Waving not drowning

Hello! I'm still alive, despite all evidence to the contrary. Announcing that I intend to do anything regularly seems to be a death knell for this blog ;)

Since I last posted back in August, my editing work has picked up. I put in a lot of effort for very little return initially, and then as soon as September hit all the authors seemed to come back from their summer writing retreats and start their search for an editor - me, for a couple of them :)

I have had two manuscripts on the go, which has been stressful and hasn't left much time for anything else. All of which serves to illustrate the ebb and flow of freelance work. Feast one month, famine the next!

Actually this suits my creative side rather well, since while I am waiting for work to come in, I can busy myself with work of my own - stocking up my Etsy shop in anticipation of Christmas (Yule, Winter Solstice, Thingymas, Commercial Season) - and when I have editing work in hand I can put down the polymer clay and get on with it.

I think with freelance work there is a balance to be struck. You will be unhappy if you need to be constantly supplied with work from external sources, because it just does not happen that way in the current economy. You need to have your own interests, and preferably ones that make a bit of an income, so you can be productive and make use of the inevitable down time - perhaps even see it as a perk of the job.

We'll look at how you make ends meet in another post!

Allowing myself time off

When I saw this in my list of potential blog posts I knew its time had come! I have been beating myself up since last Thursday about not having written a post for nearly 2 weeks, and what could I possibly write about, when the idea for this post slapped me in the face like a wet fish. Allowing myself time off.

Time off can be a tricky subject when you're self-employed. There's not the same concept of annual leave as there is as an employee, and as your own boss the only person who needs to sign your leave request is... well... you.

With a system like this in place you would be forgiven for thinking that self-employed people do half the work that employees do. Well, you'd be wrong. When you're your own boss, you're harder on yourself than almost any other boss would be. You push yourself harder, work longer hours and take less time off. The issue is giving yourself permission to take time off.

It's not like there's another employee to pick up the slack. When you clock off, the work sits there waiting patiently for you to return. As a consequence it can be very hard to switch off. And that is why allowing yourself permission to take time off is so important.

Time out from work is important for our health and wellbeing, for creative renewal, for inspiration, for so many things. In a world where I can be sitting on a beach in North Africa checking my emails on a smartphone, the boundaries have to come from within. I have to be the one to switch off my phone, to switch of my brain, and to choose to relax.

And so I give myself, and you, permission to do that. Factor in some time off for yourself, say, every three months, and stick to it. That doesn't mean turning down jobs, but when a contract is coming to an end see if you can find a few days for yourself before the next one starts. I promise you you'll be able to work harder and have more stamina as a result.

The beach, just yards from my holiday apartment last week.