The world doesn’t stop when your world is upturned. Things go on day by day and your responsibilities unfortunately don’t stop when a crisis is at hand.
For me this month has brought so many life challenges and uncertainty while my business has been booming. In the last month I’ve gone from 1 client to 7, with more leads in the pipeline. I’ve also had the most instability and change I’ve had in years. From great things like a new puppy, and launching a second business, to hard things like the end of a long term, live-in partnership.
With all the chaos, I wanted to talk about how to get things done when the going gets hard.
Update expectations with your client
If you’re having a hard time getting work done or think that deadlines might slip, update your clients as soon as you can. Letting them know that you have personal or family challenges and things might get delayed is a much better way of handling a situation than not giving them notice.
If you’ve already built trust with your client this will be easier than if they’re a new client. Either way, we’re all human and have been in the situation before. Let them know that you care about their business and goals and want to ensure they get the highest quality of work as possible.
Prioritize your workload
Prioritization will be your friend during this time. Determine what are the most important things that need to get done and what can wait. Identify if you’re blocking anybody else and they can’t get their work done until you finish yours. Prioritize this information first.
Depending on your mental state, try and prioritize the tasks that seem the easiest to get done. Whatever you have the mental bandwidth to do, do it. Strike when the motivation is high. Be kind to yourself when the motivation is low.
Consider delegating tasks
Consider delegating tasks if they’re easy to outsource. You could hire a VA during this time to help take off the more menial tasks off of your plate. Are there any things that you need to do that won’t have a huge difference in terms of quality?
Think of how you can get other people’s support during this time to keep things moving forward. Hiring a VA doesn’t have to be a challenging process and can help you even after the crisis has settled.
Take care of yourself
The last area I’ll talk about is to be kind to yourself during this time. You’re going through a lot of challenging things and it can be completely overwhelming. Even as a freelancer you’re allowed to call out sick or take personal days.
Honor your body and its needs and move forward. Sometimes work can be a helpful tool to keep you moving forward and keep you present. Whatever you need to do to help yourself in the now is okay.
