Once you get your freelancing business off the ground, things will start going very smoothly. Then, one morning, you will wake up and discover that you find it really difficult to get motivated to do anything which involves your business. Or you also find that you simply cannot stay focused on the job at hand. You may be suffering from freelance burnout. It is quite common, and there are numerous options to get rid of this burnout and lack of motivation.
Start by taking a vacation day — or a vacation week. Determine how much time you can afford to take off, and take it — even if you don’t go anywhere special. Make it a stay-cation. During this time, avoid your home office altogether. Just make sure that your clients know that you are on vacation, put your out of office on and avoid anything related to work.
Make it a point to connect with other human beings. Freelance burnout often occurs because working from home can be very isolating. You need to see people and converse with them. Make it a point to do so on a regular basis. Meet friends for lunch, attend networking events. Spend the evening out with friends. Get out of the house and socialise, just get away from your work environment.
For more tips on working from home as a freelancer, take a look at this article: How to survive working from Home
Freelance burnout can also occur when you are doing the same thing day in and day out for the same clients’. You are simply bored with the monotony of it all. If this is the case, your only real option is to think of other services you can offer. By doing something different you break up the monotony.
The important thing is that you realise that it is a simple case of burnout.
The chances are good that when you started freelancing, you built a business based on something that you love, and/or something that you are good at. If this is not the case, rethink the direction that your freelance business is going. If you want out, you could actually “sell” your business to another freelancer, and go in another freelancing direction.
Burnout comes, and burnout goes. All you have to do is figure out what is causing it, and correct the problem to the best of your ability, and you will find that you are right back on the track to success, the motivation to succeed will come rushing back.
