Frustration builds while reviewing this week’s calendar. Every day this week has something not routine and not work-related scheduled (and most of last week, too). I can only reschedule one appointment, but it’s not enough to lighten the load.
So what does a lone freelancer do? To prevent myself from going crazy and sacrificing sleep (if I do this, then I might as well mark myself as unavailable for the entire day after a short night’s sleep), I work through my fewer hours than usual:
- Cancel or reschedule appointments, if possible.
- Prioritize (Duh!)
- Contact regular clients notifying them of my reduced availability.
- Cut time spent on self-assigned work like blogging, Twittering, and social network sites. While these sound like time wasters — they aren’t. It’s part of the freelancer’s marketing toolbox.
- Be strict about fooling around on the Internet (This is the time waster.).
Even with deadlines, the freelancer should be able to plan the week to meet them while saving less urgent work for later. Most of the time, the freelancer meets the deadlines and then has time left over to work on the lower prioritized stuff.
I feel better knowing I will accomplish a few things this week, though less than usual. It’s better than panicking and getting nothing done.