2078: How Self-Employed Workers Can Stay Motivated and Organised by Luke Smith with Carl Pullein on Self Employed Productivity

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[00:01:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. How self-employed workers can stay motivated and organized by Luke Smith with CarlPullein.com. It doesn't matter if you're a freelancer or a business owner, an entrepreneur or a solopreneur. If you work for yourself, it can be difficult to stay motivated and organized. If you're self-employed, the buck stops with you. Everything from passion to productivity falls in your lap.

[00:01:26] That said, here are several tips and suggestions to help you keep your eye on the prize whenever you feel that internal focus and drive stall out. Tips for staying organized. There are many ways to help you remain organized. This is critical as you're the one responsible for every aspect of your company. Regardless of whether you employ 50 people or you work alone, here are a few of the best ways to keep running smoothly at all times. 1. Manage your time well.

[00:01:55] Organization often invokes images of cluttered desks and messy workspaces, and you definitely want to address that. However, you also want to stay organized with your time. You can do this by creating solid routines that keep you moving through the day, setting up both short and long-term schedules, and establishing clear boundaries that help you focus on work and personal life depending on the situation. By creating structure, you can regain a sense of control over your time.

[00:02:23] This can serve as the perfect catalyst to reignite your passion and focus as you move through each day. 2. Get your finances in order. It's easy for finances to slip under the radar. After all, as a business owner, you're busy dealing with clients and customers, performing your work tasks, marketing yourself, and tending to endless other responsibilities. However, the state of your finances can be a critical factor when it comes to organization.

[00:02:51] If you feel things are getting out of hand, take time to clean up your financial situation by making sure you've separated your personal and business finances, setting up spreadsheets and templates to manage your income and send and receive invoices, and creating a self-employed tax strategy that includes tracking income, paying quarterly taxes, and filing your taxes early. Your finances are key to self-employed confidence. Make sure they stay well organized.

[00:03:19] 3. Analyze lists, goals, and priorities. If you feel you're being pulled in too many directions, it's important to slow down and re-evaluate what matters. You can do this in three different ways. Regularly ordering your priorities, setting and revisiting short, medium, and long-term goals, and creating lists to help guide you through what needs to be done each day. Taking the time to develop and apply your system can give you clarity and purpose every day.

[00:03:50] 4. Utilize tech Tech is a great productivity hack. It can save you time, organize your life, and make everything easily accessible. Consider using organizational tech like Workflow platforms to keep track of your responsibilities, gig economy apps like Uber, Fiverr, or SpareHire to help you easily find work, and mobile banking apps to make financial management easier. Whatever responsibilities you have as an entrepreneur,

[00:04:18] always look for a way to integrate tech to make them easier and more organized. Tips for staying motivated Keeping a well-ordered business is a great way to stay focused and on point. However, no matter how organized you are, you're going to feel unmotivated at times. Here are two more key activities that you should consider when you find yourself struggling to motivate. 1. Take a break It sounds cliche, but it really isn't. Breaks aren't a popular fad or an excuse to be lazy.

[00:04:48] As a business owner, you already have shown that you're the antithesis of apathy. With that in mind, if you find you're struggling to maintain, step back and take a breath. If you find that you're too busy to have the time for a break, at least switch up your tasks from time to time. It's recommended that you don't spend more than two hours on a single task at any given time. Moving between activities is a great way to avoid burnout. And 2. Unplug with a purpose

[00:05:15] If you find that you're struggling with chronic demotivation, you may need to plan a longer break. This can give you a genuine chance to fully unplug and recharge for a bit. There are two great ways that you can go about this. Spend some time with loved ones. This can give you a social setting where you can detach from work and focus on other priorities. Purposefully indulge in self-care. This can be anything from hiking and exercise to a hobby, journaling, or even sitting and being in the present.

[00:05:44] The ability to take breaks and unplug may seem counterintuitive when you're struggling to keep up. However, if you're feeling a lack of motivation, it can be just the thing to help you recenter and refocus on why you're self-employed in the first place. Finding your way as an entrepreneur It doesn't matter if you work as a freelancer, a small business owner, or anything else. If you're self-employed, it can be hard to stay organized and motivated at times.

[00:06:10] The next time you feel that things are getting out of hand, take some time to consider the suggestions mentioned. Look for areas where each tip specifically applies to your situation. Then, take steps to apply it so that you can get back on track as soon as possible. You just listened to the post titled, How Self-Employed Workers Can Stay Motivated and Organized, by Luke Smith with CarlPullein.com This Father's Day, when you ship UPS air at the UPS store,

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[00:07:37] And thank you so much to Luke, who is a guest writer over at CarlPullein.com. He's a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college, he's been trying his hand at being a freelance writer. And Luke enjoys writing on a variety of topics, but leadership and digital marketing are his favorites. And of course, we also want to thank Carl Pullein, whose site this article comes from. Carl is a renowned productivity and time management coach who's helped thousands of people around the world

[00:08:04] get better at managing their time and become more productive using technology they carry around with him every day. Carl's also written three books on productivity and time management. And he's got a couple of courses you can check out as well. They're called Time and Life Mastery and Your Digital Life. He says that his purpose is to help people learn how to manage their time so they can enjoy their lives and build a life that they are truly proud of. Carl's featured on Optimal Living Daily every once in a while as well, our original show in this network.

[00:08:33] So please check out that show for more. And be sure to come by CarlPullin.com to show some support. You can learn even more about him. Plus, check out his podcast, his coaching, courses, webinars, books, and downloads. And again, that's CarlPullin.com. And his last name is spelled P-U-L-L-E-I-N. All right, that's going to do it for today. I am so appreciative that you're here with me every day. That's, of course, how we can keep this show going. And I'll be back with you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.