Creative Control: The Power of the Checklist
How creative workers can avoid the stress of forgetfulness
This is part one of my series on task management for creatives and freelancers.
All of us have vast amounts of to-do’s that we need to get done. If you run your own creative business, you can increase the size of that list two or three times over. The problem is, keeping track of all those tasks in your head can kill your creativity.
There’s always that nagging doubt of “Did I remember to follow up with my client?” or the cold realization that your deadline for delivering that content was last week. These doubts can increase your anxiety, hacking away at the imaginative muscles you use to do your best work.
There’s an answer. I’m a huge believer in tracking all of this stuff in an external, trusted system. That way, I don’t have the stress of forgetfulness and can focus my energy on creating good content. I use a task management system — somewhere that I can capture, track, and check off everything I need to get done, so nothing falls between the cracks.
If you want to build your resilience as a freelancer or creative worker, it’s worth exploring how a similar approach can help you.
There’s a lot to say about task management, so I’m going to be splitting this up into a few posts — I’ll link between them as new posts get published. Together, I’m hoping they’ll create a helpful framework that can boost your creativity. This is part one, an introduction to task management for freelancers and creatives.
Start with the basics of task management and to-do lists
I think it’s helpful to have some principles in mind when you’re deciding what type of task management is right for you, and why you should invest your time and energy:
Good task management helps you understand exactly what you need to do when you’re running your creative or freelance business and completing client projects.
There are many different types of task management software, so it’s worth trying out various applications and platforms to see what works for you.
There are also several different approaches and systems for task management, like Getting Things Done, Kanban, Eat the Frog, and others. Experiment with them to find a system you can stick with.
Spend some time thinking about how you’re going to manage tasks and setting up your system so that it’s intuitive and easy to use.
Get into the habit of capturing and tracking your freelance tasks, so that you always know what’s coming up and what you need to do.
Explore and capture tasks across all areas of your business, such as clients, communications, work, finance, administration, accounting, tax, and others.
Re-examine and refine your task management system periodically, so that using it becomes second nature.
Why a to-do list will make your life easier
Setting up a strong to-do list or task management system can take a lot of effort, but it can revolutionize how you approach your creative work:
Understand exactly what you need to do at all times, so there are no surprises.
Capture all of the important information about your freelance projects and client deliverables, so you can complete high-quality work.
Avoid the stress of forgetfulness by getting stuff out of your head and into a trusted system.
Stay on top of client deadlines, relationships, and communications, helping you to build trust.
Look ahead and see what’s on your schedule, so you can avoid being overwhelmed and confidently say yes or no to new work.
Meet all of your business requirements, especially time-senstive ones like accounting, taxes, or legal requirements.
Remember to follow up on important tasks so that nothing falls through the gaps.
How to get started with to-do lists and task management
I’ll get into the details of to-do lists in the next post, but here’s a quick overview of how you can capture and manage your tasks and what we’ll be covering:
Explore various ways to manage tasks and experiment with approaches and systems for task management.
Try out different task management software to see what works for you.
Set up your task management software so it works how you expect it to.
Understand the freelance tasks you will need to complete.
Review sources and capture tasks in your task management software.
Complete tasks and work on projects according to your software.
Review your tasks at the end of each week and prioritize for the week ahead.
Periodically review your tasks, system, and approach to check everything is still working for you.
Think about what you want to get out of your to-do lists and how much that could reduce your mental overhead and stress. Next time, I’ll talk about the various ways you can manage tasks, highlight some of the best software, and the types of tasks we need to complete as creative people.
Ironclad Creative is my publication dedicated to helping freelancers and other creatives to enhance their careers and build strong, resilient, successful businesses.