{"id":10921,"date":"2017-07-07T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=10921"},"modified":"2017-06-30T12:51:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T16:51:01","slug":"side-effects-of-freelancing-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=10921","title":{"rendered":"Naps, Dinner at 4:30 and Other Side Effects of Freelancing Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 3:52 on a Sunday afternoon. <\/span><\/p>\n

While I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m on vacation, per se, I\u2019m out of town, having traveled for an event. After a rather-too-raucous Saturday evening, I\u2019m hanging out in an Airbnb just minutes away from one of the best beaches in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

And guess what? <\/span>I\u2019m working.<\/b><\/p>\n

Despite how it sounds, I\u2019m not complaining — or at least, not loudly. I have a full day of non-work-related activities planned for tomorrow, and I haven\u2019t written a word since Thursday night. <\/span><\/p>\n

But I must admit, when I first envisioned my life as a full-time freelance writer, weekend power hours on way less sleep than I\u2019d like were not part of the fantasy.<\/span><\/p>\n

And speaking of sleep, this is hardly the first time my schedule has gotten weird.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freelance writing: It gets weird<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve always been a little bit of an insomniac. Whether falling asleep eluded me entirely or 2 a.m. made a silent, unsolicited wakeup call, slumber\u2019s more complicated than it really seems a basic biological function should be. <\/span><\/p>\n

(I hear they make medication for these problems? I may be in the market.)<\/span><\/p>\n

So when I <\/span>transitioned from an office job<\/span><\/a> that required my physical presence for eight hours most days to a fully flexible, <\/span>self-directed schedule<\/span><\/a>, I was thrilled to say goodbye to anxious nights lying awake, waiting desperately for the Sandman to come take me. <\/span><\/p>\n

Who cares if I can\u2019t sleep? As long as I meet my deadlines, I can get stuff done whenever the mood strikes me, be it mid-afternoon or in the wee hours of the morning. I can even use tools like <\/span>Boomerang<\/span><\/a> to answer emails at oddball hours without coming across to clients like the weirdo I truly am — or, at least, not tipping them off any further than my writing already must.<\/span><\/p>\n

But as it turns out, a structured schedule does more than make office work feasible. <\/span><\/p>\n

Time is a social tool.<\/b><\/p>\n

It allows us to do things like eat together at a set mealtime or gather for a yoga class.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as a freelance writer living on my own, time quickly became all but irrelevant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly enabled to fully indulge my insomnia, I ended up with <\/span>very<\/span><\/i> strange sleeping patterns — say, four hours starting at midnight, followed by a productive pre-sunrise burst and a long, listless day punctuated by a nap or two. This, of course, of course, wreaked havoc on my meal schedule, which became less \u201cschedule\u201d and more \u201cI don\u2019t know, I get hungry sometimes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After finding myself standing in the kitchen eating dinner in my PJs at 4 p.m, or calling four heaping mouthfuls of 3 a.m. peanut butter off the spoon <\/span>breakfast<\/span><\/i>, I started to think I might benefit from some self-imposed structure. <\/span><\/p>\n

How to maintain structure when you work from home<\/span><\/h2>\n

Listen. I totally get why <\/span>working remotely<\/span><\/a> is so attractive.<\/span><\/p>\n

I mean, yoga pants are 100 percent dress-code friendly and you\u2019re never more than three feet from the refrigerator. What could possibly go wrong? <\/span><\/p>\n

But remote hopefuls might not realize the impact of some of these unintended side effects I\u2019ve mentioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: Schedule weirdnesses don\u2019t necessarily have to be a bad thing. <\/b>It might be healthier to listen to your body\u2019s hunger signals instead of forcing down a meal simply because the clock says noon, for instance.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as it turns out, sleeping for four-hour blocks rather than eight <\/span>isn\u2019t unprecedented<\/span><\/a> — or even necessarily unhealthy. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re trying to maintain relationships with people who are still beholden to a traditional 9-5 schedule, the whenever-you-feel-like-it lifestyle can become a serious obstacle. <\/span><\/p>\n

Not to mention the fact that <\/span>when your home is your office, it can be difficult to ever feel like you\u2019re truly off hours<\/b> — especially for the driven, type-A, color-coded-calendar types who so frequently make good freelancers. I mean, you can always write <\/span>one<\/span><\/i> more paragraph, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

Although it may seem like a non-issue in the face of all the benefits of a flexible, self-directed career path, maintaining work-life balance is imperative if you want to stay happy and productive in the long run.<\/span><\/p>\n

So. How can you avoid the 4 p.m. dinnertime fate?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are five ways to add structure and sanity to your life when you work from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Set and maintain a regularly-scheduled social activity<\/span><\/h4>\n

It might be a standing weekly dinner date, monthly girls\u2019 outing, local trivia night or weekend volunteering — but whatever you do,<\/span> prioritize creating a regular opportunity to leave your house. <\/b><\/p>\n

Not only will you actually interact with other humans (imagine!), but you\u2019ll likely refuel and recharge your creative batteries, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Actually get dressed in the morning<\/span><\/h4>\n

It\u2019s a lot more difficult to turn what would have been an eight-hour workday into a 12-hour, nap-and-Netflix-and-also-some-work day if you\u2019re <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>sitting in your jammies all day long.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I know that yoga pants forever sounds like nirvana, but comfort can be a fickle mistress. <\/span><\/p>\n

Go ahead and throw on some jeans.<\/b> If anything, you\u2019ll be motivated to finish your workday so you get to take them off again.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Partition off a specific place to function as an office<\/span><\/h4>\n

Working from literally anywhere makes it that much more tempting to drag out the laptop when you should be relaxing. <\/span><\/p>\n

So as extravagant as it may sound to work in bed or while lounging poolside, consider setting up an actual home office — and promise yourself not to work anywhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n

(OK, at least not very often.)<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Decide on days off ahead of time, and stick to them<\/span><\/h4>\n

No, you may <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> answer that client email on Saturday if you decided Saturday is a day off. No, not even if your hiking trip got cancelled because it\u2019s raining. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sit down, watch a movie, and pretend work doesn\u2019t exist. <\/span>You\u2019ll be a better creator in the long run if you take the opportunity to turn your brain off.<\/b><\/p>\n

Want a tip on making this feasible for us workaholics? Do yourself a favor and <\/span>disallow push notifications for your work email address on your smartphone<\/b> — or, better yet, disconnect the account altogether. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can do it. I believe in you.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Make good use of a to-do list<\/span><\/h4>\n

This <\/span>could<\/span><\/i> just be me and my crazy type-A tendencies, but writing tasks down does wonders stop me from passively obsessing over whether or not they\u2019ll actually get done. <\/span><\/p>\n

Then again, I carry around my planner like a security blanket and write down things I\u2019ve already finished just for the satisfaction of crossing them off. But whatever: It\u2019s a lot cheaper than Prozac.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopefully, these tips will help even the most eccentric freelance schedule feel a bit more livable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who knows?<\/span> Maybe if you\u2019re really diligent about maintaining these self-imposed parameters, you\u2019ll come across to non-freelancers as normal.<\/b><\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/span>
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Full-time freelance writing has some surprising side effects — like napping and weird dinner times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":11066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[418,208],"class_list":["post-10921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freelancing","tag-freelance-writer","tag-freelance-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}