What’s the Secret to Getting More Done in a Day?

How much do you plan to get done in a day?

How much do you actually get done?

If you’re anything like me, there is often a huge gap between those two questions. One of the key factors in the success of any freelancer is her productivity. And yet, so often, we’re remarkably unproductive. In spite of our best intentions, we end up overwhelmed and falling behind, losing sleep and wondering how to make it all work.

So what’s the secret to getting more done in a day?

The answer, I’ve discovered, is painfully obvious…

Simplify.

Simplify Your Routine

When I first started freelancing, I didn’t have a lot of regular work. So I filled my time by reading and learning everything I could.

I added dozens of blogs about writing and freelancing and self-employment to my Bloglovin reader. I spent hours every day, learning everything I could, hopping from one blog post to another. I signed up for courses and I read through case studies and advice columns.

While I think it’s important to continue educating yourself — everyone running their own has more to learn, — I finally realized that trying to keep up with everything  meant that I couldn’t get anything done.

There are a still blogs that I read regularly because I find their advice helpful and relevant, but I no longer try to read twenty-four of them every day. By simplifying my routine, I left myself a lot more time to actually be productive.

Other ways I simplified my routine?

I have a favorite YouTube workout channel, which saves me from trying to decide how to exercise.

My alarm goes off at the same time every morning, which keeps me on a simple, consistent schedule.

I have a regular first-thing-in-the-morning writing routine that is simple and easy to keep up with.

By simplifying as many elements of my day — and reducing the amount of time I have to spend on unimportant decisions — I leave myself more time to actually get work done.

Simplify Your Inbox

How many newsletters and sales emails are you subscribed to?

If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time every day deleting things from your inbox without bothering to read them. Sales alerts from a place I bought a pair of shoes two years ago. Suggestions from Indiegogo based on a campaign I donated to one time. Newsletters from a blogger that I can’t even remember signing up for.

I finally decided to take control of my inbox and used UnrollMe to unsubscribe from things I no longer wanted. I discovered I was subscribed to nearly two hundred  emails lists. Some of them — like the updates from my doctor’s office, or newsletters that I actually read — I kept. But two-thirds of them I clicked unsubscribe, and my inbox has never been easier to manage.

These days, email is the primary form of communication with clients for pretty much any freelancer. If you want to be more efficient, the first thing you need to do is cut through the clutter and make sure the things ending up in your inbox are emails you actually want  or need.

Simplify Your To-Do List

How many things do you try to get done in a day?

Two? Three? Twenty? Everything on your two-hundred point to-do list?

One of the challenges of working for yourself is that there is always  more to do. There is always more marketing, more learning, more networking. More website updates, more blogging, and,most importantly, more actual work.

I used to try to get everything done, every day. I would market my business and update my social media and research new clients and email new clients and work on fiction and research fiction markets and schedule auditions and go to auditions and study other bloggers and update my own blog… and I’d end up wondering why I was always feeling rushed when it came to work my clients had hired me to do.

I didn’t start being productive until I broke down my to-do list and stopped trying to do everything every day. I found I get much more done if I pick 1-2 major tasks and just focus on those.

One day I might spend the whole day on development: updating my website, researching new markets, clearing out my inbox.

On another day, I might write and edit three articles for a client.

If I have an audition in the afternoon, generally I just focus on prepping for that all morning, then spend the evening catching up on reading and recovering from my six-hour adrenaline high.

There are some things I do every day: my morning writing, some exercise, a little down time. But other than that, I try to simplify my to-do list with the question: What do I need to accomplish today?

It seems counter-intuitive, but I’ve found that the less I try to accomplish in a day, the more I actually get done. When I simplify things, I can more easily decide what’s actually important and focus on that.

Do you ever feel like you need to simplify your life?

What tips do you have for making it happen?

xx