After a whirlwind trip where I insanely thought I could continue to create and publish content while in the middle of a swamp for an event in Florida with no phone service, limited wifi, and insane work hours… I lost my momentum.

When I finally got home I was drowning in catch-up work for clients. It’s been nearly 2 weeks since I shipped content for my own brand.

My lapse lasted even longer than my trip because I knew when I shipped again I would have to acknowledge missing those days. It’s doesn’t feel great to let yourself down, kind of embarrassing too, especially when you make showing up daily a pillar of your brand.

I was hiding, feeling sheepish to admit I screwed up.

After my trip, I scrambled to get back on top of my workload at the expense of my health. Around the time I caught myself Googling “signs of burnout” I knew things needed to change.

This reminded me of the fallout every time I took a paid vacation from my corporate gig. No matter how relaxing and freeing the trip was, upon return all good feels were instantly negated by unread emails in the triple or quadruple-digits.  This trained me, and my coworkers, to still check emails and stay “on”, even when we were supposed to be unplugging.

This is common, but that doesn’t make it ok.

This experience has me thinking a lot about how to manage expectations for communication, availability, and travel with clients. I don’t want to be tempted to be “always on” to avoid losing momentum or come home to an insurmountable workload.

I don’t want the tradeoff to be to lose momentum or lose my mind. I can’t be an effective lady boss if I burn myself out, no one can! I am not a big warm fuzzy self-care type but I see where I must work it into my lifestyle if I want to succeed.

My goal to create & publish content for my brand daily is back in action, I am committed to sharing this journey with you and continuing to pursue this goal. The difference is, the goal is now to ship daily on weekdays. Even an overzealous entrepreneurial gal needs her weekends off to save sanity!

It’s too common these days to feel pressured to be “always on”. Screw that.  It’s not healthy and this over-connected culture just drives us to burn out, drink too much or take drugs, neglect important relationships and otherwise nuke our lives trying to be some sort of inhuman business robot.

I have been on a kick about how habits can help boost your productivity, and it’s time to add the facet of how habits help you have a healthy relationship with your freelance business.

Maybe that means making the habit to unplug at the end of the day, trading coffee for green juices, or scheduling your flow work early while you are fresh. Whatever it is, I look forward to developing better habits to help my business grow in a healthy, sustainable way and sharing the journey with you so you can do the same!

P.S. I am fresh on my journey of adding self-care and healthier habits to my freelance flow, including meditation, more yoga, and being careful not to work 24/7. If you are new to it too, my friend Jen has a great blog where she shares tips for meditation, breathing, and practicing self-care. She’s a great resource if you worry you may be on the road to burnout too.