“what do you do when you feel overwhelmed with your content editing? how do you step back, how do you refocus, how do you get back to work?” – susana
susana is a graphic designer and content editor, she works in the wedding industry and she’s a woman of all trades. she’s witty, dynamic and strong woman with an incredible sense of style! we got to know each other through our blogs and we often talk about all the effort it takes to run our own businesses and how to stand out from the crowd! actually feeling overwhelmed is quite typical among those who run their own businesses. i recently read a post written by emma case about how easy it is to work way to many hours when you’re starting, and how it took them almost three years to start relaxing more about their business, taking some days off, enjoying themselves, and even having healthier habits!
as i believe this issue is crucial among several fields of creative work, i’ll answer this question in a general way, instead of focusing just on the content editing. the thing is that we start our business, we love what we do and we want it to be successful (and my definition here of being successful is having a decent income, enough to pay for your bills, on a first phase we all want to at least make a living out of our dream and then we might have different opinions of being successful). so what do we do?
we work, work, work. because we know that in order to make anything work, we need to… work really hard! so we do that. and it’s quite easy to do that, because we love what we do. the thing is that we love it so much, that eventually we start working too much. and eventually we start to feel really tired and things start to get messy. and if we don’t recognize the symptoms, things might not work anymore, and we may even stop loving what we do. it’s really easy to get things out of balance. and as if this wasn’t enough, working as a freelancer brings another issue to our lives, we never know when we get clients and when new work is going to arrive. so we get a bit scared of that “out of business” sign and we work harder.
that’s when we need to stop! running a business that has several front-ends has made me learn that lesson quite early. i started to feel so anxious about everything i had to do, that i had to stop. i was anxious just by receiving another email to answer. that was the breaking point. i had to step back, relax and think about a change in my working day, because soon i would start feeling anxious right before waking up. of course, i wasn’t getting enough sleep, so i was tired all day long, and my concentration levels were a disaster. so i figured out a schedule, just like if i was working out of home or for someone else. so my day goes something like this:
8h/8h30
– wake up and get dressed
– walk mr kobe for about 10min
– feed mr kobe and prepare breakfast
– enjoy breakfast while catching up on google reader until 10am
10h00
– check email, check sales and answer emails
– work on the blog, photography editing or design
12h30
– lunch time (i cook and wash the dishes, i eat on the table, and step away from the laptop for an entire hour)
13h30
– work on the blog, photography editing or design
– prepare some orders to ship, go to the post office
16h00
– walk mr kobe for about 1h
– have a snack
– work on the blog, photography editing or design
– feed mr kobe and keep working
20h00
– stop working and shut down outlook before dinner time
– cook dinner, have dinner with mr twiggs, after it i walk mr kobe for another 10min, while he does the dishes
– relax my head by checking on my favourite blogs and consuming all the beautiful things i find (i’m a compulsive consumer of great design, so usually there are about 20 tabs opened, because i’m always clicking on something new…)
23h30 – 00h30 (somewhere between)
– sleeping time
this organized schedule has allowed me to get enough sleep, therefore i work better, more concentrated, and i stop for a few breaks, without panicking of loosing that precious time. whenever i feel overwhelmed with something, i need to understand if it’s because i’m working too much for too long for no reason or is it just a phase that will end soon. if it is about working too much, i try to step back a day or two to completely unplug and do whatever makes me feel good, be it taking long walks with my cameras, reading a book, walking mr kobe, go to a museum… i try to always have this thought in my mind:
“i work hard enough. if i can’t do something, the world won’t end the following day and i won’t be out of business because of that. i work as much as i can, but though i love what i do, it’s still work and i need to clear my head from time to time, in order to stay creative, focused and above all, healthy. clients and money will follow. new projects will appear. you just need to stay true to what you believe in and focus on that.”
it doesn’t do any good if you’re getting three times the clients you expected and you are making a great living, and feel crankier with the ones that live with you, or you feel exhausted all the time, which doesn’t allow you to even appreciate all that work you’re doing. i still work hard, but i still need to feel good about myself. so i try to balance those two things the best i can. and as i’m also a believer in karma, i believe that if i do good, good things will follow. if i can’t do something, it’s because it’s not meant to be. if i can’t do it, i can’t do it.
did you like this post? do you have any question you want me to answer it? just drop me an email (hello[at]aplacefortwiggs[dot]com)! and what’s your experience on this issue? do you also feel overwhelmed? what do you? leave all your opinions on the comments section, so that we can learn more from each other’s experiences! have a great weekend!
su says
thank you so much, darling miss T!
*s
twiggs says
you’re welcome my dear!!! :) i hope i have helped a little bit!
MissLilly says
I really enjoy it, I think its kind of lessons learned for people that are starting. It’s important to recognize when it’s time to step back a little and relax, otherwise is no longer worth of living the dream, because you no longer feel like. Yes we have to work hard, especially at the beginning, to have a client base, to be recognized as professionals in our area, but it’s good too to have routines, like yours when walking with Mr. Kobe, it’s a nice break indeed and I’m sure you will feel more relaxed and productive after that (while is having his nap with his best friend – the pillow!
twiggs says
thank you so much for your opinion!!! it’s exactly like you say!
Susana says
I actually have a routine (specially now, that i work from home), very similar to miss T, minus mr Kobe, and i’m good at disconecting.
What i find to be more dificult is to juggle so many functions/jobs/tasks during the day with a clear mind and i get bored of doing the same things for a long time. I realy am a outside the box person and need constant chalenges…!
twiggs says
Oh sorry, if I misunderstood your point my friend! But I do get it, it’s a struggle as well! I tried my best to have a written list for a few weeks. It worked but then vacations arrived, I went away and when I got back I stopped working with a list by my side. And now I try to go through the things on my head, but I deal with that feeling as well. I already tried to save a day or two for, let’s say, web-design, but it didn’t work, because I would end up needing to work on some web-design projects on the other days. I know that I need some time to create as I please. Just that. My mind gets refreshed by that!
anka says
When I felt overwhelmed by the coffee shop and all the troubles with running it, I started some arts and crafts hobbies. I agree that you have to step back and enjoy the simple joys of life, otherwise working so much is completely useless. Thank you for this inspiring post, it’s nice when one can resonate with similar experiences…
twiggs says
hello anka, thank you so much for your opinion and for sharing your experience! you are so right… sometimes we just need to know when to stop, otherwise it won’t be that dreamy!