Blue Wave Concept's Blog

Finally! It’s Friday afternoon. You’ve put in a lot of hours this week—including some late nights—but it looks like your extra work has paid off—you’ll be able to enjoy a real meal tonight, maybe spend some time with friends and most of all just kick back and chill out. You spontaneously smile at your computer screen and start to feel the tension begin to drain from your back.

Then comes a ping—an e-mail from someone you’ve been following up with for months. They just posted a new message in the Elance Workroom that they want you to move ahead on a project and deliver it Monday.

Your smile deflates into a resigned sigh as you turn your attention to the details of the request, and your dreams of rest flicker and fade away like an iPhone run out of battery life. “Looks like it will be a late night,” you mutter to yourself.

Yet another Friday has gone from fantastic to frustrating. You wonder, “Is there any other way? Can I really manage a freelance career without constantly getting pushed around by others’ time demands?”

My answer is yes!

As the CEO and founder of Real Life E®, a company that provides time coaching and training services that empower people to accomplish more with peace and confidence, I’ve found that overcoming the cycle of stress often comes down to setting reasonable expectations with clients. Here’s some of my expert time coaching advice on simple techniques you can use to take back control of your time.

Why is setting time expectations so important?

The challenge for freelancers is that if you don’t set reasonable expectations up front, you’ll end up stressed and your client will end up frustrated. Elance provides excellent online collaboration tools for project planning, including the ability to make milestones, give weekly status reports and to share files in progress. But this virtual office technology doesn’t “think” for itself—it is a tool for documenting and tracking a well-thought out project plan. To plan and estimate effectively, you’ll need to have a clear understanding of the details of the project and consider the variables. (Here’s an Elance post with more specific tips on making better estimates–Right On Time: How to Estimate Project Time Effectively) Make sure both parties communicate any reservations about milestones and projects before terms are finalized with Workroom messages.

What’s one of the biggest problem areas?

Communication is by far one of the biggest issues. It’s essential that you’re responsive to your clients, but it’s OK to set limits on when you will be accessible. If you struggle with setting boundaries, consider establishing “office hours” to contact each other or meeting times when you can chat about your progress in the Workroom. Also try not to set the expectation that you will answer all communication immediately. If you consistently answer e-mail and voicemail in about 24 hours, as opposed to 20 minutes, customers won’t be upset if they don’t hear from you right away. (For more info on this topic, check out my blog post on How to Set E-mail Expectations.)

What about when you don’t hear back from clients?

When clients don’t communicate a decision until right before a deadline, it can wreak havoc on your workflow. To ensure that you protect yourself for such a scenario, try to establish milestones for your projects that include information in the notes section about what you will need from the client. This helps you clarify up front what clients need to provide for you to move forward.

What if the scope of the project changes?

Despite your best efforts to define the requirements for the project and reasonable milestones, changes can happen. Perhaps a website ends up needing many more updates than you anticipated, or a client comes back from a conference with 10 new ideas for the project. Providing excellent service without major stress once again comes down to communication and setting expectations. For instance, if you’re noticing that a task is taking you much longer than you expected, post a note in the Workroom as soon as possible asking your client how they would like you to proceed. That way, your customer can tell you what to focus on and what’s not a priority so that you stay within your hours. On the other hand, if the client is suggesting that you take on something not already within the scope of the project, you can ask them to create and assign a new Elance job to you.

Are there any other ways freelancers can eliminate deadline stress?

Before you make commitments to a deadline and agree to terms, make sure you have a clear sense of when you can complete the work. Just because a client wants something as soon as possible, doesn’t mean that you should plan to stay up until 2 a.m. trying to finish everything for them. Also other factors such as other pending projects, a vacation you have booked or simply a sick day could affect how quickly you can deliver results. Make sure you have open hours on your calendar and plan ahead before you agree to the Elance project terms.

Do you have any other final time tips?

If there’s any part of your business that’s consistently causing you time stress, ask yourself the question, “Should I be setting my expectations differently for myself or others?” Most of the time, the answer is yes!

If you would like to receive more insight on how to go from feeling guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feeling peaceful, confident and accomplished, visit www.ScheduleMakeover.com.