I never thought I had it in me to become something of a workaholic. As an employee I was the one hoping in vain for a snow day, or pinning my feeble hopes on a power cut or other act of God to secure me an early swerve. Now though, as a freelancer, it’s sometimes stopping work that is the problem.
A combination of vague panic about work drying up and not being strict enough with my time sometimes leaves me feeling chained to the laptop. Although I really love my work more than ever, I think over-working is a trap many freelancers fall into. In my case, I have realised it’s a matter of both over-working and needing to work more efficiently.
I’ve been thinking about a few ways to redress the balance and I’d love to hear other freelancers’ ideas as well.
Time management
One of my main problems is some misplaced ‘guilt’ about not working. If I am not working I am constantly scouring around for possible work or pitching to potential clients. All this is well and good (and essential) but there is a limit – well, there soon will be anyway. In the New Year I plan to set limits on my time and allocate two hours, for example, for pitching for work and looking for opportunities and then I will stop and do something else. I have romantic visions of me using this time to make wholesome soups and read improving novels. In reality I will probably just have a slightly tidier house but it’s got to be a more rounded existence than staring at a screen non-stop.
Staying focused
The next issue is procrastination. The flexibility is one of the major things I love about freelancing. However, when you work online and you’re not panicking about whether your boss can see your computer screen, it’s amazing how the mouse can wander. Sitting down to do some work earlier this week, I found myself also looking up the lyrics to a random song that popped into my head, perusing Topshop’s latest wares and sending numerous emails unrelated to work. This ended up prolonging the time I was ‘working’ significantly. I think I need to be the boss peering over my shoulder a bit more. I plan to start mentally dividing my time into purely ‘work’ time or unadulterated ‘fun’ time, even if it’s just a ten-minute segment of fun time to give me a breather. I hope this will help me be more productive and also mean me looking up less random bobbins on the internet whenever the fancy strikes me!
Holiday…it would be so nice!
I am getting there, but as a new freelancer I still haven’t worked up the rock solid self-assurance to take a few days off, confident all work offers won’t immediately dry up, leaving me destitute and homeless (melodramatic, me?). I haven’t really taken a proper holiday since I started freelancing, save the odd day here and there, and many people say they don’t in their first year. I planned to stop working from Christmas Eve until 5th January, but I have to admit that I cracked. While the Christmas angel is on one shoulder beckoning me with quality streets and mulled wine, the spectre of Christmases future on my other shoulder taunts me that I will never work again EVER if I turn work down or shut down for the holidays. As a compromise I have just taken some small projects on which means I’ll be able to stay in my pyjamas until dinner time if I like, while still keeping the bank account ticking over by doing a couple of hours here and there. I’m working myself up to a proper holiday, honestly I am!
I’d love to hear other freelancers’ views on these issues? Do you find it hard to stop working and step away from the computer? Will you be working over Christmas? Do you still worry about taking holidays? Tell me here.
Either way, have a very happy Christmas! I am turning my computer off for now…at least for a day or two!
Sarah Wray
Dec 24, 2008
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