Making the choice to become a freelancer means accepting that you’ll be dealing with a lot of fluctuation—which can be both a good and bad thing! Yes, you can make your own schedule, enjoy the flexibility that freelancing allows, and take on projects that you’re passionate about…but you also have to deal with the downsides as well. Things like slow periods, feeling lonely sometimes, and the stress of making every decision related to your work life can definitely get you down.  

However, there are lots of ways to add balance to your life as a freelancer—read on to learn some valuable tips and tricks!

Scheduling Is Your Friend

As you settle into your routine as a freelancer, you’ll very quickly learn the importance of scheduling—and it’s not uncommon to learn this fact the hard way! Many freelancers can easily recall a time when they accidentally overbooked themselves, or took on a project that was too large for the time that had been allotted for it. Once you get through the mountain of work, you’ll find you have learned a very helpful lesson: schedule everything.

Of course scheduling project deadlines and due dates makes sense, but if you find you need a little more rigidity in your calendar, don’t stop there. I schedule tasks like replying to emails or quote requests, as well as reminders for other things that might impact my work schedule for a given day or week, like personal commitments, appointments, and so on.

Lists can also be a great component to pair with your calendar. You can make to-do lists for tasks you need to accomplish that day, that week, or even longer-term tasks you want to keep front-of-mind for the month, quarter, or year. If you have a few projects and/or tasks on the go, it can be easy for you to become frazzled and miss a detail or two. Making a list means you don’t have to devote valuable brainpower to remembering what you need to do, because it’s written out right in front of you.

Use Your Downtime Well

Working as a freelancer means that inevitably you’ll encounter a slow period, when you don’t have as many projects to work on as you would like. This can be discouraging and stressful, but it can also be a good opportunity to reframe your perspective. If you have some extra time on your hands, that means you are able to devote some attention to things like marketing or furthering your education.

Develop New Skills or Hone Existing Ones

A slow period can offer a chance to stretch your comfort zone a little by learning something new, or improving a skill you already have. One way to do this is to check out resources like webinars that can be downloaded and viewed on your own schedule. Editors Canada has a great library of previously recorded webinars that can be purchased and downloaded for you to watch (and rewatch) whenever you want!

Similarly, the Editorial Freelancers Association offers self-paced courses that can be completed on your schedule. You’ll receive full access to your course for an entire year, and that access includes in-depth lessons, self-assessments, handouts, and plenty of additional resources, including regular live Q&A sessions with your instructor.

Spend Some Time Marketing!

Another way to fill your time during a slow period is to improve your marketing efforts. Start by creating a marketing plan that will allow you to complete small, specific tasks related to marketing yourself for every day that you have downtime. You can improve your website, tinker with your SEO setup, write some content to add to your website, do some social media outreach, update your client list…the options are endless!

Add More Networking to Your Calendar

A slow period can give you a chance to try some extra networking as well. You can check out in-person events in your area, or start small with online events, like virtual coffee chats or social media chatting. Some of the people you meet could even become informal mentors or offer up your name when they are referring work that they can’t take on themselves.

Clean Up Your Records

Record-keeping is always important, but often when things get busy, it can be one of the first things to fall to the wayside! A slow period means you can catch up if that has happened to you. Take this time to clean up your files, update emails lists, add to spreadsheets—whatever records you need to keep, you can use this time to make sure everything is up-to-date and nice and tidy.

Don’t Lose Hope

It can be easy to get overwhelmed if you’ve accidentally overfilled your calendar. Just know that you can get, and will, through it, and once life is feeling like things are back to normal, use that experience as a guide for scheduling projects going forward.

Similarly, if things have really slowed down and you’re feeling stressed, take this opportunity to not only do some things that will improve your professional life, but perhaps even improve your personal life too! Take more walks, read a bit more, or set yourself a challenge in a hobby or pursuit you enjoy—take this time to refill your cup so that you can return to your next project feeling fresh and energized.

So, if you’re on a high, ride it out, but if you’re feeling like you’re down in the dumps, don’t fight it. Try and relax into it, do some personal and professional development, and recharge your batteries. Freelancing is all about ebbs and flows, and you’ll get more clients and more projects in the future. When that happens, just make sure you schedule accordingly! 

Also, be sure to check out some of our other recent blogs on the topic of freelancing! You can build your skillset with our round-up of editorial webinars and courses to further your learning, check out our suggestions for how to use social media to connect and be social with other editors, and even figure out your editing genre by evaluating your skills, preferences, and talents!