When the World Doesn’t Like Your Freelance Schedule

Carson Brackney’s back and better than ever. Lucky for me he’s written a new guest post that will blow you away. It’s all about freelancing and time scheduling. Thanks Carson!

So, you have the schedule thing all figured out. Everyone talks about how tough it is to maintain any semblance of a reasonable life as a freelancer, but you aren’t worried. You have the calendar. You have the time slots all lined up, filled up, organized, planned and your work life for the week will be so smoother than Yul Brynner’s scalp after a Crisco application.

Yeah, right.

The kid? She’s gonna get sick. Your wife? She forgot to tell you about that thing Tuesday at five. The car? I’d tell you to check the left rear tire now, but it’s probably too late. Be careful when you decide you need a tomato slice for your sandwich on Tuesday, too. That Wusthoff is sharp and you’re going to wait for an hour at the ER before they even talk to you. Plus, the stitches will slow your typing more than you think. Oh, and you’re about to get the flu. Sorry.

You’re doomed. We’re all doomed. You can talk as much as you’d like about “protecting your time”, but there’s no defense from the world, which turns the way it wants to turn regardless of your smart planning.

That doesn’t mean you should give up on planning and scheduling. It’s still important. You can’t count on it working out, though. It never does.

You just need to have a back-up plan.

• Give yourself a big fat block of extra time and make it part of your schedule. If you don’t need it, you can just work ahead. At some point, you will need it.
• Let your clients know what’s happening when feasible. They don’t need to be privy to all of your life’s details, but keeping them in the loop, when appropriate, can work wonders.
• Be realistic in your assessment of how much work you can actually do. You’re not as fast as you want to be. None of us are.
• Be ready to grind it out once in awhile during obscene hours when you should be enjoying that dream in which you’re eating fresh tropical fruit with 1976 Raquel Welch in a bathtub filled with C-notes (I suppose you may have your own preferred dream, but mine is better).
• Pay attention to what’s really happening every week and start adjusting your planned schedule accordingly.

None of those five recommendations are groundbreaking. They’re common sense solutions to a typical problem.

Trust me, that’s not because I’m not creative. It’s not because I haven’t investigated or experimented with alternatives.

Those tips are the ones that actually work. They make the list even if they aren’t examples of eye-popping originality.

Here’s my sixth and final recommendation. I think this is the big one.

• Get back on the horse.

You’ll drive away from the mechanic’s repair shop, sick kid in tow, en route to some function you don’t want to attend. While you’re stuck in traffic with your bandaged hand and a fever, you’ll look at the clock. You’ll think about time. You’ll hear the kid crying. You’ll realize that you’re about to throw up. Your cell phone will ring. The clock will stare at you, sizing you up. You will be forced to make a decision.

Feel free to cuss, complain, whine, scream and cry. Then, make the right call.

You might need to go to bed at 8 pm, sleep for twelve solid hours and wake up with a new attitude and happy memories of all the nice things Raquel said about you. You might need to hit that cash bar at the annoying function and get lit up like a Christmas tree. You might need a pack of smokes, three pots of coffee, “Bowie at the Beeb” on the stereo and a donut at dawn. You might need a hug. Who knows?

You do. You’re the only one who knows what it’s gonna take to make things right. Do what it takes to recover when things spiral out of control. Just don’t give up and don’t let it slide.

You can’t push the world into a corner, but you can’t let it shove you around, either. Don’t let the bastards get you down. You’re gonna get bucked off the schedule horse. Much of your success will be determined by your ability to get back in the saddle.

Ride on.

Carson Brackney. Who is he? He’s the copywriter/consultant/web content/marketing whiz that I’ve admired from afar. Why? Because he’s not just enviously talented, but he’s pretty cool too. Want more Carson? Check out his site or follow him on Twitter @carsonbrackney.