Last week I shared my Guide to Seamlessly Working and Travelling at the Same Time. What I didn’t dive into, however, is exactly how difficult it can be to disconnect the two. For freelancers especially, there are no set hours and no supervisor monitoring our productivity. When your office is where you and your phone happen to be sitting, there are very few barriers to stop you from working literally all the time.

Why Freelancers Can’t Disconnect

When I first began freelancing, I would repeat the phrase “If I’m not working, I’m not getting paid”. Every moment I wasn’t writing, working on my website, or creating content was a missed opportunity to gain a new client or complete my next project.

Even during my time off, I was logged into my work apps and email on my phone and constantly checking for client messages. I would respond immediately, always ready to drop anything to get their needs met. It was exhausting.

Unsurprisingly, I burnt out. And I burnt out hard.

Less than 6 months into freelancing, I was forced to take 10 days off which meant extending contract deadlines and missing important client emails. It was not a good look.

If you’re already in this phase, try reading my Guide on How to Recover from Burnout (while still working).

What I realised is that evenings and weekends are not free time. Working weekends today is simply borrowing time from the future that will be repaid in burnout, writer’s block, and mental health days not spent working.

It’s hard freelancing, particularly at the start when you are your only resource. Sacrifices are going to be necessary and working hard is part of the hustle, but take it from me, never taking the time to fully recharge is a mistake. Time off is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.

Work to Live or Live to Work

Constantly having your mind on work is unsustainable. Not only will it lead to a major mental energy drain, but it also stops you from living your real life – the one outside of the screen. Being a freelancer, remote worker, or digital nomad comes with the incredible privilege of flexibility. If you’re not taking advantage of this, then why are freelancing at all?

Life is too short to let it pass you by. Yes, work is important. For so many of us, myself included, our freelance career is a point of pride and our work is a pleasure to complete – I’m lucky enough to actually enjoy what I do – but that doesn’t mean it can be your only source of fulfillment.

Maintaining a clear boundary between your work and personal life can be the difference between success and failure as a freelancer. Boundaries by definition are designed not to limit your work potential but to protect it in the long run. How? It prevents you from losing your love for what you do.

A work/life balance doesn’t mean spending all your money on vacations or blowing off work just because you don’t feel like doing it. It means structuring your life intentionally to be your most productive self during work hours, and fully present in your time off.

Most time spent working today is an investment into our future, whether that’s saving money for retirement, growing a business, or building skills to heighten employability. If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you keep working? Probably not. The reality is that we have no idea what the future holds or if you’ll ever be able to ‘cash in’ this work investment, so don’t lose the chance to enjoy life today whilst you have it.

How to Stop Working (when you’re not supposed to be)

It’s all well and good to know why disconnecting from work is important, but practising letting go During your time off is another matter entirely. To help you start prioritising balance, I’ve created this guide of Five Practical Steps to Let Go of Work and Live in the Moment.

Five Practical Steps to Help You Live in the Moment

1. Set Work Hours

Self-discipline is one of the most important skills you can have as a freelancer, you can read my tips on Improving Self-Discipline here. Typically, we think of self-discipline being used to make us work, what you might not consider is that it also plays an important part in stopping you. Setting work hours and actually sticking to them can be challenging, but the rewards are major.

Instead of setting the same work hours for every day of the week, I personally vary them day-to-day with an intentional end time set each morning. This means I know my cut-off point for working and as an added bonus, helps me to be more motivated to complete my work ahead of this time.

For added help with this, try making dinner reservations or scheduling a call with friends in the evenings to act as a hard-work deadline to get you offline.

2. Abundance Mindset

Part of why freelancers find it difficult to switch off or turn down new projects is that they are living in a scarcity mindset when it comes to work. There is a prevalent fear that if they don’t jump at each and every opportunity, more will not come. This is a limiting belief that only works to slow down your growth.

If you can get one contract, you will get another. And, being fully present when completing this job will result in submitting work that is of higher quality and ahead of its deadline. Read more about How to Find Your Growth Mindset.

3. Raise Your Prices

This goes hand-in-hand with developing your Abundance mindset. Being fully booked means you are undercharging for your work because the demand is high enough that people will pay more for services, particularly if you can offer exclusivity or a faster turnaround. By increasing your prices, not only can you complete less work but earn more, but the work you do accept can be given more attention and care.

You don’t need to reduce the energy or care put into your work. In fact, each client will be getting more of you by limiting the number of accepted contracts. Instead of spreading yourself out thinly across many projects, you can commit your full attention and best quality work to only a few.

4. Use Do Not Disturb

You can put this step into action immediately. Open your phone and navigate to your Do Not Disturb setting. Add any work apps or email accounts to a setting named ‘Time Off’ and set it to automatically turn on before and after work. For me, that means 7pm to 7am every day.

This automation takes the choice to switch off out of your hands. In place of opting out of receiving work messages every evening, you’ll have to actively turn them on, helping you slowly transition into a more boundaried work/life balance.

5. Practice Prioritisation

To practice work prioritisation, you must first mindfully list out your daily tasks by order of impact and importance. This will allow you to spend your working hours on the most impactful items that will bring you the largest benefits each day.

That way, when you approach the end of your set work hours, you will have completed the most work on the tasks that provide the largest ROI and whatever remains will be the items that can be more easily put down and picked up again on another day.

It is much easier to adhere to your time boundaries if you do not have to stop in the midst of an incredibly important or time-sensitive task.

It’s important to remember that the most impactful work might be different to what feels personally like the most important. For example, responding immediately to an enquiry email might feel like an urgent task at the moment, however, the more impactful work would be completing revisions for an already established client to increase the likelihood of their repeat business and referrals.

Let’s be real, working as a freelancer means there are never going to be hard lines between your work and personal life, and I think that’s okay. What we can strive for, is a balance that ensures that we are energized for both elements of our day-to-day.

Learning to switch off from work during your time off can take time, but, ultimately being able to exist in the moment and make the most of the life you have right now is going to be worth the effort to get there.

If you’re struggling on this journey, you may benefit from working with a creative coach to help establish healthier work/life boundaries. You can read more about the advantages of Creative Coaching here, or my inbox is always open to answer questions and offer support.