Staying Motivated and Productive When Working Alone

Staying motivated and productive while working alone can be challenging, so we asked 15 professionals, including coaches, founders, and content marketers, to share their best strategies. From forming a motivating peer group to applying the 10-minute rule, discover the top tips to keep you focused and driven when working solo.

●      Form a Motivating Peer Group
●      Try Unconventional Motivation Boosters
●      Minimize Distractions for Focus
●      Maintain a Structured Schedule
●      Utilize the Pomodoro Method
●      Reward Yourself
●      Connect with Your Community
●      Schedule Work and Leisure Activities
●      Listen to Instrumental Music
●      Plan and Enjoy Breaks
●      Reduce Smartphone Distractions
●      Gamify Daily Goals with Spreadsheets
●      Organize Tasks in Two-Week Sprints
●      Focus on Result-Driven Personal Projects
●      Apply the 10-Minute Rule

Form a Motivating Peer Group

Create a peer group of around six people with a similar objective. Peer groups are an outstanding way to motivate each other, share ideas, and celebrate success. Meet regularly, provide each other updates, and bring topics for discussion.

Rich Barton, Coach at Rabney Coaching

Try Unconventional Motivation Boosters

There are many obvious suggestions about what you can do to stay productive and motivated while working alone—for instance, playing energizing music, staying in natural light, and using positive affirmations. My strategies are a little outside the box.

For one, nothing gets me energized like taking a cold shower, especially early in the morning! It sounds a bit bizarre, but it’s surprisingly always effective in shocking your system awake and zapping away all the lethargy in a jiffy. I also try to squeeze in a quick cold shower right before long meetings (if the weather permits) to stay extra alert and ready to work!

Another little quirk that always gives me a boost is totally over-the-top positive affirmations, said out loud. “It’s not just that I can do it, but no one else can do it better than me.” “I’m the world champion at making reports. I can do this in my sleep.” In any other situation, these phrases will get you eye-rolls from people, but if you’re working alone, who’s going to judge?

Manasvini Krishna, Founder, Boss as a Service

Minimize Distractions for Focus

Limiting distractions is a critical aspect of maintaining focus and productivity while working alone. One of the first steps to take is to identify the specific distractions that impact your productivity, such as social media, emails, noise, or personal phone calls. By recognizing these distractions, you can develop targeted strategies to address them.

Creating a conducive work environment is essential. For example, if noise is a significant distraction, consider using noise-canceling headphones, playing soft background music, or working in a quieter space. Keep your workspace clutter-free to reduce visual distractions and maintain a sense of organization.

Nyla Rose, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, BeastBeauty

Maintain a Structured Schedule

As a personal trainer who often works independently, staying motivated and productive can definitely be a challenge. However, over the years, I’ve found one tip/strategy that works really well for me: creating a schedule and sticking to it.

When you’re working alone, it can be tempting to let your schedule slide and take breaks whenever you feel like it. But in my experience, having a structured schedule is essential for staying motivated and productive.

One thing I like to do is block out my day into specific time periods for different tasks. For example, I might schedule an hour in the morning for checking and responding to emails, followed by a two-hour block for writing content or creating workout plans.

By breaking my day down into these smaller, manageable chunks, I find that I’m able to stay more focused and productive throughout the day.

Evander Nelson, NASM-certified Personal Trainer, Evander Nelson

Utilize the Pomodoro Method

I’m a big fan of the Pomodoro method because the brief breaks keep me motivated and productive.

The way it works is simple: Set a timer for 25 minutes, focus on a single task until the 25 minutes is over, and enjoy a five-minute break. This is one Pomodoro. After four Pomodoros, extend your breaks to 15 to 30 minutes.

This way, I feel refreshed and motivated because there’s always a break to look forward to. I know that if I work for another 15 minutes, I can listen to music or enjoy a quick snack.

So, if you find it difficult to stay motivated, give the Pomodoro method a shot. A good target to aim for is eight to 10 Pomodoro’s per day.

Scott Lieberman, Owner, Touchdown Money

Reward Yourself

One way I stay motivated and productive when working alone is to set small, achievable goals for myself. Breaking down big tasks into smaller pieces can help make them more manageable. Setting a timer in the background or on my phone helps me stay focused and keep track of how much time I’m spending on each task.

When I feel like taking a break, I reward myself with a mini reward like taking a few minutes to read, watch something funny on YouTube, or go for a walk. Having small rewards in place helps me stay motivated and productive throughout the day.

Amira Irfan, Founder and CEO, A Self Guru

Connect with Your Community

Whether it’s through social media, online forums, or a simple email exchange, it’s important to connect and engage with your community of like-minded individuals. Getting feedback from them by sharing your work and receiving input can help you refine your ideas, improve your work, and make you feel less isolated. It can also help you stay accountable and motivated, as you’ll have a sense of responsibility to your community to produce high-quality work.

Overall, connecting with and seeking feedback from your community can be a powerful tool for staying motivated and productive when working alone.

Joyce Tsang, Content Marketer and Founder, Joyce Tsang Content Marketing

Schedule Work and Leisure Activities

As a freelancer, I control my own schedule. I can work just about any time I prefer, but I choose to knock out my work as early in the day as possible.

There’s a common belief that people work according to the workload. When they have little to do, they’ll stretch out their time and work at a relaxed pace. Where there’s lots to be done, they’ll work faster. I find this to be true for myself, and it takes away what could be free time if I have a light work schedule.

To avoid wasting time, I think of better ways I can use my time besides working. If I add those things to my schedule, it makes my “workload” look bigger and encourages me to work at a faster pace. The prospect of free time and fun things keeps me motivated to keep moving.

Alli Hill, Founder and Director, Fleurish Freelance

Listen to Instrumental Music

I turn to my carefully curated playlist of instrumental music to help me stay in the zone and maintain productivity whenever I’m struggling to focus or feeling unmotivated. Instrumental music is particularly effective because it is only a background soundtrack and without lyrics that can interfere with my thoughts and cause distractions.

Additionally, I even make use of music to plan my workday. I’ll select a certain album or playlist and use it as a timer for focused work sessions. For instance, I’ll work efficiently for one album-length session and then take a break for half an album-length session. With this method, I can develop a sense of structure and focus throughout the day.

Ajayi Ayomide, Growth Marketer and Writer, Howsociable

Plan and Enjoy Breaks

What has had an incredibly positive effect on my work efficiency and focus when I am alone is the careful planning of my breaks. I don’t assume that I will be focused for an unrealistically long period of time, but I realistically give myself space to relax and take a break from work.

With this approach, I use the break time to relax and give 100% of effort in the moment of focus. Previously, I had a problem with this. Work time blended with breaks, due to which I was neither able to rest nor work.

Magdalena Sadowska, Community Manager, UK Passport Photo

Reduce Smartphone Distractions

I believe I’m not the only one for whom a smartphone is the main distracter and enemy of productivity.

To cut off from this addictive and time-consuming device, I keep it charging in the kitchen during my work time—especially when I’m alone and the temptation for scrolling is the strongest. This easy habit makes me forget about my smartphone and helps me focus on the here and now.

Rafal Mlodzki, Founder and CEO, US Passport Photo

Gamify Daily Goals with Spreadsheets

Staying motivated and productive while working alone is an enormous challenge, but I’ve mitigated the problem. I’ve been working alone daily for almost four years, and my biggest tip is deceptively simple: setting daily goals using a spreadsheet.

Defining and visualizing my daily tasks essentially “gamifies” my day, as I get a dopamine rush from completing a task, no matter how small. Having the spreadsheet template allows me to set goals quickly and have it available on my computer whenever needed.

The best part about my daily goal spreadsheet is that it helps balance my work life. Not only am I more productive during the day, but getting the work done faster allows me to spend time with my wife and children.

Axel DeAngelis, Founder, Jumpcoast

Organize Tasks in Two-Week Sprints

I went fully remote in 2016, way before remote work became the standard it is today. Having worked remotely during that time, I struggled with productivity and organization, often finding myself procrastinating all day and cramming all the work into a few hours each evening.

Soon, that became unsustainable, and the solution was to maintain rigorous two-week sprints, separated by daily activities with due dates and statuses for each one. This type of organization helped me understand everything I needed to accomplish every day and allowed me plenty of time for the unavoidable procrastination that occurs when you work alone.

Luckily, I was a freelancer at that time and didn’t have a team that I blocked whenever I was unproductive, but I definitely kept the habit of tracking my tasks in sprints even now when I am a part of a team.

Gordana Sretenovic, Co-founder, Workello

Focus on Result-Driven Personal Projects

Personal projects that I run in parallel with my main job help me stay motivated. However, such personal projects must yield results; otherwise, you can burn out and lose motivation. That’s why it’s essential to develop projects in a way that produces results. Otherwise, moral bankruptcy, as I call it, is inevitable.

In other words, the brain doesn’t see the benefit of your actions and will protect you from this activity. The solution: figure out how to monetize your project. Monetization can be in the form of money, profitable cooperation, subscriptions, partnerships, etc.

Tetiana Havrylina, Copywriter, DDI Development

Apply the 10-Minute Rule

It’s tough to complete difficult or uninteresting tasks. Following the 10-minute rule, which states that you can take a break after 10 minutes of work if necessary, often leads to you realizing you don’t need a break.

Continue to give yourself 10 minutes to complete your work before taking a break, and before you know it, the assignment will be finished. This is the perspective that I hold.

Arman Minas, Director, Armstone