Comments on: 7 Secrets for Getting More Done

By: Russell

Russell — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:45:56 +0000

Working from home (a minor palace in Sheffield, UK), I’ve never given my landline number to any clients and so can confidently ignore any rings I hear. Great for getting stuff done.
Excellent advice on time management. Ta!

By: Dean Rieck

Dean Rieck — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:38:51 +0000

Cameron: I told someone “no” recently, and here’s why: The person who contacted me was a lawyer who works across town. He wanted a lot of work for a very small budget. He had no idea what he was doing. The project was not going to lead to more work. And he insisted that I meet with him without paying for it even though it meant about half a day away from my office.

No lawyer would throw away time like that. So he was telling me he didn’t respect me. He couldn’t pay me. And the project would certainly be a pain in the rear. Why would I want to work with him? Where’s the benefit?

Saying “no” to things like this isn’t about losing work, it’s about optimizing your time so you can do more work.

By: Pete Savage, Editor

Pete Savage, Editor — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:33:24 +0000

Hi Cameron,
It’s true… it can be tough to say ‘NO’ but I look at it slightly differently, when I say ‘No’ to a project it’s for a reason… usually because I simply don’t fancy it. And with each ‘no’ I have a stronger and clearer understanding of the kind of work I really want to do. Plus… there’re nothing like a lack of work to get you motivated to go out and find more — more of the kind of work you WANT that is. Thanks for the comment!

By: Cameron Barr

Cameron Barr — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:03:52 +0000

All great tips! Certainly relevant and true in most situations, not just freelancing. I personally have a tremendous problem with saying ‘NO’. By saying ‘no’, so much work just disappears…poof!

By: Ed Gandia, Editor

Ed Gandia, Editor — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:27:16 +0000

Great post, Dean! I finally “got” prioritizing when I saw a video of Stephen Covey trying to fit in big rocks in a fish bowl full of sand and pebbles. Didn’t work. So he tried putting the big rocks in there FIRST…then pouring in the pebbles and the sand. Guess what? Everything fit in the bowl when he did it that way.

Same with our daily tasks. We need to learn to put in the big rocks first and work the other medium- to lower-priority items around them. Only then will we be truly productive.

By: Janine Duff

Janine Duff — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:46:45 +0000

Great advice! If there’s one thing I’ve really learned to do since I was a university student, it was time management, and a major element of that was prioritizing.

By: QuietRebelWriter

QuietRebelWriter — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:37:19 +0000

I’m a big believer in screening calls and plotting out to-do lists. I like to make monthly lists, weekly lists and daily lists, breaking things into discrete chunks. It makes things much more manageable, plus you get the fulfillment of checking off things on the list. Big X’s are fun

By: Pete Savage, Editor

Pete Savage, Editor — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:44:19 +0000

I especially like Dean’s tip #2. This year, after reading the book The Four Hour Work Week, I became rigid with my phone policy. I adopted these two new policies: 1) I no longer answer the phone when it rings and 2) I check voice mail only twice per day – once at noon and once at 4pm. Both of these new behaviours were simple changes, but they boosted my productivity tremendously. Freelancers, your time is valuable… don’t be afraid to guard it! Thanks Dean.