The Best Advice To Freelancers And Digital Nomads: Have A Good Night's Sleep!

If you are one of those freelance programmers or writers who are so obsessed with their work that they keep postponing their sleep, then stop doing it instantly. In the long run, its going to be a losing deal, both for your health and the freelance business.



As a freelancer, you need to be a master of lot of things, its easy to fall into the trap of trying to do everything at the same time, trying to chew more than you can bite off. I'd fallen into this habit myself during the initial few days of freelancing, so this post is a note to my future self too if I ever fall into this trap again.

Your body gives you natural signals when its time to recharge your energy for more work, but you keep on ignoring it and the end result is less energy, more lethargy and worse health, none of which are great for your freelancing career.

Stop whatever it is you are doing right now, keep aside your work and forget about your deadlines. THINK and REALIZE that these unplanned attempts to tackle your goals is going to take you nowhere. First, you must ORGANIZE your work and determine your schedule. Come up with a realistic figure of how many hours you can work on a given day, and then subtract a sizable chunk (like 10%) out of that for insurance (you could have a fever or don't feel like working some day).

Let's say its 6 hours you can work daily (for example). But even the best of the minds can't work at a stretch for that long without hurting themselves or their projects, so you need to divide your day in a manner that both your freelance work and other work will be accomplished.

There are many studies that indicate that taking a small break every half-hour is best for productivity. Even if you increase it to 45 minutes or an hour, it should be fine as long as you know what you are doing.

However, making a schedule is easy, it is sticking to them which is the difficult part! So, apart from organization, DISCIPLINE is also something you must cultivate. Most professional freelances aren't scientists or geniuses, they've simply learned to cultivate the habit of DISCIPLINE! If you stick to it, there would never be a need to stay awake and compromise your health.

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