For freelancers, to-do-lists are essential but not-to-do-lists are equally of importance. However, many of them do not pay much attention to the latter. This is why they make a lot of mistakes. Read here what to avoid when being a freelancer.

1. FREELANCER TIPS
The Freelancer NOT-to-do List
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2. Freelancer to-do List
To-do-lists for freelancers can be found all over the Internet and
offer lots of good advice. However, if you try following all of
them, you’ll soon come to the conclusion that 24 hours a day are
by far not enough to get all the work done. That’s why you, as a
freelancer, should not only focus on the things that have to be
done, but be aware of the ones that don’t. There is work to be
done and you should cut off as many unproductive time-wasters
as you can. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a not-to-
do list, probably even more important than its more popular
counterpart. Here are some things you might want to include:

3. 1) Don’t check emails too often
As a freelancer you have to stay connected with your clients at
almost all times. But there is nothing worse than the realization
that the day is already over and all you did was check and
answer emails. Communication is one of the most important
parts of your business, but you should manage your time
appropriately. Make a simple rule and follow it – for example
check your email only once every two hours. That way, they
won’t distract you as much, leading to a much more productive
working culture. The same goes for phone calls, by the way.

4. 2) Don’t spend time on social networks
unless it benefits your business
Social network are another huge timewaster that most of us just
can’t seem to shake out of their daily routine. The deceptive
feeling that you are connecting and working on your online
marketing strategy lulls you into a sense of productiveness.
However, you can often find yourself looking at funny pictures or
reading into interesting things that unfortunately don’t have
anything to do with your work. To avoid this, it is beneficial to
have a professional business Facebook and Twitter site for
example and to only use those instead of your personal ones
during work hours.

5. 3) Don’t promise something you can’t
accomplish
One of the worst mistakes many freelancers make, especially at
the start of their careers, is to try to impress their clients by
overselling themselves or overstating their qualities. Stating that
you have skills that you don’t or agreeing upon a too short
timeframe to complete a project is one of the biggest no-go’s in
freelancing. Be honest with your client and go from there. A
work well done is worth a thousand promises.

6. 4) Don’t go into a week/month/year
without a plan
Going into a new week or even a month or year, you usually have
a general idea of what you want to accomplish. However, that is
usually not enough. You need to write it all down or run the
danger of forgetting something really important, like a deadline,
an important call or that one idea that would have brought in the
client you’ve always wanted. That’s right, number 4 on our list is
making sure you don’t forget to make a to-do-list. There’s a
reason they’re popular – they do the job.

7. 5) Don’t forgo marketing when times are
good
We’ve mentioned this several times in other articles about
running a successful freelancing business, but it just cannot be
stressed enough. Marketing is not something you only do when
you have no clients – it should be done throughout your whole
career. You never know when a new, brilliant opportunity is
going to arise. So don’t neglect your marketing when things are
running good, because you never know when you might be
missing out on something exciting.

8. Further freelancer tips available on http://www.freelancermap.com/channel/19-news.html
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