Freelancing is often assumed to be a great way to earn a comfortable salary while finding that all-important work-life balance. You might have made the jump to freelancing to fit work around childcare responsibilities, exercise, or your social life. Or perhaps you were hopeful that as a freelancer, you could work fewer hours but earn the same salary that you were paid in full time employment.
Sadly, for many entrepreneurs this work-life balance fails to materialise in the way they might have hoped. Instead, they end up working longer or harder than ever before. Even if you love working for yourself, you may be at risk of burnout.
What is Burnout?
Mental Health UK describes burnout as a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. Aside from feeling extremely tired, you may also feel defeated, helpless, cynical, overwhelmed, or full of self-doubt. If you experience burnout but don’t take steps to address it, it can lead to more damage including physical or mental ill-health. It may also have an ongoing impact on other parts of your life, including how well you perform at work and your relationships with friends, family or your partner.
There can be many causes of burnout, but extreme levels of stress have been identified in more people post-pandemic than prior to March 2020. The BBC notes that women are at greater risk of developing burnout due to the likelihood of additional burdens such as balancing paid employment, childcare and domestic chores.
Whether you are just setting up as a freelancer, or have been working for yourself for years, learning how to avoid burnout could help you to enjoy the work-life balance you crave while reducing the risk of feeling over-worked and overwhelmed.
Avoiding Freelancer Burnout
When you first start out, you might expect to put in longer hours to get your business off the ground with the right number of clients on board. However, long term, you will need to put boundaries in place to avoid working yourself into the ground.
1 Set Your Hours
If you had become disillusioned with the office 9-5, you might have entered into freelancing to set your own (short) working hours. However, within days you may find yourself answering emails at 11pm or working over the weekend. Just as many employed individuals can walk away from their computer at 5pm, you need to set strict boundaries to ensure you get time away from work, and are not ‘on call’ at all times. Of course, there may be an urgent issue you need to deal with out of hours, but you should try to avoid regularly working around the clock.
2 Be Flexible
Being flexible may seem obvious, especially if you chose freelancing precisely for this perk. However, rather than purely being flexible about when you do work, try to make sure you are also flexible about when you don’t. If you have to work into the evening to fix an issue, make sure you take that time back elsewhere in the week to read a book, see a friend, or do some exercise.
3 Strike a Balance
With regular clients on board, you may feel the urge to jump into action every time they commission a new project. However, churning out work in an intense manner is unlikely to be the way you dreamt of working when you set up as a freelancer.
If you took the plunge as an entrepreneur, remember why you did so and ensure you ring-fence time to eat nutritious foods, enjoy quality time with your family, socialise and keep up with other personal interests. Take a deep breath and offer a realistic deadline to each client to ensure you are still living a balanced, healthy life.
4 Take Days Off
In an office, you probably used every hour of annual leave you were entitled to. If a big project comes in as a freelancer, however, it can be tempting to work through a day you had previously ear-marked as a day off.
Most deliverables can wait, so if you have already put leave into your calendar, set deadline expectations with your clients and avoid running yourself into the ground by working through a much-needed break.
5 Avoid Isolation
One of the perks of freelancing is being able to work from home with no expectation that you will ever commute into the office. However, sitting at the same desk every day, with no interaction with others, can put you into a rut. To change your perspective, and maybe even find some fresh inspiration, why not look into local hot-desk facilities or take your laptop to a coffee shop for a change of scene.
6 Perform a Mental Health Check
As a freelancer, you may be more dedicated to your work than you ever felt as an employee. Your enjoyment of being your own boss may mean that you no longer mind working long hours, eating convenience food or neglecting exercise. However, put a reminder in your diary to check in on your mental health at least once a month. If you are neglecting forms of self-care such as exercise, time in nature, or relaxation, in favour of work, then you could be at risk of burnout.
Final Thoughts
Burnout has increased in prevalence compared to the rates experienced before the pandemic, and women are more likely to be affected. Freelancers can protect themselves against burnout by sticking to a healthy balance between work and downtime, taking steps to rest flexibly, and by avoiding complete isolation. Regularly monitor your mental health, and if the balance between work and downtime has been lost, take steps to address this promptly.