Maintaining a healthy work-life balance as a freelancer
Part of the reason for the rush to become a freelancer is the freedom it gives you. Being a freelancer gives you the freedom to set your own hours; however, setting your own working hours does not only have positive effects. You need to be able to take account of the demands of your personal life and those of your profession for your human wellbeing.
Finding the perfect balance between work and private life becomes a difficult equation to solve when you are self-employed.
How to discipline yourself? How to work life balance while working from home?
Here are some tips on how to achieve a work-life balance.
Setting up your work schedule
This is the first thing to do when working from home. Setting up a work routine means that you have to define your working environment and set your working hours.
To start with, you need to get yourself in the right working conditions as a freelancer. Ideally, you should create an office space in your home and equip it. This is a place where it will be easy for you to concentrate. If you can’t do it at home, use coworking spaces, libraries or a café.
The most important thing is to put yourself in the right working conditions for excellent productivity. So banish all toxic productivity. Silentus App has a set of functionalities to enable the right working environment, helping you prioritize only those relevant notifications. Try it here.
In addition to the framework, it is necessary to set working hours. Above all, you must not allow yourself to be overwhelmed by work. Whether you are a freelance translator or not, you should not let it keep you busy all day. It is up to you to define your working hours and to make the most of the flexibility that this status offers.
You can, for example, organize your daily schedule into time slots of 8am-12pm and 2pm-6pm or 9am-4pm; 8am-5pm; 10am-6pm.
If you prefer night work, then go for it! However, try to start and finish your tasks at the same time and under the same conditions as before, so that you have time for those around you.
Setting boundaries and being able to log off without feeling guilty or victim of FOMO
Once you have succeeded in setting up acceptable working hours and conditions, you need to move on to the second step, that of disciplining yourself and respecting the established rules. In the relationship between you and your clients, your working rules must be adhered to by both you and your client.
The truth is that you will find yourself with clients who ask for your help at all times of the day, even on weekends. This breaks the work-life harmony. You may even see burnout signs at some time.
To protect yourself from these hindrances, it is therefore important to set limits and remain firm.
For a freelancer, saying “NO” is quite difficult when you are just starting your business. The main challenge for a novice is to build up a large address book, which is why he or she tends to accept all proposals, because his or her experience depends on it.
But after a while, and as you gain notoriety and experience, especially when you have an online business, the obvious necessity arises to know how to say “NO”. Why? Accepting everything is counterproductive and deviates from the professional nature of your status. You will tend to lose focus on your tasks.
Set your limits and don’t have the fear of missing out.
