Life as a freelancer
has its fair share of challenges. One being that you are your own boss and thus
must wake up and work under pressure from within. No boss to give you instructions
and no work colleague to motivate you. To be honest, we rarely have written set
targets and this is mainly because it’s our ghost clients who set our work
timelines. Some times you will have a project that has a 4-days period another
4 hours or so. The worse thing is that we have freedom to accept to deny any
project- so you are never under pressure, not unless you have pressing bills to
pay. But that is not even the challenge - we all have those days we wake
feeling low and disoriented.
I remember days I wake
up with completely no nerve for working in me. I get to facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Google + and so on, particularly looking for nothing.
I cross over to my
living room to tease my girlfriend, pitch my daughter’s nose and such other
silly things just because I don’t feel like doing anything productive. There
were times this was eating up a lot of my time, until I decided to research and
understand ways of getting myself back to work moods. Below are a few suggestions
which have been of great help to me:
1.
Start with
the small things- In one of the most inspiring speeches of our time made by
Admiral William McRaven, he says that if you want to succeed in life, start by
making your bed(sic). How significant is making your bed? Well, that is the
basis of starting with the small things- one completed task inspires you to
start another and another and another, and before you know it, you have done everything
you had to. How about if you started your day with making a cup of coffee or
tea for yourself? Clearing your sink or even moping your room- as little as it
may sound, it will put you in moods to work
2.
Tell
yourself you are working – another simple thing. Isn’t it? Place your hands on
your keyboard and tell yourself that you are working. Say it loud if you can
and copy the force yourself to write the first sentence of your long essay.
This will send a precise signal to your mind that you have to get this one task
done
3.
Promise
yourself a break- we all love feeling good, relaxing and doing the things that
put least pressure on ourselves. So, how about if you told yourself that you
will have some quality time after finishing the task at hand? Definitely, your
mind will shift focus to the feel-good moment ahead and find it easy to
concentrate and finish the task at hand soonest possible
4.
Put
yourself into the right moods- productivity as so much to do with what is going
on in our subconscious mind. If you feel low and disoriented this is all coming
from thoughts running in your sub conscious mind. Put yourself to mood by
putting on some smooth music that will help you let go and reconnect with the
high you.
5.
Use a timer-
we are all conditioned to work hard when we feel under pressure. Get your timer
and set time for yourself, watch the clock tick and you will feel come excitement
in you and urge to race against time- this will be a wonderful starter
Declaimer: we all have different personalities – and what works for you
might not work for me. So be true to yourself. You can start by trying one or a
combination of these techniques, but the most important thing is understand
yourself and what turns you on!
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