5 tips for stressed freelancers - By: Lars Koudal

Being a freelancer can be a hectic life, no matter if you are busy or not.

The life of a freelancer varies very much between individuals, but for me personally, I’m almost constantly stressed in some way or another. If I’m not stressed on some project or another, I’m stressed out trying to find new projects, or juggling my up-coming projects.

Most people would look from the outside and simply state; "just manage your own time, your self-employed! Make sure you only work 8-5!", which all freelancers would agree; that’s simply not possible.

However, if you, as a freelancer don’t recognize the signs of stress, and deal with them, you will ruin yourself and your company in just a few months. Several freelancers go down with stress, and have to take several months away from any kind of work just to recover.

Now, I would like to add a few tips of my own, the first one being the most important.
Tip 1# - RELAX.

I mean it, seriously. I have been a freelancer for over 10 years, and I have based my living purely on it for the last 5-6 years. If there is one thing I have noticed; Things always work out in the end.
Tip 2: - Save money

Save up your hard-earned money. After having a few well paying jobs, you might be tempted to step out and splash some money around. Don’t. Save up your money for when things go bad. Don’t be too tight with your money either, spend some money on good food and/or beers for your friends and family, who will have to suffer with you when you are stressed.
Tip 3: -Don´t save money on hardware

Even if your company is just making it, make sure you spend some money on upgrading your hardware. Your clients will continue to demand quicker and quicker results, and having a fast workstation helps. Besides, its one of the few things which you can deduct from your company expenses, so why not make sure your best tool is as much up to date as possible? Having your tools in order and not having to wait for things to happen also reduces stress.

Tip 4: -Some days, just don’t work.

If you wake up, and don’t feel like doing work, you’re pretty normal. When you’re a freelancer, it’s a feeling you cannot afford. You are your own boss, and when clients call to complain about work not getting done on time, the only one you can blame is yourself. That being said, you should also make sure you once in a while just skip work entirely for a full day.
Tip 5: Change venue

If you are like me, and almost only work on your laptop, remember you can carry it around, thats the whole point of a laptop. Bring it outside in the sun (perhaps in the shade, the screen might be difficult to read), go to a café and relax or go take a bus/train and visit some relatives or friends, and work on the way. Don’t get stuck to working the same place all the time, variation is key!

Do you have any tips? Write a comment and don’t forget to sign up for my RSS feed for new posts and updates!

About the Author

koudal.dk is the personal homepage of Lars Koudal who specializes in high quality productions of 3D and new media. After more than 10 years in the business, I recently felt like sharing some of my experiences, the benefits as well as the pitfalls, o

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