This week's Assembly asked
"What do you do when you've not got work..."
We've gathered the key points and notes from the session, so you can refer back for future reference, or if you're weren't able to join, learn from your fellow freelancers.
Quiet periods are a universal part of freelancing
It doesn't matter how long you've been doing this, how experienced you are, or how settled things look from the outside. Quiet periods are part of the deal. Nobody in the room felt they figured out how to cope with the quiet patches, or the anxiety which comes from it. The slow periods aren't a sign something's wrong, It's just part of working this way.
The anxiety, "should" voice and guilt is universal.
Should be pitching. Should be on LinkedIn. Should be building something. Should be finding more work. Should be taking time off. Should be enjoying it. The guilt around not feeling "productive" or busy cuts across everyone. Employment taught to equate hours worked with worth/value. Unlearning that is important. And we all agreed we should treat ourselves with more compassion. It's important to remember that this flexiblity is a bit of a gift, and might be one of the reasons we work this way. And embracing the calmer periods, so we're better able to work in the busy times, is important. But the group agreed we need to give ourselves more grace.
Anxiety often comes from not knowing your financial situation
Often the fear of not being busy comes from a fear of not having the income - but without knowing our financial situation, the unknown is what causes the concern. Doing a budget, keeping track of your finances, and understanding if you're on track for this month's income might give you permission to worry a little less.
There's no single right way to use the down time.
People use quiet time in lots of different ways.There's no single right answer Outreach and pitching. Case studies. Training. Walking the dog. Baking. Ceramics. Reading fiction. Resting. Building a website. Doomscrolling. The answers were all depended on the individual. So find things which work for you. We discussed what proportion of time is spent on new biz, and there's no magic number there either (although we all admitted we don't do it when we're busy).
Not working, and switching off are two different things.
The flexibility freelancing offers also requires you to put in some sort of schedule and systems to help you work, but also help you rest. Using alarms, using a diary, using friends to drag you to the coffee shop (or your dog to the park). If you're a parent, perhaps you're already working on a system, around school holidays, around school hours. If you're not a parent, perhaps you can use those ideas as a technique - shorter days, enforced time off every eight weeks.
We're bad at remembering what we've actually done.
Sometimes we might feel like we've done relatively little, but in fact have done plenty for the day. Keeping track of what you've been doing is helpful, to give yourself permission to put the laptop down at the end of the day. We even discussed the benefit of timesheets! Track what you've been up to - not for your client, but for yourself. It creates a helpful record of the work you've done, so you can accept maybe you've done enough.
Remembering the benefits of the flexibility
We also talked about how not many ways of working have this inbuilt time off work, flexibility and autonomy, and reflecting that it's a benefit, not just a cause of anxiety, is important. For some of us, this is the reason we went freelance. And perhaps it allows us to spend more time with family, friends, exercising, or just scrolling.
Summary
Thanks for everyone who came along this week.
Next week's event will be posted on Monday!
Below are three articles which are related to the discussion, that might be helpful for you!
Thanks for coming along!
