Freelancing is a great way of setting your own rules. You can get up when you want, work when you want. If you want to go out somewhere in the middle of the day, you can do it. If you work best through the night, then freelancing offers the flexibility for you to set your schedule to suit you.
You’re not held to an employer when you are freelancing. That means you are not obliged to just do what they want you to. While you will have expectations from all of your clients, at the end of the day, you do not have to continue getting work with them if it is not working out for you.
But along with all of the freedom that comes with being a freelancer, there are some issues which if left unmanaged can affect you in a profound way. We’re going to discuss some of these in this article, and how you can overcome them to maintain your productivity.
Handling The Loneliness Of Working For Yourself
One of the biggest areas that can affect freelancers is loneliness. You may have previously worked in a job where you were around other employees all of the time, or you’d be meeting customers and clients face-to-face. But in a work from home job, you may be on your own for prolonged periods of time.
Loneliness can have an impact on your mental health. Without human contact, you can start to feel a bit isolated and this, in turn, may well affect your motivation causing you to not push yourself in your work.
One solution to this problem is to find a coworking space. Hotdesking and communal offices offer a chance to work alongside other creative professionals who may all be in similar situations. You get the advantage of the human contact that you need in your life, but there may be networking opportunities for other freelancers.
Managing Your Workload Effectively
Freelancing can mean that your workload can be sporadic at times. One day you may have too much work on and you will feel under pressure to meet your deadlines, and then on another day, you may struggle with no work.
Working under pressure with a great deal of stress on top of you it is important to remember to take breaks. Go out for a walk to help break the workload up and help to refocus.
Keeping yourself motivated on the days where there is a lack of work can be hard too. It is important that you don’t see these days as an opportunity to kickback. Use them for doing some admin such as doing the finances or scouting out some potential leads for future work.
On these days it may be possible to knock off early and kick-back and relax, however, you should try and imagine that your job is still a 9-5, and that means trying to keep a set pattern of working hours so that your life does not get swamped with your work.
