Healthy work-life balance
Health, and finding a healthy work-life balance, was the focus of week two. The week came with a decent level of success and productivity within my job… but it started out with a full day in bed and on the couch due to a migraine. Migraines and health issues have been a familiar hurdle for me for the past ten years. In the past year, it’s only gotten worse. Most weeks include at least one day of feeling under the weather, at varying levels of severity. This has a clear impact on my ability to work effectively.
Health and work
One of the many reasons I decided to pursue the freelancing path was for my health, both physical and mental. The rigid structure in an office environment (at least, in most offices) which requires employees to be in the office roughly 40 hours per week, somewhere around 8-5 Monday-Friday, would be nearly impossible for me to adhere to in my current state of health. So, here I am, trying to be a freelancer!
Progress… and stress
Now, on to the rest of my week… Tuesday was another slower day at first, then I went to the gym and cleaned up the house. I finally started working at 3:00 in the afternoon. The focus of the day was working through a copywriting course, and I spent 3 and a half hours learning the new skill. Wednesday was the most productive day yet, and I worked from 11:30-4:30 on the copywriting course and writing one blog post.
Thursday was an important day because I worked from 10:30-12:30 on my business website… which is the major obstacle between me and getting clients. I continuously put it off because I feel uncertain about how everything should look and how to effectively communicate what I have to offer. It also feels like an extremely high-pressure task because my own website is part of my marketing to potential clients. If I claim I can make an awesome website for a client, then my own website needs to be even more elevated.
This tendency to avoid the stressful task is something I need to work on if I want to be successful as an entrepreneur. Chances are, most of the things that will bring me the most growth will be stressful. To end my week, I spent all day Friday getting ready to be out of town for 8 days, so I did not get any work done.
Finding a healthy work-life balance
Another perk to being my own boss is the ability to take a vacation without asking for permission. Taking a full work week off (even though it was only my third week of work) is a freedom that I cherish. It’s one of the things that makes the difficult parts of freelancing worth it.
As a freelancer, I’m also able to take some tasks off my husband’s plate so that he can focus on his work without having to take breaks to pack or clean the house. This also preserves his limited free time – after work, we can then spend time together and he can spend his time doing what he wants to do instead of having to use that time to do household and personal tasks. All in all, I feel somewhat encouraged by week 2 and the progress I made. Now, time for vacation!
In hindsight
Looking back at this week is surprisingly encouraging. Finding a healthy work balance that promotes both physical and mental health took serious effort, and I know I was not all the way there yet when I wrote this post. Honestly, I may NEVER be fully there. But, it’s really valuable to begin prioritizing LIFE, not work. One mindset shift that is still happening is the association between productivity and my worth. It’s easy to fall into the trap of making productivity the end-all be-all measure for how worthy we are as people. But, pushing back on that mentality ultimately makes us all happier and healthier.
As far as the tasks themselves – the copywriting class was too surface level to make any real difference. It was a good introduction to some basics, but I do not think it critical to my success. Working on my website, on the other hand… that was huge. Even though at the time I was ashamed of not working on it more, I made progress on it. Your website is the key to building confidence in yourself and your business. Practically, it’s almost essential to have a website before reaching out to any clients. So, I’m proud that I made progress on the site, even if it didn’t move as fast as I hoped.
The most important takeaway from week two was the importance of finding the healthy balance between work and life. Taking care of ourselves as freelancers is critical. Give yourself time to rest, space to be away from work without feeling guilty, and the freedom to be yourself.
