Deadline at freelancer's work. How to manage time and tasks well?

At some point, you surely did fail to meet the deadline for completing the order and sending it later. It is a huge stress and nervousness, but in the end we are just humans and we have the right to make mistakes. However, sometimes failure to meet a significant deadline can cost us a lot. Howwe can avoid this?

Why is it so difficult to meet the deadline for completing an order?

There are quite a few reasons. Each of us has our own reasons.

Why I avoid orders?

There are unpleasant tasks that we simply do not feel like working on and we delay its realisation. Sometimes we do not see any purpose in a given order.

Time management issues

Maybe you do not even realize what mistakes you make in this regard. Below I will introduce the most important ones.

Optimistic planning

The more complex task , the easier it is to skip a lot of obstacles in your time planning. This

may result in inaccurate estimates.

Omission of prioritization

In freelancer's work, all orders are generally important and urgent. However, it is just an illusion. You have to set priorities in order to avoid wasting valuable time on irrelevant tasks. Time is money and it is more worthy to devote it to the most important tasks.

Lack of “to-do list”

It turns out that a simple ”to-do list” helps you perform important tasks. Not planning your day appropriately in advance can make you forget about an order that you will not have time to complete afterwards. You can try the free 14-day trial of “Klamp” in this case.

No consequences in behavior.

You certainly had situations where failure to meet a given deadline did not entail any serious consequences. So you did not take this order seriously and you did not finish it on time because of it.

How do I prevent deadlines from being exceeded?

In fact, the key to success is to manage your time properly. It is worth remembering a few basic techniques that are useful in this case.

Realistic order execution deadlines

You should estimate the execution of individual orders based on specific data. This ensures that you complete the task on time.

Do not floodyourself with too many responsibilities

You have to learn to say “no” when you have too many assignments on your head, simultaneous tasks. Do not work on dozens of things at once. Plan only 60% of your time every day. After all, there are always unforeseen problems, events that cannot be planned, etc. Sometimes the implementation of tasks is also interfered with the so-called “time eaters”.

You do not have to be self-contained

You do not  always have to do everything by yourself. There are very simple tasks that do not take much time. However, when more of them are accumulated, they can take long hours. You can sometimes delegate them to others, such as subcontractors. The time saved in this way will be able to allocate for better paid orders or for a well-deserved rest.

Division into most important, urgent and important tasks

You need to have priorities. Determine which things in a project are the most important things to do and the timing of their implementation is coming. Also, select those that are not key in this situation and you can go without. Remember to realize urgent things that always appear unexpectedly in any project.