Know the time you have available

Be honest with yourself as well as clients. Know the amount of time you can dedicate to projects. Understanding your time constraints enables you to set clear limitations while setting the right expectations with your clients. Be realistic with yourself as well as clients. If you have very little time to dedicate to a project, do not take the project on.

Pick your projects carefully

Do not pick projects that you cannot complete. Do not bid on too many projects. If you do not adhere to this tip, here is what can happen. Your schedule will be ruined. Your quality of work will no longer be quality. This could also ruin your professional reputation. This allows you as well your clients to not waste their time. Project managers understand if you do not have the time to dedicate to their project, this allows them to look for someone who does have the time for their project.

Take care of yourself

Don’t forget to pamper yourself sometimes. Make sure you get enough sleep. It is an obvious fact that we cannot perform at our best on little or no sleep. I would also recommend that you sit one day a week aside to rest and relax or declare a family day. This will enable you to have a day of rest while being well rested as well as motivated the following day.

Keep your full time job and freelancing career separate

When you are at your full time job, concentrate on that job. When you are freelancing, concentrate on freelancing. Use your time with both jobs wisely and this keep you out of trouble. It is impossible to perform both jobs at the same time. You must realize that balancing a full time job and a freelancing job is very difficult but you can do this with being professional with both jobs.

Keep the deadlines

No one enjoys missing deadlines. If you think you are not going to make your deadline, tell your client immediately. Your clients will not be happy with missed deadlines; however, it is more important to utilize honesty as compared to not telling them anything at all. This is better than merely ignoring the deadline as well as the client. If you can finish the task early, this is great.

One must learn to balance both careers. Everyone is going to make mistakes but you must learn from those mistakes. No one is perfect and you must continue with both jobs if in fact it is what you feel is best for you and your family. The day will come when you will decide between your full time job and your freelancing career, until you need to learn how to figure out what technique works best for you.

Jason Ladock

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