With co-working and classical office spaces looking less and less like a viable business option, more and more freelancers are being asked to get used to, permanetely, a work-from-home setup. However, they are definetley not exempt from feeling fatigued at the prospect.
Here are ten ways freelancers can relieve work from home fatigue.
Limit your focus
As a freelancer, you’re going to be juggling all sorts of things outside of the tasks you specialise in.
For example, if you’re a freelance graphic designer, your graphic design tasks are just a tiny part of your success. You’re also going to need to market yourself, create a name for yourself, manage your finances, and many more.
Since there’s a lot to do as a freelancer, you can feel confused about focusing on a single moment. You might tempt yourself into believing that you can multitask to get more tasks done in a short time. However, this is only going to run yourself ragged while producing sub-par results.
Learn to focus on one thing at a time so that you aren’t mentally tiring yourself out.
Use the 90/20 rule
Finding a balance between work time and break time is not as simple as people think. After all, if you tend to be lenient on yourself as a freelancer, you might be taking longer breaks than you should be.
Therefore, if you’re looking to get a better structure for your workdays, consider trying the 90/20 rule.
The 90/20 rule means that you work for 90 minutes straight, then take 20 minutes as a break.
It should be a focused break and work time. That means that in your 20-minute break, you should do nothing else but relax. Even answering emails is not allowed.
Learn how to say no
As a freelancer, you need to set regular boundries. Between pitching, finding clients, adminstrative work, and the actual creation, you’ll have a lot to do.
Unlike regular employees, you can’t have the luxury of clocking out once 5 o’clock rolls around. Therefore, saying no is essential so that you don’t bite off more than you can chew.
You’ll be much happier, and your workload won’t be to the point where it’s going to exhaust you and burn you out.
Schedule microbreaks
Your lunch break shouldn’t be the only break you’re going to have for the entire workday until you do officially stop working. It would help if you had microbreaks throughout the day to help you get a moment to breathe.
It will also help your eyes take a break if you’re always in front of the monitor for work.
When you’re taking these micro-breaks, you shouldn’t be on your phone so that your eyes should be getting the rest that it needs.
Clear digital and physical clutter
The excellent way to shake yourself out of a funk when working from home is by changing your environment somehow.
If you’re unable to work outside of your home, you can do other things to transform your home. One of the simplest ways to relieve work-from-home fatigue while changing the environment is by clearing clutter.
When you take the time to optimize your administrative processes, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier for you not to get bogged down by work. That’s because you have a system in place that makes your job easier for you.
Learn to manage stress
It’s normal to be stressed at work, but too much stress is not a good thing. Therefore, you have to ensure that you manage your stress proactively so that you don’t end up strung out, and that’s when you start to destress. It would be more challenging at that point because you’re already stressed out, and it’s affecting your life.
Find a hobby… that has nothing to do with work
Doing something irrelevant with work is an excellent way to relieve yourself of stress. Your hobby should be something that you enjoy doing and don’t use to make a living.
A hobby can give you something to focus your mind on, something that’s interesting but also makes you happy. At the same time, if you do it with other people, there will be a social aspect to it.
Maintain a social connection
It’s common to feel alone when you are working from home. Thus, it would be best if you can maintain social connections.
If you have a supportive group of people behind you, you should find a way to maintain a social connection. Otherwise, find a group of freelancers to connect with as well.
You can also join clubs unrelated to your work to find a way to be social actively.
Indulge in self-care
Aside from a proactive approach to destressing, it would help if you took the time to self-care once in a while. Although there’s a general idea that people have regarding self-care, it differs between people.
To some, self-care can be going to a spa. To other people, self-care is about finishing a puzzle. It’s all up to you what you count as self-care.
Consider outsourcing other tasks
Sometimes, the reason you’re fatigued is that business is booming, and everything is good.
Although business is good, you need to consider whether it’s time to start hiring other people. That way, you can delegate some tasks and focus on important business matters.
You’ll find that the relief of another staff member will take a massive load off of your shoulders that will reduce fatigue building up in you.
Even taking one of the steps above is a great step towards relieving fatigue. And if you don’t know how to get started, you can apply just one of tips listed above, and keep adding them on as you go.
