Over the last year I lost 75 pounds.
I did it mainly by changing the way I eat, and I’ve done pretty well sticking to it. I need to lose some more pounds but I’m currently living in my current body trying to to take care of it before I go for more.
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FREELANCING?
Go with me while I tell you a story about the big greasy hamburger and french fries I ate about a month ago, washed down with a beer. And then another beer. And then some ice cream. And then some snails. (Just kidding. My husband ate the snails. I ate some sort of fish stew.)
And then I got home and tried to go to bed and
HEARTBURN!
Oh god, there are fewer things I hate more than heartburn because it interferes with my sleep and there are few things I LOVE more than my sleep.
This was not just heartburn.
This was my body throwing a big, fat, F&^% YOU KATIE at me for eating crap that I don’t eat very often anymore and that I don’t even WANT anymore. (I really do like vegetables. That’s handy when you’re losing weight.)
I had heartburn for a week. I felt like absolute death.
I had not been having heartburn since I started losing weight because I was eating good things like leaves and fruits and protein and eggs and not peanut butter pretzels for breakfast and pimento cheese for lunch.
So when the heartburn came back it was EXTRA painful and awful. And also painful and awful because I knew I DID THAT TO MYSELF. Note to self: DO NOT DO THAT TO SELF.
BUT REALLY WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FREELANCING?
Well, lest you think I am some perfect angel who ALWAYS TAKES ALL THE TIME OFF, I have to say that very Very VERY vERy occasionally I work a weekend.
Well, lest you think I am some perfect angel who ALWAYS TAKES ALL THE TIME OFF, I have to say that very Very VERY vERy occasionally I work a weekend.
Harry Styles is an angel!
*Harry Styles has grown up now. But he has shorter hair again. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get to know short haired Harry, too.
I do mean very occasionally. Over the past 75 weeks I have worked one Sunday afternoon for 3 hours and last weekend for most of the weekend.
That means, as of writing this, I have worked TWELVE DAYS IN A ROW. And not twelve days of oh 5 hours, I mean 12 days of 13-14 hours because I had to finish a book and then I had to get all of this other actually money making stuff done this week. (Should I have signed that book contract? Probably not. Another lesson learned the hard way.)
After working that much:
YOU GUYS I AM NOT OK.
Working for 12 days in a row, hard days, after not doing that for over a year was like eating the messy hamburger and washing it down with beer. It has SCREWED ME UP. I have been soooooOOOOooOo tired and grouchy. I feel like my head is in a fog. I’ve gotten stuff done this week but it has taken 6x longer and I have NOT BEEN THE MOST PLEASANT ON THE PHONE.
BUT, like eating the messy hamburger, it has reminded me why I have to stick to my guns about my weekends. Because if I don’t get time off I can’t do a good job. I HAVE TO HAVE TIME OFF.
EVERYBODY HAS TO HAVE TIME OFF.
Sometimes you think, “Oh it won’t hurt if I just do this one thing one time” and then you do it and you are like WOW THAT WAS ACTUALLY A REALLY BAD IDEA.
That’s pretty much the entire premise this website is founded out. “Katie did it the hard way so you don’t have to.”
I didn’t really realize the extent to which I was KILLING MYSELF by never taking actual time off until I had time off for a year and a half and have now gone 12 hard days without it. I knew I was happier, but I didn’t witness the literal physiological catastrophe that was my body without rest until I did it again.
And that is why I am the internet equivalent of a person standing on the roof with a megaphone begging, pleading, shouting, cajoling, asking freelancers to take some time off.
LOOK IT IS TIME FOR ME TO OFFER MY PDF THAT I MADE JUST FOR YOU: 8 TIPS TO ENSURE QUALITY TIME OFF.
(Brilliant segue. I should be a writer or something.) *laugh crying emoji*
Get it:
