Freelance Writing: Simple Tips on Complicated TopicsHere’s how to Stay Productive All Day Long Working at Home

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Working at home has numerous advantages. Your boss can’t see you (and you can’t see him/her either). No dress code. No draconic working hours.

On the other hand, all freelancers have to motivate themselves all the time and fight severe drowsiness attacks. Working from the comfort of your home, you may feel sleepy in the morning, after lunch, at the end of the working day or late at night if you work late at night. In other words, you can feel sleepy at any moment. Sometimes it’s ok to take a nap and start working with your mind refreshed. In other cases, however, drowsiness is your enemy killing your productivity.

It’s important to differentiate between fatigue when your body begs for rest and drowsiness that is pretty close to idleness.

Top Reasons of Drowsiness

Dr. Safwan Badr, the president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine claims that adults need 7-9 hours of sleep daily. Check yourself: if you are not getting enough night sleep, your drowsiness is reasonable.

Otherwise, sleepiness can be caused by:

• You feel warm and you have had a substantial meal.
• You’re doing a boring task – listening to a lecturer with a monotonous voice or working with boring data.
• You get used to having a nap at this time of the day.

If the deadline isn’t approaching too fast, taking a short nap (20-30 minutes) can be a good idea. You may want to program yourself to wake up refreshed and full of energy to complete your project faster.

Famous People Fighting Drowsiness

The question of sleepiness during the day and afternoon naps was raised by many famous people.

Winston Churchill coined the term ‘remedial sleep’. He claimed that an individual should take a nap between lunch and dinner to have a clear mind.
Margaret Thatcher asked her subordinates not to disturb her between 14.30 and 15.30 because she had an afternoon nap at that time.
Leonardo da Vinci took naps several times during a day to have enough energy to work at night.
Napoleon used to take a nap in the afternoon.

Core Principles of Productivity

If you really want to be productive while working at home, here’s what can help:

1. Go to bed earlier. Did you know that the good old claim that one hour of sleep before midnight is equal to two hours of sleep after midnight was just a myth? Anyway, if you want to have enough sleep and want to wake up early, it does make a lot of sense.
2. Consider caffeine. Avoid overdose and give preference to green tea over coffee and other caffeinated beverages.
3. Stand up, wave your hands, do a couple of exercises or even scream. If you have a sudden drowsiness attack despite the missed deadline stress, you may want to improve your blood flow. Some physical activity might help.
4. Take short naps or meditate whenever you can afford it.

So, we hope you’re enjoying the benefits of working at home to the fullest and motivate yourself like a pro.

By the way, what do you usually do when you have a sudden drowsiness attack? Do you try to fight it?