On the flip side, once business picks up, you might find that you’re over- whelmed by your commitments. If you’ve been in the business world for a spell, you know how difficult it can be to cope with an overload of work. For that reason, I turn in this section to strategies for maximizing your free time when it’s at a premium.
Even during a downturn, you must juggle multiple tasks (remember, our plan in Chapter 3 requires us to take massive action, which means doing many things to reverse our business slump). Here are some sugges- tions for getting more done.
• Learn to say no. It’s scary to turn down work or say no to a man- ager above you. But when you’re truly too busy, it’s sometimes the best thing to do. After all, if you take on more than you can handle and miss a deadline or do shoddy work in order to make the deadline, that will do far more harm to your brand and reputation than saying no.
I rarely say no to current clients, unless the deadline is so tight that I cannot possibly make it. If that’s the case, I ask if there’s any reason why the deadline can’t be a few days longer, and I usually get it. (Many dead- lines are arbitrary and have no logic behind them.) If they cannot be flexible, I politely explain that the deadline is too short, thank them for the offer of the job, apologize for not being able to take it on, and suggest
they give it to one of their other resources (other freelancers, in-house staff, ad agency, production studio).
However, I frequently say no to new prospects who call me during a busy period. When they start to describe their project or ask about my service, I stop them and say, “I’d be delighted to talk with you about this project. But I don’t want to waste your time, so I must tell you now that I am booked through the end of September (or whenever). If the project is not a rush or you can delay it until then, I’d be happy to work with you. If not, I’ll have to pass.”
Amazingly, the usual reaction is not anger or hostility (although a few callers get mad); instead, most are impressed, even amazed. (“You mean you are booked through September? Boy, you must be good!” one caller said recently.) In fact, turning down work because you are booked frequently creates the immediate impression that you are in demand and thus tops in your field, and along with this creates an even stronger de- sire to work with you. Many people who you turn down initially will call you back at the month you specify and ask, almost reverently, always re- spectfully, “You said call back in September. I have a project. Can you work with me now?” Try it. It works!
• Set the parameters. An alternative to turning down work cold is to set the schedule and deadline according to your convenience, not theirs. “Well, I am booked fairly solidly,” you tell the prospect. “I can squeeze you in; however, it will take seven weeks (or whatever) instead of the usual three to complete your project, because of my schedule. If you can wait this long, I’ll be happy to help you. If not, I will have to pass on the assignment.” Again, many prospects will turn to someone who can accommodate their original deadline. However, many others will say yes to your request and hire you on your terms.
• Discover your most productive working hours. I find that morn- ings are my most productive time. I work best from 7 A.M., when I usually
start, to 1 or 2 P.M.; after that, I slow down. If I am extremely busy, I try to
start at 6 A.M. instead of 7 A.M., and find that I get an amazing amount of
work done during that first extra hour. Also, it makes me less panicky for the rest of the day, because I have accomplished so much so early. Exper- iment to see what your peak performance times are—even if you think you’re not a morning person, perhaps you’ll discover that, with a little coffee, you’re extremely productive in the early hours.
• Hire a temp. If you are under a crunch, consider getting temporary secretarial help for such tasks as proofreading, editing, research, typing,
data entry, trips to the post office, and library research. Spend the money to get rid of unnecessary administrative burdens and free yourself to con- centrate on the important tasks in front of you.
• Break complex tasks into smaller, bite-size segments. Rush jobs are intimidating. If you have two weeks to work a major brochure and put it off until the last three or four days, the task looms large, and panic can set in. The solution is to break the project into subprojects, assign a certain amount of the task to each day remaining, then write this down on a sheet of paper and post it on the wall or bulletin board in front of your desk.
• Ask for more time. When you are just starting out, you naturally want to please co-workers and thus you agree to any deadline they sug- gest. In fact, you encourage tight deadlines because you believe that do- ing the work fast is a sign of doing your job right.
As you get older and more experienced, you learn two important truths. First, that most deadlines are arbitrary and can be comfortably ex- tended with no negative impact on the client whatsoever. And second, that it’s more important to take the time to do the job right than to try to impress a naive client by doing it fast. What matters is not that the soft- ware was coded fast but that it works, meets user requirements, is reli- able, and doesn’t have bugs. So if you need extra time, ask for it. You’ll service the client better than if you did a rush job.
• Become Internet proficient. Learn to browse the World Wide Web and send e-mail over the Internet. You’ll save time and energy, and get more done. See Chapter 5 for more information.
• Increase your desk time. Stop wandering around and getting dis- tracted by a hundred different things that are not the real work you have to do. When you have work to do, stay at your desk and have at it until the work is done.
Georges Simenon, author of the popular Inspector Maigret series of mystery novels, wrote over 500 books. How was he able to be so produc- tive? Simenon said he limited his writing vocabulary to 2,000 words so he would not have to use a dictionary (there are more than 800,000 words in the English language, with 60,000 new words added since 1966). This allowed him to work continuously, without having to stop to open and search a dictionary for a word. The key to his success then, at least in part, was working without interruption—he kept going and didn’t let anything stop him while he was hot.