It’s been a little quiet around here the last few weeks, which is the exact opposite of what I envisioned when I went full-time freelance. I imagined I’d write a blog post each morning as I ate breakfast, before launching into my actual work. But the past few weeks have been a reality check in what life looks like when you work for yourself. When you don’t work, you don’t get paid, and that means taking any time off has to be carefully planned for.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been in five different places, trying to enjoy myself and explore during the day, while working in the morning, in the evening, and anytime we’re commuting between places, even if it’s just 20 minutes in the car. The upside is that I don’t have to be on Slack every waking hour. If I’m traveling, I can decide to go for a walk in the morning, go get breakfast tacos, and go to a museum, but the tradeoff is that I’m then working after dinner until late at night. It’s a balance that I’m sure I’ll get the hang of as time goes on, and I feel incredibly lucky to have the flexibility, but there’s definitely a learning curve.
To add to that, there’s a sticky note on my desktop that’s a mile long with “intermediate to-dos” — all the creative projects, including this blog, that I want to get to, but that don’t have an immediate paycheck attached. They’re the things that keep getting kicked down the road, even though I know they’ll have a long term benefit.
Of course, this is all compounded by being away from home, unable to cook, make my favorite recipes, or even work out regularly. I made it to 10 workout classes over the past month which, for me, is a far cry from my usual daily routine. The days I took walks were far and few between. My podcast queue is ever growing and there’s a stack of magazines yet to be read.
And I feel like this is a chorus I’ve been singing all spring long, thankfully, I’m mostly in town for most of June. I can finally get back into a routine, one that will hopefully bring more posts here, let me focus on all those other creative projects, and continue to send pitches out and grow my client base.
This is all to say, when people ask me how my new normal of working for myself is going, I don’t have an answer. It hasn’t yet felt normal, and I’m still figuring it out. But I’m definitely realizing that consistency and routine is key, even when it’s not technically necessary. That’s something I’m focused on cultivating this summer and, hopefully, at that point, I can finally write the post someone recently requested, sharing what a new day in the life looks like.
