Top tips for improving your wellbeing when you’re self-employed

You may have to deal with uncertainty, stress, and being overwhelmed on a regular basis. So, it’s essential you clue yourself up on how you can stay positive and motivated when you are your own boss.

Throughout our in-depth guide, we’ve put together some wellbeing tips and self-care strategies to help you cope with the challenges of self-employment, and how to prioritise your wellbeing.

Why is wellbeing important for the self-employed?

From the pressures of meeting deadlines to the stresses caused by late payments, there are a range of challenges you may experience if you’re self-employed. And it’s down to you to protect your mental health; you don’t have a manager to help you with this. Self-care and mindfulness can play a vital role here. By using effective techniques, you stand a much better chance of keeping positivity at the forefront and safeguarding your mental wellbeing. According to Forbes, maintaining a positive mindset is critical to your professional growth, so to reach your full potential, take a look at our guide.

Set realistic goals

A key way to improve your wellbeing when you’re self-employed is to create a clear vision of what you would like to achieve and how you plan to get there. Setting yourself realistic and achievable goals is a great way of helping you focus your efforts, track your progress and celebrate your milestones.

To help set yourself achievable goals, we’d recommend to:

• Consult the SMART framework, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This means ensuring your goals are clear, quantifiable, realistic, aligned with your values and vision, and have a deadline.
• Break down your ambitions into smaller objectives to help keep your goals more manageable.
• Review your goals often so you’re able to amend when necessary. An article from Freelancer News acknowledges how goals can evolve overtime as circumstances may change or new opportunities may arise, therefore, adjusting your goals will help to keep them achievable.
• Refrain from comparing your goals to others. Your goals are tailored to your abilities and situation, so it’s important to keep focused on your own journey and avoid discouraging yourself.

Manage your time

To fulfil your efforts, it’s essential that you manage your time and energy. Juggling multiple responsibilities, projects and deadlines can be difficult, so we’ve highlighted tips below to assist you.

Planning ahead and setting boundaries is essential for keeping a positive and healthy mindset. Business Advice suggests scheduling your tasks and prioritising any urgent deliverable on a daily basis. Using a calendar or planner, always allocate enough time for each project, factoring in any additional time which may be needed for any amends/changes to projects. Make sure that you are saying no to any requests which are not aligned with your goals and/or capabilities. You must clearly communicate your availability and the expectations that your clients, colleagues, and even family should have, to avoid overextending yourself.

If you do find that you’ve overpromised or understand that you would need a larger amount of time and effort for a project, there is always the option to ask for help, and delegate or outsource tasks. Collaborating with others and hiring an additional person will always benefit you in these types of situations, bettering your work and helping to foster professional working relationships.

Take breaks

Allow yourself to take multiple periods of time throughout the day where you can stretch, hydrate, eat and relax. For example, this could include making sure you give yourself a proper lunch break each day, as The Wellbeing Thesis shared it’s been proven that giving yourself a lunchtime break results in an increase of your energy levels at work and decreases exhaustion. Or, you could set a rule that you don’t check emails or take business calls after a certain time in the evening. Make sure you eat a healthy, balanced diet, drink plenty of hydrating fluids and - crucially - get enough sleep. We all know that after a bad night’s rest, we tend to be more irritable and less mentally alert, and over time, the effects of a lack of sleep can become much more serious, increasing our risk of problems such as anxiety and depression.

It's important here that you’re aware of the signs of burnout, and if you notice them in yourself, take action to reduce your stress as soon as possible. Recognised by the WHO in 2019 as an occupational phenomenon, it describes a state of emotional and physical exhaustion that can occur if you experience stress in your job over a long period of time. The most common signs include feeling drained, tired, overwhelmed, defeated, isolated, or experiencing self-doubt and having a negative outlook.

Celebrate successes

Managing yourself and overseeing your own workload can often lead to neglecting to take the time to recognise your successes. Traditional workplaces often have a process in place to acknowledge successes and employee efforts, so it’s essential that you still appreciate your own achievements and growth.

According to LinkedIn, individuals who take the time to acknowledge and celebrate their achievements exhibit higher levels of self-esteem, reduced anxiety and an enhanced job performance. So, to help you keep positive and achieve your best, here are some steps you can follow to help you celebrate your successes:

• Keep track of your progress and accomplishments. Whether you want to keep a journal, or maybe a spreadsheet, you should make a note of your goals, actions, results and feedback. This can help you to look back at what has worked successfully for you and what you have achieved.
• Reward yourself for hard work and hitting milestones. Treating yourself to something that makes you happy or simply acknowledging your success is a great way to keep positivity at the forefront. From gifts and meals, to relaxing experiences and trips away.
• Sharing your wins with your network, community or family means you can share your positivity, and potentially attract new business prospects.
• Celebrate small wins, always. Even if, in your opinion, your success is small, it’s essential that you always take the time to celebrate yourself. Not only will this help support your mindset, but it’s a great habit to get into in case you ever make a hire.

Build a network

Keeping morale high whilst you’re self-employed and often consumed by work can be of difficultly: here’s where building a supportive network comes into play. Making sure you have social interactions with others can help prevent you feeling lonely or isolated. If you’re able to surround yourself with likeminded individuals, then you can work towards asking for feedback and guidance about your career.

To build a supportive network to help you stay positive and motivated, read our tips:

• Join communities, whether online or offline, who share your industry or niche. These communities are easy to find on social media platforms, forums, blogs, podcasts, and newsletters, for example. Local or global organisations, associations or groups are also available by the many for self-employed people.
• Participate in any events that are relevant to your field, such as workshops, webinars, courses, or networking socials. This is an ideal way to learn new skills, discover new insights or trends, and speak to other self-employed people who may be facing similar challenges to you or who have similar aspirations.
• Reach out to anyone who inspires you or who have successfully achieved your aspirations. You can ask for advice, feedback or mentorship.

Practice gratitude and mindfulness

One of the best ways to improve your wellbeing when you're self-employed is to practice gratitude and mindfulness. Gratitude is the act of being thankful for what you have and what you experience, and mindfulness is the act of being present and aware of what you think, feel, and do. A review by UCLA Health found an association between higher levels of gratitude and lower levels of depression, allowing the practice to pave the way for more positivity.

Take a look below for some help with embracing these habits.

• Starting and ending your day with gratitude is a great way to express gratefulness and positivity each day. You can list three things that you’re grateful for, whether written down or verbally, including any people who have helped or supported you.
• Practicing mindful breathing, meditation, or yoga are great techniques to calm your mind, relax your body and reduce your stress. They can also help to focus attention, improve concentration and enhance creativity.
• Be mindful of your thoughts and feelings. The pressures of being self-employed can sometimes be overwhelming, and so acknowledging these feelings can help you to challenge yourself to replace them with more positive feelings.
• Be mindful of your surroundings. Use your senses to appreciate the beauty of what is around you. Whether that means seeking positivity through a connection with nature or feeling the warmth of your home.

Stay on top of business admin

Running any type of business requires admin, and often a lot of it. It’s easy to put admin tasks off, particularly if you’re under pressure, but doing this can store up problems for the future, and potentially cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. This means it pays to stay on top of your paperwork. To do this, try to get into a routine of doing a certain amount of admin work every day. Even if this is only around 20 minutes or so, it could stop your paperwork from mounting up.

It also helps to invest in the right software and tools. For example, accounting software can speed up your finance processing. Review your filing and reporting processes occasionally too to see if you can identify ways to improve and streamline them. And in some cases, it may make sense to outsource admin tasks to specialist third parties.

Implement financial safeguards

Understandably, financial concerns are a common cause of anxiety and stress among the self-employed. However, there are steps you can take to help you feel more confident and in control of this aspect of your business. For example, making sure you have suitable business insurance in place is key.

While you can’t always prevent problems from occurring, you can ensure that you have financial protection in case the worst should happen. For instance, if you regularly come into contact with members of the public, you may benefit from taking out public liability cover. And if you employ anyone, you are required by law to have employers’ liability protection in place.

Another way to ease concerns over money is to try to build up a financial buffer. Having savings in place to help you pay your bills during dry spells, or in case you face an unexpected expense that’s not covered by insurance, can give you greater confidence about the future.

The threat of late customer payment is also high on many self-employed people’s list of concerns, and it’s not hard to see why. Research carried by IPSE, a non-profit association dedicated to the self-employed, found that 60% of these people have experienced delays in client payments. It may not be possible to eliminate this risk, but there are things you can do to minimise it. For example, it may help to insist on a deposit from customers up-front, and to agree on milestone payments as projects progress. You could also provide clients with incentives to pay promptly, such as discounts for early payment. Check out our guide to dealing with late payments for more tips.

If you find that you need more urgent and serious support, it’s really important to seek help immediately. Online resources include mental health charity Mind’s crisis page, and you can contact the Samaritans by phone, email or online chat.