How do you keep yourself disciplined when you are freelancing at home? | Hacker News Reader

How do you keep yourself disciplined when you are freelancing at home?

paralyzed.se

34 pointsancide25 comments

When you are freelancing at home you don’t have fixed hours and you don’t have anyone shouting at you when you aren’t working. In other words it’s really easy to slack off. So what can you do to keep yourself disciplined and focused? Here are 7 tips to help you to keep yourself disciplined.

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Three words:

- Routine

That's the only thing that keeps me disciplined. Throw in disruption to my routines and my coding productivity plummets.

Absolutely. I've been freelancing for two years and found that even little things like not gelling my hair or not shaving can throw me off for an entire morning.

Environmental triggers like having a cup of tea or coffee ready, music playing, and the right windows open are surprisingly significant too.

- force yourself to get up early

- get your pace up by doing something physical (bike or jog for 45 minutes or so)

- set a goal to achieve for the day, don't stop to do other stuff until you've reached that goal

- get a task manager to be able to track your time and mark off stuff done and what remains

- reward yourself with something when you've completed a set of tasks

Did you watch the recent TED movie about the effectiveness of rewards?

When you reward yourself, is it for finishing creative tasks, or tasks that you just need to apply grit to?

This is something I have been wondering about myself when it comes to 'autorewards' (or whatever it is called when rewarding oneself for tasks accomplished).

I spend so many evenings avoiding doing the things I know exactly what I need to do.

One question .. which task-manager do you use ?

http://taskfreak.com/

I also find task managers beneficial. I use RememberTheMilk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/) for more general tasks, and I use FogBugz (http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/) for specific coding tasks. To be honest, I don't think it really matter what task list you use. Some are better than others, but they all essentially do the same thing.

What's important is how you use your task list. Do you find that you begin by jumping into your work, and then glance at your task list rarely? If so I'd recommend a change of strategy. Try using your task list as your home base instead. Work religiously to eliminate the items found on it, and ignore all else. If you need to do something that's not on the task list, then add it to the list -- even minor tasks.

I find I'm able to zip through my work when I attack it like this, as you'll eventually get to the point where crossing an item off the list itself feels like a reward.

org-mode works well for managing just about anything.

I'd also recommend creating a prioritized todo list the night before and the instant you sit down at your desk start on task #1.

I have to say that Number 3 ("be inspired": check your RSS feeds for 30 minutes each morning before you start work) is an absolute disaster for me - especially if accompanied by a cup of coffee. Sends my neurons flying about in completely the wrong directions.

I've been having luck with the "Pomodoro" method - I keep a cheap 30 minute countdown timer on my desk, and a simple worklog for the day open in my text editor. One of the key benefits of this for me is it stops me going down ratholes - after 30 minutes I can pull my head out of the trench and look and see if I really have been digging in the right direction.

I found it easier to keep myself disciplined to work when I was freelancing. I simply had a schedule and kept it. It is like when you are working. You wake up at such hour, you leave home at such hour, and so and so. I simply kept doing the same, minus the part of leaving home. I woke up, watched cartoons while eating breakfast, turned on the computer, turned on the stereo and went to the zone.

However, I found very hard to go after the jobs myself, because I hate to deal with clients (don't we all?).

The best part, however, was that when I was done I was done. Even if it was only 2 PM, if I met my goal I called it a day. That prevented a lot of stress and a possible burnout.

Also I had a set goal of money I wanted to earn every month and once I attained it, I stopped worrying about quarrelying for every possible offer I could get. I gave myself the leisure of taking only the ones I wanted to do.

Easiest thing: close the phone and the mess when working. Two hours at a time, or how long you work at once, then check mails/messages/calls.

Have a real desk and use it when you're working. It works right in with the routine idea: "this space is for working. I'm here, therefore, I need to stay on task".

Fear of failure, hope of big success. Routine.

Doesn't that make your life miserable?

My biggest problem is getting on track. Once I've started working, I really get into it and I can't pull myself away for anything; food, sleep, etc. The best trick for getting started is attacking some small, even trivial, task that doesn't require thinking through.

Graphs help. If you can measure tasks completed and clocked time accurately, seeing that you've spent less productive time than yesterday can give you the kick you need. I don't use this for personal projects, but I was an intern on a website fix-it team that used this method, and it was pretty damn effective.

If this appeals to you, then RescueTime (http://www.rescuetime.com/) might be right up your street.

Honestly, for me, it's critical to be working on something enjoyable. If I don't like it, then it doesn't matter if it's at home or in an office ... I'm going to drag and procastinate.

However, if it's fun, I can go 80 hours a week by myself at home on it.

I recall a contract I did for a big software company a few years back - the other devs there were insanely jealous of the 40 hours of programming I was putting in a week by working remotely. They spent so much time in meetings and reviews and planning that they were lucky to break 10 hours a week of actual programming.

* My own form of time boxing (e.g, the Pomodoro Technique; the Autofocus System). (I'm also evolving an app to manage this in a way that works for me.)

* Some general routine, mostly aiming to get certain things done during the late morning/early afternoon

* Various reminder tools. Big help when something occurs to me but I do not want to stop what I'm currently doing; I have fast ways of leaving reminder notes for myself

* An improving ability to put things in perspective and be more selective with my time

I keep a list - two lists actually, one for features and one for bugs. That makes it easy to look at the list, pick something small, and get to work.

If you're not in the zone you can still make a little progress, and if you slip into the zone you can grab something bigger from the list and keep going.

Clean desk and room/office is absolutely necessary. You want to feel non cramped too.

in a word. Fear. fear that if i don't execute this well, I won't be able to feed my family. The best case is a combination of enjoying the work (carrot) and fear of failure (stick). If I'm not enjoying the work then I just focus on the (stick).

Freedom.app

I wonder how many people can make the 8h work day happen when freelancing. Isn't it utopian unless you let others work you in Indian sweatshops?

In case you only work 8h a day and then stay away from the computer please stand up and tell us how you do it (eating less?)!

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