How Self-Employed Workers Can Stay Motivated and Organised.
This is a guest post by The wonderful, Luke Smith. Thank you, Luke, for writing this for me.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a freelancer or a business owner, an entrepreneur, or a solopreneur. If you work for yourself, it can be difficult to stay motivated and organised.
If you’re self-employed, the buck stops with you. Everything from passion to productivity falls in your lap.
That said, here are several tips and suggestions to help you keep your eye on the prize whenever you feel that internal focus and drive stall out.
Tips for Staying Organised
There are many ways to help you remain organised. This is critical, as you’re the one responsible for every aspect of your company. Regardless of whether you employ 50 people or you work alone, here are a few of the best ways to keep running smoothly at all times.
Manage Your Time Well
Organization often invokes images of cluttered desks and messy workspaces. And you definitely want to address that. However, you also want to stay organised with your time. You can do this by:
Creating solid routines that keep you moving through the day.
Setting up both short- and long-term schedules.
Establishing clear boundaries that help you focus on work and personal life depending on the situation.
By creating structure, you can regain a sense of control over your time. This can serve as the perfect catalyst to reignite your passion and focus as you move through each day.
Get Your Finances in Order
It’s easy for finances to slip under the radar. After all, as a business owner, you’re busy dealing with clients and customers, performing your work tasks, marketing yourself, and tending to endless other responsibilities.
However, the state of your finances can be a critical factor when it comes to organisation. If you feel things are getting out of hand, take time to clean up your financial situation by:
Making sure you’ve separated your personal and business finances.
Setting up spreadsheets and templates to manage your income and send and receive invoices.
Creating a self-employed tax strategy that includes tracking income, paying quarterly taxes, and filing your taxes early.
Your finances are key to self-employed confidence. Make sure they stay well-organised.
Analyse Lists, Goals, and Priorities
If you feel you’re being pulled in too many directions, it’s important to slow down and re-evaluate what matters. You can do this in three different ways:
Regularly ordering your priorities.
Setting and revisiting short-, medium-, and long-term goals.
Creating lists to help guide you through what needs to be done each day.
Taking the time to develop and apply your system can give you clarity and purpose every day.
Utilise Tech
Tech is a great productivity hack. It can save you time, organise your life, and make everything easily accessible. Consider using organisational tech like:
Workflow platforms to keep track of your responsibilities.
Gig economy apps like Uber, Fiverr, or Sparehire to help you easily find work.
Mobile banking apps to make financial management easier.
Whatever responsibilities you have as an entrepreneur, always look for a way to integrate tech to make them easier and more organised.
Tips for Staying Motivated
Keeping a well-ordered business is a great way to stay focused and on point. However, no matter how organised you are, you’re going to feel unmotivated at times. Here are two more key activities that you should consider when you find yourself struggling to motivate.
Take a Break
It sounds cliché, but it really isn’t. Breaks aren’t a popular fad or an excuse to be lazy. As a business owner, you already have shown that you’re the antithesis of apathy.
With that in mind, if you find you’re struggling to maintain, step back and take a breath. If you find that you’re too busy to have the time for a break, at least switch up your tasks from time to time.
It’s recommended that you don’t spend more than two hours on a single task at any given time. Moving between activities is a great way to avoid burnout.
Unplug With a Purpose
If you find that you’re struggling with chronic demotivation, you may need to plan a longer break. This can give you a genuine chance to fully unplug and recharge for a bit. There are two great ways that you can go about this:
Spend some time with loved ones. This can give you a social setting where you can detach from work and focus on other priorities.
Purposefully indulge in self-care. This can be anything from hiking and exercise to a hobby, journaling, or even sitting and being in the present.
The ability to take breaks and unplug may seem counterintuitive when you’re struggling to keep up. However, if you’re feeling a lack of motivation, it can be just the thing to help you recenter and refocus on why you’re self-employed in the first place.
Finding Your Way as an Entrepreneur
It doesn’t matter if you work as a freelancer, a small business owner, or anything else. If you’re self-employed, it can be hard to stay organised and motivated at times.
The next time you feel that things are getting out of hand, take some time to consider the suggestions above. Look for areas where each tip specifically applies to your situation. Then take steps to apply it so that you can get back on track as soon as possible.
Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but leadership and digital marketing topics are his favourites. When he isn’t writing you can find him travelling, hiking, or gaming.
Thank you for reading my stories! 😊
My purpose is to help as many people as I can live the lives they desire. To help people find happiness and become better organised and more productive so they can do more of the important things in life.
If you would like to learn more about the work I do, and how I can help you become better organised and more productive, you can visit my website or say hello on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook and subscribe to my weekly newsletter right here.