Can a freelancer's career survive a three-month break? 😱

... I'll let you all know in three months.

Dear readers,

I’m taking a three-month break from freelancing, journalism, deadlines and paid work.

Both my clients and I have had some difficulty adjusting to this new reality.

The initial response when I told my regular clients that I would take a career break was more or less – “Are you sure? Is there nothing we can do to make it work?

One client for whom I complete mostly small, piecemeal work offered to “bundle” the work to be done and send it to me once a week, which would save me admin time and unnecessary email back-and-forths. She also offered to give me more time to complete the assignments.

Another client reassured me they would find a solution, but also said to let them know in case I … changed … my mind? 🤔

My favourite client – a client whom I usually pitch, though they also commission me sometimes – said they respected and understood my choice and promised not to commission me during this three-month period. But, in the same breath, they also mentioned they would be grateful for any pitches I would send their way, and there is an understanding that I will complete at least one assignment for them while I’m on leave.

Still, I feel like I more or less managed to be firm with my regular clients, clients with whom I’ve built up a strong relationship over many years.

The problems began when a new prospective client showed up at my doorstep and an occasional client made a comeback.

I think we all know the dizzying endorphins that are instantly released when an email lands in our inboxes with a subject along the lines of ‘available for assignment?’ The magic of a potential client reaching out to ME, of landing interesting new work with zero effort on my end never, ever wanes. 

The work dangled in front of me by said prospective new client sounded interesting. It also, however, required an in-person presence on a select few days, days when I knew I would be thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic. If not for that minor detail, I would have happily said ‘yes’ to this assignment and broken my pledge not to do any work for three months.

Then, an occasional client got back in touch. I have done a few assignments for them in recent years and they have been easy to work with; they paid well and the work itself had also been interesting.

I found myself wholly unable to say no when they got in touch about a new assignment and am still trying to figure out why.

I think the promise of easy money factored into my decision. The fact that this client relationship was a more fragile one, i.e. we only work together every now and then also must have. Would they come back to me next year if I said no this time?

Or, maybe it was the realisation that my decision to completely stop working was meant to give me peace of mind, but instead was giving me extra stress. As regular readers of this newsletter will know, as well as all of those of you who know me personally, I have a lot of rules, rules that are meant to help me achieve a healthy work-life balance and a financially sustainable career, and avoid procrastination.

As healthy as setting those boundaries has been, I’m also trying to let them go when I realise that they’re giving me a stomach ache.

And so I said yes. Perhaps I’ll regret my decision and it’ll blow up in my face. You’ll find out about it here. 

And if you’re wondering what necessitated the career break and what I’ll be doing over the next three months … well … I’m going back to school. 👩🏽‍🎓

I’m doing a three-month journalist-in-residence programme at the University of Chicago and will be taking MBA classes to elevate my business journalism skills.

That also means that this newsletter will be appearing slightly less often in your inbox. Perhaps this is also a good time to tell the many new readers among you (hi! you have made a great choice and have joined a group of 700 stellar human beings) that I’ve not been publishing this newsletter as regularly as I would have liked to in the last few months. It’s been a struggle to prepare for this three-month programme (did it, and wrote this on the plane YOLO), while also taking on an absurd amount of work (sent my last invoice this morning), and trying to rent out my apartment (fail, Airbnb sucks).

So, in the spirit of the above, I will also be breaking the rule that this newsletter goes out twice a month, on a Tuesday. I hope that you, too, will fold me back into your arms in three months’ time?

As always, I would love to hear from you. Have you ever set any work rules that you ended up abandoning because they were just not working for you? What were they and … er … how do you deal with the guilt that comes with that? Email me, or leave a comment on the website.

Speak soon*,

Linda

*At an undecided moment some time in the future.

---

What The Friendly Freelancer readers are saying:

“I love that idea! That’s just what I needed to read, because I’ve been going through a career existential crisis for a few months.” Freelance translator Renata Fernandes in response to ‘I found a gap shaped just like me

“I'm in my early thirties and about to embark on the freelancing journey myself. I'm excited but very scared as well 🫠” Agnes in response to ‘One day you'll be dancing in your chair while making invoices’