6 Learned Lessons From My First Year Working From Home & Being a Freelancer.

We have an Arabic saying that says: "An eyewitness is better than hearsay".
During the past year, I was working from home as a freelancer, at first, I was so excited about the whole thing, especially that I was done with my previous work in a company, I hated 5-9 so much. But with the time, I figured that working from home has it's own challenges too, and they are not easy to deal with, one can not think about these challenges unless actually trying to work from home.
So here are some really important aspects that you should put into consideration when working from home or as a freelancer. Even if not, because currently due to the Covid-19, a lot of people shifted to work from home.

1 Time management skills are essential

In my opinion, this is the most important one, If you didn't pay attention to it, you will suffer greatly.
Suddenly you will find yourself working 24/7. Even when you don't want to, and be strict with your self when the work time is over, then it's over, no excuses, you need these breaks so you won't lose your balance.

2 Focus

One technology at a time, one tool at a time... Etc.
When the is no obvious boundaries like the ones that are required by the company you are working on, you can get tempted and distracted easily by all the technologies that come in your way! Then stretched too thin, so end result will not be that good.

3 Make reasonable goals

Setting small consistent goals is a must because it will make you motivated each time you accomplish a task or take a small step. Setting one big goal might be so frightening at the beginning and not so digestible.
Remember that our industry is changing rapidly, it's hard to even the very experienced developers to know it all.
So just relax, and set them small goals at first.

4 Celebrate the small wins and treat your self very well.

While working in a company, a salary raise, a promotion, a nice word from your boss, all are nice acts that will motivate you to provide more. But when you are a freelancer you have to do all this by your self; will We are human beings, we need to reward our selves always to keep us moving forward and motivated, don't underestimate the power of rewarding yourself. Be kind to it.

5 Change your work environment as much as you can

Working from home will make you mess the chance of communicating with people in the work environment, so change your routine often so you don't get bored.
Even though am more of an introvert, but staying at home for this amount of time is too much,

6 Have some physical outside activities

Coding is a mind activity, exhausting your brain and setting in front of the computer for long hours is bad for your health. Keep moving, balance the mind activeness with the body activeness.