What to Do When You Need Urgent Work Done

*Click to read the affiliate disclaimer*

(Last Updated On: )

We’ve all been there when we’ve got a deadline coming up and, no matter how hard we try, there’s absolutely no way you’re going to be able to fit that in with the other things going on in your world. It may be something that you’ve been putting off for ages, or something that hit you at the absolute worst time (in spite of how organised you might be). Whatever the circumstances are, this is what you need to do when you need urgent work done ASAP.

This came up with me last year. It was one of those situations where, if I didn’t get it done, there were going to be some massive consequences. I had a lapse in judgment and trusted someone else’s belief that a certain task didn’t need to be done for several more months, but it actually had to be done within days. I wasn’t qualified to do it myself and didn’t have the time to learn. I turned to the most reliable assistance I’ve had over the past few years: freelancer hubs.

This won’t apply to every situation, but from my experience, these are the steps I would take if I was in that situation again:

Gather Resources

Ensure you know where all of the documents/files/information is for the task. Every single detail. Get it all together and make sure that it’s organised so that someone else would be able to go through it and understand what’s what and how to deal with it.

This may mean uploading to Dropbox/Google Drive or whatever your preferred cloud storage system of choice is and making sure that it’s all laid out in a logical way. Rename files, date things, get everything in order and don’t leave any room for ambiguity.

Find an Expert

When I don’t know how to do something and I don’t have the time to learn it, it just makes sense to go and find someone that does. People Per Hour makes it extremely easy to do exactly that. All you need to do is to put out a request or (my preferred way) go out there and scour through profiles to see who you trust to carry out the task on your behalf.

When the task involves the creation of something which is high stakes, and has a tight deadline along with it, I understand that it can be difficult to put your trust in a stranger to get something complete to a degree that you’re happy with, but you’re going to have to let some things go if you’re ever going to progress. You can’t be the one doing all the work ALL the time.

Be Prepared to Pay for the Convenience

When you’re paying for someone to fulfil a service for you, pay them what they deserve. When it comes to something like this, where there’s an inflexible time limitation in place, you’re probably going to have to pay a little more to ensure that the person is going to prioritise the work and get it back to you in a timescale that you’re happy with.

Remember that you’re only going to get one chance at this, so you have to get it right. You most likely won’t have the time to get the work redone if you’re not happy with it, so you can’t scrimp on price with this. Pay it’s worth to you, and the headache it’s avoiding if you weren’t able to get the work done on time.

As ever, People Per Hour is my go-to for outsourcing. Click here to claim £30 of work.