How to succeed when you’re overcommitted

I’m going to let somebody down this week. I have to choose one of the following options:

1. Skimp on research necessary to do an awesome job for a client who’s paying a small amount up-front, but is evaluating me for a major, influential, and lucrative project.
2. Miss a deadline for a small client with whom I am doing ongoing work.
3. Fail to do the best possible job on a highly visible project that’s ending, but has taken far too many hours.
4. Tell a potential client that I can’t start right away and they’ll have to wait.
5. Work weekend and nighttime hours and spend less time with family.

Something’s gotta give

My simple philosophy on working with clients is: start strong, continue strong, finish strong. My objective is that at any given time, anyone who contacts the client about me will hear, “Yes, he’s excellent to work with and delivers excellent results.”

1 is out because I want to start strong for what will become a very important client.

2 is out because I’ve already made a commitment and really hate to miss deadlines.

3 is out because the end of a project is no time to skimp on quality, even if the project didn’t work out as I expected. Also because any failure would be noticeable to many others due to the project’s visibility.

4 is a good option. I have taken it. I can’t start strong if I can’t start at all. I’d rather lose a client due to schedule than disappoint one. Greed doesn’t pay off in the end.

5 is also now part of the plan. The key is not to overcommit — because if you’ve habitually overcommitted, there is no flexibility when the extra hours are required. My family is understanding, because this doesn’t happen all that often, and I’m there for them the rest of the time.

Incidentally, delegating is not an option. I work alone. the overhead of managing others turns out to be more work than doing things myself with a level of quality I know I can trust.

A few insights

It is tempting to take undesirable and low-paying clients when times are lean. The problem is you then become overcommitted to the wrong people when the good opportunities arise. And I won’t abandon a client, even a bad one.

There is an ebb and flow to these things. Three weeks ago I was undercommitted. So I enjoyed a bit of time to myself and invested in marketing myself.

If you find yourself overcommitted on a regular basis, raise your prices. That’s a far better strategy than overworking with no flex time for recovery.

Don’t prioritize the short-term over the long-term. The best opportunities — the ones that really pay off — don’t generally arrive in a hurry.

And one more thing. I never miss a day of blogging. That’s nonnegotiable. Unwise perhaps, but some things are just part of the fabric of who I am.