Over the years I’ve put together a “cheat sheet” of tips that have helped me become a more effective freelancer. I’ve done my best to make these applicable to all types of freelancers (freelance writers, designers, etc.) but they may not always be directly applicable. If you’re one of three freelance elephant whisperers in the world, you might need to get creative to think about how they apply to you.

1. Keep an idea file. Part of your job is to generate creative, insightful deliverables… whether you feel like it or not. And nothing is harder than waking up on a Monday morning and feeling terribly uncreative, but you need to complete a deadline before noon. An idea file can help. If you’re a website designer, it might include links to great websites you’d like to use for inspiration. As a writer, I subscribe to daily Google alerts on client-specific topics.

2. Batch your work. If I have a series of articles, I like to write them all at once rather than spread them out over a week or a month. This minimizes the amount of time I need to spend “refreshing” my memory on subject matter, keywords, etc.

3. Schedule downtime. This has been the best procrastination killer I’ve ever discovered: If I know that I have a half hour of relaxation coming up, I tend to work now. But if I don’t have any relaxation time in the foreseeable future, that’s when I find myself procrastinating.

4. Keep a record of emails. I have a single Yahoo address where all of my emails from all of my email accounts end up. Then they get filed into the appropriate customer folder. I know that the whole “Inbox Zero” tends to preach against this but it’s been helpful practice for the many times in my business when clients from six months or a year ago call me up and ask me to do some work for them.

5. Find out what your project acquisition timeline is. By this, I mean: What is the length of time from when you send out a proposal or query letter to when you get the job? For me, it’s two weeks. There’s some fluctuation from time to time but primarily it’s two weeks from the time I send out a proposal to the time I start work. And, on projects where I accept payment at the end, it’s usually two weeks from proposal to project start and another two weeks from project start to payment. Your averages might be different, but it’s helpful to know. You can plan your projects better, you can plan your vacations better, and you can plan your budgeting better.

6. Set aside time regularly to brainstorm added value for your clients. Make a list of our clients on one side of the paper and beside each one write in something you can do to deliver extra value. They’ll appreciate it; it will cement the relationship; and some of it will include more paid work for you.

7. Keep track of things you say and do repeatedly. This will become your list for FAQs on your website and for document or email templates and boilerplates.

8. When you’re working out a deal with a customer, keep it in writing and send it to them after the conversation. Keep good records of this stuff because the details (or lack thereof) will come to haunt you later.

9. Invest in yourself. It can be easy to put aside the development your own business in favor of billable time but you will make more money if you invest a little time, money, and effort into yourself. Read up on how to do a better job; spend money on improving various aspects of your business; take a night school course in a different area; borrow books from the library. This effort will return dividends.