The great freelance balancing act: how to be productive in your pyjamas

One of my favourite books as a child was Pippi Longstocking. Pippi lived on her own in a big house, wore her pyjamas all day if she felt like it and rolled out biscuit dough on the kitchen floor. She would have made a natural freelancer.

This freedom and lack of routine is one of the first things that attracted me to freelancing. But a common side-effect is that your work-life balance can get upset. You might find yourself neglecting friends, family, your exercise routine and hobbies you used to love - in favour of burning the midnight oil.

Whatever self-discipline issues you had as a staffer, chances are you'll double them once you go freelance. That's because there's no one to tell you: 'what time do you call this?' or 'do you not have a home to go to?'

Night owls like me can easily end up getting up later and later until they're not starting work till mid-afternoon. When I used to work from home I was often still in my dressing gown till mid-morning or later.

A healthy enthusiasm for work can easily switch to obsession. Some freelancers I know take their laptop to bed with them and power it up as soon as they wake up.

So how do you get your work-life balance back once it's out of kilter? Business coach Soraya Shaw from Springboard Coaching says you need to set some 'golden rules' and stick to them.

"Freelancers feel they need to take every piece of work when it comes because you never know when the next thing's going to come," she says.

"That puts enormous pressure on people to just keep going. Whilst it's difficult and you need the work, you need to put some boundaries around it".

Here are some tips for a better work-life balance:

1. Set a monthly income goal
... and stop working once you've hit that target.

2. Set boundaries for working hours.
You can set deadlines for when you should leave the office by or you can have a rule like: 'I will never work weekends because that's family time'.

Shaw has a rule that she always takes her son to school in the morning - because she knows she will still be working in the evenings.

A trap I easily fall into is the late-working spiral. This is a slippery slope, and if you're a perfectionist like me, it's easy to keep burning the midnight oil until you've got that draft 'just right'.

I've often worked till 11pm, including the night before last Christmas Eve. Looking back, this wasn't strictly necessary nor was it wise. I've come down with colds in the past after I'd worked too late on a project.

A freelancer I know always turns the computer off at 6pm during the week and she never works weekends, since she noticed it was making her tired and tetchy on Monday on Tuesday.

Another freelancer, who has been at it 16 years, always starts at 9am and finishes at 6pm; she takes her lunch break at 1.30pm and a coffee break at 4pm. She finds this routine much easier to keep to and the day flies by.

3. Book activities into the diary
When I was freelancing from home in London I fell into the trap of having gaping voids of weekends. I was starting up a business and wasn't making much money so I didn't feel like I'd earned my rest time. 

When I started planning my weekends, my motivation and effectiveness improved - I was able to think more clearly during the week.

4. Make sure you keep up exercise
That could be walking the dog or going to the gym – because that's very important for your brain. Here's the bad news – freelancing can make you fat.

When I returned to freelancing after a year out travelling I put on a stone and a half. And no, nipping out of the house for a chocolate muffin doesn't count as exercise. Believe me, I know.

5. Create regular thinking time Whatever happens, make sure you reflect
"While I walk the dog I have a think  - it's my reflection time. Some people have a hot bath," says Shaw. If you give your brain a chance to switch off, you'll think much better.

6. Take mini-breaks. 
No, I don't mean Bridget-Jones-style dirty weekends… although there's an idea! But a few moments' rest every 15-20 minutes.

Since I've been sharing a desk space with other freelancers, I've felt more productive and creative. We take it in turns to make each other hot drinks. These brief interludes boost my mood and the occasional naughty boozy lunch out together helps me recharge my batteries.

7. Don't get influenced by how other people work
We've all got our rhythms and needs, for instance, Shaw's clients know she doesn't work on Mondays because that's the time she spends with her son.

8. Consider having a separate office workspace
Being able to shut the door on your office is a great way of dividing your work life from your private life. I know because I used to freelance from my bedroom: seeing my desk and papers and work phone every night before bed was a reminder of all the stresses of the day and set up a pattern of insomnia that I found hard to shift.

Freelance Advisor has some more tips here and Shaw suggests writing up your golden rules, and then making it a three-month project to stick to the rules. She suggests timetabling your week ahead, just like you did at school.

"They say it's six weeks to learn a new habit and six weeks to rub out an old habit," she says.

And if all these rules sound too constricting just remember that you made them, so you can break them whenever you choose.

And if you decide to bake biscuits in your dressing gown and roll out the dough on the kitchen floor, who's going to know?

Kath Burke is a freelance web copywriter and journalist.

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