I know how hard it is to take time off when you’re self-employed, but I believe it’s vital if you want to build a business that’s sustainable. Assuming everything goes according to plan, by the time this post publishes, I’ll be lounging on a beach in Thailand. As I type, it’s my last day at my desk before I down tools for a two-week holiday with my family.

Although there’s been a significant shift in recent years, busyness remains a badge of honour within the freelance community. The busiest people are considered the most successful and to be constantly sought after and in demand is the goal. When business owners describe downtime, they often talk of packing their laptop and checking emails on the go. Fellow freelancers nod in agreement, silently endorsing this unrelenting approach. The idea that we must always be working is accepted as fact when it should probably ring alarm bells.

‘Mindful engagement in leisure… renews and restores us, and it has a positive effect on our health. We’re really doing a trip on ourselves by feeling guilty about downtime, but we have to get past those feelings to restore our mental and physical health.’ – Mary Waller, Professor of Organisation Studies, York University’s Schulich School of Business.

  • Hustle and Hard Work

While building a new business, there’s definitely an intense phase when hustle and hard work is to be expected. Taking time off can genuinely feel impossible, so rest and self-care must take place in other ways.

Even during the earliest stages of your career, I think it’s a good idea to consider what you want your business to look and feel like in the future. Do you really want to work every weekend until you die? How healthy do you think you’ll be if you never take a break? What’s the point of being your own boss if you willingly work yourself into the ground?

As scary as it seems, spending time away from your desk can hugely benefit your business. Not only are rest and relaxation vital for creativity, they’re essential if you want to avoid burning out.

But how do you take time off when you’re self-employed?

  • Schedule It In

If you want to enjoy more than a long weekend away, a degree of forward planning is required. Schedule time off at the beginning of the year, mark your calendar and plan your workload around these dates.

Over time, I’ve realised how work tends to ebb and flow throughout the year. September to March is usually a very busy period for me, so it doesn’t make sense to book time off. Study last year’s diary and see if you can identify a pattern. When do your clients need you most? Take advantage of quieter months and make sure you’re energised and refreshed for your busiest season.

If you’re a parent of school age children, I’d recommend getting to grips with term dates at the beginning of the academic year. Note down all the holidays {including inset days}, decide which ones you’ll take off, and start arranging childcare for the others. If you’re feeling stuck, Val’s post about what she calls ‘the school holiday juggle struggle’ is well worth a read.

  •  Plan Your Finances

The financial implications of taking time off when you’re self-employed are impossible to ignore. There’s no holiday pay, so if you aren’t working, you aren’t earning. I completely understand the complexities of this and I don’t want to be dismissive of the consequences. Freelance life is often feast or famine and I know how stressful this can be.

I try to treat time off like a business outgoing, establishing it as a cost I need to cover from the beginning of the financial year. Just as you might siphon money off to pay your tax bill or invest in personal development, I aim to create a financial buffer that’s essentially earmarked for relaxation.

Although we’ve been able to book a big trip this year, when money’s tight we holiday at home or stay with family. Switching off from work and spending time together is the main priority and they can both be achieved on a tight budget.

  • Manage Expectations

Although taking time off is about prioritising your own needs, it’s important to consider your clients too. I always communicate holiday dates well in advance. If I’m taking on a new project that might be affected, I make this clear at the outset. For clients I have an ongoing relationship with, I’ll ask them what they might need while I’m away and endeavour to provide it in advance. This might mean my pre-holiday workload is intense, but it’s always, always worth it.

Another huge barrier to taking time off as a freelancer can be fear of missing out on future work. What if your dream job lands in your inbox while you’re away? Although I can’t promise good things won’t pass you by, a killer ‘out of office’ reply could work in your favour. Direct people to previous work, encourage them to follow your travels on Instagram, and assure them your post-holiday response will be worth waiting for. If you do miss out on an exciting opportunity, remember protecting yourself from burnout now will help you achieve bigger and better things in the future.

  • When did you last take some time off?

Love Audrey x

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Love Audrey
How to Take Time Off When You’re Self-Employed
May in photos 🤳

1. Finally, some Franky weather. One of the best things about this month has been dusting off my summer dresses and being able to wear sandals ☀️

2+3. Coronation weekend. So many thoughts 💭 But the food was good! I made a vegan version of my mum’s famous coronation chicken and it was delicious.

4. Jesse staying upbeat during yet another trip to hospital. That steroid buzz though. IYKYK.

5. Some of the food served at the first meeting of Bristol Cook Book Club since 2020. It felt so good to get this going again. I can’t wait for our next feast!

6. Me among the cow parsley, snapped by Jesse.

7. I’ve been thinking about creativity a lot this month while working through the ‘The Artist’s Way’. 

8. Breakfast outside.

9. {Still} scrapbooking December. Fingers crossed I can finally wrap up this project in June 🤞🏻

10. Izzy’s final show at The Tobacco Factory. After tonight, she’ll be done with college {and compulsory education} forever 🤯

We packed a lot into this month. Enough to fill two carousels! This might explain why I’m so tired! I’m looking forward to June though. Everything’s better when the sun shines ✨
@_charlieswift has been raving about ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron for years. I finally caved, ordered the book and agreed to work through the course with her and some other artists. 

The book focuses on ‘guiding you through the process of recovering your creative self’ to ‘help you unleash your inner artist’. It’s early days {I’ve only read as far as week two and I haven’t even started my morning pages yet - IYKYK}, but I’m enjoying the process so far. 

Today I took myself on my first Artist Date - ‘a block of time… especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist’. I decided to treat myself to a solo cinema trip to see ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.’ The film was brilliant and taking time out midweek to do something just for me felt… kind of naughty? And fun! It definitely filled my creative well {again, IYKYK}.

Have you read ‘The Artist’s Way?’ Where would you go on a date with your inner artist?!
Franky weather ☀️🌅🔆🌻✨

That’s it, that’s the caption.
April in photos 🤳

1. Our trip to London over Easter was a definite highlight this month. Here’s the obligatory ‘flowers outside Liberty’ shot.

2. Finally! Some sunshine! More of the same please, Mr. Weatherman ☀️

3. Dressed for a day of sightseeing in my new favourite pink jacket. It’s Boden and I bought it in the sale 💖

4 + 5. Scenes from a trip to the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. This poem by @charlycox1 floored me. Crying in a bookshop. Not awkward at all.

6. I was proud of these steps, so I’m posting them here for posterity 🚶🏼‍♀️🥄

7. The Easter holidays also featured lots of lazy days 🎮😴

8. We bought a nutribullet and I’m officially in my smoothie era.

9 + 10. Dinner and drinks at @thecoconuttreeuk with our IzzyBee. Taking your daughter out for cocktails is a season of parenting I’m very much enjoying.

Not pictured: a family funeral and the chest infection I’m still getting over 🤒 How was April for you?
Easter weekend in my hometown 💃🏼

No trip to London is long enough for me to see all the people and do all the things I want to do while I’m there, but we always manage to pack a lot in. It’s 17 years since I moved away, but somehow it still feels like coming home. Here’s some of what we got up to…

1. Being tourists.

2. Shopping at Westfield.

3 + 4. Hanging out and eating at Southbank.

5. Refuelling in Chinatown.

6. Enjoying the big Waterstones in Piccadilly.

7. Admiring the spring flowers outside Liberty.

8. Visiting the Imperial War Museum for the first time since I was a child.

9 + 10. Seeing Elton John at the O2 with my mama 👓🎹🎤🪩✨

I hope you’ve managed to enjoy the long weekend, whatever you’ve been up to! That sunshine though!☀️🤩
March in Photos 🤳

1. How it’s going…

2. How it started.

3. My in-laws were involved in a terrible car crash earlier this month. They’re very, very lucky to be alive. It was a horrible time, so I’m grateful there was a happy ending.

4. My husband sent me this photo of a photo from our wedding day while he was visiting his parents. Turns out his mum carries it in her purse ❤️

5. While I was waiting for news from Derby, I took myself out on a walk and ended up in @thesmallcitybookshop. It was like my feet knew books would bring me comfort.

6 + 7. Just spring things.

8. Vegan lemon and almond loaf and a green smoothie from @theorchardcoffeeco 🍰🌱

9. I bought it 🌸

10. Other music? I don’t know her. 

How’s March been treating you? Personally, I’m ready for April and spring PROPER!
There is a past version of me who cannot believe I get to do this every day 💭📝💻

She’s around 12yrs old, working on her first novel in a little ring-bound notebook, dreaming up stories, devouring books and trying to imagine a life filled with words. Everything that makes my business possible now barely existed then, so even she’d struggle to conjure up  an image of what my life looks like now.

I’m grateful that I get to do this, for the clients who trust me to find the right words, and I’m grateful to that past version of me too. Without her, I wouldn’t be here now. Sure, she’d probably want me to hurry up and get back to that novel, but I think she’d be proud of the business I’ve built and the way I’ve managed to create a life filled with words.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Lockdown memories, three years on 🦠⏳

Very little of my life made it on to the grid in 2020, so this is the first time I’ve shared these images. They’re all from the first lockdown and most were taken between March and May. I think the arrival of spring will always remind me of this strange time.

When Boris made his announcement on the 23rd, our children had already been out of school for a week. Jesse, who was initially deemed clinically vulnerable, spent the next 6m shielding. He left primary school one day not realising he’d never go back. He did not see another child his age until the summer. Like many kids and adults in the same situation, the experience had a deep impact on his mental health. 

Izzy was in Year 10. As the pandemic raged on, she did most of her GCSEs online, celebrated her 16th birthday via Netflix Party, finished secondary school with minimal fanfare and missed out on prom completely. When she finally had a normal night out with friends in the winter of 2021, I cried quietly in the kitchen when she got home. Seeing her so happy and animated after a simple ‘cheeky Nando’s’ only highlighted everything she’d missed out on in the previous 18 months.

It’s easy to forget how little we knew about the virus in the beginning and how frightening that was for everyone involved. We had it easy in comparison to some, but I still marvel at the way we coped with it all. The way we isolated, home schooled and kept our businesses ticking over. My goodness it was hard! As my children often joke, I hope we’re done living through major historical events for a while.