Freelancing as a paralegal offers many benefits that would make typical workers envious. You have no superior breathing down your neck, no rush-hour traffic to worry about, no limit to the income you can keep in your pocket. It’s a dream job for any paralegal that love independence and desire better work-life balance.
While it’s the direction many graduates of online paralegal degrees these days, homes are not always conducive for working. If offices were full of distractions that pull your attention away from your task at hand, your home wouldn’t be that different.
If you want to succeed as a freelance paralegal, stay away from these time-wasters:
Friends
Many people still think freelancing isn’t a “real” job. The fact that you don’t have to leave your house to work makes your friends think you can suddenly drop what you’re doing to hang out. You may be in control of your schedule, but it can be frustrating when others demand for your time otherwise they wouldn’t if you work in a “real” office.
It can be hard at times to turn down invitations to go out, but you must learn to say no when necessary to hit deadlines and keep your clients satisfied.
Professional Correspondences
The advantage of face-to-face conversations is they tend to send the message across way easier. But since you can’t physically speak with your clients whenever you like, you have to rely on instant messaging and emailing.
Unless you’ve mastered how to write emails efficiently and the other party is constantly online, these tasks may eat up your time and even cause delays to your work.
The Internet
The downside of having no supervisor to keep an eye on what you’re doing, you have to guard yourself. Considering how tempting it is to surf the Web at home or be on social media at home, you need to have the discipline to keep your online recreational hours in check.
The life of a telecommuting paralegal may be desirable for 9-5ers, but it can likewise be a real struggle. If you don’t deal with these distractions properly, you might lose your motivation and cause your productivity to suffer.
