Tired of feeling like you don't have time?

Try these 3 free methods to find more time in your schedule.

Freelance Friday

You’ll never find the time to work on my freelance business. You have to make time.

How the hell do you “make time”?

Maybe you…

• have a part-time job (or two or three)

• have a full--time job (that you don’t really like)

• have to juggle taking care of kids

You can do it. The best way to make time is to actually discover it in the routines you already have.

These are my top 3 free strategies for making more time in your life for your freelance writing business.

1. Don’t Work From Home.

Okay, I know a lot of you started freelancing so that you could work from anywhere. Keyword: anywhere. But it might be killing your attempt at freelancing. If you’ve been struggling to get your freelance work done at home, you’re not alone… and you’re not lazy either.

If you already have another job, full-time or part-time, you associate coming home from work with relaxing or chores or hobbies. Maybe you already have another job and that job is work from home. So you’re already maxed out on working from home.

Freelancing from home on top of doing those other jobs is going to lead to burnout faster. Trust me.

So here’s my workaround: work from literally anywhere else. I used to stay late or show up early at my barista job and work in the cafe, the office, or even the parking lot after hours. If you can’t stay late or show up early at your job to use the wifi (and those already at work vibes), you can try going to a library, cafe, chain restaurant, brewery, or anywhere else that has wifi.

Pro Tip: Starbucks and Mcdonalds have the strongest parking lot wifi.

2. Use a Time Tracker.

I do not get work done without a time tracker. Okay, I can… but it involves a lot of procrastination first. I use Toggl Track to track my time. I work in 20-minute intervals (thanks to their Google Chrom extension and the Pomodoro setting).

This way, I just have to convince myself to work for 20 minutes. Plus, using a time tracker for all of your work allows you to accurately track your time and make better estimates for your future packages, schedule, and rates.

Pro Tip: the next time you want to stream a show or scroll Tik Tok, convince yourself to do just 20-minutes of work! You might be surprised.

3. Make a Plan.

If you’re showing up to your desk to finally start your freelance writing career only to spend an hour sorting out what you should actually be doing… well you sound like me when I started… but you’re also wasting time and brainpower.

You should be planning your work in advance. Everything from finding clients to writing for your current clients. In fact, I even plan my self-care (eating, sleeping, exercising, cleaning, etc.). Not down to the minute, but I assign my needs to a day, at least.

I personally use Asana for my clients. I’ve created a roadmap that helps them get from Niche to Client Acquisition in just 3 months with no guesswork. For myself, I use Notion to keep track of every project and task I need to get done. I plan for the next month at the end of each month.

Pro tip: go back to the roadmap I posted a couple of weeks ago to make your own plan! 😉