6 Reasons Why Freelancers Need to Exercise Self-Discipline
Posted January 13, 2011 in Inspiration
There’s no doubt that freelancers need many skills that non-freelancers don’t think about. It’s not enough to simply be a good writer, a good designer, a good web developer (or whatever your specialty is). The need to have these other skills is one of the things that makes freelancing so difficult.
Many blog posts have been written about a freelancer’s need to market one’s self, the need to manage one’s financial affairs, and the need to manage your time well. But, a crucial freelancing skill, self-discipline is rarely mentioned.
In this post, I’ll explain why self-discipline is important to freelancers and provide some examples of instances when self-discipline should be used.
The Hidden Part of the Success Puzzle
In many ways, I think that self-discipline is the hidden part of the success puzzle. We freelancers don’t talk about it much and sometimes I think that we forget about it.
But, the truth is that learning self-discipline is every bit as important to being a successful freelancer as learning to code, design, or write well.
Another reason that we freelancers might not discuss self-discipline is because we’re not quite sure how it fits into the freelancing picture. We don’t know when to exercise self-discipline.
6 Ways to Exercise Freelancing Self-Discipline
If you’re in freelancing for the long haul, then you’ll need some self-discipline. Here are some crucial areas where self-discipline is needed:
- Save Money During the Good Times. As I write this post, I’ve just finished reading blog posts from several other freelancers describing their financial woes. The best way to mitigate the times when your income is lower than normal is to set aside part of your income during your better months.
- Work When No One Is Looking. One thing that freelancers do not have is a boss looking over their shoulder all of the time to check on them and make sure that they are doing their job. A freelancer has to learn to get the work done even if no one is holding him or her accountable.
- Market Yourself. Many freelancers have trouble promoting themselves. (I count myself as part of this group.) However unpleasant marketing may seem to you, if you want to keep your freelancing business afloat, you’ve got to keep on marketing yourself–whether you like it or not.
- Work on Nonpaying Tasks. Not every task that a freelancer does can be directly billed to a client. However, it’s still important to keep up with those parts of your business that don’t generate income, such as bookkeeping, collections, and marketing. Not doing so can cost you a lot of money.
- Keep Your Skills Up to Date. Many corporations require periodic re-training for their employees. As a freelancer, however, it’s up to you to make sure that your marketable skills are up to date. When you’re busy it’s easy to put training off (especially since it doesn’t pay the bills), but don’t do it.
- Control Your Temper. As a freelancer, you may have to deal directly with more people than you ever would have had to face as an employee. What this means is that sometimes you are going to run across clients and others who are less than pleasant. Keep your temper in check no matter what.
What to Do If Your Self-Discipline Fails
This is probably the most important tip of the day. I’ll be first person to say that I don’t follow all of the above advice all of the time perfectly. No one can. Everyone fails from time-to-time.
So what should you do when you’ve had a lapse in self-discipline? What about when you’ve spent your savings? Or, maybe you’ve slacked off on your marketing efforts? What’s a freelancer to do then?
Simple. First of all, don’t panic. Instead, reboot. If you’ve spent your savings, start again to save. If you’ve slacked off on marketing your business, start marketing it again.
Remember, a lapse in self-discipline doesn’t have to be a permanent setback.
What About You?
Do you ever struggle with self-discipline? What additional self-discipline tips would you add?
Share your answers in the comments.
Related posts:
- What’s Your Strength: Creativity or Discipline?
- Two Freelancing Myths and The Need For Self-Discipline
- Why & How Freelancers Should Exercise (from Fitness Expert Scott Tousignant)
- 5 Reasons Freelancers Can’t Ignore Twitter
- Jump-Starting Freelancing Productivity: 9 Reasons Why and 5 Reasons How Working Smarter Works
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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30 Comments
Lucian
January 13th, 2011 at 9:41 amThere are some motivational tips in here :)
I’d add: keep your workspace clean and organized and try wake up early.
I’m still working on my own advice, I like sleep in longer and start working at 10 / 11 AM. Sometimes I feel the day goes by way too fast because of that.
Vivek Parmar
January 13th, 2011 at 10:16 amNice tips for every freelancer.
Self-discipline is the first key to success and many of them not able to keep a self-discipline. saving money is another thing you have to look out becuase you have to pay online bills so that money will come as a useful resource at that time.
work consistently and passionately so that no one can beat you
David
January 13th, 2011 at 10:47 amGreat article!
I agree to consider self-discipline the hidden skill to success. However, I like to use this skill in relation to other skills that will further improve my chance of success.
I usually think of self-discipline to be the first basic mindset to undertake in any given project. This helps establish the right focus and commitment for the job. After I have gain control of my mind, I now know what I want to do and is just a matter of scheduling tasks that helps me achieve it. This is when I enable skill #2: Task-Management. This skill is extremely useful when dealing with many daily tasks and helps my workflow to run smoothly. But for maximum smoothness I enable skill #3: Time-Management. In order to fully cope with the tasks I have set for working on, I need to effectively manage the time I spend doing so. The results of this process are a boost in productivity, a gain in confidence and a growth in professionalism.
Rachel Small
January 13th, 2011 at 10:56 amI don’t think it’s possible to be a successful freelancer without a healthy dose of self-discipline. For example, I know that I am most productive early in the morning. It can be a huge struggle to get myself out of bed at 6 a.m. when no one is “looking over my shoulder” to make sure I do so, but it’s the only way I’ll get good work accomplished. Thanks for the post!
Laura Spencer
January 13th, 2011 at 11:59 amHi Lucian–Being organized is very important too. Good organization can save you time and money. Good tip. :)
Vivek Parmar, Saving money is a good idea for everyone, but it’s vital for freelancers.
David–Interesting points. I like the order that you list the skills. 1) Self-discipline, 2) Task Management 3) Time management. These are all very important.
Rachel Small, I think this is the biggest adjustment new freelancers have to make. Not everyone is willing to do what it takes to be their own boss. If an employee goofs off, chances are the boss will catch them. If a freelancer goofs off, they will lose money.
Elinor Barbary
January 13th, 2011 at 1:51 pmThanks for another great article.
One of the things I wanted to change about my life this year was my complete inability to get up early (a total lack of self-discipline) – I have found an excellent trick for this, it’s so easy it almost bypasses the need to be disciplined!
You can read about my experience here http://barbarysolutions.com/2011/01/13/how-i-came-to-terms-with-mornings-part-1/
Laura Spencer
January 13th, 2011 at 2:02 pmElinor–That’s a great story about how you overcame a self-discipline problem. Thanks for sharing it. :) I tried to tweet it, but found no Twitter button–so, I gave it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon instead.
Elinor Barbary
January 13th, 2011 at 2:22 pmWhoops – all my Twitter buttons went AWOL for some reason. They’re back now. Thanks for Stumbling it, Laura!
Christina
January 13th, 2011 at 9:47 pmAnother great article but what is missing is to discipline ourselves to take the breaks from working. I don’t know about you, but in my first two years freelancing full-time I averaged working 60hours a week.
TLC
January 13th, 2011 at 11:40 pmMy weakness in self-discipline is making time for myself, especially after a big deadline. After a string of long, intense days, sometimes it’s tough to step back and wind down.
I don’t think that sleeping later is a lack of self-discipline — just having a different body clock. I am incoherent at 6 am but come to life after 9 pm. Do what works best for you and your family.
Laura Spencer
January 13th, 2011 at 11:57 pmChristina and TLC–That’s a great point! It’s easy to forget to pace yourself. For some people, making yourself take appropriate breaks so that you can perform at your peak requires discipline.
Magento Themes
January 14th, 2011 at 2:43 amExcellent reasons, hope this will be an eye opener to all.
Theo
January 14th, 2011 at 3:38 amGreat tips in this article and the first time (as far as i know) temper is mentioned.Always be polite and have your temper under control requires discipline.Thanks for the nice article!
Ali Erdoğan
January 14th, 2011 at 5:52 amThere must be detailed workly timetable even for free times and you must keep yourself loyal to that timetable. The timetable may contain daily works like wash the dishes, go shopping ext.
Keep your desk clean and simple. Dont stack unnecessary things on your table.
Always use a alarm clock even if there is not a compulsory wake up time.
Dont use instant messengers while you are working. Close the web browser, social sites, e-mail client, rss reader then the begin to work. Check your mail and social network site profiles once or twice a day.
Adam
January 14th, 2011 at 8:04 amI guess a good way to train yourself in self discipline is to start some sort of sport activity and try to keep up with a workout schedule.
Rachel
January 14th, 2011 at 8:58 amOne of the best pieces of advice I heard in relation to your second point (‘work when no-one is looking’) is that motivation comes from action. There’s no point sitting around trying to will yourself into doing the boring tasks, you just have to get on and do it!
Thanks for a useful article.
ronika
January 14th, 2011 at 6:16 pmGreat recommendations that freelancers tend to learn over time. One really does need to need to be so much more amenable when the people you are dealing with are clients rather than colleagues.
Stephanie
January 14th, 2011 at 10:25 pmWhen it comes to sticking to work schedules and waking up early, I’m doing much better. Areas that need improvement include managing my finances, keeping myself focused during work, and knowing when to shut my mouth when someone interrupts me or says something that pisses me off. :)
I love the tips you provided Laura! Self-discipline really is a hidden key to success that freelancers should be more aware of if they want to grow themselves and their businesses.
Usman
January 15th, 2011 at 6:07 amAwesome. Thing I like most in the article is Failure Tips, most articles give tips but don’t cover Failure Tips. Tweeted :)
Julia Evans
January 15th, 2011 at 8:47 amWhen my will-power starts to sag, I find it important to delay something pleasurable (even something as simple as having a muffin or my next cup of tea) until I have finished a particular task I’m putting off starting (or have started but not finished !)
Lee Cole
January 15th, 2011 at 3:07 pmYou’re absolutely right, self-discipline is one of the big keys. For many freelancers, however, self-discipline is fairly easy, because we love our work so much. Most of the freelancers I know are doing some variation of what they would do even if they weren’t getting paid for it. Personally, my hobby, or fascination, with the Internet is what lead to my business. So, self-discipline is key, but I think it’s easier for most of us than for your normal “working stiff”.
edi
January 16th, 2011 at 10:15 amI aggree with Lucian. Staying up late, it bad because the rest of the world will not sleep till noon next day. This is loss of very productive time.e
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