Please help me get out of this work-related funk!

[Freelancefunk]

I've been in a grey cloud since Christmas and I'm struggling to shake it. Looking for tips on how I can refresh my mind-set a bit and get motivated again.

For background, I am a freelance designer and I'm not super busy but have small bits of work to keep things ticking over. So it's not like I'm stacked out and struggling to cope or anything. I have an 8yo dd, so I generally work between 9-3.30 when she's at school.

I felt very flat last week but I assumed it was first week of the new year blues + my period due imminently (which still hasn't arrived yet!). I managed to shuffle stuff around and gave myself the week off, apart from answering a few emails etc. thinking it would give me a chance to recuperate after a stressful Christmas. I expected to be ready to go this week, but I just feel worse. I am completely stifled by the thought of work for some reason, and I am putting everything off even more. I suffer with anxiety a bit, but not usually enough to effect me in a substantial way day-to-day. I have bad creative block too which isn't helping! I should be happy as I have an exciting project to start, but I am procrastinating to the highest degree and spending all day messing about doing housework and doom-scrolling on my phone.

This isn't good for business and it's all going to catch up on me very soon which will make things 10x worse.

Can anyone think of anything I can do to help get me out of this funk?

I don't know if this will help at all as I work in a totally different type of job but am a champion procrastinator! I read a really interesting thing this week which struck a chord, it was from a hospitality/customer service point of view, but saying that people report much more positive/happy feelings when all the 'negative' or 'hassle-y' parts of their experience happened at the start of their 'journey' (sorry wanky term but you know what I mean) - so if there are any forms to be filled in, boring/tiresome admin questions, health and safety briefings, anything like that before you get to the good parts of having fun or getting a product or service the customer wants, customer service people are advised to put those at the very start of someone walking in the door/starting their phone call or online order or whatever, then it only gets better from there on in. So for e.g. people tend to feel much more positive about their holiday or day out or meal and whether it was value for money if they are given the bill at the start rather than at the end, even if all other things are exactly equal, I think it's a cognitive thing - because of recency bias, we quite quickly forget the 'negative' experience of paying the big bill in favour of the positive of having a nice relaxing time and vice versa.

The article I read said that we may be able to apply this to our working and personal lives to avoid procrasination and dissatisfied/non productive feelings, by simply scheduling/doing our most-disliked, most worrying and difficult tasks/chores at the very start of the day rather than the end, so that your day gets progressively easier and more fun not vice versa. Obviously it's not always possible but for years I have tried 'easing myself in' by doing easy/routine work first and building up to the difficult stuff which does tend to mean I don't ever do the difficult stuff until it's overdue and stressy! Sometimes I don't even do the easy stuff either and me 'treating myself' to 10 mins faffing/pottering/phone scrolling before starting work turns to all day . As I say I've only tried this for a few days so I can't say it's the solution but every morning as soon as I sit down to my desk I think what the one task I've most been dreading/putting off/have no idea how to do is and make myself at least make a start on it right away... it feels hideous as I'm not a morning person and always feel more productive in the afternoons but as I say, am I actually productive when I feel I am, well, not really....

Thanks @maxelly that's useful!

I am also thinking maybe I need a change of scenery as I am finding it hard to separate home and work at the minute (plus I literally don't speak to another person all week until DD and DH are home from school and work!). It can't be good for me. I need to get out of the house! I am lucky enough to live in an area where there are a couple of options for co-working spaces but I can't justify the cost. I'm guessing this is something those who are now WFH might be experiencing too. I almost feel burnt out even though I'm not super busy with work, if that even makes sense?

Could you shell out for a desk in a co working space just for a short period? You might find even just a week in a different environment will help. Or can you rearrange your desk/working area?

@Pugroll

Could you shell out for a desk in a co working space just for a short period? You might find even just a week in a different environment will help. Or can you rearrange your desk/working area?

I was thinking about co-working as I think it would really help. But I can't justify the cost long term. I might contact a few places and see if they have any options for something short time like you suggest