As a freelancer, it’s incredibly important to know how to manage working from home effectively. Being in my own house all day means that it’s easy to become distracted with household tasks, or even just sitting down on the sofa and watching TV! As such, I have developed a system of how to manage my freelance work. Read on for my top two tips!
Create routines
My first tip is to create routines. I really struggle to get out of bed in the morning and definitely need motivation to help me. I have already gone through my work morning routine and other work routines, so I won’t go into details. However, basically, I have a list of tasks I get done as soon as I wake up, a lunchtime routine and an end of the working day routine. I find these help me to keep on track with my goals for certain habits and keep my day on track!
Use the block schedule
My other top tip for time management when working from home is to use the block schedule system. While it can be tempting to plan out your day hour by hour, this is unrealistic and likely to lead to you feeling like you’re constantly behind. Instead, consider the block schedule system!
What is the block schedule system?
A few years ago, I came across this video by Jordan Page. Jordan Page is a YouTuber known for her expertise in frugal living and budgeting tips for large families; however, she also has many videos and free resources on productivity.
These include the block schedule system! Watch her video for a full overview, but in short, it breaks down like this: instead of planning your day hour by hour, separate your day into 2-3 hour chunks, based on what kind of work you’ll be able to do during that time. Take into consideration when other people are in the house, regular commitments you may have (e.g. the school run), regular tasks you may need to do (e.g. the food shop, feeding pets, etc.), the freelance work you need to and any admin you may need to do (accountancy tasks, emails, work calls, etc.). Once you have a list of all the tasks you need to do on a given day, you can batch them based on category and your own personal schedule. Set alarms to remind you when each block is up, and if you haven’t finished all the tasks, they have to move to the next day! To give you a visual example, here’s my block schedule:
This is a system I have tried before and absolutely loved but fell out of using when I didn’t feel I needed it anymore. However, I’ve found my motivation waning after two weeks off over Christmas, so I thought it was a great opportunity to bring this system out again! I’ve only been trying it for a week now, so the timings of the blocks may change as I use them, but so far, I’m definitely finding it helps with my motivation!
So those are my two top tips for time management when you’re working from home. Let me know in the comments below if these tips were useful to you or if you have any suggestions for me!
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