Summer Series for Freelancers: Snorkeling or Sunbathing?

Photo cc agiamba

Be productive when you’re energetic,
and relaxed when you’re not.

A hammock is meant to be calming, not a topsy-turvy ride of anxiety and possible motion sickness! Similarly, if you force yourself to be active when you are feeling lazy, it will not be fun or productive and you will only get tangled up in the details.

Finding the balance between work and life is tricky, but possible, if you’re wiling to take a minute to catch your balance, and figure out which way is up.

Taking a long hard look at your schedule is a good way to know what day or even times you are better suited for jobs that will melt your brain, or when you just need some mindless inbox cleaning. This way you can plan your schedule less haphazardly, and you won’t be stuck doing boring tasks when your time would be better spent creating awesomeness!

By tracking your schedule over time you will be able to see which days, weeks, and even seasons you are more productive!

Freckle does this through a visual map of your time tracking called the Pulse:

For example, it is easy to see here that in May you were the most productive in the beginning of the week, and especially on Tuesdays. You can also see based on the colors that you tend to to work on the same projects on the same days.

When are you the most productive?

You may find that you should get some mindless filing done while you are waiting for that morning coffee to kick in, and the afternoon is when your creative juices are overflowing!

You might be surprised at the reality of your productivity sweet spots: Rachel, a long-time Freckler, realized she “was only working an average of two and a half to three hours a day on things I could actually charge money for. It completely blew me away.” It’s easy to sit in front of a computer and feel like you are working when you are really just jumping the shark, headed straight for burnout beach.

It’s important to know when it is better to go on an adventurous snorkeling trip, and when you should give into an afternoon snooze in a hammock. Knowing the difference will better suit your mood AND your productivity.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat…

Don’t be the last one in the water – be the shark. Get the Freckle Time Tracking Summer Series delivered straight to the JAWS of your inbox.

Subscribe below to get the Institute for Awesome Freelancers Summer Series in your inbox for absolutely free:

No spam, we promise 🙂