In many ways, freelance work is a dream gig. You get to make your own hours. You get to choose the projects you want. And, best of all, you get to earn your living doing what you love.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s all hearts and flowers always. Every silver lining has a cloud, after all, and when it comes to freelancing, sometimes that gray cloud can be the struggle to maintain your productivity when distractions arise and work stressors feel overwhelming.
The good news, though, is that it is possible to keep your creative mojo flowing and your freelance productivity humming across weeks, months, and years. This article describes five ways you can juice your productivity for a long, happy, and successful freelance career.
1. Create a Routine
When you’re looking to boost your freelance productivity, one of the first and most important things you can do is set yourself up for optimal performance. This means creating a work schedule that both accommodates your lifestyle and promotes productivity.
Establish specified hours of the day that will be dedicated to work and ensure that friends and family are aware of, and respect, your work routine. That means ensuring that, unless blood is being spilled, you accept no personal phone calls, no surprise guests, and no intrusion into your workspace by kids, spouses, pets, little green men, or the Publisher’s Clearing House folks during your business hours.
2. Set Yourself up for Success
True, you’ve got mad skills and natural talent, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a helping hand to meet your productivity goals. It’s just not possible to do your best work unless you have the best tools and the ideal work environment.
In other words, you need a dedicated writing space — one where the distractions are minimal and the inspiration is maximal. A home office with lots of natural light and a great view can be the ideal way to keep your creative juices flowing on even the most difficult of days.
But your workspace needs to be more than a place to which you can retreat and focus. It also needs to be outfitted with the essential freelance productivity tools that enable you to do your best work. At a minimum, this should include a suite of project management and task-tracking tools, such as Asana or Monday.
This will ensure not only that you’re steadily progressing toward your project goals, but also that you’re maintaining healthy and robust contact with clients and colleagues.
3. Enlist Outside Support
You may be a master of your craft, but that doesn’t mean you can do all and be all at all times. There are simply some tasks best left to the expert. And, if you want to be productive, then it’s critical to learn when to delegate.
Your freelancing career, though it is certainly a labor of love, is also still a business, after all. And to ensure your business grows and thrives over the years, you need the help of experts. Outsourcing essential duties will help protect you and your business while freeing you up to focus on your work. So go ahead and recruit your team of professionals to support you in your full-time freelancing career. This should include, at a minimum, hiring an accountant and an attorney to ensure your business operations and your finances are on point.
4. Take Your Social Media Skills to the Next Level
Now more than ever, the future of business lies in social media marketing — a reality that is just as relevant for creative professionals as it is for more traditional entrepreneurs. Building a robust social media presence is increasingly critical for connecting with prospective clients, raising brand awareness, and cultivating lucrative and long-standing business relationships.
Thus, if you want to be truly productive in your freelance writing career, then you need to engage deeply with social media. Concentrate on marketing and community-building across social media platforms, as well as linking your social media accounts to your writing websites, blogs, online portfolios, and other publications. This will ensure you’re building market interest and cultivating a steady flow of projects.
5. Guard Against Burnout
Of all the challenges associated with freelance life, burnout may be the most significant. When you’re working on your own and all the burdens of making the career a go are resting on your shoulders, it can easily become too much to bear.
Learning to recognize and guard against burnout may well be the most important thing you can do to preserve your freelancing productivity in particular and your writing career in general. When you find yourself feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically drained, you may be on the cusp of burnout.
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is a cornerstone of preventing burnout. The temptation to be always working and, in the process, isolating yourself from friends and family so that you can focus on work can be immense. However, by building healthy relationships and enjoying time for self-care and recreation outside of work, you can maintain your zest, your passion, and, yes, your productivity.
The Takeaway
Maintaining your productivity as a freelancer isn’t easy. However, with a bit of effort, you can create the working conditions that will keep the inspiration and freelance productivity flowing.
Indiana Lee is a writer and journalist from the Pacific Northwest with a passion for covering workplace issues, social justice, environmental protection, and more. In her off time, she enjoys hiking with her two dogs. You can follow her on Twitter @indianalee3, or reach her at indianaleewrites@gmail.com.
