1. Work like a mad-man and crunch it all in and still complete on time.
2. Contact the client for the next project and explain that due to unforeseen circumstances the project time line needs altered.
3. Outsource some of the next project to stay on schedule.
4. Cross your fingers and hope no one notices.

In any event, there is a good chance that you’ll get behind.

Great article and reminder. Thanks!

Putting time for personal/internal projects into the schedule can actually be a good way to deal with it. If you are the client for a project it is easier to switch around when you do that work when a client project gets delayed or extended.

It also helps to keep checking in on projects that you haven’t started yet but that you need things from the client to be able to do. That way you can find out early if they aren’t going to be ready to start and juggle some other project (get someone else’s work done early if they are ready) to give the client with the delay time to sort out their stuff. I have got more of a sense as to which projects are likely to have this problem as time has gone on!

The challenge is manifold, and poses three questions:

* How do you keep timelines from going off the rails?
* How do you make sure that someone, somewhere, always has an outstanding invoice?
* How do you have a life when things get crazy?

Sometimes you manage traffic, and sometimes you don’t… but when the client knows their boundaries, when they know they’re about to go one change request too far, when they see how many hours they’re gonna be billed because they’ve been indecisive, those things all tend to keep things on schedule.

The one area where overruns can help is in the revenue department. For reasons of sanity I don’t advocate time overruns, but as long as you’re working you can afford to spend incrementally less time on business development. Given that your bottom line is web work, which is easier for you?

Someone, somewhere always manages to pay late. Or people take two months to reach a decision that they promised in two weeks. Or… well, there are all manner of reasons why you can find yourself making much ado about nothing, at least from the perspective of your accounts receivable. Overloading and having a group of other folks you can count on to help pick up the slack is often the best way to establish balance there.

And then there’s the question of having a life. All I can say to that is, don’t skimp on your recharge time unless the payback justifies it (getting the big break, staying out of court, having the money to make a timely investment). It might be different if you were painting the Sistine Chapel, but… let’s face it. No matter how much whupass it dishes out, it’s nothing more than a Web site.

I think the only way to actually get more time to work on stuff like that is to actively turn work down, just wish I had the balls to do that :)

Having been freelancing now for over 3 years, I would definitely recommend taking a risk/slight hit and putting some time into your personal projects ASAP. Otherwise you could find yourself totally reliant on client work your whole career, which isn’t the end of the world, but it could potentially eat into time spent doing other things, and also drain your enthusiasm if your working time is spent churning out client driven projects over and over.

Good luck with finding the balance that works for you ;)

Combine my main client not getting their act together along with my not knowing enough to say “no”, and it was a real mess of a start.

So I did what a lot of other first time freelancers did. I worked long hours and all weekends. Until I lost it.

Being forced to sort the problems out, I was faced with firing my PITA client. After that, it all fell together nicely.

As nice as possible anyway. Over the years there have been sick web designers, clients changing project managers midstream, Internet connections going down at bad times, etc. And of course the given, clients not getting items in on time (but that was their problem, not mine).

And now I’m 100 percent personal projects and no clients. Yeah, I like.

There are a few excellent reasons to treat yourself as a client for projects:
1. You have creative freedom.
2. Like @kevadamson said above it gives you true client freedom (non-reliance, except for the income part).
3. It’s your chance to put something really awesome into your portfolio.

@cat - that’s an excellent point. Not knowing how long things take can create a huge problem. If you don’t know how long a project will take (each element), then you’re setting yourself up for failure. I suggest using tools like slimtimer.com to track each aspect of your projects, from which you can draw an average over the course of several projects.

Wow this article and everyone’s comments have really turned into quite an education and reminder. Thanks!

Maybe it’s not all bad, I mean: It’s good for a beginning freelancer to have lots of work. This way, I’ll be building up some insurance for less busy times, and I’ll be able to finally buy myself a car (I lost the luxury of a company car when I quit my dayjob to become a fulltime freelancer).

Elliot, I’m sure you’ll have a big part of June free to spend some quality time with personal projects.

PS: I expected some pictures on Flickr of your trip to the far far North :-)

I do also give my clients a deadline, rather than the other way around, with the rider that if a project runs late, it is usually due to the client going slow, not getting content over to me etc. They usually get this, and it usually helps them focus. Being artists, they hate doing organizational stuff, and actually prefer to get it out of the way quickly. On the whole.

While I am so appreciative that my clients like my work, my work is now impeding on life and important personal projects. You find yourself in the face of a problem, raise your prices or work even more.

In these trying financial times, one finds it difficult to raise prices, however, time is of great value and my time is of equal value to that of my clients.

Some great suggestions in the comments from some really great and respected designers.

I’ll do my best to put them into play.