The dream of freelancing is often painted with images of working from a sunny cafe, setting your own hours, and enjoying newfound flexibility. But the reality can be more of a challenge. Traditional 9-to-5 boundaries are suddenly gone, leaving you to be your own boss, motivator, and timekeeper. So how can you ensure you thrive?
“I just feel like I’m Mario, from Super Mario Brothers - constantly running to grab the next gold coin, over and over again. I never get any further ahead than that.” This testimony was recently confided in me by a good friend who is a freelance translator and copy editor. Maybe you can relate!
So how does a freelancer get one step ahead of the game? Many would say that it’s all about time management. “Time is our most precious resource,” confines Suam Barrantes, freelancer himself and also Mentor and Coach to a Spanish community of freelancers that he started with his podcast co-host Jorge Bosch Alés.
Time management is at the core of a healthy work-life balance - and as a freelancer, it’s crucial to think about how you manage your own time to keep yourself not only avoiding burnout, but thriving as well!
In this article, we’ll reveal a few key tips to help you better manage your time and achieve a healthier work-life balance:
Springboard from the traditional to-do list.
Clearly define and communicate expectations with clients from day one.
Draw the line and stick to a clear end of your workday, every day.
Bring awareness to potential burnout triggers.
Mastering your own time also means owning full responsibility for your own time management. As Mehdi Gatbache, Freelance Product Manager and Software Engineer explains it: “There are always two people in my head: the boss, and the employee. Fortunately or unfortunately, the boss usually wins out in decision making.”
“There are always two people in my head: the boss, and the employee. Fortunately or unfortunately, the boss usually wins out in decision making.”"
Having launched his freelancing offer just a few months ago, Mehdi explains: “it’s been hard to break free from the mindset of a full-time employee - the biggest change is that the notion of my ‘working hours’ has totally changed.”
But just because you can work all the time, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. When asked about some of the common time management red flags he sees among his clients, Suam explains that: “One of the first warning signs is your sleep. If you’re not sleeping through the night, something is wrong.” Suam is a firm believer in sticking to your commitments, including personal ones. “When you start canceling plans with friends for example, because you’re telling yourself ‘I need to finish this project, it cannot wait…’ that is a big sign that there is a problem with imbalance.”
The different stages of freelancing can bring different time management hurdles. According to Suam, “At the beginning, your time doesn’t matter so much because you need to be earning money - but as you keep going, the value of your time increases as you become more efficient.” Once you’ve built up a healthy portfolio, Suam says, you get to a point where “any tasks that don’t bring value to your business are a waste of time.” The beauty of freelancing, for Suam, is that “you get to choose what you do. For me, it’s about being able to do something that I love.”
With the start of his freelancing life still fresh, Mehdi is able to clearly point out to a couple of big wins and fails from his first few months as an independent:
Freelancing is synonymous with flexibility, but for many parents like Mehdi, boundaries can be challenging to maintain. For Marion Giroudon, Freelancing Mentor and Digital Strategy Consultant, seasoned freelancer and mother of twins, having children actually made the separation simpler: "It was easier for me to separate private and professional life once I had children" because it "forces me to work during the day" around her kids’ schedules.
“At the beginning, your time doesn’t matter so much because you need to be earning money - but as you keep going, the value of your time increases as you become more efficient.”"
And what about saying no to a potential contract, when you’re already full-up for the month? To get one step ahead of the game, Suam’s advice is that you work on prospection tactics: “Ideally, you should have a system that gets you clients whenever you want, not when they ask you. That way, you can say no because you have clients whenever you need them.” For more tips, check out how Malt Freelancer Advisory Board member Geneviève Masioni creates her own lead-generation machine.
At Malt, you can take advantage of our Business Referral Program if you share a project that you can’t take on with us. By referring the project to us, you’ll earn 5% of the total revenue on the project if we’re able to find the right profile for the project.
The fact that you may be busier at certain times, and less busy at others, is one of the beautiful things about being able to choose your own path. Ines Taniukiewicz, Certified Coach and Career Consultant for Women, explains that one of the goals of choosing freelance work is to allow our working lives to fluctuate throughout one’s career. “When we are younger, we may want to work more hours — or simply have the possibility to do so — while later in life, when becoming a parent or needing reduced working time to focus on something outside work, we should be able to benefit from more flexible schedules.”
How can you avoid falling into the trap of being constantly “on” when it comes to your work?
Marion recommends having as little synchronous work to do as possible - organizing her communication with clients using asynchronous communication like email and Slack. Suam mentions that his business partner Jorge “only checks emails twice a day,” freeing up his mental bandwidth in order to do really deep work for most of the day.
She admits, however, that this is not doable for everyone. For her wife, a freelance talent acquisition specialist, live meetings and calls are a major part of her responsibilities. “Sometimes the phone rings, and she has to take it,” explains Marion.
When it comes to managing to-do lists, Ines explains that she’s done away with them entirely: “When I have something to do, I just plan it in my agenda directly.” This technique is sometimes referred to as time boxing and can be a helpful way to not only plan ahead, but also have a clear record of how you’ve spent your time.
Another one of her secrets? “I block off time in my agenda - where there’s really nothing planned at all. This gives me extra time in case of emergencies, or simply to do something else. The goal is always to be a few steps ahead of schedule."
You can also enlist the help of clever tools like Goblin Tools (suggested recently by Malt freelancer Justin Tan), to help you break down tasks into steps, or using Notion to track your time task by task.
Lastly, you can designate certain days of the week for certain activities - like Geneviève, mentioned earlier, who sets aside the first day of the week as a “CEO Monday” for business development and activities like finances, following up on leads, chating with other freelancers, educating herself on the latest industry trends and making appearances on podcasts.
A jam-packed agenda is a way to ensure that you run out of time for certain tasks, or that you cannot react when there’s a change in plans. “It’s always important for me to maintain an agenda that has a bit of wiggle room,” says Marion.
When it comes to how you manage your relationships with clients, it’s always better to err on the side of transparency and clear communication. “I never offer a quick turnaround just to make people happy,” says Marion, “and as a result, I’ve never had to push a deadline.”
“I never offer a quick turnaround just to make people happy, and as a result, I’ve never had to push a deadline.”"
When the boundaries of the traditional 9-to-5 workday vanish into thin air, you’re given the opportunity - and the responsibility - to cultivate a new time structure. Achieving a sustainable work-life balance isn't about finding more time; it's about being intentional with the time you have. By implementing tactics like time boxing instead of endless to-do lists, setting realistic client expectations from the outset, and building firm daily boundaries to signal the end of the workday, you can shift from constantly chasing the next gold coin to confidently mastering your schedule. By thriving on your own terms, you’ll have more time to enjoy those childhood video games, if you like!
Senior Content Writer
