I have found that setting the phone to silent and letting the answer machine get any calls is a good way to cut out distractions when very busy on projects. If you answer every call you often take a lot longer to complete your work as your mind will be taken off the current job and it takes a while to get back into the work again.

joga every morning

Although a lot of experts suggest doing the most important project first, I find I’m more productive if I clear up small projects first. Even though the total amount of work I have to do may not be impacted significantly, I can deal with one major project easier if I’m not thinking that I have five or eight or however many other things to do.

I’m also in the midst of the flood here with a lot of projects banging my head. I take Leo’s advice and focus on small tasks at a time that together make up the big project and I couple that with daily walks through the park and watch the ducks.

I do walk around with my laptop but a good place to work is kinda hard to find when you live in a crowded urban area and the projects demand full concentration.

Some of my strategies for dealing with busy times:

1] Don’t be afraid to set healthy boundaries around work. After all, with work taking up such a large part of our lives, the experience of working is as important as the outcomes we are working for (money, accomplishment, etc). No matter how busy I am, I set aside personal time. Even if that’s just an hour or two. Perspective is everything. It can seem frivolous to go to a movie with friends when you have a huge pile of work looming, but I strongly believe that kind of downtime is essential to nurturing our own competence and inspiration.

2] Take time to eat healthy, exercise, sleep, etc. If I don’t take care of myself, my work suffers and I make poor decisions. Not only that, but when I am in a weakened physical/mental state from being overworked, I run the risk of getting sick and being in an even worse position.

3] Listen to yourself. If I am taking things too far, there are always signs and signals along the way. If I stop enjoying work, or if I find myself being unhappy or bitchy outside of work, that’s always a sign I am not taking care of myself properly. I’ve learned to pick up on those signals fairly early now, and avoid some of the worst pitfalls of overwork.

4] Delegate the work you don’t NEED to be doing. If I’m swamped and having difficulty keeping up, I’ll often outsource production tasks, coding, etc to other freelancers so that I can stay focused on playing the role I was hired for. If the client is counting on my art direction, I need to ensure that I have room to kick ass at that. Other freelancers are always happy to get the work, and since I’m overseeing everything, I still have control over the quality of the work.

5] An ounce of prevention… The biggest thing I do to deal with overload is avoid it. I try to be cautious not to over-promise, and when scheduling I only hurry work that actually NEEDS to be hurried. If a project doesn’t have a hard deadline, I try to work out as loose a schedule as possible. If I end up finishing a bit early, great - otherwise at least I’m not creating potential for a crunch. It’s my responsibility to my client not to stretch myself thin. They are hiring me to do the best job I can, and I owe it to them to manage my work in a way that will allow me to.

6] This goes hand in hand with #5, but - just say no. There was a time when I was so afraid of the lulls that I’d take on any project that came my way. These days I am not afraid to turn down work that doesn’t fit with my schedule (and a variety of other parameters). I’ve also learned to be straight with clients when their requests are threatening the quality of work I’m able to do, etc etc. Often clients make demands based on enthusiasm, eagerness or some arbitrary external deadline. Not all scheduling demands are based on real-world needs, and often they can be negotiated.

I have been swamped a bit lately, not from too many projects but from current projects dragging or becoming more involved than I originally thought.

I went through a stage of working out which bits of work could be done in the shortest period of time to try and clear as many things as quickly as possible. Unfortunately this meant one project didn’t get any attention as it was one of those projects that didn’t have a properly defined brief and has dragged and dragged.

Switching off from the outside world seems to be the best way to get things done, but that’s very hard to do most of the time.

I take an hour of excercise every afternoon when I start to get overloaded. This offers a break of reality and allows me to clear my mind and refocus on the big obstacles for the rest of the day.

I just found this blog today & it looks great. Though I have years of freelance experience, I have no good answers for the wall-to-wall or no work a-tall syndrome. I hate to turn down work but at times have no choice. What I find frustrating is when clients act like I’m full of it when I tell them I’ve already got projects and can’t take another one without jeopardizing deadlines. Clients will sometimes want to book me in advance, but without telling me how long the project is, what it will entail, when I will get it, or when it will be due. All I get are rough rough estimates. When I ask these routine, essential questions about length, time frame, content, they act like I’m a pest.

Definitely exercise. As a freelancer, we’re not restricted to lunchtimes or before 9am - so I normally head to the gym at about 10:30. I can do my stuff without the crowds, no queuing for equipment and be showered and done by the time the lunchtime rush is pulling into the car park.
Healthy body healthy mind is as true as it gets for me. If I’m stressed out before I go to the gym, thinking that maybe I shouldn’t go, by the time I’ve finished working out it never seems nearly as bad.

The best thing I ever did was made a very strict schedule, and limit the time I have available for clients. They know ahead of time that they are reserving, say, 20 hours of my time within a certain week. I try to get as much done in those 20 hours (top priority things) and at the end of the 20 hours, I say “I’m out of time” and stop working.

Now I’m almost completely in control of how many hours I work each week (not counting unexpected emergencies)!

How do I survive during an overload ?… I feel good ONLY after I finish my jobs
Anything else doesn’t help.

- I try to finish the minor tasks first. This way lots of my client see some progress on their project. Better than finishing a huge task with one customer satisfaction!

- I start a To-Do list every day, I feel GREAT when I mark a task ( DONE )!

- I sleep a little !