Handle Tight Deadlines and Maintain High Standards

1) Take care of deadlines:

The first step is you have to be very serious about meeting deadlines and make them as your priority. Make breaking a deadline a cardinal sin in your freelance book. Once you've done this step, the rest is just logistics.

2) Planning and time management are key:

If you have to work on tight deadlines, planning and time management are key to make it all work. Break large tasks into smaller manageable chunks, and make sure to attach milestone deadlines to each task. Matching sections of the work with milestone deadlines will help you to eventually meet the final deadline right on time.

3) Always have a plan B:

The key to good project management is the insight that if you suspect something might go wrong (and it probably will), be prepared by creating a plan B. If, at any stage in the process you foresee delays or obstacles, make contingency plans in advance. Now, if these contingency plans involve other people, be sure to keep them in the loop.

4) Have a clear outcome:

You and the client should both agree on a clearly defined outcome. Don't skip this step, or you could be sorry later. If you turn in a project that's not what the client wanted, you'll have to do extra work, meaning that you'll miss the deadline. If you're not absolutely clear what the outcome should look like, ask some questions of the client until you are clear.

5) Negotiate and meet a second deadline:

If you absolutely cannot make deadline (you probably overcommitted), you should contact your client and negotiate a second deadline. It's much better to do this than to let the deadline go by without any communication. Whatever you do, be sure to meet this second deadline. Two missed deadlines in a row is bad news for a freelancer's reputation.

6) It is all about synergy:

Your ability to handle tight deadlines and maintain high standards of work will depend on the synergy between emotional, cognitive and administrative skills. If you develop time management skills and are able to realistically predict how much time you’ll need to a given task or a series of tasks, you’ll be on your way to getting everything done perfectly on time.