As a freelancer, you must be organized. I use time blocking to manage my day and stay on track. Time blocking is the process of dividing your day into chunks of time designated for specific activities or tasks.
When you’re just starting out, you may not see the value in time blocking, but once you’re managing multiple clients and their demands, you will find it very useful.
Here are two ways that I’ve used time blocking to plan my day.
Option 1: Time blocking by client
Time blocking by client involves setting specific times each day to work on client’s projects.
Time blocking by client would look something like this:
Monday
9 – 11 am: Client A
11 – 1 pm: Client B
1 – 2 pm: Break/Lunch
2 – 4 pm: Client C
If you only had three clients, this would repeat each day. If you had more than three clients then the second day would look like this:
Tuesday
9 – 11 am: Client D
11 – 1 pm: Client E
1 – 2 pm: Break/Lunch
2 – 4 pm: Client F
Monday’s schedule would repeat on Wednesday and Friday and Tuesday’s schedule would repeat on Thursday.
You should strategically schedule your clients depending on their workload and personalities. ‘High touch’ clients that need more frequent communication should be placed on Monday’s schedule so you’ll interact with them three times per week. Clients with smaller workloads or infrequent communication could be placed on Tuesday’s schedule.
If a client did not have work for you to do on their day, you could move to the next client on your list. You could also use the time to work on a side hustle or take a break. Here are 10 things you could do for your business with 30 spare minutes.
If you think that this schedule would not work for you then you can try using shorter blocks of time each day. This way you’d interact with each client every day.
Monday
9 – 10 am: Client A
10 – 11 am: Client B
11 – 12 pm: Client C
12 – 1 pm: Client D
1 – 2 pm: Break/Lunch
2 – 3 pm: Client E
3 – 4 pm: Client F
The same idea applies, you can skip to the next client if you have no tasks from a particular client that day. With this schedule, you could potentially be finished working at 3 pm if one client had no tasks or 2 pm if two clients were not requesting anything.
Depending on how many clients you have, you can experiment with making the time blocks longer or shorter.
I would warn against scheduling less than 30 minutes per client because it will not give you enough time to start a task, make progress, or complete it.
Option 2: Time blocking by task
Another way you can time block your calendar is by task. This method involves taking similar tasks and scheduling them throughout your day. This method is similar to batching your work.
You can time block by task in two ways:
Single focus day
In this option, each day of the week would have a specific focus.
Monday – Administrative work including expenses
Tuesday – Research and writing
Wednesday – Social media work
Thursday – Phone calls, meetings and emails
Friday – Housekeeping and tying up loose ends
If you have the same types of tasks for each client, you may want to separate your days by what you are doing. That way you can get all of one type of work done on a specific day. Once you’re done with that work, you’re done for the day.
In this scenario, you would be less likely to interact with all of your clients each working day.
One possible negative of this set-up is that it could lead to some very inconsistent working days. Monday you might work for two hours and Tuesday could be 8-10 hours.
Multi-focus day
In this option, you would work on each category every day.
Monday – Friday
9 – 11 am: Administrative work and expenses
11 – 12 pm: Research and writing
12 – 1 pm: Social media work
1 – 2 pm: Break/Lunch
2 – 3 pm: Phone calls, meetings and emails
3 – 4 pm: Housekeeping
Figuring out the best way to time block your calendar is a learning process. Time blocking should make you feel more organized, not frazzled. If one method isn’t working for you, try another approach.
Ultimately, your clients should see no change in service while you decide how to best structure your day. You want to make sure you are still reliable, available, and providing high-quality services. Ideally, your client should notice an improvement in productivity and responsiveness!
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