Today we’re going to talk about to do lists. Maybe you fall under the post it note category. Maybe you fall under the “old school” to do list category. Maybe you’re more the computer or smartphone app type. Or maybe you’re looking at this and going: “why bother with any system whatsoever?”
The weird thing about freelancing is its tendency to come in waves. It’s how I explain freelancing to people that don’t know much about it, so if you’re rolling your eyes or sighing as you read this, because I’m telling you old news, bear with me for just a second. My workload went from light, to quiet, and then super busy extremely quickly. You’re probably wondering what that has to do with my choice to dedicate an entire blog post to do lists and their awesomeness. Well…a lot actually.
As soon as the workload started piling up hard core I created a word doc called: “Rosie’s Freelance Project List Of Horrors.” I actually wouldn’t describe it as a form of horror I just have an interesting sense of humour. Every time I finished a project I used Microsoft Word’s strikethrough tool, on the list item that I’d completed, and could literally feel the endorphin rush as I saw the items slowly start being crossed off. Although there are still a few items, that need to be crossed off (please note: I wrote this blog post on the weekend so a few more items might even be crossed off as you read this,) it was a deeply satisfying, motivational tool. Most importantly: nothing was forgotten. Nothing at all.
An important lesson I’ve learned is that the modern freelancer has to put on a ton of hats to succeed, no matter what their specialty: the entrepreneurial hat, the social media manager hat, the “whatever their freelance speciality is” hat, the marketing hat, the money manager hat, etc. That’s a lot to keep track of! This is why writing things down, no matter how you choose to do that, is so important because let’s face it shit happens, and people make mistakes!
The best part of to do lists are the endorphins, the wonderful feeling of endorphins pumping through the veins.
