Routine is my enemy, or is it?

Paraphrasing one of the most prominent British bands who sang “the day is my enemy”, I have always thought that routine was my personal archenemy.

During my study years, I had always associated this word with long hours sat at a desk, in a cubicle barely bigger than myself, repeating the same task day in day out, from 9 till 5. I was so afraid of getting caught in the soul-crushing modern-day routine that I didn’t even consider the possibility of finding an in-house position, as if accepting an office job would have meant selling my soul to Satan himself. The (alleged) freedom of freelancing was calling me from afar and had me day dreaming of working in hipster cafes, with my hipster laptop and hipster mug of skinny latte to snap and upload to Instagram. Dazzled by the working modality of the 21st century, I jumped the gun and dived head-first into the world of freelancing, ready to bathe in all of the freedom it would give me.

One and a half years later, I have vastly reconsidered these two concepts, “routine” and “freedom”.

Being a freelancer can give you more freedom than an in-house position, there is no doubt about that, but that freedom is subordinated to the business choices you want to make, or worse, you can afford to make. Here is a simple example: you want the freedom to start working at 11.00 AM because you need your beauty sleep, which is totally understandable. Being a freelancer, there is no boss to tell you “not in a million years”, but be prepared to kiss goodbye to all those projects that land in your inbox between 8.30 and 11.00, someone else has already taken them. Moreover, your clients now know you for not being very responsive, and you have got yourself a reputation. The world of freelancing is chaotic, unforeseeable and difficult to keep up with, where it seems you’re always chasing after someone else’s needs and not yours.

Here is where routine comes into play, but not the routine I feared for so long. There is no poorly lit cubicle here, no lengthy commute and no slowly ticking clock on the wall.

This new definition of “routine” takes into account your needs and those of your clients, in order to come up with a plan that allows you to create a financially, mentally and physically sustainable working model. It all starts with knowing yourself: when do you work best? How do you work best? Where do you work best? Then you move onto your clients: what do they need? How do they need it? When? This can give you an idea of the hours you need to work and set up a daily routine that will allow you to fit all of your workflow in in an organised manner: say goodbye to randomly working on 4 different projects without a clear picture of what the plan is. By “daily routine” I mean knowing when your working day starts and ends, when do you want or need to take breaks, when to fit in the administrative side of the business, and the likes. I find that having a set structure allows me first of all to organise myself and my workflow far better as I know exactly how much time I have to perform the tasks I have on my to do list, and managing time becomes a piece of cake (maybe I am beign overly optimistic, but can you blame me?). Having your routine will also help you setting boundaries: if you don't work after 5 PM because that's you dedicated time for the gym/food shopping/ your children, then it becomes easier to say no, and this is particularly true for weekends. Moreover, not having to constantly think about how and when to do things makes me feel in control of what is happening around me, and saves me an unspeakable amount of cognitive effort that I can dedicate instead to my working projects. Think of it as your morning routine: you don’t think about the order of breakfast, shower, getting dressed up, doing your hair and putting make-up on, do you? The same goes with your whole day: wake up at the same time, start working at the same time, have lunch at the same time and end at the same time – you’ll create your daily rituals soon enough and your mind, body and productivity will thank you.

It’s really easy to associate “freelancing” with “working whenever, wherever” but that set up is for amateurs, if you are a professional freelancer you’re a business and you have to behave and act like one. Create your own rituals and a semi-rigid daily structure to improve your organisation and productivity, and if you want to take an afternoon off, you always can! The next day your structure will be there for you to guide you through another productive day of work.

How about you? Do you have a structure for your day and do you follow it strictly? How long did it take you to come up with one?