Freelance Writer

I am going to raise my hand and admit in full that I am terrible at motivating myself. This is a particularly poignant problem for me for two very good reasons. Firstly, I work as a freelancer, meaning that if I don’t work I don’t get paid. Secondly, because I work from home, meaning nobody is actually around to notice if I am working or not. Having motivation problems in this situation is often disastrous, so I have developed a simple way of dealing with the problem.

When planning my work day, I first split it up into manageable portions, meaning I have no tasks ahead of me that will take more than an hour or so to perform. I dislike long, boring tasks, and will be very prone to putting them off, so I turn long boring tasks into short not so boring ones. My typical work day will usually cover about ten hours, but I will only actually be working for around seven of these hours. The other three hours will be spent doing things I enjoy and these things will be spread out evenly through my work day. For example, I might start working on something at 9am, and at 10:30am I will put my work aside and go and watch my favourite TV show for an hour. Then I will walk back to my PC and work for another hour and a half to two hours, then go out and eat lunch with friends. After lunch I will work for a couple more hours, and then maybe pop out to visit a neighbour for coffee and a chat for an hour. By now I have done about 5 hours work, but it will seem far less to me, as it has been broken up by long breaks. In this way, I am able to work a full seven or eight hours, spread across the entire day, without any motivational problems. Indeed, sometimes I find I work swifter, as I may be looking forward to visiting a particular person or place, and finishing my current work task will allow me to do that sooner. It’s a typical donkey and carrot situation.

So to break things down to a simple formula, here are some basic points to follow if you also need to be self motivated and are having problems achieving it.

• Break large work tasks into smaller tasks – Never have a task ahead of you that you dislike too much, or will take so long to complete that you would rather brush it under the carpet and ignore it. Keep every task to manageable proportions.
• Set short term goals – Instead of setting a goal of completing an entire report that will take several hours, set a goal of a number of pages or a percentage to complete.
• Reward yourself – Every time you achieve one of your short term goals, reward yourself. Something simple like a bowl of your favourite ice cream or a telephone call to your loved ones.
• Keep at it – With practice you will find this is a great way to motivate yourself to even the most daunting tasks.

So there you have it, a simple way to motivate yourself through your work day, trust me I know this works, as I am one of the least self motivated people I know and I manage to earn my living.