Being able to design your own schedule is one of the best things about freelancing. However, many self-employed individuals struggle to take regular breaks, a habit that can negatively impact the quality of their work in the long run.
Once you’ve established yourself as a freelancer, it’s crucial that you schedule regular downtime. More importantly, you should focus on improving the quality of your time off to ensure that you’re refreshed when you get back to work. In this guide, you’ll discover eight tips for taking better breaks as a freelancer.
1. Be Clear With Your Boundaries
If you’re used to putting “I’ll have limited access to my emails” in your automatic out-of-office response, reconsider changing the language. When you’ve taken time off work, you should avoid doing work-related tasks as much as possible—even if it’s a low-effort task like checking your inbox.
Most emails you receive don’t require an urgent response, and it’s one of manyfreelance client red flagsif someone expects you to be available 24/7. Instead, consider creating an out-of-office email that looks like this:
Thank you for your email.
I’m on vacation for[Date Range]and won’t be accessing or replying to my emails in the meantime. I’ll respond to your request upon my return. In the meantime, have a great week 🙂
Kind regards,
[Your Name]”
2. Don’t Take Your Laptop on Vacation
There’s nothing wrong with going on a workation, and you’ll find plenty ofuseful tools for a productive workation. However, you regularly should take a complete break from your work—and that includes not bringing your laptop with you.
If you’ve informed your clients that you will be offline for a certain time, you shouldn’t need to worry about deadlines. Instead, you both should work around each of your availability. Taking your laptop on holiday will stop you from fully switching off and take up more space in your carry-on baggage than is necessary.
3. Consider Setting Screen Limits on Your Smartphone and Tablet
When you’re taking time off from your work, you might also want to spend some more time away from technology altogether. This is especially the case if you’re traveling somewhere and want to focus more on creating lifelong memories.
Being on your smartphone or tablet for extended periods can distract you from the present moment, and it’s worth thinking about setting screen limits. You canuse Apple’s Screen Time feature to cut down your iPhone usage, for example.
If you have an Android device, you can alsocheck your screen time with Digital Wellbeing. The limits you put in place are up to you, and of course, you don’t need to do anything if you don’t feel that screen time limits are necessary for you.
4. Focus on Other Good Habits
Whether you’re new to freelancing or have spent years working for yourself, it’s a good idea to focus on your mental and physical health year-round. If you feel like you neglected some of your other good habits before taking a break, your time off is an excellent opportunity to reconnect with them.
On your break from freelancing, you can also consider trying new habits like meditation. You canuse several meditation apps to practice mindfulness, such as Calm and Headspace. Other new habits you can try and incorporate into your routine when you’re back include:
5. Complete Your Outstanding Tasks Beforehand
Even if you take all the advice we’ve listed in this guide, taking a break as a freelancer is incredibly difficult if your brain is still thinking about deadlines and whatnot. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to complete all of your outstanding tasks before you turn on that out-of-office response.
You can ensure that you complete your tasks beforehand by scheduling the days leading up to your vacation in advance.Planning your week in Google Calendaris one option, and you can also use apps like Apple Calendar and Notion if you’d prefer.
Considering that you’ve got the deadline for your time off, you may also find that you’re more focused if you aim to complete all outstanding tasks before you log out.
6. Plan Your Returning To-Do List Before You Leave
Even if you complete all your big tasks before you take time off, you’ll still have things that require your attention when you’re back. For example, you may need to respond to various messages in your email inbox.
To ensure that you’re not running around when you get back, it’s a good idea to plan your to-do list for the first few days back from your break. Factor in that you may need a bit of time to get back into your normal routine, and it’s worth looking athow to restore your productivity after a vacation.
you may use to-do list apps to plan what requires your attention when you return, such as TickTick and Todoist. We’ve got a completecomparison between TickTick and Todoistif you’re not sure which app to choose.
7. Consider Automating Tasks That Don’t Need Close Attention
You might have small tasks that don’t need your complete attention during your time off, and you may find it beneficial to deal with them in advance. For example, you can consider scheduling invoice payments you need to send to others.
In some cases, you may find it useful to outsource certain tasks. For example, if you sell online products, you can consider hiring a personal assistant to deal with customer requests. If you hire someone else to help you, make sure that you give them a full briefing of their tasks before heading out of town.
8. Plan Your Breaks Well in Advance
One of the best ways to ensure that you take better breaks as a freelancer is to know when you’re going to be offline in advance. At the end of each year, it’s worth scheduling your time off for the following 12 months. I have a personal rule of aiming to take one week off every 4-6 weeks where possible, which has worked quite well—and you might want to consider doing the same.
You canplan your trips in Notion, and it’s worth putting your time off in your calendar app. Besides knowing when you’ll be out of office, planning your breaks in advance will allow you to budget and book everything accordingly.
Taking Regular Breaks Is Crucial as a Freelancer
You’re responsible for everything as a freelancer, including when you take time off. Putting the right systems in place will allow you to spend time away from your laptop in an effective manner, meaning that you’re ready to get back into your regular routine when you return.
From planning your time off in advance to being clear with your boundaries, you can do a lot to take better breaks as a freelancer.
