Multiply the cost of an hour of our work by 2
The article does not claim to be objective. Everything below is my personal observation and my experience that I want to share.
The scheme applies only to specialists. In this case, to freelancers who can independently regulate their working hours. For interns and workers with no specific skills, a reverse pattern is more likely. First of all, this is due to the fact that a specialist with experience, as a rule, has already determined for himself the most effective scheme for organizing his working time. For example, I know that in the first half of the day it is more difficult for me to concentrate on one task, I am often distracted by telephone calls, e-mail, regular regular tasks that do not require much time, but in large quantities. Therefore, in the period from 09:00 to 15:00, I most efficiently rake the routine and thereby free up the time for solving the main task, which I turn to at about 15:00. From this time until 18: 00-19: 00 hours I deal with the most difficult tasks for which maximum brain activity is needed. If a lot of tasks require overtime (as a rule, this is almost always the case of freelancers), then from 6 pm to 7 pm, when fatigue begins to take on its own and the most difficult tasks require an unreasonable amount of time and effort, I turn to those projects the main stages of which I did a day or two earlier.
For example, if during the day I need to make several advertising banners, develop a prototype for a new project, make a couple of design layouts for internal pages for an already existing site (which was started earlier), answer mail and correct a presentation in Power Point, I distribute tasks in the following way.
from 09:00 to 15:00: mail, presentation, banners;
from 15:00 to 19:00: prototype of a new project;
from 19:00: design of the internal pages of an existing site.
')
It would seem that what can be more effective than long-term work on one project without being distracted by anything else? I do not take into account daytime sleep or lunch. I speak only about working moments. And yet, testing oneself has shown that 2 hours of the most difficult work in the middle of the day is much more efficient at this particular time. And work on a project in which the main role is assigned to almost “automated” actions, for example, the design of the prototype page with ready UI and content is much more effective at the end of the day, when physical memory allows you to work as quickly as possible in Photoshop (in my case), but to think as effectively when it does not work.
Thus, it is almost always a task that requires 5 full working hours, it takes me 2-3 days. Splitting a task into several parts together allows you to reduce the total time for its execution. As a result, I spend on the solution of the problem by 40-60% less time and estimate the cost based on the final figure of the actual time spent.
In other words, I will spend 6-7 hours on the five-hour task with a deadline of “yesterday”, taking into account the adjustment of the deadlines for other tasks due to the priority of the extra-urgent. On a five-hour task with a term that I define, it will go down two times less. But the customer will see the result two days later. This is the key point in which hourly pay pricing takes place in my case. Therefore, when I am told that there is no TK, and I can only discuss the work for half an hour and details by Skype, I set a preliminary minimum price tag equal to an hour of my time multiplied by 2. As a rule, after that the TZ appears or the customer finds another performer. Sometimes, however, they agree on such conditions, and I have never regretted that I underestimated the cost.
As a rule, more or less serious tasks require some kind of documentation, technical task, or at least a list of tasks sent by e-mail. And in the case when there is such documentation, I can accurately calculate the time and cost, taking into account other tasks that go in parallel. Any deviation from the TK by the customer in this case means:
a) or revision of the established TZ, with amended time limits and cost;
b) either the inclusion of hourly pay (x2), which continues until we return to work on the TOR or complete the project or choose option a).
As for the minor (intermediate) revisions that do not affect the concept, are not described in the terms of reference, they are free. But all of them are only at the stage of presentation of the design and before its approval.
After approval, the new edits are paid, according to a separate additional task with new terms. Without additional TK with edits that come in real time via Skype, the cost doubles.
Before the presentation, at the development stage - only I see the layout.
Such a scheme allows me to get the most out of every hour of my time, without changing my schedule, or by receiving a double premium, as “moral” compensation.
The scheme applies only to specialists. In this case, to freelancers who can independently regulate their working hours. For interns and workers with no specific skills, a reverse pattern is more likely. First of all, this is due to the fact that a specialist with experience, as a rule, has already determined for himself the most effective scheme for organizing his working time. For example, I know that in the first half of the day it is more difficult for me to concentrate on one task, I am often distracted by telephone calls, e-mail, regular regular tasks that do not require much time, but in large quantities. Therefore, in the period from 09:00 to 15:00, I most efficiently rake the routine and thereby free up the time for solving the main task, which I turn to at about 15:00. From this time until 18: 00-19: 00 hours I deal with the most difficult tasks for which maximum brain activity is needed. If a lot of tasks require overtime (as a rule, this is almost always the case of freelancers), then from 6 pm to 7 pm, when fatigue begins to take on its own and the most difficult tasks require an unreasonable amount of time and effort, I turn to those projects the main stages of which I did a day or two earlier.
For example, if during the day I need to make several advertising banners, develop a prototype for a new project, make a couple of design layouts for internal pages for an already existing site (which was started earlier), answer mail and correct a presentation in Power Point, I distribute tasks in the following way.
from 09:00 to 15:00: mail, presentation, banners;
from 15:00 to 19:00: prototype of a new project;
from 19:00: design of the internal pages of an existing site.
')
It would seem that what can be more effective than long-term work on one project without being distracted by anything else? I do not take into account daytime sleep or lunch. I speak only about working moments. And yet, testing oneself has shown that 2 hours of the most difficult work in the middle of the day is much more efficient at this particular time. And work on a project in which the main role is assigned to almost “automated” actions, for example, the design of the prototype page with ready UI and content is much more effective at the end of the day, when physical memory allows you to work as quickly as possible in Photoshop (in my case), but to think as effectively when it does not work.
Thus, it is almost always a task that requires 5 full working hours, it takes me 2-3 days. Splitting a task into several parts together allows you to reduce the total time for its execution. As a result, I spend on the solution of the problem by 40-60% less time and estimate the cost based on the final figure of the actual time spent.
In other words, I will spend 6-7 hours on the five-hour task with a deadline of “yesterday”, taking into account the adjustment of the deadlines for other tasks due to the priority of the extra-urgent. On a five-hour task with a term that I define, it will go down two times less. But the customer will see the result two days later. This is the key point in which hourly pay pricing takes place in my case. Therefore, when I am told that there is no TK, and I can only discuss the work for half an hour and details by Skype, I set a preliminary minimum price tag equal to an hour of my time multiplied by 2. As a rule, after that the TZ appears or the customer finds another performer. Sometimes, however, they agree on such conditions, and I have never regretted that I underestimated the cost.
As a rule, more or less serious tasks require some kind of documentation, technical task, or at least a list of tasks sent by e-mail. And in the case when there is such documentation, I can accurately calculate the time and cost, taking into account other tasks that go in parallel. Any deviation from the TK by the customer in this case means:
a) or revision of the established TZ, with amended time limits and cost;
b) either the inclusion of hourly pay (x2), which continues until we return to work on the TOR or complete the project or choose option a).
As for the minor (intermediate) revisions that do not affect the concept, are not described in the terms of reference, they are free. But all of them are only at the stage of presentation of the design and before its approval.
After approval, the new edits are paid, according to a separate additional task with new terms. Without additional TK with edits that come in real time via Skype, the cost doubles.
Before the presentation, at the development stage - only I see the layout.
Such a scheme allows me to get the most out of every hour of my time, without changing my schedule, or by receiving a double premium, as “moral” compensation.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/286570/
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