Motivation Super Fuel: A Freelancer’s Quest for Self-Motivation

I’ve been feeling disorganized and unfocused at work lately. (By ‘at work’, I mean doing web design out of my home office.)  Generally speaking, I am highly motivated; I usually have no problem setting and pursuing goals. But I think it’s natural to fall into productivity ruts from time to time. In the past I have simply muscled or floated through these, but why not learn some mind tricks/thought patterns/behaviors that will help overcome slumps?

One of the struggles with freelancing is the insane amount of freedom. Working at home, I have no boss or co-workers hovering over me. What am I supposed to do when surfing the web becomes more interesting than the work piling up in front of me? So, I am going to scour the web for information on motivational techniques that I can apply to my daily work.  Before running a Google search, I revisited some favorite blogs and found an interesting option right away.

Today’s Self-Motivation Technique: Close the Office Door
Remove all distractions. “Fourteen Techniques for Improving Your Work-Life Balance” by Trent Hamm. I’ve been following Trent’s “The Simple Dollar” blog for several months and have grown to respect his thoughts and opinions, so I am excited to give his techniques a try. His article is focused on work-life balance, so it isn’t 100% focused on my intentions here, but he stresses increased efficiency to free up personal time. I’ll focus on those techniques. Her are Trent’s 14 techniques in short form:

1. Leave the office early, period. (This creates a deadline for getting things done everyday.)
2. Reduce your wasted time at work…
3. … but actually take breaks
4. write a “to-do” list for the next day before you leave.
5. Carefully consider your work goals, and tone them down a bit.
6. Have “focused sessions” at work, where you eliminate all distraction.
7. Keep careful documentation of the tasks you accomplish.
8. …and then discuss a reasonable and more flexible work arrangement with your supervisor.
9. Turn off routes of communication to work when you leave.
10. “Unwind with something personally and spiritually fulfilling and relaxing. (Not TV) For the sake of keeping this post on topic, I’m crossing this one off, even though I did experiment with it and found some very interesting results.  Perhaps this will be a later blog post.
11. Set aside blocks of uninterrupted time to focus on what’s really important to you.
12. Get  involved in a significant and personally important project outside of work.
13. Actually use your vacation time, even if it’s just spent around the house.
14. Get adequate sleep.

Holy Moly. This stuff works! I made a to-do list last night. It was really easy because I’d been working all day and was painfully aware of what hadn’t gotten done. But it’s worth noting that it was very calming to know that these items went on ‘tomorrow’s to-do list’. This morning upon sitting down, I immediately tackled the first item on the list. I set the timer on my iPhone to bark at me after 2 hours, and for 2 hours I worked on my most important tasks without any distraction. Email, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter, ALL REMAINED CLOSED. I even closed my office door, psychologically shutting off access to the leisure areas of my home. I just played my favorite music and started working. The results were stunning. I haven’t felt so focused in years. A few times, I even felt as though I was in the “zone”, just exceptionally focused and clear minded. I had no idea what a mental drain incoming email and other bits of information were. This is exciting. ‘Closing the office door’ worked great. Next I am going to search for some other ideas to try, with the hopes of creating a super fueled amalgam of self-motivation techniques.

Learn More
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/08/20/fourteen-techniques-for-improving-your-work-life-balance/

Today’s attempt at drawing a perfect circle

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