Project management is important across all industries and job roles. If you are a freelancer, you need to know how to manage your projects effectively if you are going to be able to achieve high levels of quality and efficiency. With that in mind, read on to discover some of the most common project management mistakes that freelancers make so that you can avoid making them.
- Failing to prioritise – There really is only one place to begin, and this is with failing to prioritise your tasks effectively.If you simply put together a giant list and you tick things off as you go, you are never going to work efficiently. Not all of your tasks have the same level of important as others, and you cannot work on everything at the same time, so you need to master the art of effective prioritisation.
For example, spending money on a social media campaign prior to doing your
SEO audit is going to have your project completely out of sync.
- Not taking project management seriously – This is something a lot of freelancers are guilty of. They think that project management only applies to large firms handling projects with massive budgets. This isn’t true. Every project needs to be managed. Most freelancers today could benefit from project management training.
- Letting distractions take over – This is easy to do, especially when working from home. Someone gives you a call for a chat or you hear your neighbour pulling up and say hello! There are then the Facebook and email notifications that take you away from your work every few minutes. You need to stay strong and minimise distractions. Turn your computer notifications off.
- Not taking enough breaks – You may think that breaks are a bad idea because they are a waste of time, but this could not be further from the truth. Breaks are a necessity so that you can refresh and rejuvenate your mind, enabling you to achieve much more when you start working again. If you do not take frequent breaks, you will only experience an inevitable burnout.
- Not having a system – The last thing you need to do is develop an effective system in terms of organising and managing your projects, as well as updating them. This will help you to stay on top of everything with ease. If you stick to paper and pen, you will find yourself crossing a million things out, starting again, and covering your office in endless lists.
- Scheduling every minute of your day – Last but not least, scheduling every second of your day is just overly optimistic. There is always going to be something that gets in the way or a task that takes longer than expected, so you need to allow for this.
As you can see, there are a number of different mistakes that freelancers tend to make when it comes to project management. If you can stay away from these blunders, such as not taking breaks and failing to prioritise, you will give yourself the best chance of managing your projects efficiently so that you can work to your most productive self.
