Rule #2: Maintaining a set schedule....

Alarm goes off. Wake up. Sleepy. In my case, my alarm is my son, age 1. Sometimes it's my phone alarm, but usually it's the little Squeaker =).

Get up. Get the kids ready for daycare. We all have a different daily schedule, so this can be pretty weird from one day to the next.

Usually during the week I get from 10:00am to 5:00pm to work. Just work - no interruptions, no arguments, no, "Mom, she's looking at me weird!" or, "Mom, sissy stuck her tongue out at me!"

I realized just a few weeks after I started freelancing full-time that not having a schedule is bad. I found myself just working constantly, getting agitated when I couldn't get everything done, and generally being very project and work-driven, which led to burnout very early on.
I realized that balance is the key. So I decided that once I put my son into daycare, I would strictly adhere to a schedule and work during that time, straight through. If I still had a task or two that needed to be finished after, I would do it after dinner or the next day. So sometimes my tasks roll over to the next day, and other times I get everything done, leaving me feeling accomplished and giving me time and energy to spend the evening with my kids and taking care of the household.

Sounds easy, right?

Well... I hate to say it, but maintaining a schedule isn't very easy. The same way people get bored or mess around at traditional jobs, often times a freelancer will get burned out on a project and just kind of procrastinate if they don't "feel like" working on it. This is very bad! And don't look so innocent... you know you've done it too =).

So how do you keep from being bored with a project?

Have 2 of them underway at once so you can switch back and forth between them.

Work for a 50 minute stretch just busting your behind, then give yourself a ten minute break.

Make sure you eat lunch... or at least have a snack around... a tired body makes for a tired mind.

Try not to sit at the computer ALL day... get some exercise, go for a walk, drink some water, or go out to eat with a friend or significant other.

If you only have one project under your belt, bid on several more. You can always turn something down - generally for every job posted on a freelancing site, there are at least 2 or more freelancers applying to take it on. So really, it's a win/win.

For more tips about time management and helping your productivity as a freelancer, I found another great article that goes into just that: