Oh, I’m not talking about I’m frustrated, therefore I’m taking the weekend off. No, I’m talking about the frustration that many writers and freelancers have: feeling like you can’t take a weekend off. Those of us in the self-employed brigade all know that time you’re not working is time you’re not earning, so it just makes sense to try to work as much as you can (to plan for in the inevitable dry spells).
Yeah, that doesn’t work so well, does it?
We really can’t work all the time without burning out. And the worst problem with burning out is the time it takes to recharge everything back up to productive levels. Believe me, post-burn out recharges for me sometimes are a week or a month. Sure I get “work” done during that time, it’s just that the “work” I get done then isn’t the best stuff I could turn out.
Like today, I’m going through all my ongoing projects in my head:
- Using WordPress…waiting for more chapters to proof.
- But I could be doing new/replacement screencasts … oh but not when doing laundry
- Client work…still waiting for feedback or need to check something or … oh yeah I could do this or that
- Book three … right always more to work on there
- Next project …. well I could think about that…
See, it doesn’t end! I had, actually, thought I had enough well in hand to justify finishing “The Girl Who Played With Fire” this weekend, but no going through that list I thought of at least two or three things I could do.
What’s the solution? Today, I’m going to read for a bit, then see if I have enough info to start a project, then …
Aw hell, who am I kidding. I’ll be back here working away on a chapter in a couple hours I’m sure.
Ah well. Maybe I’ll take time off another time…like next year.
