October 24, 2024 • 17 mins
In this episode of the Boss Responses Podcast, host Treasa Edmond and guest co-host Lizzie Davey dive into effective strategies for managing freelance work and personal life. They explore the contrasts between corporate and freelance environments, emphasizing the need for a flexible yet structured schedule. Topics include the importance of setting internal deadlines, using tools like Notion and Llama Life for organization, and maintaining strict work-life boundaries. This episode provides practical insights for freelancers, business owners, and client-facing professionals seeking to balance their workloads and personal lives while maintaining productivity and creativity.
About Our Guest
Lizzie Davey is a Brighton-based copywriter and content strategist with a love for tea, gin, and a knack for taking brands to new heights. With 10 years of experience in marketing, SaaS, and ecommerce, she's helped some of the biggest names in the industry attract and convert their ideal audience. Known for her conversational tone and actionable advice, Lizzie’s content is anything but fluffy. Fun fact: she’s an identical twin, has done the world’s highest bungy jump, and even used to race donkeys!
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Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to listen to Boss Responses. This podcast is a passion project that comes from years of helping freelancers shape a business that supports the lifestyle they want.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast.
You know freelancing is a lotof work.
I know multiple people who havecome from a corporate
environment and thoughtfreelancing would be a nice slow
change of pace.
Well, it's actually running abusiness, so that means there
are a lot of moving elementswhenever you are a freelancer.
(00:20):
Today's question deals witheffectively managing time and
priorities so that you canactually make sure that you're
delivering high quality work andmeeting the deadlines that your
clients have set.
If you're a freelancer,business owner or anyone who
deals with clients, you're inthe right place.
I'm your host, teresa Edmond.
(00:41):
I've been dealing with clientsand running my business for
nearly two decades and in thattime I've dealt with my share of
doubt, imposter syndrome andnot knowing what to say when a
client asked a question I wasn'tready for.
I created this podcast toempower you with the boss
responses you need to grow yourbusiness.
Each week, my guest co-host andI will bring you five episodes
(01:05):
packed with practical insights.
Monday through Thursday, weanswer your questions, and
Fridays we dive deep to explorehow our co-hosts embrace their
role as the boss of theirbusiness.
Welcome to Boss Responses,lizzie.
What's the question for today?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So today's question is I'm relatively new to
freelancing.
I came from a busy corporateenvironment and thought
freelancing would be a nicechange of pace.
So did I know I actuallysometimes feel overwhelmed and
juggling multiple projects fordifferent clients.
How can I effectively manage mytime and priorities to ensure
high quality work and meetdeadlines?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I love this question and I laughed.
I'm so sorry, but I laughedhard when I first read it.
Because running a businesswhich is what you're doing if
you're a freelance writer, youare not just writing for a
client.
They're not an employersubstitute.
Your client should bepartnering with you, not telling
you what to do, which is whythis problem comes up, Because
(02:08):
when you're working in thecorporate world, someone is
always telling you what to do.
Now they may give you thefreedom to manage your schedule,
but they're still telling youwhich projects are coming in.
You know ahead of time whenthey're coming in.
You don't always know that withfreelancing or at least I don't
, Do you, Lizzie?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I do not know, I absolutely do not.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And you don't.
So I mean, even if you scheduleout for a few months, hiccups
will still happen that changehow things work.
However, I think that managingyour time is an oxymoron.
I don't know that it'ssomething that you can actually
do.
You have the same amount oftime that anyone else does.
What you can do is manage yourprojects and make sure that you
(02:51):
are setting deadlines for them,that you're allowing the right
amount of time to work on themand that you have a system set
up, and I'm very free will, freespirited.
I don't like being tied down toa schedule, but if you're
running a business, you need one, and I have set times set apart
for when I can write, when Ican do work, work, when I can do
(03:15):
my marketing, all of thosethings, and that took me a
little bit of trial and error tofigure out what works best when
.
Because I can write for aboutfour hours a day period.
After that, anything I write isgarbage and because I run out
of brain, I just that part of mybrain doesn't work well after
(03:35):
that.
Then I end up rewritingeverything if I try to force
myself to write longer.
So I've learned that I do that.
I've also learned that I can'twrite if I'm upset about
something.
So if I have a bad day, I needflexibility in my schedule so
that I can shift my writing toanother day, and I think that's
important for your mental healththat you don't force yourself
(03:57):
to do things that you're justnot capable of doing that day.
So my whole process has beenbuilding a schedule that is
flexible and that has blocks oftime in it for all of the
elements, so that I can shiftthings around when I need to and
so that if I have a projectcome in from a high value client
that I work with all the timeand they're like I'm so sorry to
(04:18):
do this, we will pay you tripleyour going rate, but we need
this project by Friday I canshift everything and actually
focus in on that, and that's, Ithink, a key to sanity for me.
So I worked really hard, trialand error, to figure out exactly
how long I need to do aspecific thing.
So start tracking your time,which, to me, is one of the most
(04:39):
painful things that you can do.
It drives me crazy, but youneed to know how long it takes
you to do a specific thing, andyou need to know how long it
takes you to do that dredge work.
So, answering emails,responding to client messages,
what else do you do?
That's dredge work, lizzie.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
The marketing, the marketing the back and forth,
the edits the invoicing theproposal.
Yeah, all just those littleadmin-y tasks.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, and if you ever have to do a presentation for a
client which some of us do,some of us don't it takes
forever to put together apresentation and you might think
, oh, I'm going to set aside anhour on Friday to do that and
the next thing you know you'restill working on it on Sunday.
So just be realistic on how longit takes you to do things.
It's not a bad thing if ittakes you longer to do something
(05:29):
in the next person, and it'snot necessarily a good thing if
it takes less time to do thingsthan it takes other people.
You just need to know whatworks for you, how long it takes
you to do it, and then set up aschedule that works for you and
play with it.
And sometimes it's going to bedifferent every week, but you
have to do that and you're yourboss now.
(05:49):
So there's no boss telling youto do this, and I think this is
necessary honestly, because I amfirmly of the opinion if you do
not run your business, yourclients will.
So you need to manage yourschedule or your clients will,
and I feel pretty strongly aboutthat.
What about?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
you, lizzie.
Yeah, I think a lot of it forme was trial and error, figuring
out how long it took me to dothings.
I know, at the start I wouldreally really overpromise and
then really struggle to finishmy tasks in time and then I
would feel like I wasn't goodenough, the work wasn't as good
as I wanted it to be, so it justleads to all sorts of issues.
So I think, yeah, figuring outhow long everything takes and
(06:26):
then, like you said, making sureyou account for all those
little tasks as well.
So I like to this.
This isn't for everyone, but forme my most productive hours are
in the morning.
So I block out four hours inthe morning eight till 12, and I
won't do anything but write inthat time.
So I'll put my phone onaeroplane mode, listen to some
(06:47):
music with no lyrics and makesure I've got no distractions,
and I will literally just usethat time to write.
And then in the afternoon,that's when I will answer emails
, I will take any calls, I willsend invoices, chase invoices,
all of those little admin tasks,and I find that kind of
batching these tasks in specifictimes of the day when I'm most
(07:08):
productive or when I'm leastproductive for the admin tasks
means that I'm making the mostof my creativity and I think if
I try and write something in theafternoon, it takes me twice as
long than in the morning.
So I've learned that over theyears.
So I know to not do that unlessabsolutely necessary or if I'm
up against it.
What I will also do is setmyself internal deadlines.
(07:29):
So I'll have the clientdeadline, but my internal
deadline will be at least threedays before that client deadline
.
So, in case I'm not feeling it,if I'm sick, if something comes
up, then I've got that bufferroom and I'm not like waking up
every morning being like, okay,I need to write a piece today,
because I need to submit ittoday, because, yeah, it's just
(07:49):
not, the creativity is not goingto be there and there's no
wiggle room at all.
So those would be my tips.
That's how I manage my time,and I know it's really difficult
when we are the only ones incharge of it, because it's so
easy to be like oh well, I'll dothat tomorrow, nobody's going
to know, nobody's going to pickup on it, nobody's going to tell
me off if I don't do it today.
(08:10):
But then you realize very, veryquickly that it's just
impacting you and it's justimpacting the rest of your time
if you do that.
So I'm a big advocate offreelancing, being very flexible
and like it gives, it makes us,it helps us have a lifestyle
that we want.
But also there does need to bestructure, especially if you're
managing multiple projects atonce.
(08:30):
It just it needs to happen.
You need to have some structureyou really do.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I love that you mentioned the internal deadlines
.
I do that as well, becausesometimes I do my best writing
if I'm up against the wire, soI've learned to move the wire.
I have a date and in my mindthat date is the date that it's
due, and I don't even let myselfthink about the fact that if
something comes up, I still havethree days.
That's just the date that it'sdue for me.
(08:54):
How many projects when you werefirst starting out were you
still up at like the zero hourjust going?
I've got to get this to themright now.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Many, many, many, many.
I think the first year I wasdefinitely working from like 8
am to probably like 10 pm atnight.
It was just wild.
The hours were insane.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, and you're like why?
Why am I even doing this?
I don't understand.
It was supposed to be better.
It was supposed to be fun.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
This is like take me back to my nine to five, where I
only have to work eight hours aday.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So if you have your schedule set, then you have to
manage the projects that arecoming in, and I think a big
part of the success of that isknowing how much you can handle
on your plate at any one pointin time.
So, lizzie, would you walk usthrough how you do that, because
I know this is something thatyou've just recently talked
about and I'd love to hear whatyou have to say about that.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
I use a method that I call theblock method.
I know a couple of otherfreelancers use this, but I
manage all of my projects inNotion and each piece or each
project so each piece is aproject for me has its own board
in Notion and I have a setnumber of boards that I know
that I can complete each month.
(10:06):
That's my capacity and so whenI'm assigned a piece, it goes on
a board, the board goes underthe column with the
corresponding client and thenwhen I'm out of boards, I'm
technically at capacity no, nomore room.
Obviously it doesn't always workout that way, so that's like my
soft capacity and then there isalways room for one or two
(10:27):
extra pieces in there.
But I know that if, like a weekinto the month, I've used up
all of my blocks, I'm like okay,this is going to be a really
busy month, so I need to takecare of myself.
I need to make sure that I'mscheduling in lots of rest and
lots of fun things to do outsideof work.
On the flip side, if it's likethe second week of the month and
I've still got loads of blocksleft, then I'm like okay, I need
(10:50):
to rally and pick up some morework.
So for me I'm a really visualperson it helps to see my
capacity in a visual format, inNotion, and that's.
I've tried many, many, manymethods over the years to make
sure that I'm not overbooked orfully booked or sort of
stressing myself out, and thishas been.
It's not foolproof, but it'sbeen the most effective so far.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I'm very visual as well.
I should try that Now.
You mentioned scheduling intime to take care of yourself
and this question's aboutjuggling client work.
But I'm just going to put itout there If you are not
scheduling in self-care time ortime to take care of your
mindset and just to relax, toget that creativity back, then
(11:36):
you're not going to be able todo the client work in the time
that you've allotted.
Absolutely not, and I thinkthat's so important, and I think
that you should schedule it inon a regular, set deadlines.
If you have a writing blockduring the day which Lizzie does
and I do that as well Iactually have it on my calendar
(11:56):
at the end of the writing blockto take a five-minute walk or to
take a 10-minute walk.
So I tell myself what to do.
How do you schedule yours in?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So I don't schedule it in, as I love the idea of
doing that.
I'm really bad at taking walksin the middle of the day, but I
absolutely don't work after 5pm.
I have evening.
I do quite a lot of exercise,so in the evenings I have
classes that I go to and then onnegotiable.
They go into my calendar at thestart of every month and they
(12:28):
will not be moved.
Weekends absolutely no work,and I make sure that I have
something fun or social plannedfor at least one day of the
weekend.
If I'm writing and I'm notfeeling it, I will sometimes
take a walk.
I'm not very good at that, butmore often than not I will just
pack it in and start onsomething else and try again the
next day.
And I guess that's the beautyof having internal deadlines
(12:49):
that aren't really solid.
You can come back to it later,but to me it's holding a strict
boundary between work and lifeand making sure that I'm
scheduling stuff into the lifepart of my schedule as well as
the work part.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, and I put it in my schedule because I just
don't even know it exists.
If I don't, I'm very time blind, so my calendar actually keeps
me moving throughout the day.
I can seriously sit and just doa thing.
I tend to hyper focus and I'lljust do a thing, and unless
something tells me to stop, thenI don't.
(13:25):
I'll forget to eat, I'll forgetto take a break, I'll forget to
go to the bathroom and thenI'll just all of a sudden be
very uncomfortable.
I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'mtired, I'm hot because I haven't
been paying attention to what'sgoing on about me.
That makes it absolutelyimpossible to do my best work.
So I've learned to beregimented about it, and in a
way that is very loosey-gooseyfor me.
(13:45):
And one way that we reallydiffer here and I love this is
you have your set work time andyour set lifetime, and I've
discovered that doesn't work inmy brain, because I don't want
my business to be work.
Does that make sense?
I think so, and I really had amental block and I'm like I'm
hating this.
I'm really hating this.
(14:05):
I don't enjoy it anymore.
Until I started incorporatinglife into my work.
So sometimes I will be workingon a client project in the
evening, but that morning I wenthiking or I played with the
dogs or I went to a movie whenthe theater opened.
So I try to be flexible withthat.
I'm not always Sometimes I'mreally eight to five and then
(14:29):
I'm done.
But I did try to do that.
And I also found a tool that Ilike and I tell everybody I can
about this.
It's called Llama Life and it'sllamalifeco and it's this
little timer that lives on yourcomputer and you can set up a
Pomodoro thing or however youwant.
You can put all of your tasksin there.
You can even put breaks inthere and then it will walk you
(14:51):
through it and it'll celebratewith you when you complete one.
It will blink red if you'regone over time and it really is
a way for me to make sure thatI'm being realistic about how
much time I think a clientproject is going to take.
But it also keeps me going and Ischedule my breaks in there and
everything.
So if I have a full on workdayor even just that block of time,
(15:12):
I know I could sit there forfour hours and write, but I'm
better if I get up every 30minutes and take a five-minute
break.
To me, a tool like that isreally helpful because I'm time
blind, so any other time blindpeople out there check out
LomaLife.
It's awesome.
That sounds great.
Are there any special toolsthat you use, or are you just
one of those regimented peoplethat I admire?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I think I'm just one of those regimented people
admire.
I think I'm just one of thoseregimented people, but I have to
be.
I never used to be, but I foundthat if I didn't, if I wasn't
at my desk at 8am, writing itjust wouldn't get done and I
can't like I love that you go tothe theatre, like the movies
when it opens, and take a walkin the morning.
But I know that if I do thatand when I have done this in the
(15:54):
past, all I can think about isI need to write that piece, I
need to get started on thatpiece, I need to write that
piece.
So for me I have to self-sootheby just sitting down
immediately and getting thatdone, and sometimes I will
finish at 12 or finish at 1, 2pm and then I'll go for a walk
and it feels much better for mebecause I've not got anything
playing on my mind.
There's nothing that I need todo.
I can't do something fun ifI've got something serious I
(16:16):
need to do afterwards.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's more of a reward , then, exactly, yeah, yeah, and
I'm more of a carrot person.
Give me the carrot and thenI'll do the thing.
I love it.
I love how everyone worksdifferently, especially when it
comes to time and projects.
This is one of those areas foreveryone listening.
You can talk to 10 differentpeople, and all 10 people are
going to do this differently.
There are some things that youjust need to figure out, though
(16:39):
and figuring out how to set aschedule that works for you, and
then being really realisticabout how long it takes to do
things.
I think those are two of thekeys, and then everything else
just play with it and trydifferent things and listen to
different people.
Ask the other people that younetwork with how do you manage
this and reach out to people?
A lot of new freelancers,especially, tend to silo
(17:01):
themselves, and then they getreally frustrated and upset
because they don't have thatsupport network that you do when
you're in the workplace, andthat's not necessary now.
There are a lot of freelancinggroups out there.
There are a lot of communitiesthat you can get into.
You can connect with people onsocial media, do whatever it
takes, form yourself your ownlittle community and have them
help you through this as well.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I think that's really important, yeah, really
important.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
All right, come back tomorrow for day five with
Lizzie.
We're going to learn a littlebit more about her and what she
does with her business, and thenwe're going to talk about why
we.
Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast.
You know freelancing is a lotof work.
I know multiple people who havecome from a corporate
environment and thoughtfreelancing would be a nice slow
change of pace.
Well, it's actually running abusiness, so that means there
are a lot of moving elementswhenever you are a freelancer.
(00:20):
Today's question deals witheffectively managing time and
priorities so that you canactually make sure that you're
delivering high quality work andmeeting the deadlines that your
clients have set.
If you're a freelancer,business owner or anyone who
deals with clients, you're inthe right place.
I'm your host, teresa Edmond.
(00:41):
I've been dealing with clientsand running my business for
nearly two decades and in thattime I've dealt with my share of
doubt, imposter syndrome andnot knowing what to say when a
client asked a question I wasn'tready for.
I created this podcast toempower you with the boss
responses you need to grow yourbusiness.
Each week, my guest co-host andI will bring you five episodes
(01:05):
packed with practical insights.
Monday through Thursday, weanswer your questions, and
Fridays we dive deep to explorehow our co-hosts embrace their
role as the boss of theirbusiness.
Welcome to Boss Responses,lizzie.
What's the question for today?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So today's question is I'm relatively new to
freelancing.
I came from a busy corporateenvironment and thought
freelancing would be a nicechange of pace.
So did I know I actuallysometimes feel overwhelmed and
juggling multiple projects fordifferent clients.
How can I effectively manage mytime and priorities to ensure
high quality work and meetdeadlines?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I love this question and I laughed.
I'm so sorry, but I laughedhard when I first read it.
Because running a businesswhich is what you're doing if
you're a freelance writer, youare not just writing for a
client.
They're not an employersubstitute.
Your client should bepartnering with you, not telling
you what to do, which is whythis problem comes up, Because
(02:08):
when you're working in thecorporate world, someone is
always telling you what to do.
Now they may give you thefreedom to manage your schedule,
but they're still telling youwhich projects are coming in.
You know ahead of time whenthey're coming in.
You don't always know that withfreelancing or at least I don't
, Do you, Lizzie?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I do not know, I absolutely do not.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And you don't.
So I mean, even if you scheduleout for a few months, hiccups
will still happen that changehow things work.
However, I think that managingyour time is an oxymoron.
I don't know that it'ssomething that you can actually
do.
You have the same amount oftime that anyone else does.
What you can do is manage yourprojects and make sure that you
(02:51):
are setting deadlines for them,that you're allowing the right
amount of time to work on themand that you have a system set
up, and I'm very free will, freespirited.
I don't like being tied down toa schedule, but if you're
running a business, you need one, and I have set times set apart
for when I can write, when Ican do work, work, when I can do
(03:15):
my marketing, all of thosethings, and that took me a
little bit of trial and error tofigure out what works best when
.
Because I can write for aboutfour hours a day period.
After that, anything I write isgarbage and because I run out
of brain, I just that part of mybrain doesn't work well after
(03:35):
that.
Then I end up rewritingeverything if I try to force
myself to write longer.
So I've learned that I do that.
I've also learned that I can'twrite if I'm upset about
something.
So if I have a bad day, I needflexibility in my schedule so
that I can shift my writing toanother day, and I think that's
important for your mental healththat you don't force yourself
(03:57):
to do things that you're justnot capable of doing that day.
So my whole process has beenbuilding a schedule that is
flexible and that has blocks oftime in it for all of the
elements, so that I can shiftthings around when I need to and
so that if I have a projectcome in from a high value client
that I work with all the timeand they're like I'm so sorry to
(04:18):
do this, we will pay you tripleyour going rate, but we need
this project by Friday I canshift everything and actually
focus in on that, and that's, Ithink, a key to sanity for me.
So I worked really hard, trialand error, to figure out exactly
how long I need to do aspecific thing.
So start tracking your time,which, to me, is one of the most
(04:39):
painful things that you can do.
It drives me crazy, but youneed to know how long it takes
you to do a specific thing, andyou need to know how long it
takes you to do that dredge work.
So, answering emails,responding to client messages,
what else do you do?
That's dredge work, lizzie.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
The marketing, the marketing the back and forth,
the edits the invoicing theproposal.
Yeah, all just those littleadmin-y tasks.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, and if you ever have to do a presentation for a
client which some of us do,some of us don't it takes
forever to put together apresentation and you might think
, oh, I'm going to set aside anhour on Friday to do that and
the next thing you know you'restill working on it on Sunday.
So just be realistic on how longit takes you to do things.
It's not a bad thing if ittakes you longer to do something
(05:29):
in the next person, and it'snot necessarily a good thing if
it takes less time to do thingsthan it takes other people.
You just need to know whatworks for you, how long it takes
you to do it, and then set up aschedule that works for you and
play with it.
And sometimes it's going to bedifferent every week, but you
have to do that and you're yourboss now.
(05:49):
So there's no boss telling youto do this, and I think this is
necessary honestly, because I amfirmly of the opinion if you do
not run your business, yourclients will.
So you need to manage yourschedule or your clients will,
and I feel pretty strongly aboutthat.
What about?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
you, lizzie.
Yeah, I think a lot of it forme was trial and error, figuring
out how long it took me to dothings.
I know, at the start I wouldreally really overpromise and
then really struggle to finishmy tasks in time and then I
would feel like I wasn't goodenough, the work wasn't as good
as I wanted it to be, so it justleads to all sorts of issues.
So I think, yeah, figuring outhow long everything takes and
(06:26):
then, like you said, making sureyou account for all those
little tasks as well.
So I like to this.
This isn't for everyone, but forme my most productive hours are
in the morning.
So I block out four hours inthe morning eight till 12, and I
won't do anything but write inthat time.
So I'll put my phone onaeroplane mode, listen to some
(06:47):
music with no lyrics and makesure I've got no distractions,
and I will literally just usethat time to write.
And then in the afternoon,that's when I will answer emails
, I will take any calls, I willsend invoices, chase invoices,
all of those little admin tasks,and I find that kind of
batching these tasks in specifictimes of the day when I'm most
(07:08):
productive or when I'm leastproductive for the admin tasks
means that I'm making the mostof my creativity and I think if
I try and write something in theafternoon, it takes me twice as
long than in the morning.
So I've learned that over theyears.
So I know to not do that unlessabsolutely necessary or if I'm
up against it.
What I will also do is setmyself internal deadlines.
(07:29):
So I'll have the clientdeadline, but my internal
deadline will be at least threedays before that client deadline
.
So, in case I'm not feeling it,if I'm sick, if something comes
up, then I've got that bufferroom and I'm not like waking up
every morning being like, okay,I need to write a piece today,
because I need to submit ittoday, because, yeah, it's just
(07:49):
not, the creativity is not goingto be there and there's no
wiggle room at all.
So those would be my tips.
That's how I manage my time,and I know it's really difficult
when we are the only ones incharge of it, because it's so
easy to be like oh well, I'll dothat tomorrow, nobody's going
to know, nobody's going to pickup on it, nobody's going to tell
me off if I don't do it today.
(08:10):
But then you realize very, veryquickly that it's just
impacting you and it's justimpacting the rest of your time
if you do that.
So I'm a big advocate offreelancing, being very flexible
and like it gives, it makes us,it helps us have a lifestyle
that we want.
But also there does need to bestructure, especially if you're
managing multiple projects atonce.
(08:30):
It just it needs to happen.
You need to have some structureyou really do.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I love that you mentioned the internal deadlines
.
I do that as well, becausesometimes I do my best writing
if I'm up against the wire, soI've learned to move the wire.
I have a date and in my mindthat date is the date that it's
due, and I don't even let myselfthink about the fact that if
something comes up, I still havethree days.
That's just the date that it'sdue for me.
(08:54):
How many projects when you werefirst starting out were you
still up at like the zero hourjust going?
I've got to get this to themright now.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Many, many, many, many.
I think the first year I wasdefinitely working from like 8
am to probably like 10 pm atnight.
It was just wild.
The hours were insane.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, and you're like why?
Why am I even doing this?
I don't understand.
It was supposed to be better.
It was supposed to be fun.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
This is like take me back to my nine to five, where I
only have to work eight hours aday.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So if you have your schedule set, then you have to
manage the projects that arecoming in, and I think a big
part of the success of that isknowing how much you can handle
on your plate at any one pointin time.
So, lizzie, would you walk usthrough how you do that, because
I know this is something thatyou've just recently talked
about and I'd love to hear whatyou have to say about that.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
I use a method that I call theblock method.
I know a couple of otherfreelancers use this, but I
manage all of my projects inNotion and each piece or each
project so each piece is aproject for me has its own board
in Notion and I have a setnumber of boards that I know
that I can complete each month.
(10:06):
That's my capacity and so whenI'm assigned a piece, it goes on
a board, the board goes underthe column with the
corresponding client and thenwhen I'm out of boards, I'm
technically at capacity no, nomore room.
Obviously it doesn't always workout that way, so that's like my
soft capacity and then there isalways room for one or two
(10:27):
extra pieces in there.
But I know that if, like a weekinto the month, I've used up
all of my blocks, I'm like okay,this is going to be a really
busy month, so I need to takecare of myself.
I need to make sure that I'mscheduling in lots of rest and
lots of fun things to do outsideof work.
On the flip side, if it's likethe second week of the month and
I've still got loads of blocksleft, then I'm like okay, I need
(10:50):
to rally and pick up some morework.
So for me I'm a really visualperson it helps to see my
capacity in a visual format, inNotion, and that's.
I've tried many, many, manymethods over the years to make
sure that I'm not overbooked orfully booked or sort of
stressing myself out, and thishas been.
It's not foolproof, but it'sbeen the most effective so far.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I'm very visual as well.
I should try that Now.
You mentioned scheduling intime to take care of yourself
and this question's aboutjuggling client work.
But I'm just going to put itout there If you are not
scheduling in self-care time ortime to take care of your
mindset and just to relax, toget that creativity back, then
(11:36):
you're not going to be able todo the client work in the time
that you've allotted.
Absolutely not, and I thinkthat's so important, and I think
that you should schedule it inon a regular, set deadlines.
If you have a writing blockduring the day which Lizzie does
and I do that as well Iactually have it on my calendar
(11:56):
at the end of the writing blockto take a five-minute walk or to
take a 10-minute walk.
So I tell myself what to do.
How do you schedule yours in?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So I don't schedule it in, as I love the idea of
doing that.
I'm really bad at taking walksin the middle of the day, but I
absolutely don't work after 5pm.
I have evening.
I do quite a lot of exercise,so in the evenings I have
classes that I go to and then onnegotiable.
They go into my calendar at thestart of every month and they
(12:28):
will not be moved.
Weekends absolutely no work,and I make sure that I have
something fun or social plannedfor at least one day of the
weekend.
If I'm writing and I'm notfeeling it, I will sometimes
take a walk.
I'm not very good at that, butmore often than not I will just
pack it in and start onsomething else and try again the
next day.
And I guess that's the beautyof having internal deadlines
(12:49):
that aren't really solid.
You can come back to it later,but to me it's holding a strict
boundary between work and lifeand making sure that I'm
scheduling stuff into the lifepart of my schedule as well as
the work part.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, and I put it in my schedule because I just
don't even know it exists.
If I don't, I'm very time blind, so my calendar actually keeps
me moving throughout the day.
I can seriously sit and just doa thing.
I tend to hyper focus and I'lljust do a thing, and unless
something tells me to stop, thenI don't.
(13:25):
I'll forget to eat, I'll forgetto take a break, I'll forget to
go to the bathroom and thenI'll just all of a sudden be
very uncomfortable.
I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'mtired, I'm hot because I haven't
been paying attention to what'sgoing on about me.
That makes it absolutelyimpossible to do my best work.
So I've learned to beregimented about it, and in a
way that is very loosey-gooseyfor me.
(13:45):
And one way that we reallydiffer here and I love this is
you have your set work time andyour set lifetime, and I've
discovered that doesn't work inmy brain, because I don't want
my business to be work.
Does that make sense?
I think so, and I really had amental block and I'm like I'm
hating this.
I'm really hating this.
(14:05):
I don't enjoy it anymore.
Until I started incorporatinglife into my work.
So sometimes I will be workingon a client project in the
evening, but that morning I wenthiking or I played with the
dogs or I went to a movie whenthe theater opened.
So I try to be flexible withthat.
I'm not always Sometimes I'mreally eight to five and then
(14:29):
I'm done.
But I did try to do that.
And I also found a tool that Ilike and I tell everybody I can
about this.
It's called Llama Life and it'sllamalifeco and it's this
little timer that lives on yourcomputer and you can set up a
Pomodoro thing or however youwant.
You can put all of your tasksin there.
You can even put breaks inthere and then it will walk you
(14:51):
through it and it'll celebratewith you when you complete one.
It will blink red if you'regone over time and it really is
a way for me to make sure thatI'm being realistic about how
much time I think a clientproject is going to take.
But it also keeps me going and Ischedule my breaks in there and
everything.
So if I have a full on workdayor even just that block of time,
(15:12):
I know I could sit there forfour hours and write, but I'm
better if I get up every 30minutes and take a five-minute
break.
To me, a tool like that isreally helpful because I'm time
blind, so any other time blindpeople out there check out
LomaLife.
It's awesome.
That sounds great.
Are there any special toolsthat you use, or are you just
one of those regimented peoplethat I admire?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I think I'm just one of those regimented people
admire.
I think I'm just one of thoseregimented people, but I have to
be.
I never used to be, but I foundthat if I didn't, if I wasn't
at my desk at 8am, writing itjust wouldn't get done and I
can't like I love that you go tothe theatre, like the movies
when it opens, and take a walkin the morning.
But I know that if I do thatand when I have done this in the
(15:54):
past, all I can think about isI need to write that piece, I
need to get started on thatpiece, I need to write that
piece.
So for me I have to self-sootheby just sitting down
immediately and getting thatdone, and sometimes I will
finish at 12 or finish at 1, 2pm and then I'll go for a walk
and it feels much better for mebecause I've not got anything
playing on my mind.
There's nothing that I need todo.
I can't do something fun ifI've got something serious I
(16:16):
need to do afterwards.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's more of a reward , then, exactly, yeah, yeah, and
I'm more of a carrot person.
Give me the carrot and thenI'll do the thing.
I love it.
I love how everyone worksdifferently, especially when it
comes to time and projects.
This is one of those areas foreveryone listening.
You can talk to 10 differentpeople, and all 10 people are
going to do this differently.
There are some things that youjust need to figure out, though
(16:39):
and figuring out how to set aschedule that works for you, and
then being really realisticabout how long it takes to do
things.
I think those are two of thekeys, and then everything else
just play with it and trydifferent things and listen to
different people.
Ask the other people that younetwork with how do you manage
this and reach out to people?
A lot of new freelancers,especially, tend to silo
(17:01):
themselves, and then they getreally frustrated and upset
because they don't have thatsupport network that you do when
you're in the workplace, andthat's not necessary now.
There are a lot of freelancinggroups out there.
There are a lot of communitiesthat you can get into.
You can connect with people onsocial media, do whatever it
takes, form yourself your ownlittle community and have them
help you through this as well.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
I think that's really important, yeah, really
important.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
All right, come back tomorrow for day five with
Lizzie.
We're going to learn a littlebit more about her and what she
does with her business, and thenwe're going to talk about why
we.
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