Going it alone as a freelancer is an excellent feeling… until the work seems to dry up or get repetitive. Staying motivated as a freelancer is crucial for your small business success – but it might probably take a little bit of tough love and discipline to maintain going!
Use these strategies to remain motivated and keep pushing your small business forward, even if you’re in a little bit of a slump. You’ll feel productive even on days without client work AND you’ll get out of the doldrums, too!
Join a Virtual Networking Group
Probably the most effective ways to search out work is thru your network. It doesn’t matter should you’ve been freelancing for years otherwise you’re just starting out! Finding an industry group to affix will make a difference to your work.
Not only will you earn referrals and listen to of job opportunities through your group, but you’ll profit from ‘shop talk’ with a big selection of individuals. Freelancers aren’t as competitive with one another as you could initially imagine. The truth is, they’re a supportive group of people that champion others who’ve taken the freelance leap!
Search for Slack communities, Facebook groups, or LinkedIn groups to begin with. Have a look at your local Chamber of Commerce to search out out what they’re doing by way of virtual meetings. They’re an awesome option to meet other local business people AND promote your work without being too salesy.
Some groups run webinars, others like a Zoom meeting. Some are continuous chat channels like Slack, that you may dip out and in of depending on how much time you’ve got. Keep regular contact and answer questions in addition to asking them. Giving back to the community makes others more receptive to helping you out, too.
Diarise Your Day
Even in case your books are bare and there’s no work coming in, spend time planning your day or week in a diary. Stick with your appointments!
Block out times for research, cold pitching, or training webinars. Use the time you’ve got spare to learn more about your industry or the right way to run your small business. These skills come in useful afterward, so all of it counts as business-related activity even should you feel it’s not earning you money right this moment.
Whenever you’ve got a variety of clients in your plate and also you’re juggling tasks, a diary plan helps to interrupt your workload into manageable chunks. Set out blocks of time – say every 60 minutes – and write a schedule in your work. Include time for social media and emails, too! Often, block-checking emails then ignoring them for an hour or two is an awesome option to improve focus and productivity.
Set Goals
As a part of your diary planning, or a bigger project, make an inventory of goals. These might be short-term business goals for the week or month, or longer goals comparable to what you desire to achieve by the top of your first 12 months freelancing.
Having something to concentrate on and work towards keeps you focused on work and reminds you why you went freelance in the primary place. When work is slow, these goals assist you resolve what you might want to do next to get where you desire to be – comparable to taking extra training courses or increasing the variety of cold pitches you do each week.
Change Your Workspace
The world is now working from home, it feels – but many have the luxurious of returning to an office in the event that they wish. Working as a freelancer at home means you possibly can go a little bit la-la from watching the identical 4 partitions.
In case you’re stuck in a rut, change your workspace. This might mean any variety of things: rearrange the furniture in your private home office, or move from the sofa to the kitchen table. Perhaps you possibly can take your laptop to the local park for a day of labor within the sunshine, or perhaps you possibly can visit a friend to work together at their place.
Regular freelancers who don’t have a house office, or just like the differentiation of labor/home space, find co-working spaces revive their motivation. You get the advantages of going to an office, but for your individual business. Search for local workspaces in your area – you possibly can often rent a hotdesk space by the day or week, and a few offer free trials to get you began.
Exercise Every day
There’ll be days if you feel such as you’re too busy to get some exercise, and other days when your motivation for doing anything except watch Netflix is nil. Don’t let it get to you!
Take time for at the least quarter-hour of exercise – even on the times you don’t feel prefer it. Not only does it get you away out of your desk/bed/sofa, but exercise also stimulates mental ability and might assist you find inspiration. It also staves off depression – and is something you possibly can do with a friend, to spice up your social interactions, too.
Try the NHS quick workouts, pop to the gym to lift some weights, or get out for a brisk walk across the block. Alternatively, start your day with a yoga routine to feel invigorated, or arrange to satisfy a friend for some tennis or a kickabout within the evening after work.
Exercise doesn’t should cost you a penny, nevertheless it’s essential for keeping you motivated as a freelancer. It helps you discover mental clarity, boosts your health so that you’re not liable to taking (unpaid) sick days, and helps relieve strains from poor posture sat at a desk all day.
Get Dressed
Your pyjamas could be the comfiest clothes you own – nevertheless it’s not going to place you in a piece frame of mind!
Day-after-day, rise up and dress. Even should you’re changing from ‘sleeping PJs’ into what’s officially referred to as ‘lounge wear’, that act of getting become something different helps change your mindset into work mode.
Some people find the straightforward act of putting shoes on is all it takes to offer them confidence for that all-important client call! It may possibly assist you feel such as you’re knowledgeable on the office (which you’re, just at home), and resets your pondering right into a business-like attitude.
At the top of the working day, change back into your PJs! This helps signify the top of your work time and begin of your wind down night time.
Make an Appointment Every Day
Treat your working week as should you’re going to the office. Even should you’re a part-time freelancer, use your working days as efficiently as possible.
Avoid losing focus by ensuring each work day has at the least one appointment in it. This could be calling a possible latest client, catching up with an existing one, or attending a training webinar. Just pick something that forces you to get your small business head on!
It’s also a great way of constructing sure you’re moving towards the goals you set. An appointment doesn’t should be with a client or potential customer. It may possibly be an appointment with yourself! Promise yourself you’ll spend one hour reading a few topic, or that you just’ll spend two hours developing your small business plan. It puts your small business on the forefront of your every day routine – and helps you stay motivated as a freelancer.
Take Regular Breaks
On the flip side, don’t stuff your day with back-to-back calls should you can avoid it! The chances are, you selected freelancing to get away from the 9-5 grind and find a versatile way of working that suits you.
The difficulty with that – plus the knowledge that you just’re chargeable for every penny that goes into (or out of) your pocket – it it’s easy to get carried away. You’ll realise you’ve been sat in the identical position for hours on end, attempting to finish your latest project or sending off ‘just yet another pitch’.
Set a timer in your phone to go off every hour. Stand up, stretch, make a cup of tea. Spend at the least five minutes away from screens in each hour and revive yourself! Take a lunch break, too. Going full force all day long is the guaranteed path to burnout – and no freelancer stayed motivated when that happens!
Use Apps to Improve Your Focus
Sometimes, you possibly can do every little thing right and yet still find it hard to remain motivated as a freelancer. The world in 2020 is a very big challenge: there are various, MANY distractions happening around us and it’s easy to get sucked right into a mental wormhole about all of it.
In case you struggle to remain focused in your work in the course of the day, think about using apps to assist. For instance, should you know that social media drains your time AND energy, use a blocking app in your computer. Apps like AppBlock allow you to set the times you’re – and aren’t – allowed to access other apps in your phone or desktop.
It signifies that, even should you’re tempted to envision Facebook as a substitute of write that proposal, you physically can’t! You’ll be able to go one step further with similar apps for things like writing, too: Cold Turkey Writer blocks EVERYTHING until you reach a set goal!
Many freelancers struggle with their focus overall. Staying motivated as a freelancer involves a capability to chop out the distractions – which are sometimes brought on by a busy mind and that results in a scarcity of sleep! Try apps like Flipd or Calm to assist you learn techniques for coping with a busy head. Meditation strategies and even the sound of a crackling fire to lull you to sleep at night can all assist you manage your mental focus.
Arrange Social Engagements
Don’t forget to have a life, too! Staying motivated as a freelancer is nigh on unimaginable should you’re all work and no play. It’s really easy to maintain cancelling plans because you desire to work in your next pitch, otherwise you’ve got client work you really need to get finished (even when the deadline isn’t until later within the week).
Taking time for yourself to have social interaction is significant to maintaining your motivation during your working day. Set time aside to spend time along with your family, and ensure you have got at the least one full time without work every week to do things with your mates, family, and even just a few ‘me-time’ that’s away out of your desk.
Social interaction is vital in your mental health and maintaining your relationships. Nevertheless, it might probably also boost your enthusiasm in your freelance work. Taking time away out of your computer to do something entirely different gives your brain time to percolate ideas within the background. You’ll return to work revived! Going out to do things, like taking a walk along with your family or watching a movie with friends, also brings inspiration from other places that you may introduce to your work.
More Freelance Suggestions
With so many redundancies, reduced hours, and other people realising there’s never a ‘perfect’ time to launch their freelance dream, more people than ever are turning to freelance work. That’s why we’ve put together a complete bunch of useful articles about freelancing to assist you start!