Truth time: working from home is full of distractions. From your bed to making cups of coffee, or getting lost in conversations with your roommate, it is incredibly easy to forget that it’s 2 pm on a Tuesday and you have responsibilities.

Flexibility and comfort are part of what makes remote work so enticing. It is a desirable perk that allows you to get work done at your own pace and removes time wasters like the commute, boring office small talk, or meetings that really could have been an email.

It’s a perk you don’t want to lose.

And so, getting serious when it comes to self-control matters. Like a lot.

Self-Control for Freelancers

For freelancers, self-control can take on a whole new meaning. Being an independent freelance means that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid… So in a way, procrastination might have a very literal monetary value (or loss).

For first-time freelancers, the sudden shift into being your own boss quickly reveals major holes in their self-discipline and motivation. It is really hard to be the sole person responsible for your own productivity, especially when you’ve never done it before.

To Read: Five Habits to Build Self-Discipline for Freelancers

Self-Control vs Self-Discipline

Self-discipline and self-control may seem similar, but they each have distinct differences when it comes to working from home.

Self-discipline revolves around establishing and maintaining consistent habits and routines over an extended period of time. It’s about setting clear goals, creating a plan, and sticking to it over several months to see gradual change.

Self-control, on the other hand, is all about managing your immediate impulses and reactions in the moment. Self-control is a short-term skill application for challenges such as resisting the distractions of social media or taking a nap.

As a result, self-control can be targeted with relatively immediate results. By learning techniques to curb distraction and refocus on the work at hand, you can learn to strengthen your self-control. With consistency in these habits, you will also see improvements in your self-discipline.

My Strategy for Daily Self-Control as a WFH Freelancer

After 2 years of freelancing, I’m happy to say I’ve got focusing down to a science. Through experimentation, and a lot of failures, I now know the methods that work for instantly improving your self-control mid-way through a busy workday not spent in an office.

Here are my Top Five Strategies:

Get Organised

So often, the simplest solutions are the best ones. I noticed early into remote work that if I don’t have a clear list of tasks and immediate options for where to start my day, I can very easily slip into distraction or time-wasting tasks.

Enter to-do lists.

I keep a strict to-do list on my iPad with a colour-coded deadline next to each task so I know exactly what needs doing and how to prioritise each activity.

When I’m working on multiple larger projects, I’ll use Trello to track progress and ensure I don’t miss any impending deadlines.

I start each morning by reviewing my to-do lists and tasks in order to jump straight into working.

Embrace Procrastination

Hear me out, sometimes procrastination is a part of the process. With the resource of experience, I have come to understand that when I begin a new writing project, I am going to procrastinate for the first 24 hours.

I used to beat myself up over this.

Now, I embrace this time. By knowing I’m not going to be able to start writing on. Day 1, I can have other work options lined up to get started on when I inevitably give up on the task I am ‘supposed’ to be doing.

Not all procrastination is the same. If you are really struggling to focus, it is always going to be better to accept it and do something else than try and force yourself to keep trying for hours on end. Completing less important tasks is better than starting nothing at all.

Zoning In

One of the keys to productivity is learning how to enter your creative flow. This is the infamous state of concentration where a person is fully immersed in and engaged with their work. During a flow state, you will be deeply absorbed in your tasks, often losing track of time and feeling a sense of effortlessness in productivity.

The process of finding your flow state is different for everyone, but here’s what works for me:

• Wearing noise-cancelling headphones and listening to a LoFi playlist
• Using my walking pad while working
• Making sure to eat a high-protein breakfast to avoid hunger
• Starting each task with a 30-minute time commitment before I’m allowed to do something else

Morning Meetings

Once you’ve entered your flow state, there is nothing worse than being forced out of it by an ill-timed meeting or call in the middle of the day. In many cases, this cannot be helped, but where you do have control over scheduling your day, intentional meeting windows can be revolutionary.

Meeting windows might be only in the mornings as I employ, or aiming to schedule all meetings on only 3 days of the week to leave larger empty time blocks to leverage into your flow state. Whether it’s 2 free days or several open afternoons, these uninterrupted time blocks are often the key to locking into your flow state and limiting distractions.

Go Somewhere Else

Distraction is almost always caused by boredom. You can’t always change up the work you’re doing, but you can shake up where you are doing from – that’s the beauty of remote work.

It might seem counterintuitive to go somewhere more interesting to limit distraction, however, moving to a location like a coffee shop or coworking office has been my saving grace during unproductive and distracted days.

To Read: How to work from a coffee shop (and actually be productive)

Beyond just the refreshing change of environment, working from anywhere other than your home also literally removes so many of your normal distractions – e.g. the bed, TV, or chatty roommates.

Need More Help?

Check out my comprehensive guide on how to work from anywhere for everything remote work, digital nomad lifestyle, and freelancing for beginners.

For help getting started on your writing project, Creative Coaching might be for you. Learn about what is a writing coach or get in touch to ask me your questions directly.