Usually, a very rosy and romantic picture is portrayed for freelancers. Somebody wandering in the mountains or lying on the beach but still working and earning. But the reality is not that fantasizing or fictional. Its a real struggle for freelancers to maintain momentum for remaining productive for work. 

For a regular job, you get up daily at some specific hour in the morning and work in an official environment. It instilled a feeling of being at work. On the contrary, freelancers don’t have any of these privileges. 

The foremost priority is getting yourself organized

Allocate a space in a home that you can convert into an office like setup. Specify a time when you will wake up and dress up like you are actually going to the office. And be cautious when choosing a space at home. If it’s in the neighborhood of your laundry room or that of a sibling who loves to play music at the highest volume. Then you are certainly in a bad company to work! 

Freelancers are more prone to fall for distractions

When you are at home, you are surrounded by every sort of distractions that won’t let you work with peace. It can be a kid or a pet. Or if nothing else, constant urge to take random breaks and make a call to a friend. Because you know you aren’t getting monitored. So feeling like a boss of your own can mislead you quite easily. You start wasting time thinking, it’s just a few minutes and I’ll be back to the work, but you barely do. Towards the end of the day, you regret not meeting your targets. 

You need to break this tendency and remain focused. To inculcate a sense of getting tracked and monitored, acquire reliable time tracking software. It will keep you alert of your performance. When you know you are being watched, you won’t fall prey to many temptations around. 

But you still need breaks

Avoiding distractions doesn’t imply you don’t need breaks. Apply the Pomodoro technique and get short intervals after every few minutes. But don’t get sidetracked. It means take breaks at set timings not whenever you like. 

Budgeting is a sign of rational minds

You don’t want to run short of funds in mid of year without knowing what to do next. It happens when you miscalculate. If your freelance career is bringing you 1000 dollars every month, it’s not necessary it will remain so for eternity. Learn to save for a rainy day, especially when you run short of projects. Because eventually, you will start hating freelancing for insecurities associated with, let alone remaining productive. So plan reasonably!

Divide larger tasks into smaller ones

When you come across a heavy project with some lucrative offer, you instantly grab it. But then start delaying because it mentally scares you. Anyone feels put off with heavy assignments hovering around. So find a safe passage and divide them into smaller chunks, this way you won’t even realize and they are completed. 

Have the right set of equipment

As a freelancer, you can become a digital nomad or might be living in some remote area. You need a stable Wifi, an efficient device and all the required software needed to execute tasks. Without ensuring that your progress is going to suffer heavily. 

Task assignment and feedback seems difficult in remote work

For clients or employers its hard to decide how they can assign task in a clearer way that leaves no ambiguity for flex workers. Usually, these are lengthy emails to elaborate on the desired goals. Most of the times confusions are created and never sorted out till the work is delivered and doesn’t match the expectations. The reason is it’s hard for any employer to get into the nitty-gritty of their globally sparsed teams’ performance. So usually miscommunications occur. 

Audio clips for task assignment can ease this trouble. Its quickly delivered and save the productive time of both sides spent in writing and reading emails. Not only that feedback is given via the same method. 

The real challenge remains: Is there a way to monitor freelancers?

Previously, there was none. But now yes. Real-time monitoring has solved the issue. Now screens are shared between employers and employees if they subscribe to a reliable time tracking app, that offers it. When you can monitor them live, no issue remains whether they were actually that productive as claimed. 

Conclusion

Productivity and then keeping track of it is interconnected and crucial for freelance work. No point of remaining productive remains if it’s not closely monitored. In fact, the employee monitoring software will testify for employee productivity and help make accurate invoicing.