Hi all!
I’m having a hard time keeping to my time limits when I’m in middle of a project. I find myself being busy with it the entire day (because I want to see it done or because i have too many ideas) instead of the few hours that I allot myself to work.
Any ideas on how to keep work during working hours only?
I am probably not the best person to answer this question because I have the challenge too, but I’ll share a few tips that I have heard:
Clock your hours even if you don’t need to. This helps because you’ll think twice before sitting down to work.
Keep a notepad/scrap paper around so that you can jot down the spontaneous ideas that pop into your head during non working hours without fear of forgetting them.
Have a separate work email. While you work, only have the work email open, and visa versa.
Try to keep your work to your computer- verses having it on your phone which you can access anytime, anywhere.
I in general don’t time myself, but it was amazing to see, 1 project that I did time not only made me aware of how long I was putting into the project but actually took me way quicker!
I have to clock my work (by work since they bill clients per hour) and although it can be annoying cuz you have to keep starting and stopping (if you go on to do something and then come back to it…) I find it really helps me keep focused since I don’t want the minutes to tick by for naught. I use every second literally when the timer is on…
and I try to use it for freelance jobs also just to see for myself how long things take me…
like goldie-mezei and Breindy-S both said:
It keeps you focused when you know that the clock is ticking, and you won’t sit down to work for 1 min here, 1 min there because it just won’t be worth starting the clock!