Setting Boundaries With Ourselves is Crucial
What being self employed is really like
Those of us who are self employed and committed to investing our energy into exploring ways in which we can better manage our time, as well as envisioning new possibilities to expand our work, often struggle to achieve balance. For that reason, we often find ourselves on the verge of a mental breakdown, whilst experiencing all the symptoms of burnout.
As writers, people come across our writing, assuming it only took us a few hours to finish and publish it. Often, that is not the case. Much like in other jobs, our responsibilities go far beyond hitting the “publish” button and relaxing with a coffee.
First, we might need to do some research and take notes, depending on the topic we intend to touch on. The next step is to sit and write, but the work doesn’t stop there. We proofread, change, add, delete and proofread some more.
Depending on where we publish our content, we might have to go backwards and forwards with an editor before anyone else gets to read our piece. But wait, what if we want to write more than one article per day? The entire process needs to be repeated.
If we’re editors on top of writers, the amount of work we have to do doubles. Suddenly we’re web designers, social media managers, content creators, email responders and so on and so forth. We could literally work 24/7 and still have more to do.
Being self employed requires discipline, as well as setting boundaries with ourselves. I’ve learned the hard way that I need my rest times, my detox from social media, my time where I don’t think about anything work related. Even if some ideas pop into my mind, I write them down and then I switch off by doing breathing exercises or actively meditating.
The same is true when things aren’t progressing the way we hoped they would. As the saying goes, almost everything will work again, if you unplug it for a few minutes… Including ourselves. What that means is, we need to set strict boundaries with ourselves repeatedly.
Every day the world (especially the cyber world) will drag us by the hand, yelling at us what is important and what we need to worry about. Each day we need to stand up for ourselves and say:
“No, this is what’s important.”
Thank you for reading!
Here is a poem from KP_the_writer that I think you will enjoy:
