Juggling freelancing alongside a 9-5 is hard
Learning how to switch off and take breaks is crucial to prevent burnout
I found myself hard relating to two things this week: the first was Neve Gordon-Farleigh’s TikTok (@nevethejournalist) about taking time off work but finding yourself unable to peel yourself away from it; the second was Jem Collins’ most recent JournoResources newsletter, where she spoke about the difficulty she has switching off from her personal projects when taking a holiday.
For the benefit of those of you who are new here, between 8.30am-4.30pm Mon-Fri, I’m the marketing and communications officer for SAE UK. But around that, I’m also editor-in-chief of The Indiependent, which is predominantly an admin and management role; I’m the site’s music editor, which involves commissioning, editing and publishing music content; I’m also a freelance journalist, and I’m the writer of this weekly newsletter. On top of that, I’ve been chairing The Indiependent’s Journey-lism series, which is a pay-what-you-want series of career talks aimed at early career stage journalists.
I have a salaried ‘9-5’ job, but all my other projects and freelancing are squeezed into the mornings, lunch breaks, evenings and weekends, around my newly reinstated social life. It can be a lot to juggle at times. Take last week, for instance—I managed to sub-edit and send a 72-page magazine to press, while also covering Collision Festival for my day job (it’s a North American event so I was working from 3-10pm). This meant getting up at 8am and finishing work at 10pm each day. It’s fair to say that by the time Friday rolled around, I was ready for that G&T.
Particularly as I’m the person ‘in charge’ at The Indiependent, it’s impossible to ever really switch off, even if I have got a lot better at setting work: life boundaries in the last year. The Indiependent editorial team will attest to the fact that every time I try and take a break, there’s usually a WordPress update that means I spend my whole ‘holiday’ logged in trying to resolve a problem with the site with the help of our lovely developers. I love what I do with my whole heart—I wouldn’t have kept the site going for over six years, without taking a penny out of the business for myself if I didn’t… but my god sometimes I want to scream and say “I’m not available, leave me alone.”
But the tidal wave of guilt usually triumphs and I find myself logging in to reset a contributor password, or replying to an editorial query in our editor’s WhatsApp group. For the sake of my own sanity, if nothing else, I have implemented the following strategies to try and make it easier to switch off each evening, or for longer periods when I need to take a proper break. I’m sharing these here in the hope that they’ll help anyone else who wears multiple hats or runs their own business alongside a 9-5:
Use the ‘night mode’ feature on your mobile phone. Each night at 9pm my phone changes to greyscale mode and I’ve found this is a really useful way of reducing the desire to scroll before bed. Same for blue-light settings, which reduce the glare from your screen and can help improve the quality of your sleep.
Set an out-of-office explaining that you don’t actually have an office (because you run your operation from your childhood bedroom) but you’re not going to be checking your email from X date until X date. I did this over Christmas and it was surprising how many emails I had back from third parties such as PR who had no idea that the site was volunteer-led—which I took as a compliment about how professional The Indiependent seems from the outside.
Use the ‘Do-Plan-Delegate-Eliminate’ to-do list (also known as the Eisenhower matrix). As a small business owner, it’s easy to feel like the world will end if you take a week off, but planning in advance the things that you need to do before you go on leave, preparing for the tasks you’ll need to do upon your return, and then giving your team a list of tasks they can do without your supervision can help divvy up your workload and ensure your organization is best prepared to function in your absence. I actually use this to-do list method day-to-day because it helps me identify my immediate priorities and stops me from working until ungodly hours in the morning on things that don’t matter, in the grand scheme of things.
Say no to opportunities that fall in your personal time. It’s flattering to be thought of as an ‘expert’ on something, and I’ve definitely leaped at the opportunity to appear on podcasts or speak at events in the last few months… mostly because we’ve been stuck inside and there hasn’t been an awful lot else going on. But now that things are opening up again, I’m being more guarded about my free time. I politely turned down a few guest speaker requests recently because the events fell on weekends where I would rather spend time with my boyfriend, friends, or family, and it was amazing to realise that the world doesn't end just because you’ve declined an invitation. As long as you’re polite, people will continue to request you for future events they may be coordinating.
What other strategies do you have for switching off from your side hustles? Tweet me @DistrictPeaked and let me know!
My week
… in editing
Edited a few bits and bobs this week, including Ed Budds’ review of The Pale White’s debut album, Infinite Pleasure; Marcus Wratten’s review of MARINA’s new single ‘Purge The Poison’; Kara McKune’s review of London Grammar’s new album, Californian Soil; Ella McClaren’s interview with Norwich singer-songwriter, Maya Law, and Kat Smith’s ‘Introducing’ column, focusing on Lauren Auder.
… in writing
Pitches: 0
Commissions: 0
I wasn’t pitching this week because I was focused on sending The Indiependent’s May issue to print. I’m really proud of how the issue looks — you can order a copy here.
Articles written: 1
I reviewed the new girl in red album if i could make it go quiet (out 30 April) for the aforementioned mag.
Articles published: 0
… in listening/watching
I watched a 2-hour investing webinar that I paid for a few months ago but only just got round to watching. I was shocked to learn that women typically retire on just 20% of the pensions of men. This isn’t a sponsored post, I genuinely just think Vestpod is a brilliant community for women interested in learning about making their money work harder. The founder, Emilie Bellet, has a background in finance and explains why you should start investing small sums of money as early as possible in order to benefit from compound interest. If that all sounds like gobbledygook to you, don’t worry—her resources are really easy to understand, and I say that as someone whose worst subject at school was maths. She also has a great podcast called The Wallet.
… in reading
I didn’t do a lot of reading this week as I’ve been crazy busy, but here are a few pieces I enjoyed:
Big fan of Laura Holliday’s Sulk piece which interrogated ‘How memes helped Friday Night Dinner become a cult show’
Jess Bacons’ Refinery29 piece ‘TikTok users are finally giving us a way to talk about grief’ was moving
James Greig’s i_D piece ‘Why do we love to pathologist normal behaviour online?’ was really thought-provoking *Beth closes the six WebMD tabs she’s had open for the past week*
I loved Marianne Eloise’s Slate piece ‘Inside the Facebook group dedicated to “Oddly Specific Playlists”’
As someone who is incredibly conflicted about fast-fashion but for whom ASOS parcels still mysteriously keep arriving, I liked Vicky Spratt’s Refinery29 piece ‘My secret life of fantasy online window shopping’
James Hall’s article ‘Ed Sheeran doesn’t need to get richer — Spotify must change’ was an on-the-nose piece for The Telegraph
Ed Cumming’s Guardian piece ‘Caterpillar wars: time to pick sides in the battle of Colin v Cuthbert’ had me making that weird breathy ‘hnff’ noise you make when something is funny on Twitter instead of actually laughing out loud
Annie Lord is perpetually brilliant, but I agreed with a lot of what she said in her Vogue piece ‘Why does falling asleep next to someone feel more intimate than having sex?’
Events
This week I’m hosting a lifestyle writing Q&A with the brilliant writer & columnist, Rose Stokes on 27 April at 6.30pm.
Other upcoming events:
Indiependent Journey-lism: freelance features writer, Amelia Tait - 5 May at 6.30pm - Amelia is one of my favourite journalists and so I’m so excited to be picking her brains on how to pitch and write features.
Indiependent Journey-lism: senior commissioning editor, Victoria Richards - 13 May at 6.30pm - this will be a great event for anyone looking to learn more about what commissioning editors are looking for from freelancers
Opportunities
Birmingham: Reach PLC is looking for a deputy managing editor to work across Midlands titles
Colchester: Aceville Publications is looking for a content writer to work on PaperCrafter magazine
Coventry: Reach PLC is looking for a head of content for Coventry Live
Derby: Poppy-PR is looking for part-time public relations support
Dundee: Outplay Entertainment is looking for a social media manager
Edinburgh: JPI Media is looking for a podcast producer
Edinburgh: Reach PLC is recruiting for a reporter for Edinburgh Live
Essex: Essex Live is looking for a trainee multimedia live news reporter
Lanarkshire: Reach PLC is recruiting for a sub editor for The Daily Record
Leeds: Kirklees Council is looking for a communications and marketing officer (media & PR)
Leeds: Health Education England is in need of a public relations and communications assistant
Lincoln: The University of Lincoln is looking for a senior PR officer
Liverpool: Sportytrader urgently needs a freelance sports content writer
Liverpool: Creative Resource is looking for a senior copywriter
Liverpool: Reach PLC is looking for a football writer to join Liverpool.com
Manchester: My First Five Years is looking for an early years content researcher/writer, paying £15/hour
Manchester: The Orchard Agency is keen to hire a creative copywriter
Manchester: Creative Resource is looking for a midweight copywriter
Newcastle: Denholm Associates is on the lookout for a communications manager
Nottingham: DEMI+CO is looking for a freelance content writer
Nottingham: Boots is looking for a digital copywriter to work on Boots.com
Oxford: Activate Learning is looking for a group PR and communications manager
Peterborough: Yours Clothing Ltd is in need of a social media and communications coordinator
Reading: The Business Continuity Institute is looking for a journalist/copywriter, paying a whopping £35,000
Salford: That’s TV is looking for a TV reporter/broadcast journalist
Solihull: Key Stages Online is looking for a script writer and video editor
Southampton: Hampshire Live is looking for a trainee multimedia live news reporter
Swindon: UK Research and Innovation is on the hunt for a communications officer
PS) Tweet me and let me know what you think of this newsletter! @BettyKirkers or @DistrictPeaked