I’ve been freelancing for six years in London as a videographer and consultant. Here’s what I’ve learned to avoid burnout and what to do if you’re already experiencing it. This blog is for everyone starting out but also those who already freelance hard. No matter the situation, you need to remember that the most important thing for delivering the best product/service to your client is being in the best physical and mental well-being. So, how do you balance going the extra mile while avoiding burnout?
Tip 1: Do Not Say Yes to Everything
When you’re building your business, it’s hard NOT to say yes to everything because you’re trying to get as many projects as possible to gain referrals, reviews, and money. However, once your business is somewhat established, you need to start saying no. I used to say yes to everything all the time, which helped me build my business quickly. But I was living a very unhealthy lifestyle, which caught up with me later on. Weight gain, no exercise, back pain and mental exhaustion.
It took me some time to start saying no to projects that didn’t make sense to me. The tasks that would jeopardize my health or well-being. Clients can drop you in a heartbeat if you don’t do what they want. Do not take it personally; the world is not fair. But should you sell your physical and mental health for a paycheck? Won’t you then spend that earned money on a vacation to recover from burnout? It’s like eating crappy cheap food to save money and then spending your saved money at the pharmacy trying to get healthy again because you got sick.
Tip 2: Set boundaries
Many clients will message you on WhatsApp about something urgent. At 7 AM, 7 PM or 10 PM. If I got a dollar every time this happened, I could retire. This is usually caused by them messing up their deadline and needing you to fix it so they don’t get fired. I’m not going to say no if I’m available and if I can save your job. But if it happens more than once a month, we have a problem.
In most cases, as I found out later, the actual deadline was three days (or even a week!) later. The person giving me the task wanted extra points to show they could finish the project early. They didn’t care about my mental and physical health; they cared about their promotion. Again, do not take it personally.
In the end, I was the one saying yes to this so the joke’s on me. I have and you do too a free will to say no; nobody forced me and nobody will force you. So the finger always has to point to your direction. Also, once you say yes to everything, you will get annoyed, which can reflect on your communication with other clients and destroy relationships.
When you have one or two clients, this won’t be overwhelming because you lack work, but when you have ten clients and eight of them are doing this, it’s a recipe for disaster. This happened to me quite often, because if you say yes one time, they will take it as standard procedure. I was burning out slowly because they were not the only clients with requests like these.
Start saying NO
So one day I said NO with the explanation that I had been working the whole day and couldn’t continue editing in the evenings as I was tired, and I saw a bigger margin for error. It is also not professional to work last minute before a deadline. Within 48 hours, I received a message saying, “Hi Nicole, it’s okay. We won’t be needing you for editing anymore.” Facts.
This might happen to you too. You may lose clients if you say no, but you will keep your physical and mental health. Focus more on finding high-quality clients rather than just saying yes to everyone. Losing money will hurt, but in the long run, it’s a better choice. Trust me.
I have plenty of examples where saying yes was a mistake, and you will find all of them in my upcoming book for freelancers, where I’m going to share all the secrets of the industry and loads of examples of how to handle situations and find clients.
Here’s a different example as a bonus
I got an inquiry for my services from an assistant of a very big Instagram influencer. They were asking me to film their Instagram content the whole day, but it had to be on a specific day. I was already booked with another client, but this project was very interesting to me. They really liked my work and agreed to my pricing. I talked to the client who booked me for that day, and I decided to cancel. Thankfully, they agreed to reschedule, not cancel. Guess what?
The influencer cancelled on me 12 hours before recording without paying the invoice (booking fee). Here, I said yes to this project because of the potential for much greater earnings. I got greedy, yes. And greed never results in anything good.
Tip 3: Do Not Ignore Red Flags
This goes hand in hand with Tip 1 and Tip 2, but there are more red flags you need to be aware of. If you have anxiety opening your email on Monday morning or after a short vacation, then you’re burning out. If you get an inquiry but don’t feel like jumping on a call with them because you’re already super busy, that’s a red flag. You’re essentially preventing yourself from expanding your business and finding better clients by being completely occupied with bad clients and burning out.
Not getting paid is a last stop before burnout
Not getting paid on time will trigger your anxiety too, especially after you’ve completed the project. You need to charge a booking fee (50% of the invoice) before you do anything. If you deliver the work with mistakes, that’s a red flag showing you are not focused and bothered. Only thinking about how much money you can get or how much money you’re going to lose with the project. Not being able to sleep because you’re thinking about client projects. If you ignore all these red flags, you’re going to burn out.
Dealing with Burnout
One day you’ll wake up being so anxious, you’ll do anything to avoid work. This could even make you sick or ill. Your body and soul will do anything to protect you. You will not open your email, you will procrastinate watching films or just going out, pretending there’s no work waiting for you. You can continue this for a couple of days thinking the world is great, you’re living your best life, spending money you earned. But one day you need to open that email, and you’ll see 50 emails, half of them urgent, and you turn into a candle with no wax. Burnout is real.
It’s very hard to recover. Usually, you will need a vacation, a longer break, which essentially means losing money anyway. My problem always was that when I went on vacation, I felt energized and ready to tackle my freelance life again. But guess what? After a couple of weeks, I was exactly where I was before my burnout. So I was spending all my earned money on vacations to recover from working to earn money. Lol. It makes no sense.
Example of how to get closer to burnout
One of my business contacts had a car accident and shared a picture from a hospital where he was all bandaged, looking like he could barely breathe. Someone put a laptop in front of him, and he was typing on it. The post had the following caption: “I will always keep working on my client projects, I will never let you down. Hustling hard, always.”
I will not even comment on this. You can push, but 10-20 years from now, it will catch up. Alcoholics, drug addicts, food addicts—you will need some kind of escape from all this if you keep ignoring it.
How to Avoid Burnout
You need to completely clean up your business and rethink it. First, think about what you truly enjoy about freelancing and your business, regardless of the money. Going after money is the number one reason why Youtubers and influencers experience burnout. They start something just because they enjoy it. It makes them money and then they want more. Before they know it, they need to take a step back. Some of them literally quit forever.
List your current clients and highlight the ones who are toxic. You may lose them if you email them that you won’t be available for evenings and last-minute projects anymore. It’s hard to reestablish rules when they get used to a certain standard. Then, write and describe your perfect clients for the perfect price and try to manifest it and find out how you could attract them.
Do you own thing
Think about side hustles you could do that don’t require new clients, such as affiliate marketing, blogging or social media. Also, work on your marketing. If you present yourself as being super busy because you are, whether it’s on your website or social media, then clients will or should get the memo when inquiring about you. It’s about setting up the expectations. Remember, nobody wants someone who is super available all the time.
Spread your work accordingly. Either have days where you go hard and then take the rest off or you go easy, but every day. Whatever works for you and your social life. If there is a project that is a red flag but you believe you can do it, price it very high so then when you go through this, you can later have the luxury to say no to two toxic projects in the future.
Get comfortable with saying no and remember, nothing is more important than your well-being. Also, it’s just work. You’re not at war; nothing serious is going to happen to you or your client if something doesn’t work out.
Change the environment
What helped me was not locking myself in the office for the whole day. As a freelancer, the whole point for me is to have freedom of schedule and place. Sitting in my home office for nine hours a day is not what makes me happy long term. Try going to a cafe in a nice place with your laptop or traveling on holiday but take it as a business trip as well. Get some clients who are not from your city so you can travel to interesting places, if you want to travel, of course.
My solution was to turn myself into a digital nomad to travel to beautiful places with beautiful weather. I took my business fully online and saved up money to be able to lose toxic clients. As a creative, I’m also working more on my blog, YouTube, TikTok, affiliate marketing, and online courses to be fully independent and take on only clients that are synchronised with my mindset and perspective on life. Sounds very selective and specific? Yes, that’s the point.
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