In my last post, I indicated that this week’s entry would be about how to stay motivated when you freelance and work alone every day. Here we go…

When you are your own boss, it can be very tricky not to go too easy on yourself. Of course, you should not beat yourself up or call yourself incompetent every time you make a mistake. Still, you should not tell yourself that it’s okay to take every other day off or nap during every workday. You need to stay motivated if you want your freelance business to succeed.

So how do you do that?

Probably the most effective thing that motivates me is deadlines. Every project I have comes with a deadline that I had better meet. I am proud and happy to say that I have never missed a deadline in my years of running a freelance editing business. When I receive a project, I plan how much work I will do every day up until the day before the deadline. I always plan to finish a project at least a day before the deadline in order to give myself some breathing room.

Another powerful motivator I have is my husband. He loves it when I work hard. Don’t get me wrong—he’s not the “crack the whip” type. But he does like to see me make money (let’s admit it—who doesn’t like to see their spouse do so?). And when he is happy, I’m happy.

This might seem incongruous given that it doesn’t have to do directly with my work, but getting to the gym in the morning motivates me. Oftentimes, it’s the only opportunity I have to get out of my condo building. And having a good workout or a good swim makes me want to throw myself into work when I get home. (I don’t really know why, but it works.)

If you freelance and work alone all day, how do you stay motivated?