Jazzercise! Processize!

Processizing: Like dance aerobics, but without the leg warmers! (unless you like legwarmers…) (photo cc Marshall Astor)

Screw singing for your supper — freelancers dance for theirs!

High-kicks and project kickoffs, dips and onboarding questionnaires. Tapping. The questions to ask. Jazz hands. The agreements to sign. Interpretive swanning around — the clarifications to clarify.

You’re a pro; you know all the moves. But you’re only human. Occasionally, you make a misstep: forget to ask a question; forget to clarify; forget to give ’em something important… oooops, forget to have them sign something.

Those steps will get done — you are a pro, after all. But, alas, the order has been broken. Your groove has been stepped on.

By your own clumsy feet.

Ouch.

### Sound familiar?

If this doesn’t sound even a teensy bit familiar, then bravo to you! You are a truly organized human being. But, for the rest of us, there’s a sneaky way to kick missteps in the can-can, for once and forever!

### Jazzercise! Process-ize!

Yep, that shiny ray of hope is emanating from the realm of **Process Management**, the sexiest discipline alive!

Don’t be fooled by its humble, schoolmarm exterior — inside Process Management beats the heart of a harlot. A harlot that knows how to do every type of tango. Backwards.

Dudes and dudettes, I can sense your skepticism from here. But hear me out. Processizing is a beautiful thing.

### Stupendous benefits!

If you create a process — just an ordered check list, really — you will reap the following delicious benefits:

1. Never accidentally forget a step.
2. Never accidentally do a step in the wrong order.
3. Stop wracking your brain wondering which steps you need to do, and [save your Executive Function](http://letsfreckle.com/blog/2010/07/eat-the-damn-cookie-unthink-your-way-to-productivity/) for other, better, more profitable things.
4. See your workflow explicitly — so you can improve it.
5. Gain the ability to easily track time for each step to see where the energy & time hogs are.
6. Feel shiny and professional, like on the first day of school when you organize all your subjects into their specially colored sections of your Trapper Keeper.

You’ve gotta admit: those are some wicked awesome benefits, for not a whole lotta work.

If you go a step further and create pre-made documents such as potential client interviews, “This is how we work” letters, and onboarding templates? Oooh, the possibilities are endless!

### But, I love spontaneity! Won’t that take the joy out of it?

Nope, it won’t.

Think about it: Are you really more excited about spontaneity in **paperwork**… or spontaneity in **creative work**?

[Executive Function is finite, remember?](http://letsfreckle.com/blog/2010/07/eat-the-damn-cookie-unthink-your-way-to-productivity/) Giving yourself *fewer decisions* in the paperwork department means you have more brainpower available to make choices in the creative department.

And since you run both departments, this is A Very Good Thing.

Processizing doesn’t suck the life outta your little biz… it gives it CPR! And then an all-inclusive trip to Club Med.

### Convinced? Or slightly curious?

In the next installment, processizing guru [Kathleen Jaffe](http://biznicillin.com/blog) of [Biznicillin](http://biznicillin.com/blog) is going to teach you *how* to create these delicious documents!

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> Previously: [How Freelancers can Avoid Old Boot Soup](http://letsfreckle.com/blog/2010/08/old-boot-soup), [How to Avoid the Sales Funnel Swirly](http://letsfreckle.com/blog/2010/08/avoid-the-sales-funnel-swirly)