Freedom from corporate bureaucracy – that’s the appeal to most freelancers when they quit their “traditional” job and go out on their own. They cherish the possibility of being responsible for their own time, of working in their “comfy” garments from home, and of choosing what ventures to take and when to take them.
It’s a perfect opportunity for those individuals who have motivation for what they do and have the inspiration and discipline to keep themselves productive and on pace.
However, being a freelancer can be a time management nightmare, if you don’t have strategies and tools in place to get to the balance you need between work, personal, and social/family responsibilities.
Here are 3 reasons every freelancer should use time tracking software:
1. Accountability: If you are charging your customers by time spent, you need to be as forthright and honest as you can under the circumstances. Your reputation is in question, and you could lose customers as a result of inaccuracies and not having a decent record of time spent.
2. ROI Indicator: Software for time tracking/time management will give you every day following of how much time you spend on each venture – something that will enable you to gauge time for future activities and art better gauges to guarantee your ROI stays sound on the work you’re doing.
3. Task Focus: Staying on-task is difficult for freelancers – more difficult than in a traditional office environment where superiors are tracking. You’re all on your own without accountability to anyone but yourself. It takes a great deal of self-control to avoid distractions, especially when working from home.
Most successful freelancers will admit that they do have processes and procedures in place to keep themselves productive so that they can ensure they have time for other parts of their lives. A piece of time management software is unquestionably not the single answer, but it is a crucial piece to the overall business plan and systems that need to be in place for a freelancer to become and remain profitable.