How do you keep yourself disciplined when you are freelancing at home?
When you are freelancing at home you don’t have fixed hours and you don’t have anyone shouting at you when you aren’t working. In other words it’s really easy to slack off. So what can you do to keep yourself disciplined and focused? Here are 7 tips to help you to keep yourself disciplined.
I asked this question at stackoverflow to get some hints and tips how to do it. This post is a collection of – in my opinion – the best advice I got from my fellow programmers at stackoverflow and advice from my own experiences.
- The first and the most important one is have fixed hours when you’re working. Why I think this is the most important one is because you will have more energy if you get up early in the morning and start working. You will be more focused when you know that you start at a specific time and end a specific time. By having a normal day routine you will also benefit from feeling better. And when you feel better mentally you will perform so much better. Your body will thank you when you keep the same routine. Especially when it comes to eating and sleeping. It makes a big difference.
- Remove all distractions. Turn off your tv, close all tabs in your browser which has sites open like facebook, twitter, youtube etc. If you are living with someone else – headphones and music are a good way to cut out noises around you. This makes you more focused on what you are doing. You will get in “the zone” or “the flow” faster and it’s easier to stay there if you aren’t distracted.
- Before you start working, get inspired. Sit yourself infront of the computer in the morning, take your coffee, tea or whatever you drink in the morning with you. Go through your rss-feeds for 15 – 30 minutes and read about new technology and other stuff that makes you inspired. By doing this you will get more motivated to work.
- Allow yourself to have a proper lunch break. This is really important when you have a lot of things to do and you are really stressed. Even though you might think need to put down as many hours as you can, you won’t benefit from skipping a proper lunch break. The time you will gain, you will lose in productivity and effiency. You need this break mentally and psysically.
- Allow yourself to have 3-4 small breaks everyday. By small breaks I mean 5 – 10 minutes. This allows you to get up, stretch your legs and walk around a bit. This is really important when you sit infront of the computer for 8 hours a day. Otherwise you will get stiff in your neck, back and legs. Working with neck or back pains is a big motivaton killer. Don’t take any longer breaks than 10 minutes, because they will break your focus and flow. Days when you would rather do something else than work this is especially helpful. Even something this small will help you keep your motivation up.
- Get out from your home for lunch with friends from time to time. It’s really important to have a social life when you are working at home. Having lunch with a friend anywhere but home is really important for three reasons. The first one is to keep yourself from change environment and get away from work. The second one is because you will easily feel a bit isolated and this makes you feel depressed in the long run. Meeting a friend for lunch is a good method to break this pattern. The third one is that you will get some sunshine. Even though it might be minimal it helps you feeling more alert and happier.
- Never work more than 8 hours a day, unless you absolutely have to. This is really important because you need to have a life outside of work. You have to let yourself do other things. And when you have stopped working those 8 hours, try not to use your computer at all. Try to disconnect from work. By doing this you will be more motivated to work when you wake up in the morning and you have something to look forward to when you are having a rough day. I know I can get really fed up with computers in generall when I’ve spent 8 hours infront of one all week.
That’s the best advice I can give you. If you have some advice to keep yourself disciplined when freelancing I would love to hear it! Or maybe you think these 7 points could be improved or changed totally, feel free to comment.
I hope you found this helpful for your own freelancing career. I wish you the best of luck!
Richard
18 comments
Comment no. 1
[...] @Rene_Silva: Cu00f3mo become disciplined when you’re a freelancer working at home? [translated from spanish] http://bit.ly/17zEz2 [...]
Comment no. 2
[...] @coberturasms @Rene_Silva Cu00f3mo become disciplined when you’re a freelancer working at home? [translated from spanish] http://bit.ly/17zEz2 [...]
Comment no. 3
[...] @Rene_Silva: leyendo: How to become disciplined when you’re a freelancer working at home? [translated from spanish] http://bit.ly/17zEz2 [...]
Comment no. 4
4 of 7 of pretty good – anyway :)
I only would like to add that some people do not have more energy if they get up in the morning – nomatter what. If you are one of thoose people – like me – you only have to set the clock to a later time to get up and work your 8h and still have nice rytm.
I also would like to add workout. Just a silly 5 min workout or somting like that in some of your 3-4 breaks will do miracel to you brain. If you live so you can go out and do them – do it! The more oxegyn the better!
Btw Zed – nice writeing ;)
Comment no. 5
I have the same problem, but I am really trying to make an effort and get rid of the habit. I agree that you don’t have to, but I think people should definately try to.
Yes, the workout point is really good. I was contemplating whether to add that point or not. The more you take care of your body, the better you will feel and the better you will be able to perform when working.
Thank you, André! :)
Comment no. 6
Great! Is all that I need to be a better freelancing :)
Thank you Richard.
Comment no. 7
I’m glad to hear that you found the advice useful! :)
Thank you, Mili.
Comment no. 8
I’ve found working at a standing desk helps a lot. It takes some getting used to, but your legs and back don’t feel like crap at the end of the day.
Comment no. 9
I can imagine. I guess when you stand up you also have a better posture than when you’re sitting down. The ultimate desk would be one where you can raise and lower the desk.
Thanks for the comment, Phil!
Comment no. 10
I’ve done this for years. Yes, the key is “separation”. I’d add these two:
1. Separate room. No personal/home stuff goes into it. It’s only for work. Conversely, no work stuff comes out of it.
2. Separate phone # (if you even bother with one). DO NOT answer the home phone when you are ‘at work’. If your friends call the office phone, tell them you’re at work and cannot talk now. Again, do not answer the work phone when you’re ‘home’.
They key is a psychological line between work-mode and home-mode.
Comment no. 11
Hello Richard,
Thank you for these advices. I agree with all the points, but I think the point 6 it’s the most important to do.
Puru
Comment no. 12
Justin,
I think those are some good points. You will definately benifit from separating work from personal life. That’s why I think the last point is really important.
Thanks for some more good advice!
Comment no. 13
Puru,
I’m glad you liked them! :)
Thanks for the comment
Comment no. 14
Currently working in an open office I actually find many of your points still valid. Sitting and hacking all day makes your legs crazy, not going out for lunch means I stay inside all day, and over summer there isn’t a need for many meetings with external people. In other words, even non-freelancers get a good deal out of your recommendations!
Comment no. 15
Marcus, I’m really glad others than just freelancers can benefit from my recommendations! Btw, I read your article about your bachelor thesis. Impressive stuff! I’d like to see that implemented into eclipse ;)
Thank you!
Comment no. 16
I am working in a coop place where we had rock band and ping-pong and is very cool (ping-pong in my case) to have it to get small break along the day so I complete agree with you in this case.
Also I am working for a company which give me flexible time and it is cool but sometimes is so relaxed that makes me use normal work hours to do some other stuff, sometimes really needed sometimes don’t and don’t help me to bring focused at the time to put my ass on the chair and work, so I agree point 1 is very important.
While point 3 is absolutly true in the method don’t is very accourate in the time, I mean with 15~30 mins reading twitter, posts and news you couldn’t get the idea of what is happening, I guess today programmers collect more knowledge reading posts and following persons on twitter than programming, trying, experimenting, developing.
Very nice guide!
Comment no. 17
Alvaro,
nice working environment! Those are some things that you would definately benefit from using in your breaks. Getting away for a bit, doing something completely different, but not so long that you lose what you were doing.
Yes, sometimes you need more than 15-30 minutes to go through your frequently visited links and rss. Definitely agree with you on that point.
I’m glad you thought it was! Thank you for the comment Alvaro!