Are you sick and tired of struggling to stay motivated while working online? Do you constantly struggle to achieve a healthy work life balance but failed over and over again? And now you need help?
You’ve come to the right place…we’ll help you.
Way back, while you were dreaming about becoming an online worker and your own boss, motivation never seemed to be a problem, right?
However, when you set off an adventurous online work journey and got your feet wet, somehow all that enthusiasm got drowned in tiring daily routines, which have now sucked your motivational reserves dry. And thrown your work life balance off the cliff.
You see, staying motivated as an online worker is easier said than done – especially if you work from home. Still, it’s absolutely vital for the success of your online career in the long run, no matter if you’re just starting or you are well into the prosperous years of your freelance online work.
In short, whatever you do, there’s NO success in business or any other life areas if you don’t manage to stay motivated and nail your work life balance.
Finding motivation is not always easy but it’s necessary, so check out these ways guaranteed to boost your motivation, fuel your own fire, and help you attain a healthy work life balance.
1: Outline Your Work Life Balance Goals
Every online worker wants to accomplish particular goals, right?
And it’s so easy to get distracted while you’re working from home.
The problem is that not many people are ready to map out their goals properly, so often, those goals happen to slip through the cracks.
Wondering why?
Because without a sound plan, your goals remain as ideas only – and it is unlikely you’ll implement them.
How can you avoid such?
Simply write down your career goals with a step-by-step plan of how to accomplish them and set deadlines.
Creating a viable plan to turn your ideas into precise goals will not only make your online work success a reality, but it will give you a strong motivational kick when you need it.
Therefore, don’t hesitate to map out your goals – including those on work life balance, and display them where you can always easily see them. It’s a nice way to help your stay motivated.
It’s amazing how much it raises your chances for business success.
Did you know that only 3% of adults have clear, written, specific, measurable, time-bounded goals?
By every statistic, these people accomplish ten times as much as people with no goals at all, as stated below.
2: Come Up With Your Personal Mission Statement
Creating your unique mission statement is excellent for giving you a clear online career direction as well as for keeping yourself motivated on what you’re doing.
A first-rate mission statement should incorporate:
- the impact you want to make (or how you want the world to view you),
- your reasons for taking a particular road (online work in this case),
- a summary of your main goals (focus on maximum three important realistic goals with deadlines),
- your core values which will steer your actions,
- specific action statements that will lead to your goals (based on your values), and possibly
- who you’re doing it for (if relevant).
Once you’ve created this declaration, i.e. the mission statement you’re satisfied with, you should hang it on the wall or put it somewhere near your desk so that it’s always within your sight to help you stay on the track to success and ensure peak productivity while you’re working from home.
3: Take Notice of Your Reasons
You’ve decided to start down the online work road for one strong reason or more, haven’t you?
Keeping the big picture in mind is an amazing motivator. So, remember to remind yourself of those convincing reasons every now and then.
Having that big WHY in front of you at all times will help you to keep your eye on the ball in business.
That’s how you’ll be able to see clearly where you’re heading and to realize how far you’ve come.
4: Celebrate Even the Smallest Victories
Your life as an online worker will become more enjoyable and motivating when you start celebrating all those small victories that lead to the big ones.
But, how can you celebrate them if you don’t see them?
First, you need to learn to recognize those little wins.
If you look closely, you’ll spot them almost at every step of your online career journey.
Yes, the fact you’ve decided to become your own boss and take control of your life is a victory you should start from.
Isn’t it fantastic?
What else have you achieved after leaving the corporate grind?
Have you managed to win more than one client?
Set up your home office? Great! Keep up the good work!
Got a new subscriber to your YouTube channel? Excellent! Celebrate it.
Recognize and acknowledge all your small wins because they will take you to those huge wins which don’t come so easy and often.
5: Reward Yourself for Every Accomplishment
Letting your smaller achievements go unnoticed and working with no reward is bound to kill your motivation sooner or later.
On the other hand, acknowledging all your accomplishments big and small, and rewarding yourself for them is both motivating and healthy.
Celebrating your wins and rewarding yourself whenever you reach a milestone does not have to be expensive, though.
You could treat yourself to anything you enjoy, be it:
- a drink with your friends
- a chocolate bar
- an ice-cream
- an item of clothing
- a new (in)expensive gadget
- a tickets for a concert or a sporting event and the like
Wouldn’t any of these rewards make you feel gratifying?
You see? No need to spend a fortune at all.
What counts here is an incentive which helps you move forward, so never underestimate the power of reward on lasting motivation.
The key is in appreciating the small stuff that leads to big destinations.
These mini rewards will train your brain to understand that something pleasurable follows whenever you reach a small goal and it will trigger your motivation when it’s gone.
6: Avoid Negative People Like the Plague
As soon as you embark on a path as an online worker and become your own boss, it’s critical to your success that you learn to recognize and avoid all the short-sighted haters you come across on your journey.
All those who continually nitpick, find fault in everything you do, and place blame on others are toxic manipulators. Perhaps they don’t realize it, but it’s not a reason for you to let them sap all your emotional energy.
Everyone has those doubtful negative individuals around, but spending time and energy on them is a sure-fire way to lose your motivation.
Instead, it’s advisable to surround yourself with strong like-minded people who share your passion for success, support your goals and understand the challenges you’re facing.
For instance, you could join an online club in your industry, a relevant group on a social network or perhaps find a local meetup in your field if any. That’s where you’ll find valuable teachers and cheerleaders to support and motivate you.
When you find those gems, don’t miss the opportunity to look up to them and learn from experienced individuals willing to share their wisdom. Yes, even if they’re your competitors.
You’re undoubtedly not the first person on this planet with the issue you’re facing. Others have probably already faced the same challenges, haven’t they? What have they done to overcome difficulties? Repeat their successful patterns.
In addition to learning from seasoned experts in your field, share your goals and challenges with your family members and close friends.
Haven’t they always been there for you? Not only to celebrate your wins but to support you when you failed, right?
They can strengthen you and give you advice when you need it. Just allow them to be there for you while you’re trying hard to make your vision happen.
7: Kickstart Every Day With a Routine That Works for Your Work Life Balance
Developing and following a solid daily routine makes all the difference when it comes to your success as an online worker. Besides maximizing your productivity, it will bring about cutting down on stress. And helping you balance your work life.
Establishing a productive day-to-day routine that will help you stay motivated throughout a busy day encompasses the following elements:
- Setting the tone of every day by taking advantage of your brain’s morning boost when you feel most energized just like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and many other successful business people do
- Setting out some time to chill out every day
- Ending your workday on time and getting a good night’s sleep (ideally eight hours) so that you wake up refreshed and eager to work and reach your daily goals the following morning
- Adopting a healthy diet to fuel your brain and feed the whole body, as well as keeping it fit by exercising regularly
All these steps will ensure you have a structured life think healthy work life balance and feel more confident and in control, which results in the lasting motivation to go on.
So, get important tasks done early, carve out enough time for relaxation, eat healthy food and sleep enough. That would suffice for a start.
Tools such as Google Calendar can be helpful for creating an organized daily routine.
And as you stay organized, you also need to keep track of your working time. Hubstaff, for example, is am excellent tool that helps you measure your productivity so that you work smarter.
8: Focus On Your Destination but Don’t Forget to Enjoy the Journey
Many online workers start their new careers with excitement but let them turn into loads of stress later.
Do you want to become one of them?
We thought so.
Remember the old saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”?
You got it.
Taking at least a little bit of personal time to yourself each day to just stop, breath and relax is significant.
So, find a hobby you like doing to help you get rid of stress, be it playing sports or an instrument, reading books, drawing, watching films or anything else you enjoy outside of your work.
Have fun! It will help you find inspiration to work and push through the tough times.
9: Channel Your Energy Towards Positive Thinking
We all have days when nothing seems to be working the way it should. No one said that being a successful online worker is easy.
However, it can be incredibly rewarding if you love the work and look at all it comes your way from a positive viewpoint.
When everything goes wrong, do your best to find a single detail that went right on that awful day. Always tend to focus on positive elements only, no matter how small they appear and how rare they are in a day or week.
That will help you stay motivated to achieve your goals.
You’ll be amazed when you feel the effects of adopting a positive mindset.
Be Tenacious: Stay Motivated, Achieve Your Work Life Balance Now
Bear in mind that every online worker has to find different ways of staying motivated and ensuring work life balance that works best for their unique personality.
What we all have in common is finding that focus and knowing how to regain motivation to work when it fades away.
You want your online career to thrive, don’t you? Then you need to make it happen.
It’s achievable only by developing a clear vision of what your online career looks like on a daily basis and in the long run. And by finding ways to stay positive and motivated along the way. Best summed up as work life balance.
We all experience moments of self-doubt sooner or later, but always remember that the key to keeping that fire burning is within you and stay determined to succeed.
Never give up.
