Why Freelancers Should Cook At Home More?

When people hear about “freelancing,” they picture laptops on beaches, coffee shops, and freedom, but until you get there, you need to be comfortable to work from your own home.
Reality check: it’s mostly sitting, stress-eating, and endless screen time, if you don’t know how to manage your time, but you can check out this article about work-life balance when you’re working from home.

Did you know that the secret to a successful freelance career might just be sitting in your kitchen. amazed about this, right? Let me explain.

Cooking Is Your Productivity Multiplier

Forget about fancy productivity apps for a second. Altho I have some of these too, check out this one here.
Cooking does something no timer or to-do list can do, it grounds you in reality.

Here’s how it changes your freelance game:

1. Cooking creates rhythm
   Freelancers often have no “end of day.” You eat when you remember.
   Cooking anchors your schedule because it forces you to stop, refocus, recharge.Also it’s a relaxing mechanism because people are not meant to work on screens, but in reality.
2. Cooking boosts focus
   Your body is literally your operating system, if you’re feeling like an outdated avocado, then its because you’re eating wrong stuff at wrong time.
   Junk food, skipped meals, and 5 coffees a day = lagging performance.
   Balanced meals keep your brain sharp, especially on long project days.
3. Cooking builds patience
   You can’t rush pasta, just like you can’t rush client relationships.
   Freelancers who cook understand timing, process, and consistency. This whole cooking process can help you realize that some things take time, and sometimes time is used to build patience.. something like moping the deck in the army when its raining, although here you actually doing something useful.
4. Cooking is relaxing Do you know how many great ideas came in my mind just by peeling potatoes? You wonder why? Because you’re not on a fake screen, or worse on Tiktok looking at useless reels. When you’re doing manual labour, your mind relaxes, when you’re doing tasks at your PC/Laprop, your phisical body relaxes.

Hint: I found out washing dishes by hand is like a terapy. Try it, you’ll notice why.

The Freelancer-Food Connection

A healthy freelancer is a productive one.
I used to work until 3 AM, eating whatever was near me (hello, shaworma, and pizza and caned food lol).
But once I started cooking real food, everything changed, maybe because I’m going to the gym all day every day, almost, and I know about meal-prep. Trust me going to the gym helps you stay sane, because you can’t punch clients trough the screen, so you might as well deliver some punches to the boxing bag.

Anyways,m here is how cooking at home made my freelance career easier, better and so on:

• I stopped feeling tired all day.
• I started thinking clearer.
• I was more responsive, sharper, faster.

Turns out, cooking wasn’t a distraction. It was a business tool if you think about saving time and productivity.

Example: The “Cooking Break” Trick

Here’s one trick that saved me from burnout:
Every afternoon, I take a “Cooking Break.”
No phone, no email just 30 minutes to cook something easy, like a disconnecting button.
After that, and of course after eating, my productivity spikes like crazy.
Try it for a week, it’s like hitting “reset” on your brain, plus you’ll save some money on food orders on Glovo or Uber Eats. Also – it may take less because you don’t have to wait for the delivery.

If you think cooking’s a waste of time, read this piece of article:
👉 How Cooking Saved My Sanity While Working From Home (Freelancer Edition)
It’s a story about burnout, creativity, and why my best career advice starts in the kitchen.

Final Personal Tip

Cooking teaches freelancers the same lessons as freelancing itself:

• Start with what you have.
• Be patient with the process.
• Learn from every mess you make.
• Clean your mess

The only difference? In the kitchen, you get to eat your mistakes, so it’s easier, you don’t have nothing to loose, not even time, because you need a food brake verywhere you’ll work.

So next time someone asks how you “stay motivated as a freelancer,” just say: “I cook, and go to the gym.”
Because honestly, that’s how you remain a functional and mentaly stable human while chasing dreams online as a freelancer.