How to Optimize Your Workflow as a Freelance Web Designer

The main goal of a web designer is to make a website aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly. During the process, the web designer must liaise with the employer, web developer, SEO, and other people working on the site to ensure a smooth process and a timely launch. Web designers usually work from home, but staying productive while freelancing is hard. When you are your boss, and there is no one to dictate when and how much you must work, distractions are bound to reduce productivity. The main reason is the inability to allocate time correctly. So how do you optimize your workflow?

When are you most productive?

The freelancer can choose the time of the start of work himself. Therefore, it is essential to determine the part of the day when you are most productive. Everyone knows when he is awake and able to start work. During the day, there are periods of the highest productivity when we are maximally active. It is embedded in biorhythms. Since we are all different, it is easier for someone to start working early in the morning, while others begin at 1 p.m. and perfectly cope with the required tasks. It is essential to determine when it is easiest to work. Choosing these time frames will reduce working hours.

Web design is a profession that requires constant innovation. With every project, there will always be a new challenge, and you will always be expected to bring something new. To eliminate procrastination and stress caused by the fear of not being on time and not meeting deadlines, the work schedule should strictly regulate the performance of tasks. It is better to divide voluminous or multi-stage tasks into several small ones and, clearly define their execution time, set intermediate deadlines. When a freelancer has a precise time frame, he gets the job done much more efficiently.

Services for structuring work tasks

A functional task manager will help organize the execution of work tasks. That is, a program for recording and allocating working time, appointing responsible employees, and deadlines:

• Trello;
• Time Doctor;
• Asana;
• SmartTask;
• Basecamp.

A convenient task manager can also be used to organize the work of a web designer. Also, only some designs have encountered the fact that it cannot download the application to the device due to lack of space. Usually, Macbook owners start deleting programs or photos to run a Mac-clean app. But cleaning up your Mac is not such a difficult task. Many Macbook cleaner programs will help you clean the cache correctly. After all, it is usually enough to clean the mac caches to have enough memory for downloading programs. And this is indispensable for any web designer. You'll be more productive when you clear your cache and download an app to organize your tasks. After all, you will have a board on which you record a list of your assignments for a day or a week and then, if necessary, add or remove something or the other.

The Pomodoro method

Web design is a great career choice for tech enthusiasts and those who want to expand their skills in other areas of technology and the web. The essential stage of optimizing working time is directly organizing the process of working on current tasks. You can allocate time correctly and control its use using the Pomodoro method, which involves completing work tasks in 25- or 30-minute sets. The division into blocks allows you to achieve the highest productivity.

Physical activities

Switching entirely and engaging in any physical activity is essential during the breaks. Most freelancers work in front of a computer, so eye strain and back and neck exercises are crucial, as health is a more valuable resource than time. You should be active and remember to perform the appropriate set of practices too. Changing the type of activity, planned rest, and light physical activity contributes to increased productivity — this is a fact. An alarm clock, smartphone timer, or online one will help you stick to your work schedule.

List of tasks

Many different techniques help structure the performance of work tasks. It is clear that from the first day of freelancing as a web designer, it is challenging to be highly disciplined and stick to a schedule. If the habit of building a clear planning strategy has yet to be formed, it is worth trying several ones to find the one that works for you eventually. Many people manually write their tasks for the day in a notebook. As the execution progresses, the ready ones are crossed out. It's motivating. Banal, it would seem, but the technique helps achieve greater efficiency.

Conclusion

Self-organization is always complex work. At first, it will seem like you are spending much time on routine management, but this is a game of perspective. If all work processes are adjusted and automated, and plans for the day and the next six months are recorded, you will perform work tasks quickly and painlessly. By learning how to allocate and spend time, we acquire the skill of managing our lives. Every minute saved, every situation when we tend to show our will and not be distracted by extraneous matters, postponing or not finishing what we had planned, makes us happier. Productivity is a skill, not a character trait. It can be trained, adapt already known methods, or invent new ones. A few dozen attempts – and it will work. You need to believe in yourself and be consistent and purposeful. We hope these simple tips will help you film your interesting life “series” about time management and achieving the desired results.