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Only about 6% of Americans are self-employed, but more than 70% would like to be.
Leaving the regular working world to be self-employed is a big step, and it comes with several challenges. Without a manager or boss to tell you what to do, it can be easy to lose motivation. If you don’t know how to stay motivated it will result in less productivity, which is never ideal.
For 5 key self-motivation tips for employees working for themselves, keep reading.
1. Have a Plan #
One of the first things you need to do when you start working for yourself is to get organized. In a regular job, you’ll generally be told what to do, and when, and this will all be based on a larger plan for the entire business.
You’ll need to have good organizational skills to create a plan for yourself. This means you’ll need to maintain an overall business plan, as well as a daily ‘to-do’ list. Using a daily planner can help you stay on track every day, which will help direct you toward your goals.
2. Break Down Targets #
While you should have an overall goal for yourself, it may be something that’s a long way off. While working towards it, you may feel like you’re making little to no progress, which can be demoralizing. Things will feel much more achievable if you break your targets down into smaller goals.
Sometimes this can be as simple as creating smaller steps that lead to the end goal. Each step you complete will feel like an accomplishment, helping you stay motivated and keep moving forward.
3. Reward Yourself #
One of our best tips for motivation is to reward yourself for reaching certain milestones. This will help you build up an association between getting work done and receiving something for it.
You could reward yourself for achievements, but it may be better to reward yourself based on effort level instead. Sometimes a small task can be far less enjoyable than a big one, meaning you have to commit more to do it. As such, you should reward yourself accordingly.
4. Work in Real-Time #
Many jobs require you to work for a set number of hours, not taking into account how much work you get done in each of those hours. Depending on your mood and focus, one hour of work can be more or less productive than the next. Boring and unengaging tasks can also feel like they take much longer than they actually do.
You should focus about half of your time on working on your business. This will leave plenty of time to deal with any unexpected distractions or interruptions that come up.
5. Vizualize the Results #
When you set goals and targets, don’t just think about achieving them, but think about what the results of achieving them will be. For example, if you have a goal to get a set amount of work done by a specific date, you might want to achieve this so that you can go on a dream holiday.
Keeping that result in mind will help you stay motivated as you’re working towards something that you want. You could even use reminders – so for the above example, you could place some photos of your holiday destination on a wall by your desk to help you remember what you’re working towards.
How to Stay Motivated #
Knowing how to stay motivated is essential for anyone while self-employed. Time management and organization are crucial for this, and you should try to get into good habits as soon as possible.
Elisi is an organizational app that can help you manage your time and stay on track. Click here to give Elisi a try so you can see just how much it can help you.
