As I sit here writing this, the weather is… well, rubbish, frankly. Not at all seasonal and the light levels leave a lot to be desired!
On days like this, I’ll be honest, I sometimes find it hard to be sat in my office. My energy, concentration and – by association – productivity often take a dive and the hours can drag along as a result.
I’ve got pretty used to predicting these moments and adapting accordingly. That’s why you’ll often find me working in a café or pub (fuelled by coffee, honest!).
Here’s a real-life example
Last Friday, I was struggling. So I stopped my day in its tracks mid-morning, packed a bag with my lunch, a flask, headphones, notebook and pen and drove down to the water’s edge. There, I binge-listened to an audio book (which I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while, but never quite found the right time).
It felt good. It had the desired effect.
As a result, I got things in perspective and set myself up with a clear plan of attack for the following days.
Apart from the short stroll I took when the rain abated for half an hour, my car was basically my office. Stripped down, functional, productive.
It can be tough being a freelance, working for yourself and trying to stay on top of things. I have systems in place which do a good job of keeping me on track – and I’ll be sharing some thoughts about these in a future post.
If you’re a creative or just starting out in business on your own, know that there will be plenty of ups and downs. This is par for the course and you just need to push on through, making progress even in little steps day by day. It’s ok to have off-days; it took me a long time to accept this, but I remind myself of this whenever I beat myself up for a lack of productivity.
