Apologies for the late summary post for Monday’s #FreelanceUK Twitter chat . Ironically, it was all about work/life balance (something I’ve clearly failed at this week).
Anyway, I’ve finally got round to creating a Storify summary for those of you who missed it but wanted to find out what was said about work/life balance. Interestingly, there were certain concerns nearly every freelancer involved admitted to.
- Guilt. This cropped up A LOT. Everyone seems to suffer from a sense of guilt when they’re not working (which leads to most of us working far more than we need to), but also guilt if they don’t spend enough time with family/friends.
- Workload. While some people admitted to having a very large workload, others discovered that their workload was manageable, but that as a freelancer there’s always something else you CAN do. Whether it be pitching for more work, updating a website or catching up on blogs. A freelancer’s job is never done.
- Late resolutions were made to exercise more, set work hours and try some more productivity methods.
I think perhaps the biggest change you can make to your work/life balance, is to change your mindset. Accepting that you’re never going to finish ALL your work might make finishing on time easier. Structure too, can help you finish on time. I know personally, if I don’t set a finish time, I don’t have the focus to get the job done and I end up working until 9pm. I know after the week I’ve had, I’ll be getting back into a structure next week.
Do you have any top tips? Why not share them in the comments below?
p.s Pop the 4th March in your diary for the next #freelanceuk. Any requests for topics?