Self-help

How to Stop Being Overwhelmed as a Freelancer

Stop being overwhelmed

Have you ever thought that you don’t feel excited anymore about your freelance work?

A lot of freelancers panic in this situation, and thoughts like the following run through their mind:

  • Am I quitting freelancing?
  • Do I have to find a new thing?
  • How would I pay the bills?
  • What would I do next?
  • What’s happening to me?
  • Why can’t I feel motivated to work?

Can you relate as a freelancer?

Are you binge-watching Netflix to avoid your work?

Are you taking too much caffeine to get your focus back?

PLEASE RELAX!

Everything will be fine; it’s normal as a freelancer.

We all go through such situations; I promise.

I’m very sure that not every freelancer takes it very well.

First things first, you have to understand the possible reasons behind that lack of motivation.

Following are the possibilities:

Wrong Project: You might have gotten a project that you aren’t very interested in, which is why you aren’t excited to get it done. It’s absolutely necessary to choose the projects wisely. We often pledge to something just to earn money or get busy that we later feel bad about eventually.

Bad Client: You agree or not, some clients aren’t sweet. They complain a lot or they delay the payments. The best advice I could give to every freelancer is that always associate yourself with the client that treats you well. Make the bad ones go.

Lack of Interest: The fundamental reason why you could be a successful freelancer is that you love what you do. If you aren’t interested in something you’re offering to the clients, you won’t be ultimately happy about it. Therefore, things won’t work out very well for you. Choose the niche very carefully.

Exhaustion: You might be working straight for months without any break. I won’t be surprised if you tell me that you’re feeling exhausted because of that. I always take a break after three or four months because it’s not possible for me to continue to work with the same flow for a long time. I can tell you that a break once in a while is healthy for your mind, creativity, and work. If you aren’t taking a break after a few months of freelancing, please consider taking it.

Now, let’s take a look at the ways to stop being overwhelmed as a freelancer:

1. Take a short break

The best way to deal with being overwhelmed is cutting off your routine and going on a short break. You can take two to seven days off from your work and inform your clients about it too. It’s not just about taking a break from work and managing other stressful work. Instead, the whole idea revolves around resetting your mind by doing things that relax you.

Do you want to know what I do when I take a short break? I watch movies, read books, bake cakes, meet friends, and more things like that.

In my experience, doing nothing makes me more frustrated; so I prefer doing things I love during that break. Not only does it help me relax, but I also get motivated to get back to work.

2. Don’t overthink

One of the reasons why you might be feeling overwhelmed is because you’re thinking too much. Being a freelancer, I know that what a freelancer goes through at different stages of the career. Your mind won’t stop playing tricks on you; it’s very common in our breed.

It reminded me of Patrick bet-David’s video on stress and anxiety in which he said, “if you allow your brain, it’ll play tricks on you.”

It’s 100% correct that if you don’t manage your thought-process, you’ll somehow step into the cage of overthinking. A British vlogger Alfie Deyes often explains why he sees a therapist when he doesn’t have any mental issues. He believes that his therapy sessions are about mind management. Isn’t it great?

You must know how we can think positive, and above all, you must strive in our own ways to stop thinking negative about everything. Once I was stressed out so I made a list of things that I’m grateful of and I wrote every achievement and blessing in it. After doing so, I realized that there are many positive things happened to me. It did help me get through that stress period.

3. Stop comparing yourself to others

This point is unbelievably important; the horrific part is that whether you’re 18 or 80, it doesn’t matter. It happens to everyone who doesn’t realize that it’s wrong and our way of thinking is solely responsible for that.

On the contrary, it’s good to know that we could fix it with a flinch if we want to. Just think about this: you don’t know the struggles and challenges of others so you can’t start comparing yourself to them.

What happens is that we often see what others have and we don’t. It seems so simple but it isn’t because we don’t think about this and it could turn things around for us if we start realizing this.

In fact, I want to do this too. I’ve improved a lot but I still want to keep improving. I, sometimes, used to think about other bloggers’ success. The good part is that I didn’t sit back and cry, but instead, I preferred doing the work.

I have the audacity to accept my failures and shortcomings. When I proudly tell my stories that how I turned my blog into a full-time living or what I learned from launching my first eBook, I could accept that I used to compare myself to others, but it’s changing now, which makes me happy.

Are you ready to make a positive change?

To conclude this blog post, I’d like to share that I realized that I’m feeling overwhelmed; In fact, the demand for my work was causing the problem. In most cases, freelancers are supposed to love this situation when clients keep pouring in the work. It doesn’t mean I’m not thankful for everything that’s happening – I’m very excited about all this.

The thing I figured out that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself – It was tremendously hurting my productivity.

In fact, I don’t instantaneously take new clients now. I talk to them and try to understand their project and requirements before making a commitment.

I have never had this issue before – I realized that I need to re-engineer my thought-process to fix that. And, I’m glad to tell you that it’s been working for me. I’m doing the same amount of work without any stress now; it was just the mind-game.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?

I’d love to listen to your story. 

If this blog post helped you, then let me know in the comments below.

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4 Comments

  1. Umar Ahmed says:

    Hey Hassaan,
    Great Post. A little irrelevant for me because I am just beginning to learning about freelance writing and blogging but j am already in love with your soft and subtle approach.
    Thanks

    1. Hello Umar,

      Thank you so much for your comment.

      I’m so glad to find out that you’re getting into freelancing and blogging.

      Feel free to reach out any time if you want any help or something!

      All the best!

  2. Hassaan, I really liked the point about feeling overwhelmed and not overthink. I have found it in my case that more I am under pressure, more I tend to overthink and beat myself up to it. One should just let it go, take it easy and recharge the batteries.

    Practical advice which I need nowadays. Keep it up the good work mate. Regards, Ahmad

    1. Thank you so much for reading my blog post and giving your feedback.

      I’d say that I knew a lot of people go through with this problem, whether they’re going to start putting out content on social media or launching a new marketing campaign for their business.

      So I knew this and I tried to communicate that issue.

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