Planning is everything!
Time is always a crucial factor while doing anything in the life. One must have gone through a number of books, articles and videos related to perfect time management. Some of you must have attended some seminar or workshops as well. But did it really help to do that ? There are a few things that we should consider while managing our time. And for a freelance writer it's the most important thing to keep in mind. First of all we should keep it in mind that freelancing is not something to do in a free time. It's all about managing your time for your work and that too freely. Let's see what are the factors that can help us manage our time in a better way.

Planning is the keyword of the time management. As the former US president Dwight D Eisenhower says, 'Plans are nothing, planning is everything.'. Following his statement just having a plan to translate a book or to complete the assignment will do any difference. But the planning of it will surely result in some output which will further become a nice piece of work. So start with the planning of the work.

First of all be clear with what you want to do. What is your exact role and responsibility in it? We can have our planning according to the tasks and the required time to complete them. After identification and segregation of the time slots we can start actual work. This will help us understand what exactly is the best way to do it. After having all the planning if we fail to implement it, it’s a waste. So plan for the time slots as well. This means figure out the best time to work in a day. Have a specific time slot of the day fully dedicated to the work which will not overlap with your other daily commitments. Then make sure that you follow them as well. Have a disciplined approach in terms of working with the timescale. Make sure that you don't plan anything which will invade your time slots which are dedicated to your work. This will sure result in more organised and helpful work environment of your own.

Last but not the least; the characteristic that a translator must have is ‘Consistency’. It is the key to success for anyone working in any field. But for a translator it holds a lot more importance. Consider that you are supposed to translate 2 pages a day and procrastinate it for just 3 days, not more than that. But on the day 4, if you calculate you might be having 8 pages of work in your palette which may result in further procrastination. And at some point this can become humanly impossible task. Thus you must be consistent with the work in order to do the best you can do.

Habits

Your habits reflect in your work. May it be your personal habit or something related to your profession. Thus having a few regular habits like checking mailbox regularly can give you unexpected results. Make sure that you check your mailbox regularly and sort your emails periodically. This will not only help you with the communication but also can ease your task of keeping track of all the work you do. Also you'll never miss any important message or update if you have such a good habits. It might seem difficult in the beginning but once you keep going it will automatically turn into Your daily routine.

Try to make short term plans out of the whole big thing you have in front of your. For example if you are translating a document having 10 modules or so. Try to set short deadlines as per the modules in it. It will ease your task and make it look lighter.

Another important habit is the habit of keeping time log. Though you have a robust planning and you are also working hard on it but if you are not going right on your timeline, then it will turn out to be your loss only. So always keep a track of time. Check where exactly you are on the whole timeline of your assignment. If you find any deviation, try to understand it and find out the solution to overcome that.

- Akash Gulankar