Following and sticking to a schedule

Going from a 9 to 5 job to not having a job is quite a shift. I'm only going to talk about one aspect here though and that is the schedule shift that can happen. With no job to be responsible for, with no boss to answer to, it's easy to fall into a lifestyle of lounging about and doing nothin. Lying in bed for ages is so easy to end up doing, especially when it's cold in the winter months.

But it's not good for your mental health.

One thing I've worked hard to stick to is a regular routine, similar to having a 9 to 5 job. I try to make sure I get up early, I workout, I eat a healthy breakfast and then I sit down and work on my projects or job applications. The main project of Act Reel has helped a lot. I've treated the creation of this site (and now I'm developing a mobile app for it) as an actual job. I have to work on it from 9am and keep working on it until my lunch break, then continue working on it in the afternoon until about 5pm.

Have I always stuck to this schedule? No. It's hard when the only person you have to answer to is yourself. That is why you need to frame things as having to answer to your future self. I imagine some of the success I can have in the future if I sit down and work on the website that can help a lot in convincing me to sit down and work.