Being Your Own Boss vs. Being Your Own Worst Enemy: Navigating Impostor Syndrome, Procrastination, and Distractions

Judith Böhlert used to see herself as disciplined and organised. Then, around the time she started freelancing, her focus disappeared, and last year a client let her go, not over budget but because her work was not good enough. She submitted this talk hoping to have solved the problem by then. She had not, and says so. She offers an explanation and a few things she tried.

What the talk covers

• Why it may not be your fault: employment gives you validation (reviews, raises), accountability, structure (a commute, meetings, fixed hours) and people who look after you. Freelancing removes them overnight. In her words, you did not lose your discipline, you lost the structures that held it up.
• Impostor syndrome: by her account, two systematic reviews of more than 60 studies found it across genders, ages and professions. In freelancing, success stays invisible, failure is on full display. Her ideas: feeling like an impostor can mean you care, "I don't know, but I can look into it until Friday" is a strong sentence, and talk about failures with people you trust.
• Procrastination: get curious about the resistance (rational, emotional or practical). Time blocking and Pomodoro did not work for her. Starting with the smallest possible step did, as did asking whether she needed rest or a sense of progress.
• Distractions: in her view a structural problem, not a personal one, because apps are built to hold your attention. She suggests slowing down, one thing at a time, sleep, rebuilding attention in small steps and a "monkey brain list" for urgent-feeling thoughts.
• The three feed each other. Treat the tips as a tasting menu: try a few for a fixed time, keep what helps.

Q&A

Why does everyone pretend? Her answer: we are conditioned to be perfect. Did a network help? Mostly her own effort.

Who it's for

Freelancers struggling with doubt, procrastination or distraction.