When you're working for
yourself it's really easy to lose focus and to feel like you're working all day
but discover that you're actually wasting a lot of time when you think
carefully about what you've actually achieved. To overcome this problem, you
need to create some accountability for yourself.
How do you do it?
•
Set yourself a start and finish time for each workday
and stick to it.
•
Produce a timesheet by recording your start and
finish times for each task you complete throughout the day.
•
Assign tasks a set time in your diary to get them
complete and stick to those times.
•
Have a couple of "Power Hours" - set a
timer for one hour and then get your head down to complete as much of a task as
you can in that hour.
Remember you're the boss,
but you're also the employee!
Of course you have a great
boss, but are you a great employee? If you were working for someone else would
you take as much advantage as you do now you're self-employed?
If you struggle to be a
good employee find a friend who'll act as an "accountability buddy".
Instead of just creating a timesheet that you look at yourself, send it to your
buddy and ask her to be really tough on you if you look like you're being less
than serious about turning up for work and pulling your weight.
Set yourself deadlines
There's really nothing
worse than when a client says "there's no real deadline for this, just as
soon as you can is fine", often that means the work never gets
done. So for every piece of work you receive set a deadline to complete it, get
it returned to the client and invoiced. This will help you by:
•
Making it clear how much work you have on and how
much more you can take on at the moment.
•
You'll know when projects are finishing, so when
you'll be available for new work.
•
You'll have a good idea of when you're going to
invoice, when you should be paid and therefore how much money you're going to
have coming in.
If you're turning work
around in good time, people will be much more likely to come back to you with
more projects, because they know you're reliable and quick. Make sure you never
over-promise though, so don't say someone can have something back tomorrow if
you know you're not likely to make that deadline.
Organisation is the key
•
Keep your diary up to date so that you know exactly
what time you have available. You'll also be able to tell clients when you can
start and finish a job much more accurately.
•
Make sure you have everything you need to complete
a job before you start it. This might mean making sure the client has sent you
everything, or it might mean doing some research before you start the main part
of the project (don't forget to add that time to the project cost).
•
Complete the project on schedule (or ahead of
schedule, there's no harm in that).
•
Invoice for the project as soon as it's complete to
keep your cash flow regular.
Like so much else when you're elf-employed, creating accountability is
all about the discipline to make the idea work (and work to your advantage).
The only right way to create accountability for yourself is to make a plan that
works for you and then stick to it!
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