Freelancer’s Guide: 5 Tips for Setting Professional Goals for the New Year

Whether you’re working from a kitchen table in Alabama or in need of serviced and virtual offices for freelancers in Australia, success for the self-employed requires a mix of hustle, focus, and flow. Trying to balance the short-term tasks of meeting deadlines, tracking hours, and sending invoices with the long-term needs of professional growth can be challenging.

Challenging, but not impossible! Below are five tips to keep your goals on track in the coming year:

Make your goals SMART

All goals provide a professional destination to travel toward, but not all goals are created equal. Some are vague and unfocused. Others are SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

SMART goals are a productivity best practice for a reason: they work. To get started, assess where you are currently—what are your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement? Then, go through each letter of the acronym. Identify specific outcomes, outline metrics to measure, ensure the goal is achievable, spell out its relevance, and set a deadline.

Break up big goals into small steps

Although it’s important to dream big, it’s also important to be realistic. Big goals are often daunting, leaving you unsure of where to start—which all too often means you don’t start at all. To sidestep that common move, break up your big aspirations into smaller, more doable, steps.

One of the most common goals for freelancers is a diverse list of high-quality clients. Smaller steps leading to that goal might include optimising your LinkedIn profile, updating your professional portfolio, researching different niches, and reaching out to potential clients. For each step, set a specific timeline and check them off when done.

Track and celebrate your progress and achievements

One of the biggest benefits of SMART goals is that you have a set of metrics to track your progress. By noting down the tasks you finish or the deadlines hit, you get an easy way to quantify how much progress you’ve made. When you review those numbers, you get a burst of motivation while also learning where you can improve or adjust your strategy.

Alongside tracking your progress to build motivation, celebrate your achievements to boost confidence. No matter how small, take time out to reward yourself with a treat, a break, or a self-compliment.

Revise your goals as need be

Although goals provide a useful direction for your focus and drive, they aren’t set in stone. If your circumstances, priorities, or preferences change, so can your goals. The best way to know if they need to change is to review them periodically. Do they still align with your values and aspirations?

If so, keep them. If not, consider changing or updating them to better reflect what your current situation demands. Look at client feedback and reassess your notes to come up with a self-assessment of your performance. Identify where you succeeded, where you failed, and what you might do differently moving forward.

Seek out support from others 

Whether it’s friends, family, or professional peers, finding a group of people to support your vision and hold you accountable is crucial to achieving your goals. This can be a challenge for many freelancers because they tend to work alone. Regardless, it’s important to try.

Reach out to those around you—your spouse, friends, and colleagues—as well as mentors, coaches, and groups of like-minded freelancers. Once you find a support group, share your goals, challenges, and progress with them, and request feedback and encouragement to help you stay on track.

Keep the five tips above in mind, and you’ll be on your way to setting and achieving valuable new goals this coming year!