Congratulations on everything you've been able to accomplish so far! I'm sure it hasn't been easy.
Being self-employed sounds so good on paper, but I've always wondered - how does one manage to keep themselves disciplined? How do you prevent yourself from slacking off on days, or still find the motivation to get yourself out of bed on bad days when you are no longer accountable to an external entity (eg: your manager/your team/etc.)? How do you define a productive day? How do you deal with the self-inflicted (and sometimes even externally inflicted) mental pressure and anxiety of not having a stable income-providing job (as defined by society)?
These are just thoughts I've always had whenever I have tried to explore whether self-employment could be a prospective career path for me. Would love to get your thoughts on these! :)
I still have a client I’m working for 3 days a week. We meet on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (LA time) to review/discuss my progress and new opportunities. That keeps me accountable on a weekly basis.
The negative incentive is the fear of embarrassment of not having anything interesting to show and talk about during the weekly meetings.
The positive incentive is that if I do a good job over time, I get to keep working for them and maybe even make more money doing so.
Besides that, I also just really enjoy what I do for them (influencer marketing, AI-driven ops and tooling) so it’s genuinely fun for me to work I guess (as cliched as it sounds!)
Outside of this client and generally - I keep myself motivated to keep working on things by working on things I enjoy. I also like money. So my goal is to work on things that I enjoy that will bring in money. And then I make sure to use part of the money to do things I enjoy (like traveling).
I totally get the anxiety of not having a stable income - I have it too. The way to deal with it that I’ve found is:
Have 1 year of expenses saved up
Find a client that you love and build a solid relationship with them based on trust and reciprocity. That makes it feel like a stable job while still being freelance.
I hope this helped! Happy to answer any other questions!
What an action packed year, congratulations Mayank!!
Also doing something similar with instagram - I only use it on my laptop on the Brave browser and basically can't access it on my phone either. Kind of sucks sometimes for catching up with friends by not being on Insta but gives me more time as well
Happy to hear from you again, started following your journey when I was trying to figure my Masters and how to go about it. Reading the newsletter made me think again as now I’m also navigating from a similar phase in life.
Keep posting, love the rawness and how real the posts are!
The instagram trap is so real… i uninstalled the app as well… I actually use the web app on mac, and even there, i've installed an extension in Chrome to block feed and scrolling… I try to to only use the platform for what I originally wanted to do at the moment, without allowing it to suck me into doom scrolling. Maybe do try the extension thing bro :) And keep the newsletter coming in hot!
Yeah man, it’s such a trap indeed. It sucks because I do get a lot of exposure and opportunities there, but it’s SUCH a big distraction during the day! I use the web app on Mac as well - the experience is bad enough that I don’t end up doom scrolling, so far so good haha
Congratulations on everything you've been able to accomplish so far! I'm sure it hasn't been easy.
Being self-employed sounds so good on paper, but I've always wondered - how does one manage to keep themselves disciplined? How do you prevent yourself from slacking off on days, or still find the motivation to get yourself out of bed on bad days when you are no longer accountable to an external entity (eg: your manager/your team/etc.)? How do you define a productive day? How do you deal with the self-inflicted (and sometimes even externally inflicted) mental pressure and anxiety of not having a stable income-providing job (as defined by society)?
These are just thoughts I've always had whenever I have tried to explore whether self-employment could be a prospective career path for me. Would love to get your thoughts on these! :)
Thank you!
I still have a client I’m working for 3 days a week. We meet on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (LA time) to review/discuss my progress and new opportunities. That keeps me accountable on a weekly basis.
The negative incentive is the fear of embarrassment of not having anything interesting to show and talk about during the weekly meetings.
The positive incentive is that if I do a good job over time, I get to keep working for them and maybe even make more money doing so.
Besides that, I also just really enjoy what I do for them (influencer marketing, AI-driven ops and tooling) so it’s genuinely fun for me to work I guess (as cliched as it sounds!)
Outside of this client and generally - I keep myself motivated to keep working on things by working on things I enjoy. I also like money. So my goal is to work on things that I enjoy that will bring in money. And then I make sure to use part of the money to do things I enjoy (like traveling).
I totally get the anxiety of not having a stable income - I have it too. The way to deal with it that I’ve found is:
Have 1 year of expenses saved up
Find a client that you love and build a solid relationship with them based on trust and reciprocity. That makes it feel like a stable job while still being freelance.
I hope this helped! Happy to answer any other questions!
What an action packed year, congratulations Mayank!!
Also doing something similar with instagram - I only use it on my laptop on the Brave browser and basically can't access it on my phone either. Kind of sucks sometimes for catching up with friends by not being on Insta but gives me more time as well
Thanks man!! And yeah it does suck but overall I think my life is a lot more focused without the IG app on my phone!
Happy to hear from you again, started following your journey when I was trying to figure my Masters and how to go about it. Reading the newsletter made me think again as now I’m also navigating from a similar phase in life.
Keep posting, love the rawness and how real the posts are!
Thank you so much man! Very glad it resonates!
The instagram trap is so real… i uninstalled the app as well… I actually use the web app on mac, and even there, i've installed an extension in Chrome to block feed and scrolling… I try to to only use the platform for what I originally wanted to do at the moment, without allowing it to suck me into doom scrolling. Maybe do try the extension thing bro :) And keep the newsletter coming in hot!
Yeah man, it’s such a trap indeed. It sucks because I do get a lot of exposure and opportunities there, but it’s SUCH a big distraction during the day! I use the web app on Mac as well - the experience is bad enough that I don’t end up doom scrolling, so far so good haha