Work as freelance is rapidly gaining popularity in the modern world due to the wide opportunities that the Internet opens. At the same time, one of the main problems that all freelancers are facing is stress.
Everyone experiences stress — schoolchildren, successful businessmen, working mothers. Work tension is a real disaster for a person because it dramatically reduces the quality of life and can cause many diseases. However, there are professions where it is simply impossible to handle without experiencing stress. And freelance work is one of them. At first glance, it might seem that working for himself from home, the freelancer has nothing to worry about — there are no such factors as envious colleagues and picky bosses in his life. Is this not happiness? But it’s not so simple. Freelance is considered one of the most stressful professions primarily because it is a business. Managing it is quite difficult. Freelance work is very unpredictable and it is this property that most often causes stress.
But what to do to avoid stress? If tension cannot be avoided, is it possible to somehow stop it or reduce its level to acceptable values? Yes, you can, if you look at your work as a business with elements of creativity. If a freelancer will work with the understanding that he is an entrepreneur the same time, then many things that have worried him in the past will lose their significance and from sources of stress will turn into not the most pleasant, but, in essence, ordinary problems that can always be solved.
Time management and Work Planning
It’s best to start stress management with a plan. In addition to increasing productivity, the plan also dramatically reduces tension and helping to avoid stress. By managing his time, a freelancer to some extent neutralizes the unpredictability factor. Any freelancer, no matter what he does, risks anyway.
It will be quite enough to limit yourself to prepare a weekly plan and daily to-do lists, while others, to get rid of constant stress, you may need a multi-level strategy where all risks and various «pitfalls» are taken into account. Work as freelance — is different. For those who are limited to simple tasks, detailed planning and time management aren’t particularly required, since there aren’t so many experiences in their life. But there is another freelance — much more ambitious and requiring great responsibility. Such work is a powerful source of stress, and you can’t do without time management, otherwise, you can burn out to depression in just a couple of months.
Work planning helps to establish the boundaries between work and personal life. A freelancer should learn not only how to work, but also how to relax if he wants to get rid of stress.
Sources of stress
Once management eliminates or reduces stress levels, it becomes clear to the freelancer that there are other reasons for concern. When working in a context of constant change, it can be difficult to see other sources of stress and identify them accurately.
For example, one of the causes of stress can be a complex long-term project. Such work is very exhausting, as it requires the utmost concentration and considerable effort. And no time management will solve this problem if the freelancer’s work is too much for him. But like any other problem of such a plan, it is easily solved by a responsibility delegation. Simply put, if a freelancer doesn’t cope on his own, instead of stressing, he should hire an assistant or even two. He can even assemble a team if the project is really big and promises to be long-term. To get rid of oppressive anxiety, it is very important to quickly identify its source and take action immediately.
Identifying a problem is one of the best ways to deal with stress. It’s easiest to work when it is known what exactly causes stress and complicate freelancer life.
Online and offline
Despite the fact that the Internet has a lot of interesting things, network activity in itself can become a source of stress. The freelancer works by a head, his occupation is most directly connected with the Internet, but he doesn’t need to sit at the computer after the work is finished.
In order to achieve outstanding performance and still not get down from fatigue and stress, it is vital for a freelancer to exit online mode. A freelancer needs to rest from the computer and the Internet periodically and do this not once a week, but every day, for better results. You can go for sports, go for walks, attend various events or spend time on your favorite hobby — all this helps to significantly reduce stress.
This technique is very well mastered by some office employees who immediately after work hours forget about work and happily switch to more pleasant things. In the case of freelance, everything is much more complicated, because here there is much more responsibility. However, if a freelancer doesn’t want to work under constant stress, he needs to learn how to switch from online to offline. At the first stages, this method will work with a creak, but if over time the freelancer «befall Zen» he will avoid stress.
Using applications to optimize the work process
When working on freelance, you must always be aware of matters and the current workload of tasks. To facilitate communication with customers, you can find many CRM for freelances and other applications on the Internet. They will help you keep your finger on the pulse of work even in public transport, using a regular smartphone.
Such CRM for freelancers and related applications are easy to configure and significantly reduce the stress level. Thanks to simple and effective management it has become possible to put all current tasks on the stream, and you will be always on the move. You can go to the park at lunchtime or meet friends in the evening — and all necessary notifications will be sent to you by e-mail or via messengers.
Using mobile applications for managing current tasks is a great opportunity to quickly set up your work schedule and simplify the implementation of many relevant tasks for a freelancer, for example, communication with clients, management and distribution of tasks between employees, planning of work for tomorrow, next week, month, year.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.