What are effective time management strategies for freelancers?

The Pareto Principle (or 80/20 rule) can be combined as well with the Eisenhower matrix. Take 10 minutes for each hour of work to plan the tasks with the biggest impact. One way could be to list 25 items on the list and focus on the top 5 to get to the goal with the least of effort. Good planning can give your work a huge leverage.

Tracking is especially important for freelancing. It's a big topic and some advice against selling hourly rates, and employing value-based pricing. Regardless the approach, internal tracking of one's work is crucial. For me personally, commits are the foundation of time tracking, it has my name, it has timestamps and it reinforces me to practice Continous Integration, making small changes. Sometimes the work done can't be measured in commits, like debugging, optimizations, investigations, spikes and so on. Here it's crucial to take separate notes. Write what you are facing and what you have tried. Think of it like a journal.

As a freelancer, you take on more responsibility for your work. It can be an advantage if used wisely. Be professional and make communication a top priority. At the same time, be clear about your standards, and your way of working and communicate it with your clients. Having clear boundaries is a sign of professionalism, don't be afraid to lose a customer from time to time.

Time management is crucial for freelancers as they must manage several responsibilities and projects at the same time without the organizational structure of a traditional company. From personal experience, a freelancer must learn to say no, he must be selective about commitments and external requests. I learned to say no to projects or activities that weren't aligned with my main goals or that could overwhelm me. Likewise, I eliminate distractions while working, such as email or social media notifications. I set specific periods of the day to check emails or social media to avoid interrupting my workflow. With these simple measures, the use of time has improved a lot.

As a freelancer you sometimes have to do more paperwork, legal work, send more emails and so on. Invest time to automate these steps. Delegate to companies that specialize in this type of work. It's an investment worth paying.

Every developer has tasks, goals, and priorities. As a freelancer on the other hand you have to take time to take leading for new clients into account. Dedicate time to learn more about marketing, and selling. Reflect what kind of service you are planning to deliver. This is the biggest difference between an employee and a freelancer, make use of it. Don't get complacent with whatever you get. Define your standards and respect them. Lastly, dedicate time for recovery and leisure. It is especially easy as a freelancer to take up too much work. In development it's particualary important to take regular breaks in order to gain a better perspective over ones work and challenges.