Freelance Productivity: How Jason Resnick Gets Things Done

Freelancers struggle to be productive. We juggle email, potential clients and actual code. How do we find enough time in the day? So we’re talking with some pros about freelance productivity. Today we talk with Jason Resnick. He’s a freelance WordPress developer who helps other freelancers streamline their process. You can follow him on Twitter.

“There are tons of ways to be productive but you have to do what works best for you.” -Jason Resnick

The conversation covers automation, momentum and finding what works for you.

What’s the most effective thing freelancers can do to be more productive?

All a freelancer needs to do to be more productive is to pay attention to what they do each and every day. If you find yourself repeating anything, then take a look at ways to optimize them in some way. See if Zapier or IFTTT can help to automate some of these things. This will save you time over and over again for each task. Over the course of a year, you can gain as much as days back. Imagine what you can do with those days? The beach, family—just taking the afternoon off sounds great to me!

How do you stay focused and productive throughout the day?

I make sure that I don’t overload my day. I make sure I have one high energy task, three normal and three low. The high energy tasks are the ones that take the most effort but they are usually the most important as well. I tackle those first thing in the morning. Then I carry that momentum through by ticking off the rest.

Email is often mentioned as a productivity killer. How do you efficiently manage your email?

I don’t open it often or have it open all day. I don’t check my email first thing in the morning. I use Help Scout in order to field all client communications. A little before lunch is when I open up my email for the first time, then again at the end of the day.

What other productivity tips do you have for busy freelancers?

Don’t follow exactly what someone else does. But learn from it. Make it your own. There are tons of ways to be productive, but you have to do what works best for you. Learn to see patterns and then optimize to save yourself time so that you can double down on the things that you need to be doing. For more from Jason Resnick, check out our earlier interview on making your freelance business sustainable. Jason also weighed in on our post about whether or not freelancers should talk politics.