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How to Stay Motivated While Working Remotely/Freelancing?

By Sandra Larson 4,396 February 8, 2020

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How to Stay Motivated While Freelancing

Freelancing allows you to manage your load and schedule the way you want it. It sounds like a dream job, right? It certainly does, but there are also a few drawbacks that are often overlooked.

Every freelance developer faces certain issues from time to time, and the biggest struggle of being your own boss is keeping a high level of motivation.

Motivation plays a crucial role in the workplace, regardless if you have a remote or a regular desk job. However, the lack of it feels more critical when there is no angry boss by your side who would stimulate you to keep working. When you work from home, you are the one responsible for staying motivated and, in this article, you will learn some effective ways to keep your motivation up!

Top Effective Ways To Stay Motivated While Working Remotely

There is no need to sugarcoat it – work from home motivation can be pretty hard to reach and maintain. It takes a strong will to avoid distractions and motivate yourself to work in the comfort of your home. However, if you know some effective motivational techniques, it can get a bit easier and will eventually turn into a pattern.

Want to know how to stay motivated while being a freelance developer? Here are some of the best tips to keep in mind:

Don’t sleep in

One of the biggest mistakes made by people who have just switched to freelance is a complete absence of a daily schedule. Of course, when you shift from a desk job with a strict schedule, it can be tempting to get rid of that annoying alarm and sleep until noon every day. However, that’s not a good idea. Thus, the first advice is to wake up early! It can be hard to get up early when you don’t have to go to an office. However, if you can make it a habit, it will be rewarded!

In fact, waking up early is a habit of highly productive and successful people. When you wake up earlier, you feel better, and you get a head start on your day, which keeps you more productive.

Get into a consistent routine

Being a freelancer most certainly means having more freedom. But it doesn’t mean that you can refuse from having a schedule. On the contrary, building a specific schedule is even more important when you work from home because otherwise, you can find yourself being too lazy and unmotivated to work.

Having a set daily routine is helpful in many ways. First and foremost, it keeps you organized and boosts your time-management abilities. Besides, it is a great way to stay motivated. When you develop a specific set of daily rituals that you do before, and after work, this will help you switch in the “work mode” easily no matter where you are. It will keep you going every day and boost your overall productivity. Therefore, don’t make any excuses and start being consistent in your routine if you don’t want to start looking for an office job any time soon!

Don’t work where you sleep and always dress up

Co-working

This tip may sound quite odd since if you work from home, you don’t really have to dress up for it. However, it is pretty effective when it comes to reviving motivation.

As a rule, when you think of remote developer jobs, you imagine a person who is wearing a cozy pajama, sitting in a bed, drinking coffee, and enjoying the workflow. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work that way. If you choose this approach, you will feel remain in a relaxed state the whole day, which will have a negative impact on your productivity.

Therefore, no matter if you are a remote developer, blogger, or a freelance writer looking to stay motivated while working from home, do never work where you sleep and make it a habit to dress up for work. These tips will help you create a more professional atmosphere and get into the right mood for work.

Take breaks

Some people believe that pushing themselves to the limits and powering through the day without a single break shows their professionalism and keeps them going. However, it actually has the opposite effect. When you refuse to take breaks, you push your brain to work overtime, which decreases your ability to work effectively.

When you allow yourself to take short breaks from work every once in a while, you let your brain rest and revive energy. Sometimes, it is enough to distract for five minutes to bring back your motivation and inspiration.

Finally, needless to say, that your eyes also need rest from constant staring at a screen. This is just another reason that proves the importance of taking breaks.

Keep your working space neat and clean

If you have ever wondered how your desk and workspace influence your productivity, the answer is – more than you could ever think!

Even if you haven’t realized it yet, mess and lack of organization in your space can kill your productivity and motivation. Therefore, you should ensure that you organize your desk well and keep all the tools you need right by your side. Also, don’t forget to keep it clean and uncluttered.

Finally, since we are talking about developers, in particular, we should make emphasize the fact that your computer’s desktop is also your working space. Cleaning up your desk and room is essential, but it is even more important to keep your main tool (computer) well-organized and clean. Therefore, if you don’t know where to start to revive your motivation, start with uncluttering your desktop and organizing all files in a logical and convenient manner.

Avoid distractions

Having to spend 100% of your workday at the computer, it can seem impossible to avoid all distractions. However, you should keep in mind that nothing kills your motivation more than a random switch to Instagram or Facebook right in the middle of the development process.

If you want to work remotely and succeed, you have to learn to concentrate on a specific task at hand! Therefore, you should eliminate or, at least, reduce the number of possible distractions. Some of the best ways to do this are to use special apps that block social media and other entertaining websites for a set period of time. Thus, if you think that your will isn’t strong enough to avoid logging on Facebook during the workday, be sure to use such apps to your benefit!

Another great idea is to put your phone on airplane mode. This way, all those dings, and bells won’t keep distracting you during the workflow.

Reward yourself

Do you know how managers and directors reward their employees for a good job with different bonuses? You can do the same to keep yourself motivated!

One of the best and freelancers’ all-time favorite motivational tricks is to set goals and reward themselves with something cool for achieving those goals.

For example, let’s say you have a small but not too exciting project to finish, but you just can’t get your hands on it due to lack of motivation. Then, tell yourself what you can get for finishing it. It can be pretty much anything from a day off to a nice purchase you’ve dreamt of. Such a system of rewards will boost your motivation and productivity for sure!

The Bottom Line

Despite all the perks of remote work, it is never as easy as it may seem from the first sight. Being a freelance developer means having the freedom to choose projects, manage your own schedule, and work from anywhere in the world. However, it also means being your own boss, with all that it implies.

Undertaking the role of your own boss is not a piece of cake. It means taking full responsibility. Of course, this allows you to grant yourself bonuses for a good job. But, sometimes, it requires to be somewhat harsh to yourself, especially at times when your motivation goes down.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to keep your motivation level high at all times. Hopefully, this article will help you with this. Use the tips from this post to stay motivated and keep up the good job, and you will reach the top!

Author’s Bio: This article was written by a professional software developer with years of experience – Sandra Larson. After getting tired of monotonous desk-job, Sandra decided to switch to freelance and was successfully managing multiple remote projects for many years in a row. Being a freelance developer herself, Sandra, like nobody else, knows how hard it can be to stay motivated and, in this article, she shares with us her most effective tricks to keep that motivation. One of Sandra’s current projects is the best Australian assignment help service FreeEssayWriter.