It’s that time of year where we all think about doing a spring clean and then find ourselves too busy to do one.
While it might take a bit of time out of your working day, freshening up of your business and your work environment can give your productivity and motivation a much needed boost. Here are some ideas you can try out now:

Clear out your office

Having a home office is great but it’s also really easy to let it get into a bit of a mess as it’s your own space. There’s a danger of letting your personal and work lives blend into each other and distract you when working.

So take a look at your desk and try to remove all the things that you don’t need on a regular basis to clear space and refresh your mind a bit.

Sort out your filing system and make sure you know exactly where everything is so you don’t spend hours looking for the right notebook.

Organise your documents

Do you have a ton of random folders on your desktop? Do you struggle to find documents? Well then it’s time to organise.

Go through those folders and either move them into more relevant ones or delete the things you don’t need. Ideally you want to be able to find things like contracts or invoices easily.

Also remember to back-up important documents in case things go wrong and you lose data that you need to run your business.

Streamline your business

Streamline your business services by getting rid of that service you hate doing. Automate your marketing and invoicing. If you can afford to, think about hiring a virtual assistant to take care of tedious admin tasks that suck up your time.

Get rid of bad clients

All freelancers come across the occasional bad client who always pays late and expects work for free. Don’t feel bad about dropping a client, just be polite when you do so to avoid burning bridges.

Before dropping them, look for more client opportunities and make sure you’ve got a good contract before you agree to any work.

Refresh your website

Take a critical look at your website and see if you can’t improve a bit of its functionality, SEO or layout. Maybe your copy could use an update to keep it fresh or more relevant to your business now than when you wrote it.
If your website needs a bit of a revamp, you could hire another freelance web designer and get a new business contact as well as a new website.

Rethink your schedule

If you’re struggling to get a lot done during the day you might want to experiment and try a different working schedule. A lot of freelancers jump into the traditional workday structure that they would have at an office job, thinking it’s the most productive.

It may be fine for some, but not everyone works well this way. Some people are their most productive at 6am and become sluggish at 3pm. So if that’s like you then try starting your work day earlier and finishing around midday. If you’re a night owl, then have a lie in and start your work in the afternoon. See what’s best for you.