if you wish, you can draw up a cooperation agreement.

In working with To-Do lists, the key point is that you should never proceed to step 2 if the first task has not been completed. Priority is more important, no matter how difficult the case.

Customers are not bosses

The unwillingness to work under the yoke of the boss is the main reason why many choose to freelance. The outsider is fine with being his own boss. But often there are such clients who believe that they have the right to dictate to the performer when and how to work. They insist that the freelancer be in touch all the time.

This is not allowed. If the client is allowed this style of work and communication, then everything will end up with reduced productivity and stress. Therefore, if you come across a customer-boss, then even at the start it is better to agree on the nuances of cooperation. Discuss when the client can contact the contractor, set the hours of calls and agree on deadlines. This is the only way to avoid interruptions that distract from work, and learn to control your work schedule.

Every freelancer needs time management skills if they want to be successful. Do not forget that time is a valuable resource that should not be wasted on trifles. Turn time from your enemy into an ally, and then productivity will increase significantly.

When, after many sleepless nights, the diploma is finally ready, I want to pass it and forget it. But the university will not lag behind the student so easily. After all, the full text of the diploma was read only by the supervisor, and a whole commission will gather to evaluate it. Therefore, in many respects, his assessment depends on how a student defends a diploma.

So what is a successful defense?

• Competent protection text
• positive diploma review
• confident answers to commission questions

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

Speech structure

Of course, what exactly to say in the defense depends mainly on the topic of the thesis and on what exactly is written in it, but there are general recommendations that are suitable for everyone.

• First of all, we need to greet the members of the evaluation committee. (“Dear members of the attestation commission! Your attention is presented to the final qualifying work on the topic …”)
• Introductory part. Here you need to reveal the topic and identify the issues that are raised in the work.
• Relevance of the topic. At this stage, it is important to prove the relevance of the chosen topic and the degree of its development in other people’s works. Indicate the subject, object, objectives and purpose of the study.
• Theme disclosure structure. Here you just need to list the paragraphs that are in the work and briefly describe them.
• Problem statement. To confirm the relevance of the topic, it is necessary to state the problem and indicate debatable opinions on this matter.
• Conclusions. At the end of the speech, the commission should hear the conclusions that the student came to in the course of writing the diploma, in which there are ways and methods for solving the stated problems.

On the one hand, it seems that it is much easier to write a graduation speech than the diploma itself. However, high-quality speech is a skillful squeeze out of the work, as well as its competent presentation. And it often happens that a diploma is written with the highest score, and a student gets a worse grade. Therefore, if there is a lack of self-confidence, you can order a speech on our website. And then the probability of failure due to bad speech will disappear. After all, we give a twenty-day guarantee for the work, and if something does not suit you, you can demand that the author finalize the order for free. We make sure that students are satisfied, so if the final version of the work does not meet the stated requirements, you will get your money back.

Formal requirements

When writing a speech for a thesis, you must also take into account that there are purely formal requirements.

• Time. Do not forget that there are many students, but only one commission. Therefore, the time for a defensive speech is regulated and ranges from 5 to 7 minutes. At the same time, you should remember about the time that will be spent on commission questions.
• Intonation. Where, no matter how on the defense of a diploma, is it important to win over listeners? Therefore, it is better not to read the speech monotonously, making accents with intonation.
• Style. When presenting a speech, it should be remembered that the main goal is understanding on the part of the commission. Therefore, you should not be too smart, but you can’t switch to colloquial speech either. In this matter, you need to observe the golden mean.
• Pronouns. As in the diploma itself, it is important to remember during the defense that although the author of the diploma is clearly spelled out, there are a lot of true owners of knowledge reflected in the work (the authors of all the sources the student relied on plus the supervisor), so first-person pronouns are not appropriate here.
• Questions. After the end of the speech, questions from the commission will inevitably follow, and you need to be ready for them. Suggested questions should be written down in the course of writing the thesis, work through all the questions that arose during the pre-defense, and you can also look at the questions at the end of chapters from textbooks on this topic.
• Pre-protection. In such a matter as defending a diploma, it is better not to be presumptuous and neglect pre-defense. On it, you can practice giving a speech and write down possible questions from the audience. This will allow you to feel more confident in the official defense.

Of course, these are only recommendations, and no one forces you to strictly follow them. However, the rejection of some positions during the defense will create additional questions from the certification committee, which is not always loyal. Therefore, it is best to think through all possible questions and answer them in advance in a defensive speech. Then the teachers will have a minimum of questions, and they will be grateful for the saved time.