How do you manage your freelancer career/life?
How do you manage your freelancer career/life?
I have been a freelancer for 6 years now and I just wanted to know how other freelancers handle their stuffs. Maybe it could help me or other freelancers find a better way to do things.
So what software do you use?
I don't use any special software. I love the simplicity of spreadsheets, MS Word to create my contracts/documents and I use a simple invoice generator.
How do you stay organized?
I personally use my agenda and a notebook.
How do you stay motivated?
I am always working from home, so for me to stay motivated, I have to change my mind. Sometimes one day off is enough, other times I to work outside of my home, take a walk or I read or I listen to music.
What's your personal routine?
I wake up at 5:00 am to have at least 1 hour for myself and to review what is coming for the day. Then at 6:00 am I start with mom's routine. Preparing my kid, breakfast etc.
How do you know if it's time to switch to create an agency when you have a lot of clients to handle alone?
I am at this point, and I overthink this question.
If you are a woman, how do you deal with pregnancy (during and after)?
I personally didn't stop working when I was pregnant, but I took the time to rest after giving birth. But, we are thinking about a second child, and I don't know if I will be able to do the same thing because I would have to take care of one kid while being pregnant and it scares me a little bit.
Maybe you have other questions? Leave them in the comment section for people to answer.
Thanks 😊
Hi Fatou ,
Freelancing can ask a lot , congrats on your journey ,
I have been freelancing since i was a student , now over 20 years, it has been very positive , motivation is a big part. but you have your down times from time to time. I have 3 kids now, it has an impact and you tend to think more about work/life balance. I tend to have my evening routines when the kids are in bed.
There have been two major contributions to feeling more in balance.
I have joined a Marketing agency that is top of class , as an exclusive freelancer, they give me the dealflow i need for financial stability.
I bought a small Saas Business (formlets.com) to build recurring revenue and to diminish my dependance on project work. Once you have recurring income , you can build a team and bootstrap your way to financial independence.
Hi @filvdg ,
Thanks for your answer and your encouraging words. You gave great advice here.
You are right about making recurring income, financial stability is definitely something important and even more when you have to to provide for your family. Also, I never thought about buying a business, but I should definitely think about it.
Thanks again 🙏🏾
I'm in no position to give you advice but just wanted to mention here a book I've recently come across: "The More You Hustle, the Luckier You Get: You Can Be a Successful Parentpreneur". Maybe you'll find something valuable in there. I personally haven't read it, but it's been rated 5 stars by Brad Feld (Techstars cofounder) whom I follow on Goodreads, which IMO is a good sign.
Thanks for the book, the title is pretty interesting and relevant :)
The biggest thing for me, as a mother (of 5 ) was to only take on work from people or companies that I knew would need/want flexibility and would be ok offering that in return. At the time, it turned out, there were plenty of web agencies needing testing work with flexibility and not alot of freelance testers out there.
From experience, those that expect precise and hard deadlines ended up wasting a lot of my time, or demanding things unreasonably.
As my business grew, I grew it around things that I knew I could deliver. 95% of the work could be done remotely. The other 5% was showing up at events that I organised.
I could have probably grown faster/bigger, but I did not want that at the time. It did get too big for me to handle and that's when I started hiring people in to support me, initially on a freelance basis, but now there's a team who do all the things I never wanted to do :)
First of all, I bow down to you. Mama of 5 kids !! Sooo much love just for you 😄. This is pretty inspiring to me that you were able to do that. I feel bad about being scared to have 2 kids ahaha.
But more seriously, it inspire me that it is possible to grow my little family while working, and I am happy that you found people to do the things you don't want to do, this is my goal ahaha.
May I ask you some personal questions? Feel free to ignore them :) ? Did you work during your pregnancies? And after giving birth, did you take time to rest or did you start working right after?
Thanks @rosiesherry
I don't mind the personal questions. TBH I struggle to switch off, it's a common thing when you freelance or run your own business. :)
The most relevant children for my business were my last 2 children. I worked mostly up until baby was born and took some days off afterwards. I had a conference to host 6 weeks after she was born, which wasn't ideal. I had delegated much of the work to someone else, but still had to keep up with some things. At the event I had my husband drop in a 3 times during the day so I could breastfeed her. That was 4 years ago, much of my work was email based.
My youngest is 16 months now, I kinda took time off, a few weeks before, a few weeks after. There were events we were hosting that I chose not to go to. But at least at this point I had a team who could step in on all the things. This was my first csection too, so recovery was much harder, it was a bit of a slap in the face, forcing me to rest. Admittedly, I would check into our team Slack daily to see if there was anything I could support with, but we had planned for me to have time off and my team weren't coming to me much at all with questions/things to do.
My husband and I share family responsibilities equally. We swap, slice and dice our time as best as we can. We have to be super efficient with it all. We're pretty hands on with the kids and don't have much child care support. We're looking at getting a full time nanny now, feel we deserve the extra support. Plus we home educate / unschool. Crazy mama, me. :D
The more you talk, the more I admire you. You are clearly the definition of boss mom.
Thanks for taking the time to answer and share your experience. It's very helpful to me 😊
Hi Fatou,
I've been a digital strategy / digital marketing freelancer for the past 3 years and a 10 month old son.
I can completely relate to you as my wife didn't stop working either during her pregancy.
When it comes to my own balancing, I stay organized by planning my week ahead on Sunday. This includes literally everything (private meetings, doctors, client meetings, demos, admin time etc.) Whatever isn't in my calendar doesn't exist :)
I always make sure that I plan enough time for the family, e.g. I'll always make it a priority to be there for my little one's bath time at 7pm.
What's my personal routine?
Get up at 4:45am for 10 minutes journaling and 20 mins meditation (I know this sounds so cheesy) before hitting the gym at 6. Trust me, this journaling helps me empty my brain from all the junk that builds up over night or the day before.
I also do Crossfit so I don't waste any time on that, a quick high intensity workout for 60 minutes is more than enough back by 7.20am.
Brekkie and then taking little one to nursery for 8am start. Usually in the office by 8.30am. No meetings for the first 5 hours of the day. Most important tasks first, seperated in Pomodoro blocks of 25 minutes. Usually, this involves anything creative like writing, designing etc.
I try to spend at least 1 hour of the day in communities like IH or on LinkedIn.
Pick up little one from nursery by 6 and then go for a walk with my wife to re-connect. Then family time until 9am and a couple of hours for side projects/learning. I try to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep.
The message here really is to avoid time wasters. I stopped scheduling meetings that have no clear agenda or outcomes. You have to protect your time like your life.
The above is the ideal day. I must say, I have had days with procrastination and zero productivity at times.
I don't use any tools, except a little Pomodoro timer I built for a FreeCodeCamp project :)
My biggest challenge: Too many ideas, too little follow through. I'm an ENFP personality if anyone of you know the Myers-Briggs personality test :)
What are your biggest tips?
Hey 👋🏽, @CKPleiser thanks for you reply.
I absolutely love the fact that you have your priorities straight.
I am very impressed by your routine. You are very organized, and I think that it's a good idea to start planning your week ahead on Sunday. I should definitely try that.
I have some questions for you. When you say that you start with the "Most important tasks first, separated in Pomodoro blocks of 25 minutes. Usually, this involves anything creative like writing, designing etc."
How did you come up with that? Do you start with creative tasks to feel less overwhelmed? Or is it just a preference?
Thank you 😊
Hey @fatou,
Great question.
I found that I my mental capacities (brain power) is much better in the mornings than in the afternoon.
So, it's basically a preference. The afternoon is for activities where I don't need to use my brain that much, e.g. admin work, accounting, meetings etc.
How about you, does it work differently for you in programming? Do you have focused time for coding and then time for other tasks, like meetings?
Thank you
Thanks @CKPleiser
I find it very interesting to see how other people work. Like you, I am more focused in the morning. So, I prefer to code in the mornings to fix bugs and solve problems.
I also put meetings in the mornings and only after 9:00 am.
I try to avoid having more than 3 meetings each week (3 is only if there's no other choice ).
If the goal of the meeting is not clear enough or if a simple email can avoid it, I don't schedule the meeting.
Finally, I love to keep afternoons for creative stuffs. It's just my preference :)
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Yes! Simplicity is always the key 😂👍🏽