How to Set Up a Freelance Work Schedule

Freelancing may equal freedom, but this lifestyle won’t flourish if you’re unorganized, unfocused — and winging it.

So, let’s get organized.

Every few weeks the same handful of topics bubble up among my freelance colleagues. What’s top on the list these days? Scheduling.

Freelance creatives are always looking for more work or wondering how to manage an avalanche of accepted project proposals within days of one another. When you’re newer to this work style, the feast or famine rollercoaster is a wildly popular ride.

You can ease those extreme stresses by getting better about scheduling client projects and the ongoing tasks that keep your business afloat in bite-size pieces during peak periods of focus and creative flow.

How should a freelance schedule work?

What hours do I work?

How do I actually complete huge projects on my own?

If these questions have crossed your mind, keep on reading. I left my last newspaper job in 2009 and have learned a few things (thanks to trial and error!) over the years about managing my small writing business.

Here are a few thoughts from my desk to yours.

• Unlearn What Society Has Taught You
• Create a Schedule That Works for You
• Learn Your Creative Energy Flow
• Experiment With Time Blocking
• Prepare for the Unexpected

Unlearn What Society Has Taught You

When you start working in a freelance capacity, it’s common to structure your days around the ways you’ve worked in the past. You might block out eight hours on your calendar, plan to start at 8:00 am or put in 40 hours each week. Or, you might just keep grinding day and night because — projects are piling up and it feels good to send out those invoices.

I invite you to pause.

You don’t have to run your business as a mirror of your former employers. This is your career. You can work as many or as few hours, at any time of day, to meet your goals.