Working as a freelancer is much less likely to involve being busy with one or two projects than switching between many. However, for many people, running multiple simultaneous projects is extremely energy-consuming. In addition, the more projects in a job - the worse the result of working on them.
Why is managing multiple projects difficult for a freelancer?
It's a peculiarity of the human cognitive system
We've discussed how our brains are organized before. In short, full immersion in a task requires a lot of effort from the “thinking” brain, as well as a certain amount of time. It is impossible to instantly and 100% concentrate on a new task. We can instantly “jump” from task to task if doing certain activities has become a habit. If our work requires concentration and reflection, we are single-tasking, and we need to accept that.
Few people take into account the time to switch between projects when budgeting for them
Most freelancers fix only the cost of direct work on the project. A typical situation arises: a small project comes in that can be completed in 60 minutes. The freelancer calls the cost of work as for an hour. As a result, he feels tremendous mental stress at the moment when he fails to complete the work as planned quickly. It turns out that after completing work on the past task, he needs to drink a mug of coffee or have lunch, and also the brain seems to resist and offers all sorts of distractions - from a walk to watching an episode of a sitcom.
As a result, a small task can take three or four hours to complete, not one hour at all. And this critically frustrates the freelancer; he blames himself for being unproductive.
A person's memory is limited
The more projects a freelancer works on, the more his “operating system” becomes overloaded. And this is not even a metaphor. The size of human memory is limited. That's why there is a forgetting of the seventeenth project in a week. It is impossible to remember everything.
Project management secrets of a productive freelancer
1. Prioritize
You may have ten projects in the works, but among them you will surely be able to name those that you consider the most significant for you. Everyone has different selection criteria. As a rule, freelancers care about payment, mutual understanding with the client, the number of possible improvements, politeness and general adequacy of the client. Orders from such clients are usually a priority. Urgent orders - those that you promised to fulfill in a limited time - can also be prioritized.
2. Use techniques to improve concentration
One of the most productive is the Pomodoro method. It involves concentrating for short periods of 25 minutes, after which you take a five-minute rest break. If you are working on a task that requires deep immersion, you can increase the segments to 50 minutes and take 10-minute breaks in between.
The more projects you have in the works, the more energy you will need to switch between them. Therefore, you need to maintain a high level of focus on one project at a time. If you are distracted by messenger messages while working on projects, turn off notifications. Create a separate work interval or several, in which you will respond to all messages, and do not get distracted by them when you are working on projects.
3. Set aside time to switch between projects
Organizing multiple projects means that you will not tackle all of them at once, but one at a time. And the time you need to switch between projects should also determine the cost of your work. Only you can charge a minimum cost for it, or you can calculate how many minutes or hours it takes you to start and work on a new project.
There's nothing easier than getting burned out on small, low-paying tasks. If you take them on, don't blame yourself for needing time to adjust between tasks: it's human physiology, it's pointless to argue with it.
4. Don't keep tasks in your head: use tools to organize your projects!
Even if you have a phenomenal memory, there is no resonance in using it to remember that the client asked you to play with the colors of the balloon in the logo. Put your resources to work: the freer your working memory is, the more likely you are to be visited by an unusual idea. Our creativity is directly related to our RAM utilization and mood.
The best tools for project management, or how Voiset can help freelancers with their work
1. Use smart notes
Don't keep all the comments and tasks you have in your head. As soon as a thought comes to mind or you receive some important notification from a client, immediately dictate a Voiset message. Create this habit and you'll see very quickly how much less energy you spend working on multiple projects.
The AI in Voiset won't just record your voice message, it will do something incredible. First, it will translate your speech into text, and it recognizes 33 languages. Next - it will create a note with what you dictated. Then it will ask you if you want to make that note into a task. And if you say yes, it will even find the best time in your schedule for it.
2. Use autoplanning
Every day we are more and more overloaded with tasks, and the surveys show it. There's even a joke that studies should have shown a much higher percentage of extremely busy people, but they were too busy to participate in the surveys. If this is about your life, you know how difficult it can be to develop a schedule and fit everything into it.
The AI in Voiset will easily create your schedule, and it will do so with impeccable logic. It's important to the AI that you don't overload yourself with tasks, but that you work consistently. That's why it will evenly distribute all tasks, taking into account your workload and prioritizing each task. You will save your time and RAM resources by entrusting your schedule planning to AI! Plus, you can check if it can handle it as well as you.
3. Create areas to work on different projects within the same application
Switching from one application to another also requires some thought. Often concentration is lost during this process. That's why it's easiest to keep all your workflows in Voiset: create workspaces for each task and send links to them to your clients. Tracking tasks for freelancers becomes very easy: you will see all the projects you have now and can mark them when you take them on or complete them.
Managing multiple projects is a manageable task for a freelancer. Voiset can help you do just that. You no longer have to keep a lot of information in your head or feel stressed because you forgot to do a task. You'll get reminders for each of your tasks and you'll be able to increase your productivity.
What you couldn't do before is very real when AI becomes your assistant. Try Voiset and see how much easier it will be to manage multiple projects with an AI-powered task scheduler!
