Dealing With Deadlines

I am so lucky to be able to make money doing what I love. There are still days when I can’t believe that I actually get paid to write.

I even managed to get a wonderful client. I have all the work that I want, and then some! Not only that, but I don’t see any end in sight. I have been told multiple times that I will have as much work as I want for as long as I want.

This is great – except for one part! Some days I am attached to my laptop because of the deadlines.

When you work from home, whether you have one client or a hundred, you will be faced with deadlines. Some are realistic, while other clients expect work to be completed right away. They may give you no notice when a big project needs to be done.

So, what can you do? Here are some tips to help you manage your deadlines.

Try to spread your deadlines out. Nothing is worse than having all of your projects due at once. If you are able to, spread out your projects, though it is not always possible.

If not (and you have several projects going at once), don’t take on any more work until you get everything else finished. Give yourself plenty of time to get everything done before you move on to your next one.

Write all of your deadlines down. Get a calendar to write down when all of your projects are due. It will be even better if you can schedule in the time that it will take you to get it done. You may want to block a few hours every day when you will have time to work on your project.

Though this will help you with your time management, it will also show you if you are working too much or if you are able to take on more projects.

Adjust your schedule as needed. If you are losing sleep every night because you are scrambling to get projects done, you may have taken on too much work.

Don’t overwhelm yourself – learn to say no or let your client know when you are able to fit their project into your schedule. If you are bored, work on your marketing and take on more work. Sometimes it seems like all of your projects are going to come all at once, but if you overwhelm yourself, you will burn out!

Get help. There are plenty of people who would love to help you. Many would love the opportunity to learn to work at home and get paid. Take someone under your wing and teach them what you know.

Take time off. What is the point of working so hard if you can’t enjoy life? Make sure that, when your business day is done, you are relaxing and not thinking about work. If you worked in an office, you would have evenings and weekends free to relax, so make sure that you are walking away from your business to give yourself time to relax.

It is really hard to find a balance between deadlines. On one hand, it is great to have work that you love. On the other, it is easy to get overwhelmed when everything is due all at once. Just make sure that you give yourself time off to relax.

It may help to get a calendar, so you can keep track of what you are doing and when. Write down when your projects are due and block off time when you are actually going to be working on them. This will also help you see if you can do more, or if you need to cut back a little bit. You may also realize that you need to get some help to keep going at your current pace.