The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: How to Train Your Motivation and Manage Your Energy
So, you’ve made the grand decision of ditching your 9-to-5 and starting your solopreneur/freelancing journey.
Congratulations! It’s a decision that takes courage and a bit of a daring spirit.
As a solopreneur myself, I love the challenge and freedom, but I also know it’s not an easy path. If you don’t have the self-discipline needed to keep up with deadlines and stay on top of tasks, it’s easy to put yourself in a state of heightened anxiety and burnout.
Also, you’ll be fighting the sweet call of procrastination and dealing with the loneliness that accompanies the journey of a solopreneur. These are not easy to overcome and never completely go away.
But I’m not here to rain on your parade. I truly believe that many people can take the solopreneur journey and be successful at it. And I’m not talking just about content creators and influencers. There are other career paths that can lead to entrepreneurship.
Therefore, in celebration of your new-found freedom (or maybe it’s an old struggle), today, I want to talk about how motivation training works and how to manage your energy so you don’t waste your precious time.
I’ve been using the tips and methods mentioned below for about a year now, so I know they work for me.
Let’s Talk About Motivation
Most of us (myself included, at some point) treat motivation like it’s some kind of magic — only a few chosen ones have it, and even fewer ones know how to use it.
In reality, anyone can learn to harness the power of their motivation.
The trick is to understand what drives you and find those activities that fill your tank with fresh resources.
What is Motivation?
In plain terms, motivation stems from the desire to take action, set goals, and pursue them. It’s the force that makes you get out of bed feeling energized, thinking about the things you’ll be doing during the day.
Every human being has something that motivates them to do things. Whether you’re a parent and your motivation comes from seeing your kids grow, or you’re in love with traveling, and your motivation is driven by the desire to visit every country on the planet.
Science says that motivation can be intrinsic (an internal drive stimulated by personal interests and values) or extrinsic (you’re motivated by an external reward).
Intrinsic motivation is thought to be the more powerful one because its source comes from enjoyment — you like the activity, so you’re motivated to keep doing it.
However, this doesn’t mean extrinsic motivation is no good. After all, most people go to work and push hard in exchange for financial rewards. We also go to events we may not fully enjoy just to get social recognition and make new connections.
Plus, studies show that intrinsic motivation tends to run out pretty quickly. When this happens, you need to tap into other sources to keep going. And this is where the idea of motivation training comes in.
Training Your Motivation
Motivation is not some mystical power bestowed upon us by the gods of productivity. With a bit of determination and discipline, you can train it like a muscle. The more you use it, the more you’ll have in your tank.
This involves developing good habits, a growth-oriented mindset, and practices that sustain and enhance your drive to achieve goals.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Find the Value(s) Behind the Motivation
What’s your why?
What makes you get out of bed in the morning and think, “Yay, another day for me to move forward toward my goal(s)!”?
In order to feel motivated and ready for action, who you are inside (your values, thoughts, and beliefs) must align with what you’re doing.
In all fairness, this means you’ll have to dig deep and reflect upon your reasons, goals, and values.
Why do you put effort into your solopreneurship/freelancing business every day?
The obvious answer is “To make money and live a decent life, unencumbered by the limits of regular employment.”
However, if you dig a bit deeper, you may find that your main reason stems from a desire to meet interesting people in your niche and work on creative projects. You may discover that you like a certain aspect of your current work, which may lead you to a different professional path.
When you take the time to really think about why you do what you do, the answers will surprise you.
You may even learn that you’re not that passionate about your current line of work. In this case, you should take the necessary steps to make changes.
This is the beauty of being your own boss — you are the one who decides your path!
2. Turn it into a Game
Finding who you are and identifying your main drivers is nice and all, but what do you do with the tasks that just don’t do it for you?
You could delegate them, but this is not always the case (especially if you’re just starting your freelancing journey).
So, when you have to suck it up and do it, how do you find the motivation?
I’m terrible at this. If I don’t like a task or I find it difficult to understand, my brain takes a break. It’s gotten so bad that I don’t even realize when I’ve switched to Cats of YouTube.
However, when I turn it into a game, it’s a lot easier to switch the focus from how much I dislike the task to reaching the end. The great thing is that you can make it everything you want.
I like to pretend I’m doing a quest that must be completed in under 30 minutes (I use a timer for this). If I don’t finish in the allotted timespan, I lose all my progress, and I have to start over (which I absolutely hate).
3. Set Clear Goals
It took me a while to understand the power of clearly defined goals and how to use them for motivation boosting.
But now I know that if I want something to happen, I need to apply the SMART principles for goal setting.
Let me give you an example:
Let’s say you want to lose weight (since January and New Year’s resolutions are only a few days away).
Here are 2 goals for the same purpose:
- Goal #1: I want to lose 10 pounds in 3 months. I’ll do so by tracking my calorie intake to make sure I don’t go over 1800 cal/day, and I’ll go to the gym or exercise at home 3 times per week. I’ll combine weight training, cardio, HIIT, and stretches to keep things interesting.
- Goal #2: This year, I want to lose weight.
Now, which goal do you think is more likely to produce the expected results?
If you go with goal #2 you’ll most likely forget about it by January 5th. On the other hand, if you take the goal #1 route and plan your workout and nutrition, you’ll most likely be shedding off pounds by the time March comes.
How to Manage Your Energy
We all have those days — you have a pile/mountain of things to do, but all you want to do is go back to your cozy bed. You’re sleepy, can’t focus, and even though you’re at your 3rd cup of coffee, nothing changes.
So, what happens here?
Your energy ebbs and flows like a tide during the day. These fluctuations are natural and respond to your circadian rhythm.
For instance, if you are a morning person, you may feel energized in the morning and low-energy around noon (usually after lunch). You should get a second peak in the afternoon, and by the evening, you should feel sleepy and ready for bed.
Night owls, on the other hand, take longer to gather their energy in the morning but will feel more energetic during the afternoon and evening.
Now, keep in mind that my explanation is extremely simplified. If you want to learn more about your energy levels and how they work, I recommend well-researched sources like health.com or WebMD.
For now, there are only two things you need to know:
1. You can use these fluctuations to your advantage
Energy levels follow a predictable pattern throughout the day. This means that most of us have at least two high-energy time windows each day. If you know when they occur and how long each peak lasts, you can design your schedule to fit your energy.
To get an idea of your own energy fluctuations, observe your behavior for a week or two. Make sure this is not a time of high stress or changes since these will change how your body responds.
I recommend making notes in a journal or Google Sheet document (this way, you’ll have accurate and concrete data to work on). At the end of your observation period, check the data and look for patterns. You should be able to identify when your energy peaks and when you are low-energy during the day.
Once you know your patterns, design your schedule accordingly.
For instance, place difficult tasks that you tend to struggle with during high-energy times. It’s way easier to tackle them when your tank is full.
For the times when your energy is low, it’s best to work on tasks you like and feel motivated by. It can be anything from organizing your desk to writing in your journal.
Just make sure it’s not an energy-draining activity, like scrolling social media or binge-watching a streaming service. These may look like something you do when you want to recharge, but in reality, they’ll suck every last drop of energy left in your tank.
2. You can boost your energy levels
Even if energy fluctuates naturally during the day, this doesn’t mean you have no say in it. In fact, there are ways to get more high-energy time in your day.
First, take a look at your sleep routine.
Do you go to bed at 10 in the evening and spend 2+ hours on your phone until you fall asleep? Is your TV running in the background for the first half of the night? Do you tend to wake up often during the night?
If any of the above (or all of them) are true, you don’t have a proper sleep routine. This means you don’t get enough rest, which keeps you low-energy during the day (also irritable and less friendly).
Therefore, the first step to take in improving your energy levels is to fix your sleep habits.
Exercise and healthy nutrition also help. Exercise pumps more energy into your tank, and adequate nutrition (rich in protein, fibers, and plant-based foods) helps regulate blood sugar levels.
Lastly, it helps to get some sun exposure early in the day and after lunch. So, a quick walk around the block after waking up and after lunch is a great idea.
What I’ve Learned About Motivation & Energy Management
- There’s no one-size-fits-all solution — you have to find what works for you.
- Motivation and energy management are skills you can train and sharpen.
- There will be times when nothing works. When this happens, take a break.
