The old expression, “time is money,” really hits the mark when it comes to contingent freelance workers. After all, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid! The most successful gigsters are the ones who can manage their time in a way that makes them most productive. When you mismanage your valuable working hours, you’re practically throwing money out the window. And we all know, that’s no good.
Here’s 3 tools to get you started managing your time:
1. Find the gigs
Part of the appeal of contingent work is that you’re calling the shots when it comes to where and when you work. But when you don’t need to clock-in at a certain time, it’s easy to blur the lines between play and work. It takes some commitment to check daily what gigs are available, either for the day or longer term. Remember that the most successful gigsters are the ones who treat their freelance work in the gig economy as a job. That means they log in early, check what’s available, and secure the gig. In the gig economy, when you snooze, you lose.
Gigworx makes it easy with our mobile app. New opportunities are sent right to your phone, helping you not only find the gigs, but pick them up on the spot.
2. Balance work with fun
Part of the appeal of gig work is being able to balance work with fun. Just like eating healthy, working out, and getting enough sleep, finding time to do the things you enjoy helps boost energy and clear your mind.
In our “get up and go” world, it’s way too easy to go to work, come home, chill, and go to sleep. Managing your time to include fun activities with friends can be hard (especially if you can’t use your phone on the gig).There are lots of time management apps on the market, both free and paid. If you’re looking to balance work with fun, find a time management app that lets you share your tasks with friends.
For instance, you enter your gig assignments into to-do lists and then share these lists with your friends. You can set reminders to work out at the gym or create recurring to-dos with friends, like hiking Saturday mornings or going out on Friday nights. It’s a great way to know what the day brings so you’re never caught off balance. Here are a couple: Microsoft’s ToDo, Todoist, and Zenkit.
Personal fav? Loved the simplicity of Todoist. It really couldn’t get any easier, but Zenkit was a close second because of some extra features. Check them out and see which works best for you.
3. Prioritize tasks
One of the best things about taking part in the gig economy lifestyle is that you’re your own boss. You no longer have someone telling you what to do. That can be both good and bad. When you work the gig economy, you’re working different shifts on different days in different places. Nothing is the same week to week. While variety is a big appeal for lots of gig workers, for some, the lack of routine makes it difficult to manage the other areas in their life.
To make sure that you remember to study for an exam, take the garbage out, fill out paperwork, or pay the bills, each day identify two or three critical task and do those first.
Any task list, scheduler, or time management app should have an option to prioritize tasks. Microsoft’s ToDo, Todoist, and Zenkit all had this feature, but you can’t beat the simplicity of Todoist. But check them out for yourself. It all comes down to the features you need to make prioritizing your tasks easy for you.
Conclusion
If you work on these three points, you’ll be able to manage your time efficiently and effectively and still have personal time. After all, flexibility is probably one of the features that drew you to the gig economy in the first place.
To learn more, contact us today!
