Us freelancers often go self employed because we want to cut our own path, but spending all our time on production work can lead to burnout and lack of direction. Whether we see ourselves as freelancers or small businesses, we have lots of things to take care of that aren’t client work. It’s easy for these to slip down the list of priorities and pile up, causing stress. Freelance life can benefit from some time spent on planning and strategy, and this is where The Friday Habit can help.
As the Emyth says, creating a successful, manageable business means working ‘on the business’ as well as ‘in the business’. The Friday Habit agrees, saying:
“Your business should make your life better, not stress you out.”
The Friday Habit
Starting with an hour or two, they recommend working up to setting aside a day a week (guess which one?) to work on your business. Instead of cramming in another last minute client project, this time can be used to create products and services, do your own marketing, get up to date on the financials or reflect on what’s working and what isn’t in your freelance business.
There’s a free workbook to download and I found both their website and PDF beautifully designed, easy to follow and thought provoking. There’s a regular podcast too, but I can’t comment on that as I don’t have the attention span for podcasts. Interestingly, they’re not on Twitter..
There are shades of Getting Things Done in the workbook, about getting clear on what needs to be done and setting time aside for it.
I’m working on rebranding my business so there’s plenty for me to be getting on with. Spending time refining my base WordPress theme is a massive time saver so well worth putting time aside for as well. I can’t afford to lose a whole day right now, but I’m aiming for Friday afternoons!
If you set aside Fridays to work on your freelance business, what would you spend the time doing?
(Thanks to Lucy H for the heads up on The Friday Habit)