How do you handle having too much work to do? It’s the question no one wants to ask. As Holly Bowne wrote in her guest post about how she doubled her income, it’s like complaining about not being able to gain weight. While we all agree that having too much client work is a good problem to have, it’s still a challenge.

First of all: celebrate the milestone. Take yourself out to dinner. Splurge on a new outfit. At the very least, have a happy dance with your dogs in your kitchen. When you are in the “feast” phase of freelancing, it’s easy to just focus on your to-do list and all the things you have to get done in the next hour. Take the time to realize your hard work is paying off.

In many ways, how you handle this issue of having ‘too much’ work determines your future success. You have to constantly be moving forward in your business. If you just turn down work and keep going with your life, then your business stays in the same place. And, in many ways, your hard work to get to this point would be wasted if you did that. With a little strategy, you can use this milestone to move your business ahead even further. But first you have to figure out how to manage the heavy workload you’re facing.

Here are eight steps for managing when you have ‘too much’ work:

1. Ask yourself how you got to this point.

What was the key to landing all of the clients and work that you have now? Did you move into a niche that is higher paying? Did you go to a conference? Maybe you have been regularly contacting potential clients and agencies. Perhaps you finally got the clips and brands that prove that you have solid experience that helped turn the corner. By taking the time to figure out what worked, you can replicate in when you hit the famine part of freelancing, which always comes – no matter how experienced you are and no matter how long you’ve been doing this.

2. Figure out where you want your business to go next.

Find an hour where you can get away from work and the noise of life. Write down where you want your business to go next. Do you want to move into a new niche? Do you want to increase your income? Do you want the same income, but want to work less? It’s so easy to just keep working your tail off and never stop to ask yourself if you like the direction you are heading in.

3. Continue marketing.

Absolutely continue marketing. Yes, you can ease up a little and probably don’t need to be sending out 100 LOIs a month. But you should definitely be asking for referrals from current clients. For agencies, ask about other projects and if you’re working directly with a business, ask about needs in other departments.

But, when your workload is high, you may want to change the target of your marketing efforts based on your vision for your future. If you want to make more money or work less, then your goal should be to find higher paying clients. And if you want to work less and make the same, then you probably need to replace at least a handful of clients with higher paying ones. So while you previously had been targeting regional brands or small companies, you may now have the street cred to go after big companies that are a household name. And if you want to move into another niche, then you likely need to spend some time brainstorming new clients and send out LOIs to those folks.

4. Evaluate each new potential client to see if it moves your business where you want to go.

Don’t just say yes or no depending on how stressed you feel. Stop. Think about it. If the new opportunity doesn’t help advance your business, then go to tip #8 and refer the work to another writer. If the client work will help you get where you want to go next, then you need to figure out a way to make it work – so, continue on to steps 5, 6, and 7.

5. Try to turn the opportunity into work in the future when you have the time.

On occasion, I’ve referred out clients to other writers because, at the moment I got the offer, I was really swamped and overwhelmed. But then a few days or even weeks later, I realized I was suddenly light on paying work. So, when you’re busy and you get a new offer, consider asking the client whether you could handle the project in two weeks or even a little longer. Sometimes the answer is no, but sometimes it’s yes. You never know unless you ask. I recently had a new client contact me the day before I left for vacation, I asked if they could wait three weeks and they did. It looks like they are going to turn into about a $2K a month regular client, which is awesome. I was totally stressed when I got their email and the last thing I wanted was a new client at that moment, but after I decided to ask the client, they said I was the perfect person for the gig and that they would wait.

6. When you get a new client, let an existing client go – either a low payer or a big PITA.

The way you move up to a higher income level is by replacing your current clients with higher paying clients. But you’ll never hit your income goals if you turn down paying work because you are overbooked. If the new client is higher paying than at least some of your current clients, take the new client and drop a current client. Don’t just automatically drop the lowest paying client but consider both PITA level and your personal enjoyment of the project in addition to hourly rate.

7. Consider outsourcing tasks.

Before referring work out, look to see if you can find more time and increase your income by outsourcing certain tasks. Check out this post on things to outsource as well as examples of how the math works for me. When you outsource tasks, you pay someone else a lower hourly rate that you make, so you are able to use that time for billable work. Common examples include research, proofing, and transcription.

8. Refer work to other writers instead of turning it down.

Instead of turning down work flat out, you should refer it to other writers. It’s good karma and great networking. And once you start referring work out, odds are high that other writers will happily do the same for you. Check out this post on how to refer work to other writers and increase their chances of getting that gig. The Freelance Content Marketing Writer group on Facebook is a great place for finding writer friends for this as well.

What are your strategies for handling too much work?