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Guide to Completing Projects On-Time

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Guide to Completing Projects On Time

Part of being a web designer (or any other type of service provider for that matter) is dealing with the reality that deadlines are a part of your job. Deadlines often have a negative stigma, but they actually help freelancers and independent designers to keep themselves on track and to promote efficiency and productivity, which will lead to a profitable business.

I recently wrote about some various steps to achieving a productive workday, and in many cases, your days will involve the need to meet deadlines, or at least to make progress towards meeting the deadlines at a later date. In this article, we’ll take a look at 10 different things that you can do to help yourself in terms of meeting deadlines on client projects.

1. Start with Realistic Expectations

One of the most important factors in completing projects on time is simply not accepting work that requires an unrealistic deadline. Of course, there will be times when a looming deadline will be a tight squeeze, but if you hope to be able to meet a deadline and to provide your highest quality of work, a certain amount of time will be needed.

If a client or a potential client is trying to get a project started with unrealistic expectations, the timeline needs to be adjusted as soon as possible, or problems will follow. Most clients won’t know everything that is involved in getting a project completed and they won’t always be able to know what is realistic and what is not, so it is the freelancer’s responsibility to make sure that deadlines and schedules are reasonable.

2. Give Yourself Time To Do Your Best Work

When evaluating a schedule or deadline proposed by the client, you may know that you’ll be rushed. In this case, if the money is right and other factors work out, you may be tempted to move forward knowing that the time crunch will not allow you to do your best work. However, once you get into the project and you want to produce something of quality, you’ll find that justifying a lower quality of work is not usually acceptable to yourself or to the client.

For obvious reasons, it’s always preferable to come away with something that gives you a sense of satisfaction, and a piece of work that would help you to win new clients, not chase them away. When evaluating a potential project to determine if it’s one that you should accept, be sure to give yourself time for a high quality of work, or it is likely to be an issue later.

3. Get Started Right Away

Procrastination is easy for freelance designers since there’s no one around to hold them accountable. It’s a very simple concept, getting started earlier will allow you a better chance to meet your deadlines, but it’s easy to put things off.

By getting started right away you’ll have a chance to identify any potential problems while there is still plenty of time to deal with them, and you’ll reduce the pressure that will exist later as the deadline gets closer.

4. Plan for Unexpected Issues

Part of the difficulty in pricing projects and setting deadlines and schedules is that unexpected issues are almost certain to arise. Planning for the unexpected is a necessary part of the process that will usually be learned after a few bad experiences.

When extra time is built into your schedule to deal with unforeseen problems, deadlines will not need to be missed because of these setbacks. Even though we all know that unexpected things sometimes happen when designing and building a website, explaining to a client that you can’t meet a deadline because of something you didn’t anticipate is never a good thing. Yes, there are times when it may come to this even when you have built some extra time into the schedule, but minimizing and avoiding these situations should be a goal.

5. Communicate with Clients that Your Ability to Meet Deadlines Depends on Their Cooperation

Being held up by clients can often be a frustration for designers. When you’re building a site for a client there is a strong need for the client to be involved in the process. Whether you’re being held up by waiting for content or waiting for feedback on the design, a slow response from the client is frequently a contributing factor in delays.

To make sure that your clients have a clear understanding of what will impact your ability to meet the established deadline, take the time upfront to emphasize that their input and follow-up must also keep to the schedule, or else it will impair your ability to get the job done. This will help many clients to make sure that they get back to you promptly, and in cases where it doesn’t help, at least you will have covered yourself for later if deadlines are not met.

6. Get as Much Information as Possible Up Front

As was mentioned in the previous point, building a website is always going to involve some information from clients. Whether you need written content for the site, photographs to be used, a listing of pages that they want to be a part of the site, or feedback on the style of design that they want, the sooner you can get the information the better.

Of course, different projects will have various levels of involvement that you will need from the client. Whenever possible, it’s preferable to let clients know everything that you will need from them upfront. This gives them a chance to go gather the information all at once, plus it makes it possible for you to have all of the information before you even really get into the project.

Going back and asking the client for more information will usually happen at some point, but the more you can get up front, the less time you will have to wait later for a response. As deadlines get closer, these types of delays can often make the difference between meeting or not meeting deadlines.

7. Give Deadlines to Your Clients

In order to keep things moving forward, deadlines should also be given to clients for getting their part done. For example, when you communicate with the client at the start of the project, if you’re going to need content for X number of pages on the site, agree on a deadline with the client for the time when they should have all of that content in your possession.

Simply asking the client for something in an open-ended nature with no deadline will not always work. While you’re waiting you may be losing valuable time. Giving deadlines to the client can obviously help to get things moving quickly, but it also helps them to realize some of the ways that they impact your ability to meet the deadline.

8. Have Checkpoints with Smaller Goals Along the Way

Some projects, especially larger ones, will have smaller goals and deadlines built into the schedule along the way. However, even if you’re working on a smaller project that only has one established deadline, it’s a good practice to break down the tasks and steps that are needed to get the project completed, and set some specific goals and progress points for yourself to meet along the way.

When you’re evaluating how much time it will take to complete a project, it will typically be much easier and more accurate if you can break it down into small sections and gauge the time required for each of them. Without doing this, it’s easy to get partway through a project and feel good about where you are at when in reality you should be much further along in order to meet the deadline.

9. Set Daily/Weekly Goals and Task Lists

If you’re starting a project with a detailed breakdown of what needs to be accomplished at specific intervals, you can evaluate your progress at any time and adjust if you’re falling behind.

Last week I wrote that having a daily to-do list is one of the keys to a productive workday, and I feel that it also has a big impact on allowing yourself to effectively meet deadlines. This way you will always know exactly what you need to accomplish in a given day to put yourself in a position to get the project completed on time.

10. Evaluate Your Progress Daily

In addition to just setting goals for each day and tasks that need to be accomplished, it’s also necessary to evaluate your progress and make sure that you are still on track to meet the deadline. If you’re not on track, it’s obviously best to know that as soon as possible so that you can adjust your work as needed, and this method will allow you to do just that.

My typical practice involves spending about 5 minutes at the end of the day to go back through my to-do list and to make sure that any items that weren’t accomplished become part of the list for the next day. At this time I’m able to look at the projected schedule and determine if I’m still on track.

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