Living a Balanced Freelance Life

Posted by Crystal on Aug 19, 2010 in Inspiration | 7 comments

When we go freelance we may suddenly feel the urge to sleep in all day, goof around, and never get anything done. Then, we may go into phases of complete ultra-productivity and overworking. Working on one’s own can sometimes cause more harm than good in that we can never find a good balance in life.

Do you sleep till noon one day, and wake up the next at 7am just to get things done? Do you find yourself feeling sluggish, lonely, or unproductive? If you feel that you’ve lost a balance in life that you once had when you had a job, when someone actually made you get up and get going in the morning, then this post is for you.

In this post we’re going to talk about a few ways anyone who is self employed can live a balanced, healthy life. A balanced healthy life involves everything that is work and non-work related. Everything from your health, to your working hours, and to your sanity can change once one goes freelance. Here are the ways a freelancer can combat potential problems.

1. Get Out of Your Home Everyday

This is the hardest for me in the dead of winter when it’s thirty below windchill and I feel as though I have the privilege of staying inside, just because I was a strong enough person to start my own freelance business. I still bundle up and get outside, even if it’s only to go inside somewhere else warm.

Staying inside your own place, the home you see everyday, can be the ultimate creativity block. Furthermore, when you allow yourself to stay in your home, there’s less motivation to stick to the regular schedule of the human population. If you go work in the library for the day, you’ll be inclined to work by the library’s hours. It would be the same for a cafe, or another local area.

Despite the working benefits, even if you just go out with your friends and night, unrelated to work, you’ll still reap the benefits. Those in the work force do not realize how much they should appreciate someone making them wake up early and hauling their ass into the office. It really can keep your sanity.

2. Get Moving

I always stress on this blog how any freelancer should get enough exercise. Sitting in front of our computers for hours on end is not a smart or useful way to spend a lifetime. In order to relieve muscle aches, sluggishness, and even bad habits (for example, I tend to drink too much caffeine when I’m zoning off in front of my computer screen), get up and do something else.

Besides your daily workout, find other ways to just walk around, and take you mind to other places. It can be as simple as going for a walk everyday, walking to another place to work, or taking up an alternative activity that will get you on your feet. For me, I took on a part-time job working only a few days a week. I’m fine financially with me freelancing, but I took it because it’s nice to get out of the house and actually ‘wear myself out’ every now and then. Plus, the few extra hundred a month doesn’t hurt!

The thing to consider is to do something that will make you get out and get moving even if you don’t feel like it. For me, it was a job, for others, it might be joining a club, helping someone in need, or meeting clients in new places.

3. Don’t Let Your Life Pile Up

Every freelance blog stresses that you have to keep organized and not let your work pile up in order to meet deadlines. However, not many talk about not letting your life factors pile up. Sometimes when we are overworked, or perhaps just feeling too lazy, we let the little things around the house and personal life slide.

Do you have a drain that needs to be fixed? A dirty bedroom? What about a dirty office? Laundry piling up? Keep your home life in check. Also make sure you’re keeping your personal life in check by having an active life with friends, the kids, or loved ones. Never let your work take over the important relationships in your life!

Keeping up with life can actually make you more productive at work. It will lower stress levels, increase motivation and inspiration, and not allow your mind to wander on the ‘other things’ you’re behind on.

4. Have Patience

Many people may consider an unbalanced life one that is hectic at times and boring the next. Stressful for a few weeks, and unproductive and depressing the next few. To combat this, examine why your life may be like this. Is it usually your professional or personal life that gets this way? Or is it both?

When times get hectic, have patience in order to get through it. Don’t get overstressed, and instead, just do the work. Patience is the key to knowing that everything will be fine. When you don’t have a lot to do, or you’re feeling lonely or unmotivated, remember that success takes time, and you’ll get there.

Whenever you’re not satisfied with something going on in your life, especially when it relates to the success of your freelance business, remind yourself to calm down and understand that things will get better. Imagine where you’ll be in a month, 6 months, or a year. Will you be at the same frustrating point? Of course not.

5. Be Creative

I see a lot of freelancers everyday start off their business hoping for new and exciting opportunities. Within months, they fall into a rut of projects that allow them no creativity or job satisfaction.

It is important to stay thinking creatively. This does not just apply to creative people like us designers, but to everyone. It is a part of human nature and the human mindset to feel creative, inspired, and motivated.

So, if you find that you are not fulfilled creatively, then it’s time to revamp your job priorities. Get through with the projects you have on hand, and let go of those that are energy wasters for the future. Start taking on more projects you are genuinely interested in. For awhile, you may need to take on some older jobs as ‘bread-and-butter’ work, but a slow transition into work you actually love is the only way to make a truly successful freelancing business.

6. Do Something New and a Bit Crazy

Even with the most balanced and healthy freelance lifestyle, having too much balance can get boring. In order to have perfect balance (and therefore happiness), be sure to do something out of the ordinary in your life every once in awhile. Go on vacation and see somewhere new. Hang out with some people you wouldn’t normally hang around with. Go to a concert alone. Throw a party and invite some people you don’t know very well, yet. Cross something off your bucket list!

Again, doing these things can give a creative freelancer tons of inspiration. Better yet, since we don’t have a 9-5 schedule to abide by, we can go whenever is convenient for us; whenever motivation to do so strikes us! Doing something out-of-schedule can be exhilarating, and can make anyone — freelancer or not — appreciate life so much more.