5 Tips to Free Up Time as a Freelancer

Do you recall feeling like you are hustling to get all the work done as a freelancer and that there is little time left for yourself?  

Being a successful freelancer often means wearing many hats at the same time. Aside from offering core services to clients, freelancers today also take on a bunch of other responsibilities such as marketing, finances, CEO, content creation, admin, and the list goes on. Without a set of tools, skills, and sometimes assistance to help you manage tasks effectively, freelancing could indeed feel like a handful. 

Here are 5 tips for freelancers to free up time and really get your shine on!

1. Use a premade template for social media and contracts

Premade templates could be a real time-saver. For routine work such as posting promotional content on social media or sending over a contract for clients to review, quickly jump into your template, edit a few things and you are good to go! 

Free design tools like Canva offer thousands of beautiful materials to customise for your social titles and banners. Don’t know where to get freelance business templates like contracts? Freelancing Gems has got you covered. Our Word template contract agreement covers all the essentials to help you get paid on time. Download away!

2. Utilise a project management tool

It is common for freelancers to juggle multiple projects and clients at the same time. Keeping a tab on tasks and duties helps freelancers better manage their time and workload. With some of the best project management tools for freelancers such as Asana, Monday, Hive and Trello, you can get a clear picture of what needs to get done, who’s doing it, and by when.

Each of these tools offers different packages, ranging from free plans with basic functions to premium ones that allow you to really get organised with your projects. 

3. Batch similar tasks together to free up time

Implementing task batching will boost your productivity. It will help you avoid mentally jumping back and forth between tasks by grouping similar tasks and completing them simultaneously. 

For example, you can categorise your tasks by the level of effort, by project, or by the type of actions needed to complete a task. Then, colour-code different tasks and organise your schedule accordingly. You can do this by posting sticky notes, or try using task batching tools such as the task batching features on Asana. 

4. Time blocking as an effective way to free up time as a freelancer

Have you heard of the concept of time blocking? It’s a fabulous way to maximise your day.

Time blocking is a time management strategy where you schedule out every part of your day.

With time blocking, you are breaking up your work week into bite-sized time slots for different tasks – think invoicing time, brainstorming time, email checking time, and an actual lunch break. Literally everything is time-blocked so you can fit a lot into your day in a really efficient manner. This detailed schedule allows freelancers to make good use of every minute of the day. 

Here are some tools that feature time-blocking services suitable for freelancers. 

• Planyway: free for the basic plan 
• HourStack: plans starting from $12 a month
• TimeBloc – Daily Planner: downloadable app for laptop and mobile phone, $45.99 annually.   

Or, you can simply organise blocks in an old school diary or weekly planner pad to set your week into key blocks. 

5. Outsource tasks that aren’t your core strength

As freelancers, we fully understand and appreciate the importance of expertise. Thus, when it comes to certain aspects of your business that aren’t your core strength, why not consider outsourcing them? Hiring a professional bookkeeper, web designer, or social media copywriting expert will render fantastic results and most importantly, free up more of your time to work on your key projects that make money and do more of the work you love. 

At Freelancing Gems, we’ve made hiring an expert extra easy. Dive into the Gem Directory and connect with your next expert immediately. 

Now you have got a sense of the things that can help free up time as a freelancer. Start experimenting with the tools and discover what works best for you and your business!

And, if you are considering taking your next step in freelancing or scaling up your business, head to our memberships page and check out our upcoming events. Whether it is coffee catchups, coworking events, or accountability sessions, Freelancing Gems always has something for you to grow, network, earn and learn.