10 Tips on How to Keep Motivated as a Marketing Freelancer
Freelancing can be challenging, and you often feel unmotivated some days. But keep on following these ten tips to always stay motivated as a freelancer.
Freelancers are their own bosses. They set their own schedule, find prospective leads, build their own digital brand and do so much more to incline up their career graph.
In short, freelancers are busy people struggling to thrive between loads of uncertainties, including unstable monthly income, fleeting clients, etc.
All this work pressure can easily exhaust freelancers and derail their passion level. And that's a warning sign to immediately take action!
That's because motivation is the fuel that drives a self-employed person to wake up every morning and work better than yesterday. Even science has proven that motivation helps a person to move forward and do something rather than sit ideally.
It is found that motivated people have high dopamine, a chemical released by nerve cells. This chemical motivates you to start working rather than staring at your blank computer screen.
The good thing here is that dopamine isn't a genetic thing. By bringing discipline and positivity into your life, you can easily produce dopamine in your body and welcome sheer motivation in your life.
Today, if you are losing your passion and every day working as a freelancer seems like climbing Mt. Everest, take a calming breath and follow these 10 easy tips to have a progressive freelancer journey.
10 Quick Tips to Motivate Freelancers
Working outside the office can benefit people who prefer a flexible work environment or have some health issues. But freelancing also triggers stress that can impact mental health, such as lack of career trajectory, financial instability, and, importantly, isolation.
However, motivation is the best pill here that can help you grow and be productive. So, let's see how you can keep yourself motivated as a freelancer:
Tip #1. Set Small Objectives
Every freelancer or self-employed person wants to make good money, build an elite clientele and establish a trustworthy online brand. But that's not a day or week job. You have to work hard for months to achieve your goals.
The problem here is that not every freelancer has the patience to wait for months to achieve their goals. People get frustrated after a month or two and return to their 9-5 jobs.
Now, that happened because people set high goals in the beginning. They simply read things like the global freelance market will grow at a CAGR of 15.3% during 2021-2026. And dive into the market space without understanding competition, professional streams, and other factors.
Thus, the best solution here is to set small and realistic goals in the beginning. For example, target to acquire just one client in the first month, two more in next month and gradually increase the number.
Source
This way, when you quickly meet your short-term goals, it will motivate you to work harder and achieve your long-term goals. So, to keep your freelance journey smooth, define multiple small objectives to reach the big one.
Tip #2. Get Out of Your PJs
A cliched freelancer image is a person slacking on a couch wearing polka-dot PJs with no care in the world. But you should change into something more formal than PJs to preserve your productivity and motivation.
That's because when you wear PJs, your brain will still remain in sleep mode, and you will not feel energetic to work. Therefore, always take a shower and change into comfortable casual clothes before starting your day.
Tip #3. Set a Routine
Freelancing is indeed a flexible work approach. But you still have to set a routine if you want to get things done.
Usually, freelancers have the freedom to set their own routine like when to wake up, start work and take a break. However, if you want to set a highly productive routine, follow these suggestions:
Source
- Wake up early: Not everyone is a morning person, but if you start your day early, you can be more productive, according to Harvard Biologist Christoph Randler.
- Take up at least 6 hours of sleep: Freelancers often burn themselves out so much that it starts to impact their analytical thinking capabilities due to lack of sleep. Therefore, make sure to get at least 6-8 hours of sleep daily to keep your mind alert.
- Set your daily schedule: You should divide your work smartly based on your deadlines. Don't overdo one day, and try to break your tasks into smaller chunks so you can accomplish them on subsequent days.
Tip #4. Improve Your Cognitive Skills
Freelancers have to interact with clients, crack deals, and improve their revenue while upscaling their skills. Therefore, it is important for freelancers to think like entrepreneurs to grow their careers.
There are many ways to improve your cognitive skills, like reading self-help books, listening to business coaches' podcasts, and solving puzzles. One second, puzzles?
Yep, not many people know that, but playing puzzle games can help you better strategize and organize things. You will harness skills to manage your resources better and create a winning strategy to scale up your growth by solving puzzles.
Tip #5. Stop Procrastinating
Do you have a habit of waiting till the 11th hour to complete any task? Then, you have to change that habit to become a successful freelancer. That's because you don't have a boss or project manager over your head to remind you to complete the project on time.
You are here, your own boss. So, you have to plan the project in a manner that you will get sufficient time to revise it before submitting it to the client.
Suppose you are a freelance blogger and you have to write a 2,000 word blog for a client within two days. Here you should not wait till the day of submission to write your blog; in fact, you should divide your work like this:
Day 1: Do research on the topic and create a structure for the blog.
Day 2: Write down the blog. Take a small break and edit it with a fresh mind before submitting it to the client.
When you don't delay your work till the last hour, you won't feel panicked and unmotivated to do the task.
Tip #6. Take Frequent Breaks
Breaks are vital to staying productive and motivated all day long. By taking breaks, I don't mean checking social media accounts or scrolling through online shopping websites. No, a break means break.
Just close your eyes for a moment and keep your gadgets out of your reach. Try to relax your mind and gather your thoughts before resuming your work.
Every freelancer has different ways to take breaks, but one of my favorite and tested break-taking methods is Pomodoro. This technique prepares you for a long race.
Under the Pomodoro technique, it is advocated to take a 5-minute break after every 25 minutes. Once you complete four sessions of a 5 minutes break, you should take a bigger break for 15 minutes. When this technique is implemented properly, it can improve your concentration level dramatically.
Tip #7. Turn off Notifications
The ping of email or app notifications, while you are engrossed in your work, can easily break your concentration level. In fact, you will waste your 20 minutes every time you stop your work to check emails.
According to a University of California-Irvine study, multitasking is a myth. Every time you shift your work momentum, your brain takes 20 minutes to concentrate again.
Therefore, while working, turn off your mobile and email notifications. I know emails are the preferred source for freelancers to communicate with their clients, but keep your notifications off to get things done quickly.
However, you can tell your clients that you respond to emails within certain hours. Trust me; I follow this rule, and clients understand it; in fact, they appreciate my self-discipline.
Tip #8. Set an End Time
Freelancers might not have strict working hours like employees. But you should still set a time when you stop working every day.
No matter how urgent tasks your client brings to the table after your closing time, don't accept. If you want to work tomorrow with a fresh mindset, you have to stop working today at a reasonable time.
Tip #9. Focus on Your Health
No matter how cliche that sounds, your health is always your wealth, especially for freelancers because we don't get sick leaves like regular workers. Freelancers only get paid when they work.
So if you don't want to lose your income, pay attention to your health. Here are a few things that you should religiously follow to have good health:
- Exercise daily
- Eat healthy food
- Go out and socialize with your friends
- Do meditation to improve your concentration level
- Switch off your phone once in a while to detox your mind, etc.
Tip #10. Treat Yourself
Besides your health, your mood plays a significant role in your motivation. Plus, you work hard every day, so you deserve a treat to make yourself happy and productive. Even a study showed that happy people are 31% more productive.
So if you have been feeling low lately, you should treat yourself and uplift your mood. Here I am not implying that you go and spend $100 on shopping.
If you want to have a cheat day and spend all your day playing different classic games online, then do it. If you simply want to sit on your balcony and enjoy your tea, who is stopping you?
Find your bliss in small things to always stay happy and productive.
Best Tip for Freelancers to Always Stay Motivated
All the above-discussed tips are vital for freelancers to stay motivated during all the ups and downs. But if you are asking for one tip that freelancers should always follow, it is to be passionate.
You always have to feel passionate about your freelance journey. If you start to feel bored or monotonous being a freelancer, you have to take a break and remind yourself why you became a freelancer in the first place.
That's because if you enjoy your freelance life and find thrill in all the uncertainties, you won't ever feel unmotivated.
So, whenever you would like to give up, ignite your inner passion, and everything will automatically workaround.
That's it for now, freelancers! But don't forget to share what the secret is behind your constant motivation and success with me?