7 Ways to Effectively Manage Your Time for Voice Over Work

It’s a new year and the goal is to be better than last year!  Whatever your New Year’s resolution list is composed of can better be achieved when you are able to effectively manage your time.   Managing one’s time may sound blah and something people take for granted, because they think it’s easy and that it should be common sense and all that.  True.  However, you’d all be amazed at the sheer number of people who can’t seem to do it.

Here are a few tips to get you pointed in the right direction as far as managing your time effectively.

1.  Have a dedicated working space.

For voice over actors, this means having your own professional home studio.  If you own your own professional studio, you save a lot of time scheduling studio availability and waiting for the studio to be available.  Having your own professional home studio allows you to get your work done immediately.  It also helps to have a backup studio kit, one that you can bring with you on your travels so you can still get small projects done while away.  Clients like voice over talents who are able to meet project deadlines and demands.  

2.  Review your calendar weekly.

It’s a good practice to review the past week and see what you’ve accomplished and what is still pending. Then review the upcoming week again to see what’s due.

3.  Prioritize your assignments.

This goes hand-in-hand with number 2.  While you are reviewing your calendar, prioritize which ones need to be done first and those that you can push back a day or two.  

4.  Postpone unnecessary activities until the work is done!

Related to tip number 3: by now you know what your goals are so you should also be able to figure out which activities support your goals and be able to push back those that don’t support your goals so you can prioritize those that do.

5.  Identify resources that help you.

This can be your agent, or fellow voice over artists.  

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It also includes being able to plan ahead.  Say for example you’re not too keen on bringing your travelling studio kit with you on an out of town trip, you could check ahead and see if there is a studio where you are going that you can use should something come up such as casting calls and auditions or an urgent project.  Better yet, if you know somebody whose studio you can use.

6.  Use your free time wisely.

Imagine periods where you aren’t really doing anything like riding the bus, train or driving.  Is there an audio sample supplied by your client that you can listen to while driving so that when you are ready to record you know what to do?  Or a script that you can read while waiting at the doctor’s office?

7.  Create a simple “to do” list.

Some people find this effective; some people simply don’t work with lists.  For those who do, it sounds like a really good idea and numerous studies show that people who do have lists accomplish more than those who don’t.  It always helps to map out your day, your week to get you through them and it does feel good to be able to tick off items from that list!