freelance lifestyle Archives - Page 2 of 2

sleeping dragon sketch for blog post about why freelancers need one day off a week

I’m inspired to write this as part of my Freelance Lifestyle blog series for one big reason: because I think all freelancers should have at LEAST one day off per week.

The inspiration came after I watched a video from The Personal Philosophy Project about freelancing. I liked her other videos, but I wanted to see if there was something new in her approach to freelancing that I hadn’t thought of.

Unfortunately, in her video, she says, “freelancers never have a day off.”

NOT. TRUE. AT ALL.

Freelancers ABSOLUTELY need days off. The difference is that freelancers have to plan for them.

I have always made it a personal point to keep one day off per week. Even if I had to take a part-time job working retail or (most recently) at a gas station, I made it clear from the start with people that I keep ONE day of the week off. No exceptions.

(Part of the reason I left the gas station was because they were beginning to break that. They kept trying to call me in to work on my ONE DAY OFF. I repeatedly had to tell them no.)

I’m so dedicated to keeping one day of the week absolutely work-free because of one super simple reason:

To avoid burnout.

When I had the “freelancers work 24/7!” mentality, I burned out frequently. I had high anxiety and nearly had panic attacks. I would be irritable with everyone around me, client, friend, or otherwise.

It’s not the best way for you to shine.

Also, working 24/7/365 is the best way to make your home an absolute mess that you never clean. Working constantly is also a good way to never cook for yourself, or make time for your friends or pets or family.

You. Need. A Day Off.

What day of the week should you keep off? That depends on the work that you do.

My recommendation is to find the slowest day of the week in your work schedule, and make that your day off.

For me, for the longest time, that was Sundays. But now that I’m back to freelancing full-time (and a surprising amount of work is only available on the weekends), I’m considering changing it to Wednesdays.

But whether it’s Sunday or Wednesday, I fully plan on keeping a day off.

Because dammit, I need a rest and a recharge.

In this way, we are like phones: if you keep your phone running 24/7, it WILL overheat, slow down, glitch, and run out of battery FAST.

Same goes for you.

So I urge you, if you truly want to embrace the freelance lifestyle: Give yourself one day out of the week to just shut off and recharge. You’ll thank yourself for it later. I promise.

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

My previous post, where I talk about preparing for freelancing full-time again, was a bigger hit than I expected it to be. So I’m beginning a new blog post series: all about the freelance lifestyle!

What will make this series stand out from other freelance sites or blog posts out there are these big things:

I’ll talk about living well on a budget. Of course I’m going to talk about how to make a budget in the first place. And I’ll also be sharing how to maximize your earned dollars and live well on less.
I’ll share how I land, fulfill, and complete gigs. A lot of posts on the internet are about how to find work. Few of them are about actually doing the work and making your clients happy with your work. So I hope to share my secrets on how I keep my clients happy and coming back over and over again.
I’ll share how to maximize your energy and focus, to know what things are worth your time and energy, and what things are better off left to someone else to worry about. No, I’m talking about hiring outside help – I’m talking about knowing which outlets (social media or otherwise) are worth pursuing.

If there’s anything else about the Freelance Lifestyle you’d like me to talk about, leave a comment below!

If you would like to help contribute to this series, consider giving a dollar on Ko-Fi. It’s a digital tip jar where you can give just once (and it takes a smaller cut than PayPal).

Stay tuned for new updates in this blog post series!

I’ll also be continuing my Adventures in Moving blog post series. That will update intermittently as things develop further.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.