How to Thrive as a Freelancer Working From Home
Combat distractions and get organized.
So, youâre thinking of giving up the 9â5 grind and setting up as a freelancer? Itâs possible to earn a living from the comfort of your own home â provided youâre organized about it.
As a freelancer, I have the good fortune of being able to work from home. Lots of people dream about earning a living from the comfort of their own home. You can choose your own hours, you donât have a long commute to work, no moody colleagues, ⌠the list of advantages is almost endless â especially if youâre an introvert, like me.
But even if it feels like a veritable paradise at first, working from home can quickly degenerate into a nightmare if you donât approach it with the necessary discipline and self-management. In fact, a freelancer survey has shown that 62% of freelancers feel stressed, and 54% find it hard to stay productive at home.
We all know that time is money, but unfortunately, a lot of it gets lost in disorganization and disruption. Whatâs more, weâre faced with a constant barrage of technology, people, and tasks that can contribute to this disorganization. Many freelancers find that they rush from one task to the next, trying to get everything done. In the end, itâs not just your productivity that suffers but your mental health too.
So, to all of you out there who are considering earning your living by working from home, here are a few helpful tips to get you started.
The myth of no time constraints
Choosing your own working hours is as alluring in practice as it is in theory.
At last I can decide when to do what! Iâm free!
But you have to be clear on one thing: if you choose to do little or nothing, youâll earn little or nothing. Confronted with endless freedom, many people get stuck in a rut of procrastination. Iâll just finish watching the morning news, water the flowers, read the newspaper, walk the dog, do the laundry,âŚ
We often forget that unpleasant jobs still need to be done â even if nobody is breathing down our backs. Naturally, we all wish we could pick out the cherries when working from home, and ignore the rest. But we still need to write invoices, make phone calls, and deal with difficult clients.
Set yourself fixed working hours. And during those hours, get on with your work! Focus exclusively on tasks related to your professional work. These do not include housework, shopping, and chatting on social media. Personally, I prefer to deal with unpleasant tasks in the morning â then the day can only get better. Eat that frog.
Make time work for you
If youâre truly going to make a difference in your freelance life, you need to be prepared to make some changes. No one has ever laid on their deathbed and said, âGee, I wish Iâd spent more time at work!â. And itâs usually not your customers whoâll come and hold your hand in your dying moments!
Goals or targets also play an important role when it comes to managing your time. Before you can set goals, however, you need to be aware of what it is you want to achieve, and what resources in terms of time, money, and material you have at your disposal. Any targets also need to be tangible so you can start working towards achieving them. Many of us are full of ideas but never get round to making those ideas a reality. Sometimes we try something once and fail because we didnât think and plan ahead.
Itâs just like the lottery: you canât win if you donât buy a ticket.
The same is true in life. As soon as you stop trying, you lose all chance of succeeding. Make a deal with yourself that you will try to actively work on your goals every day.
Show some SPIRIT
When setting goals, the first step is knowing what exactly you want to achieve. Interestingly, the way we word our goals is the biggest factor in helping us achieve them. This is where the SPIRIT approach comes in:
S = Specific goals
Be specific about what it is you want to achieve (or what you want to prevent). The result should always be tangible and measurable. âBe successfulâ is way too broad. âIncreasing my rate by $10 an hourâ is specific.
P = Prizes as rewards
Reward yourself once you reach different milestones on the way to achieving the goal, especially if it is a long-term goal. If your goal is setting up a new home office in the spare room, for example, you might want to buy yourself a flash new desk once the room is cleared out and tidy. Or you opt for that glass of wine with your bestie. The choice is yours â whatever keeps you motivated.
I = Individual goals
The goal must be something that you really want to achieve. Say your partner wants you to earn more money but you think youâre doing just fine, youâre not going to be motivated to work towards that goal. It needs to come from yourself.
R = Review your progress
Review your progress periodically. Is the goal still realistic? Have you hit a stumbling block? Do you need to adjust certain aspects of your goal?
I = Inspiration
Formulate your goal in a positive way so itâs fun to achieve. It always helps when you have to do something that youâre actually looking forward to!
T = Time-limited goals
Set yourself a deadline by which you want to achieve the goal. Or even better, split the goal into several small parts and then set a deadline for achieving each item on the list.
Changing your perspective
Our days seem to be jam-packed with emails, voicemails, projects, deadlines, quotes to send out, and endless tasks and to-do lists. So is it any wonder that we find ourselves getting to the end of the week and wondering, âWow, where did the time go? I canât believe the week is over alreadyâ
These days, youâd be hard-pressed to find a person who hasnât read a book on time management or at the very least thought about how they could manage their time more efficiently. As weâre all different, thereâs no one-size-fits-all solution. We need to examine different tools before deciding which ones will work best in our own situation.
The simple truth is that we all have the capacity to rearrange some things and do other things differently. The result will be that we increase our personal efficiency and thus get more enjoyment out of life.
An office or a workplace in the home?
Once youâve decided to work from home, the first step is to be clear about where to set up your new workplace. Can you dedicate an entire room to the purpose? That would be ideal, of course. Or can you only spare a corner of the living room for your desk? Perhaps you even need to use the living room table itself as your desk?
Out of sight, out of mind, the saying goes. If youâre sitting in the lounge watching television in the evening, but the computer in the corner constantly reminds you of all the work you still need to do, youâll find it nearly impossible to switch off and wind down.
Working from home requires a certain amount of space. Do you really want to have to tidy everything off the dining table every time you eat a meal? A tidy house, a tidy mind â and the same applies to work from home.
If you canât dedicate an entire room to work purposes, create your own work corner. This should be distinctly separate from the rest of the room. If you canât separate it spatially, at least separate it visually. Make this your fixed workplace, the place where you get on with the job without interruptions. Wall decals can be really helpful in creating a separate work area.
The pyjama drama
Working from home â a dream come true! No more dressing up for the office, no need to wear make-up, no need to shave,⌠all of a sudden, so many constraints fly out the window! But take care â one day you might find yourself slouched in pyjamas in front of your computer and wondering what that strange smell could be. And then you realize â itâs you! When did you last have a shower?! And are these still the same clothes you put on on Tuesday?!
It might be very tempting to grab a coffee and shuffle from your bed to your desk â but donât get started down that road! Always wash, dress, and have breakfast before you switch on your computer.
Procrastination nation
When you receive inquiries by email, try to organize them immediately. If something will take more than 30 minutes to complete, put it in your calendar and prioritize the items youâve scheduled there. If the task will take less than 30 minutes to complete, try to get it done right away so that youâre not procrastinating over it or forget that it needs doing. Some customers appreciate a fast response. And a customer waiting for a quotation might not hang around and wait for yours if three colleagues dealt with his inquiry right away. If you use templates in Word or Excel, or in a project management software, creating quotations should only take a few minutes.
Another common time-sucker is doing things around the house when you should be working. Delegate! Donât waste your time doing things that somebody else can do. Save your time and energy for those things which you are uniquely qualified to do and that you have to get done a part of your job. There is nothing wrong with delegating things in order to ease up your workload. That doesnât make you lazy. You really donât have to wash those dishes when you should be working on your design project. Neither do you have to visit Auntie Jill in the hospital when you have an urgent deadline coming up. Your partner, friend, sister, or cousin will usually be more than happy to step in â you just need to ask them.
Friends and family â a quick cuppa
So here you are: youâve set up your workplace, fixed your working hours, and now youâre clean and dressed and sitting at your desk. Itâs time to begin! But then the doorbell rings. Standing at the door is a friend whoâs dropped in for a surprise visit, cake in hand: âI was in the neighborhood and I thought Iâd pop round for a cuppa. I never see you now that youâre sitting at home all day!â And another morning bites the dust.
As soon as people hear that you work from home, you become a magnet for everyone who just wants to kill time. Whenever these people arenât at work themselves, theyâll look for any little excuse to pop round and unburden themselves on you â and even get a free cup of tea or coffee into the bargain.
Unfortunately, the only remedy for this is to speak out clearly and tell them: âI canât spend time with you right now; I have to work.â And you have to say it before the person steps over the threshold. I know, it sounds tough. Thatâs because it is tough. But itâs also necessary. If you like the visitor in question, suggest an alternative time for chit-chat â in your leisure time. Good friends will understand.
Take heed of these tips to make working from home the paradise it ought to be and enjoy a productive, healthy freelance lifestyle.
