5 tips for working from home by yourself as a freelancer

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Today I’m back with another post and this time I’m sharing about how to work from home by yourself. Now for many, working from home has become a reality this year. However, as a freelancer, it’s a little different. If you’re employed, you might still need to check-in with your boss, attend zoom meetings and keep a track of all your assigned tasks. Whilst you’re still alone, you may not feel as lonely as someone who is freelance. Freelancers are often working from home all the time (pandemic or no pandemic) and find connections and company through co-working spaces; which are obviously not happening at the moment. They also don’t have a team to check in with and have to be accountable for their own tasks. Therefore, I thought I’d share my top tips for working from home if you’re a freelancer today.

1. Bring in some background noise with Clubhouse

Sometimes, I’ll get to 12 o’clock and realise it’s been completely silent each day. Now I listen to rooms on Clubhouse each morning. If you’ve not heard of Clubhouse, it’s a new voice chat social media app, which consists of different rooms of people chatting. There are some great small business rooms (such as the UK Business Owners Lounge at 9am in weekday morning), which I listen to with a cup of tea as I start the day. Sometimes I just listen to others speak whilst other time I raise my hand (the way to get invited to speak) and ask a question. Either way it’s brought more noise into my house.

2. Invest in a proper set-up

Unlike those may be returning to the office soon, most freelancers work from their home most of the time, bar the occasional coffee shop. If you can, spend a little money on your office-such as office desks to encourage you NOT to sit on the sofa, to motivational prints on the wall or a huge wall calendar to keep you organised. Do you do have the right broadband for your office? How about, plug socket extenders or filing cabinets? Do what you can to get your office ready.

3. Keep yourself accountable

As you’ve no boss, you’ll need to keep yourself accountable. Each week, I make a list of any invoices I’ve sent, need to send or I’m waiting on being paid along with my main jobs for the week. I also use The Positive Planner (Ad-gifted item) each morning; which asks you to list 3 priorities as well as a self-care goal (mine is usually walking the dog!). This can also be with a bigger gift at the end of month or year-at christmas, why not treat yourself to an advert calendar and open each door at the end of the day once you’ve ticked off your to do list?

4. Step away from your laptop

A few months ago, I started suffering with eye strain, which caused my eyes to be sore and super tired. I realised that as I was constantly working from home and couldn’t go anywhere, I wasn’t stepping away from my laptop as often as I should. Now I try to schedule this into my day every hour or so as well as a longer digital detox once in a while. Think about taking time to network in person too-we don’t tend to carry business cards anymore but there’s still lots of benefits to attending business groups and giving one out to those who you meet-who knows what it might lead to?

5. Use a Pomodoro Extension

My final tip is to use a Pomodoro Extension. One of the few benefits of being a freelancer is that we don’t have to work a 9-5. Now summer is here, make the most of those sunny days and get super productive with your time. Use a Pomodoro Extension or app (I use an extension on my chrome book) to set yourself a timer to only focus on one thing at a time. I usually set a 20 minute timer to write for 20 mins without checking my phone or emails, just like I’m doing today! Set short, productive tasks in the morning so you can have an extended lunch break in the sun!

In short, working from home alone as a freelancer can be tough but hopefully these tips have made it a little easier!