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57% of people have left a job because of a bad boss.
Working for someone else is no fun. Have you always wanted to be your own boss?
There has never been a better time to leverage your skills and start your own business.
The catch? Working alone takes self-discipline. The key to becoming a successful freelancer is learning how to manage yourself.
Keep reading to learn more about how to improve your self-management skills.
If you've ever worked for an efficient boss, chances are you were given a set of metrics or goals when you started your job and were periodically evaluated on your results. When you're working by yourself, you need to follow a similar process.
Setting specific, measurable goals is one of the best ways to track your progress and your overall success. Your goals can be on small and large scales.
For example, you could set goals for how much work you are going to get done on a daily basis. On the other hand, you could set goals regarding how much you'll net over the course of a year.
Set a realistic timeframe for each goal and a schedule for how often you'll evaluate your progress. Keep the necessary logs to track your progress.
Over time you can reassess your processes as you determine whether your goals have been reached. You may find that you need to set small or larger goals. The most important thing is that you set goals to start and go from there.
For some people, staying organized comes naturally. For others, it can be one of your greatest challenges.
When you're managing yourself, staying organized should be a top priority. When you think about it, you're doing your job and your boss's job. Learning how to separate the two while doing both is the first step in improving your self-management skills.
What you do to stay organized will depend on the nature of your business. If you have employees and have a more complicated business structure, being organized will include organizing the business itself because other people are involved.
If you're a freelancer who is working out of your home, staying organized might be more simple.
Regardless of your business structure, staying organized by having a record-keeping system and an organized physical environment can improve morale and business function.
Running your own business is no simple feat. You have to learn to manage a number of moving parts at the same time.
When you work for an employer, your job responsibilities are more clear cut. When you're an entrepreneur, you're responsible for whatever comes up. Learning how to prioritize can improve your workflow and keep your business running smoothly.
Prioritizing is all about remaining flexible when you're managing yourself, as you never know what will come up.
To start, take a look at your business on a large scale. Prioritize the goals you've set for your business. Then, take a look at your to-do list and prioritize the goals you've set for yourself. This can be done on a yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily basis.
Learning to prioritize not only helps you meet your goals but it also forces you to evaluate how you're spending your time. This can prevent you from wasting time on things that aren't as important.
As a freelancer, being timely is especially important as asking for deadline extensions reflects on you more obviously. If you're working by yourself, make use of a planner. This could mean a physical calendar or a digital one that links to other resources.
If there's one thing having a boss is good for, it's employee evaluations. One of the most useful skills you can learn is how to evaluate yourself from an objective perspective.
If you've always thought your boss didn't understand what really went into your job, now is your chance to evaluate yourself.
If you don't take time to consider whether what you're doing is working, you'll never improve. Each process you implement into your workflow should be evaluated and then reevaluated periodically to make sure it's still working.
Don't make the mistake of being too easy on yourself. Doing so will make this self-evaluation pointless.
If you recall, the first thing you should have done is set goals. The point of this evaluation is to determine whether you've met those goals. If you've met your goals, make note of what worked.
Chances are, there are at least a few areas where you can improve. Consider applying these strategies in other areas that need improvement.
If you haven't met your goals, why not? What can you improve to make sure that you meet them going forward?
Just as it's important to be critical enough, you don't want to be too hard on yourself. Try your best to review your performance objectively, focusing on whether you've met the performance goals you set for yourself.
If you want to reap the benefits of being your own boss, you have to have effective self-management skills.
Whether you're first starting out as an entrepreneur or you've been freelancing for years, self-management skills can always be refined. Working for yourself is a lifelong learning process full of trial and error.
Eliminate some of the uncertainty by joining our platform where you can connect with other freelancers and learn from their experience. We can also help you manage the day to day operations of your freelance business and help you meet your goals.
Click here to get started today.
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