Hey there! Thanks for stopping by! If you’ve read my previous blog post which is about my Journey as a Freelancer and Remote Worker, you’ll get the basics and understand more of what I’ll be saying next in this blog post. If you haven’t read it yet you can go to this link.
So, I have talked to many of my friends who are freelancers and remote workers and I noticed that we all have a lot of stories in common about our chosen careers and it excites me to share with you some of the things that I have learned myself as a freelancer and remote worker for three years. Shall we?
Everything is about balance. If you are new to the world of freelancing, there are a lot of things that you need to be aware of. Work at home people don’t always work in their pajamas and cuddle with their pet. I have had already taken so many freelance jobs and one of the things I learned the most is work life balance. I have the tendency to overwork because I feel like if I rest too much, I’m not doing my job well. In the early stages of my career I would find myself working from day to midnight. At first, it felt alright because I always had this notion in my head that I have this “privilege” of working at home so I can rest if I needed to.
Work life balance
Eat healthy. Most freelancers and remote workers are prone to eat unhealthy food such as fast food, chips, french fries, desserts, and french fries. Anything that is quick and can help them get back to work. Did I mention french fries? There are freelancers who would skip most of their meals just to finish a task first. I’m that type. I really hate it when I get distracted while working because of a growling stomach because when I lose the momentum in my work, I have this tendency to get lazy and procrastinate. So, for the longest time I always prioritized work over my health. Until when I started experiencing so much stomach pains. Not only did I not eat properly I also don’t sleep properly which makes me wonder if my pimples, stressed out face, and unhealthy-looking skin came from that. Plus, the number of white hairs keeps on increasing! Not to mention, I’m a petite woman so on the last quarter of 2018 I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It felt like the end of the world and the end of my career for me. I had to take physical therapy which costs a lot. Imagine taking lab tests and 15 mins exercises twice a day at home. A total of 30 mins in addition to my day. It felt like fo-re-ver. I always wanted to go to work right away. Sometimes it was too painful and unbearable that I just want to cry.
Luckily, the pain lessened and after a year I was able to work better. CTS doesn’t really heal according to my doctor. It’s just there, the pain is gone for now but I need to wear my wrist splint whenever the pain comes back. Thinking about all these experiences gave me a wake-up call that I should start to take care of myself more. It was hard at first because I’m a workaholic and I want to get things done right away. But thinking about my health and what’s the use of working if I’m working for my death anyway? Life is too precious to be risking our health just because we need to get the job done. You don’t have to experience what I experienced that’s why I wrote this blog post.
“Trust that everything will fall into place. Take care of yourself.”
I did a lot of research and started to give myself a lot of self-care. Last November, I attended a conference and one of the speakers was a psychologist and one of the things that she said was that we lose 22 minutes of our life if we sit down for more than an hour. That struck me because oftentimes I find myself sitting for several hours! After she said that I started counting how many minutes of my life do I have left. Just kidding! So, from then on, I finally decided to set an hourly alarm using my phone. One of the things that I also realized is that in reality the more you take longer breaks the more creative you will become! She also said that it’s important that we eat healthy. Eating healthy means looking at your food and you are still able to identify where it came from. Like for example chicken nuggets, do we all know if it’s really chicken or not? That also helped me decide to eat healthy food even if at times it’s a little bit costly. As for my CTS it’s a constant reminder for me to exercise and rest.
Family needs
One of the common stories I hear from freelancers or home-based professionals is that they find it hard to balance their work and family life. I totally agree with this. Either your family thinks that you are not working at all or they think you are always working because they feel like you’re in front of your laptop 24/7. There are a variety of ways on how you can handle this.
First is to train them when to disturb you. You can put a signboard on your door room. You can be creative in making this too! You can put: Work in progress. I’m changing the world right now. Knock on my door if it’s an emergency. I’ll be back for dinner and chocolates for dessert please. You need to learn to set boundaries and communicate with your loved ones well.
Second is wake up early for work so that everyone else is sleeping or work at night when everyone else is asleep. It may seem crazy at times caring for your family and attending to their needs while dragging your laptop to the where the world needs you.
When it seems like all else fails and all of your family members keep on disturbing you or is asking you out for a cup of coffee but you have a deadline to meet, I want you to think of it as blessing. Again, balance needs to placed here. Take time to think what will happen if I go out and drink coffee with loved ones? What will happen if I run this errand for my brother or sister? Will it also help my physical or mental health? More on this later. So, going back to my point, instead of always getting irritated when an errand is at hand or when a family member needs you to do something for them, I want you to reframe your mindset and think of it the other way around. Ask yourself why is this happening to me? Maybe, I am working too much and I need this break by running this errand for my mom, taking a look at the world a bit, relaxing my brain, see the trees and other opportunities that I may be missing in life. That way, you’ll end up happy and sometimes those short breaks can make marvels for your creativity at work. Every work is different for every freelancer or remote worker. At the end of the day, you know your schedule more than I do and you have control on what you allow to happen.
Mental Health
Now, let’s discuss mental health. Depression and Burnout is also one of the struggles of a freelancer. Well, work from home does seem attractive but one thing that most people may not notice is the depression. There are many reasons as to why one would get depressed. One is that they really stick to the idea of “w-o-r-k-f-r-o-m-home.” First of all, you are not bound to stick your butt in your home. Home-based or work from home is a privilege but it’s not a requirement to do all of your work stuff there. As I would repeatedly say, I write everything from experience. In the past, I had this tendency of wanting to save all the money that I was earning. Having a lot of dreams and ambitions requires money so I don’t want to spend a single centavo from what I’m earning. So, I would stay at home on the entire weekdays and not go out until it’s the weekend! One day I realized that I was feeling depressed for no reason then I started to think about everything that I’m doing only to figure out that saving all of my money doesn’t make sense. I believe it’s a grace given to me by God to use wisely and grant myself self-care. To treat myself some Matcha at Starbucks or buy that lotion at The Body Shop that I’ve always dreamed of having. It’s not becoming materialistic it’s becoming a more real you.
People who work from home are prone to depression because first they don’t have workmates who they can chat with especially during lunch time. They may be living with their parents or playing with their pets but that’s not enough. If you’re a mom or a dad one of the struggles are your little kids. They would always come to you while you are working asking for food, wanting to play and a whole lot of stuff. Sometimes, it’s just stressful but then again self-care is always the key. I believe to have a healthy and happy mental health you have to focus on how to take care of it and the people who need you. You can’t help others if you can’t help yourself. Take care of your mental health it will thank you. <3
Get social
Learning from the experience I mentioned above, if you want to give the best output for your client you’ve got to help yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Personally, for me it’s not enough to go out just on the weekends. As I said,I would get crazy, lonely and I would end up getting depressed. Doing other activities at home also helps! Like maybe arts and crafts, reading a good book. Aside from going out on weekends, set a schedule, go out on weekdays. You can do it once or twice in five days then assess yourself how does it feel. Stop thinking about the expenses where you need to eat at the coffee shop where you will stay. Expenses will always be endless; you’ve got to live with it. Remember your priority is a good mental health. That’s the reason why co-working spaces and coffee shops exist. To prevent or lessen the feeling of isolation for work at home professionals and also have that chance to collaborate with other people! It’s not just a place to work but to get social!
I hope you did not get discouraged with all the negative experiences that you’ve just read but rather learn from the things that I did to achieve the right balance. I encourage you to live a life of freedom!
Now, let’s go to the Pros!
Becoming a freelancer is the best! I don’t regret it. Every time I wake up early in the morning a smile would come out from my face and I would say to myself thank you Lord because I don’t need to take a cold bath right away and feel tensed with the time because I need to travel to work. I really love my work! I can always take that few mins to cuddle on my pillow and sleep some more. Since I work with an international company, I love the new learnings that I wouldn’t learn from a day job. One of the best things that I love about freelancing is that I get to spend more time in the coffee shop, chat with friends, attend seminars and workshops, explore business opportunities, help my ministry and community, travel internationally, do some shopping when there are no long lines in the supermarket and take the time to enjoy and breath life. In our life span, if you would calculate the time and days spent with your friends, loved ones or mentors, how much time would that be? Just a little right? Think about it. You get to have a lot more time with them when you are a freelancer or remote worker. You get to build your connections, catch up with friends, increase your knowledge about new things. It also helps make our decision-making skills better.
What I personally also loved most as a freelancer is that I can spend more time in serving the Church and the ministry I am in. I am able to do my arts and crafts, read more books, write this blog and a whole lot more of fun activities. Another thing that I love as a freelancer is that I can go to special events or occasions and just drag my laptop if needed. Who cares if I wear a formal wear while wearing my huge backpack with my 11-inch laptop inside? Others can’t do that but I can. I just love going to special events wearing high heels and carrying my work world with me with no anxiety at all. Might look silly for others but I’m loving it. Being a freelancer also allowed me to travel more with my family. Not only did I earned more compared from my day job I also experienced more about what this life has to offer. What more can I ask for? I’m simply happy and contented.
And we’re done! Now you’re all set to live your life as a freelancer to the fullest. I hope these tips were able to help you greatly!
More and more people are going into freelancing and remote working, are you next?