Like a student on her study leave, freelancers, those working in gig economy or those working from home can fall prey to procrastination. Especially, when you have to set your own deadlines and targets, achieving them can be difficult when you don’t have to report to someone and work with little accountability.
“I will begin work after an hour”, “Now I will work after lunch”, “Feel like partying this evening,” and then “It is fine if I take a break today” can become a viscous circle of delay and disruption.
So, how to stay focussed when working from home or as a freelancer?
Set working hours and stick to them
Pretend you are not working from home. Pretend you have to go to office, and put in so many hours of work with diligence. Ask yourself “If I was in an office, would I do this task during the day?” If the answer is no, youneed to do the activity before or after office hours. Household chores, errands, and spending time with friends all became activities that needed to happen before or after work.
Structured routines
It is easy to be off the hook when you are your own boss. But it is better to schedule your day in a way that it provides maximum productivity. Work during work hours and leisure at the allotted time will help you to remain focussed and stress-free.
Communicate your boundaries
Often, people around take freelancers for granted. They think that you work on flexible hours, and so can adjust their demands to your time. It is necessary to ensure that you communicate your work time and routine so that you remain off bounds to them during that period.
Such discipline and respect for work will help to stay focussed.
