5 Ways to Help You Take Control of Your To-Do List

As a freelancer, you don’t have a boss looking over your shoulder, checking up to make sure you’ll meet your deadlines. It’s up to you to be your own taskmaster–and that’s not always easy. Sometimes you want nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a cup of joe and your favorite movie. And one of the advantages of being a freelancer is being able to do that–sometimes–but becoming a couch potato won’t pay the bills, so here are five tips for keeping yourself accountable and staying productive.

Find an accountabil-a-buddy. This person can be another freelancer, a friend or your spouse. You keep them updated on what you’re supposed to be working on, and they check in and ask you about it–almost like your boss used to do. Having to admit (especially to your spouse) that you spend the day goofing off instead of working isn’t any fun, and knowing you’ll have someone checking in will help keep you on task.

Try the Pomodoro technique. If you find yourself procrastinating by checking facebook or twitter, eating the contents of your refrigerator or cleaning the toilet (okay, I procrastinate in some pretty strange ways, sometimes), make the decision to work for a set period of time, set a timer and tell yourself you have two options: either you can stare at your screen and do nothing or you can work. Once the timer goes off, you get a short break. Often by the timer beeps you’ll be so emerged in you’re project that the urge to procrastinate will be gone.

Empty your brain. I’m not talking meditation–sometimes, the reason you find it hard to focus is because there’s just too much going on upstairs. You’ve got all the other things on your to-do list running through your head. Get them out. Open up a word document and spend some time writing down everything you think of–things you have to do, how you feel about that argument with your kid last night or your ideas for your mom’s birthday gift. Once you’ve wrote it all down you’ll be able to put it out of your head and focus on the task at hand.

Work on something else for a little while. Sometimes you just need to put a project down so your subconscious can work on it while you focus on other things. Is there another project you’re particularly excited about? Try spending half an hour working on that, before switching back. Your enthusiasm may just carry over, and you’ll find yourself finished with both projects in no time.

Melissa Breau

Melissa Breau spent the last three years as an editor at a magazine but in 2011 decided to launch full speed ahead into the freelance life. She currently offers copywriting for small businesses and professional editing for authors, as well as blog posts on each of the above, over at melissabreau.com.

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