Something I’ve learned since I started to work as a freelancer is that being productive can mean making the most you can out of the resources you have, in some situations that may refer to the quantity of work, like the number of tasks you got done in a specific amount of time; and in others, it’s only about the quality, whether it is the engagement you created with your client or the level of detail you performed on your work.
Being productive is one of the keys to success for freelancers, and even though we all have our days where we feel like we could climb every mountain followed by days of not being able to complete even the simplest tasks, there are ways to improve your performance.
This is not only in your work environment but also in your daily life by adding a couple of simple activities to your routine, so here you have five simple habits that will boost your productivity.
List What You Need To Do
If you have lots of things to do it’s easy to get overwhelmed, falling into the stress loop where you end up running in circles and asking yourself later where the time went or having what feels like a tiny heart attack when you remember another task you need to get done urgently.
Making a to-do list may sound like an extremely simple word of advice but writing things down can help you improve your memory since in that process you are involving two senses, sight, and touch, adding to your semantic memory a little help from your muscle memory, meaning that if at some moment you forget what you wrote, you will remember that you wrote something, leading you to look for the list or note.
Making lists of the tasks you need to get done regularly and having them in a very visible place or somewhere you could reach them easily is a way of keeping yourself on the productive track.
This could be more effective if you break down the big tasks into smaller steps, so you’ll have the gratifying sensation of finishing a task and crossing it out of your to-do list more often and therefore having this as motivation to continue achieving the following steps.
Set Your Mindset
It often happens that you start your day and go on with it just attending to what comes up. But if you give yourself the time to clear your mind in the morning or before you start working to ask yourself what are the most important things you need to do, you’ll be able to come up with a great strategy to tackle the tasks that matter.
Make the habit of taking five minutes to set your goals for the day and plan how you are going to achieve them to seize your resources better. Tracing the path of your day and prioritizing the lists you made regularly gives you a clue on what to do and expect from each day of work.
So, when the unexpected comes and hands you more things to do, you have already trained yourself to quickly prioritize and adapt to the circumstances without leaving your main goals behind and consequently perform more productively.
Work Smart, Not Hard
A great lesson I learned at Freelance Latin America is that it’s always better to work smart than work hard, so it became a habit to stop doing things by default and ask myself in which way can I get tasks done with a smarter approach.
In most situations, this could be an encouragement to be creative and innovative by looking for better solutions to the problems you face or making new ways to proceed out of nowhere to make your work more efficient or faster.
This motto is useful in almost any situation, in and out of the workplace, since there is always space to improve; it has also taught me that I don’t have to overwork myself to the limit of my capabilities to be productive and do an excellent job, since the important thing is to do the best you can with what you have, using your aptitudes like being solution-oriented or creative to help you perform in work and life more effectively and thus making better use of your time or energy is the smarter way to go.
Reward Yourself
When you were a kid your preschool teacher probably gave you a smiley face sticker when you did a good job on your assignment, and that’s because when it comes to achieving anything, motivation is a key ingredient. One of the most effective ways to do that is by rewarding yourself in any way, and this applies much more if you work independently.
You have to become your smiley-face sticker-giving preschool teacher and give yourself a treat when you achieve your productivity goal, it can be by buying yourself your favorite ice cream after a really good day of work, taking the time to watch a movie you like, or complimenting yourself, as long as it feels like an incentive to keep the good work going and eventually that self-acknowledgment will become a fuel that will feed an unending loop of productivity.
Make Room To Grow
In our busy daily lives, it feels like there’s never enough time for all the things we need and want to do. But to be able to make better use of your resources, you should invest in yourself, and even though you could feel like you do not have the time, you can always make a little time for some growing.
Reading a book about your work area, watching a couple of educational videos on YouTube, or making questions to a friend with more experience can make a difference because, in all those scenarios, you are getting the tools to improve your performance in the topic you are learning about.
Therefore, you’ll become faster at it, you’ll do it smarter, and become more productive; so make room on your schedule for a bit of growing, it can be as much as you like, but make it constant.
If you let this become a part of your routine, you’ll eventually start to do it unconsciously and without noticing your everyday life will be an effortless asset to your performance.
You’ll be able to organize yourself to manage your time efficiently, achieve your objectives and adapt to what may come, use your aptitudes to constantly improve your working strategies, keep yourself motivated, and become more competent every day by never stopping to learn… so, why don’t you give them a try?
See more articles by Laura Navarro.
