Freelance Habits for Anxious People

When it comes to work, I get overwhelmed easily.

It’s kind of crazy, because I’m not like that in other areas of my life. Hand me a personal tragedy and I can stand vigil. Tell me a three-hour story and I’m with you all the way. Throw me in the middle of a complicated travel disaster and I’ll solve it. Get me completely and utterly lost in a new city and I’ll calmly find my way home.

But give me a thirty-item to-do list for the week and I melt into a procrastinating puddle of anxiety. I still get things done. I still don’t miss deadlines. I’m still all sorts of reliable…but I’m also miserable and overwhelmed, short of breath and on edge.

It’s not a great way to be when you’re working for yourself.

And it’s taken me years to figure out that the solutions for me are actually rather simple.

In case you, too, are an anxious freelancer, I thought I’d share what I’ve finally (finally) learned works for me:

1. The only thing you have to do today…

I used to make long to-do lists. I’d throw every single thing I could think of on there. Sometimes I’d color-code it all. Pink for what needs doing this week. Blue for the month. Green for non-urgent someday items.

While all that helped me stay organized, it didn’t help me feel peaceful. In fact, it often kept me working late into the night. Because if I have a list of everything in front of me, I just keep going until I pass out. I’m compulsive like that.

So, after years of that nonsense, I started using a new system. I signed up for a free online project management system and entered my entire to-do list into it. But instead of looking at it every day, I pulled it up once a week or once a month and used it to make the schedule I’d look at every day.

That schedule? I call it “The only thing you have to do today.”

The basic idea is this: instead of an endless to-do list, the thing I look at on a daily basis is a one- to two-item list of the things I absolutely must accomplish that day.

Monday might say, “Write two articles for magazine X.” Tuesday might say, “Empty email inbox” and “Follow up with interview subjects.” And so on and so forth.

By splitting things out this way, I find that my days feel more peaceful. I’m not looking at everything that needs to be done…I’m just looking at priority one and priority two. And if I get those things done early in the day? I can reward myself with a luxurious hike or I can tackle one or two other, less-urgent to-do list items.

This means I end each day feeling accomplished and peaceful. I’ve either accomplished everything on my to-do list or I’ve over-shot. I’ve done more. I’ve rocked it.

I still have the same amount of work, but by splitting things into smaller, digestible to-do lists, I’ve tricked myself into feeling relaxed as I wrap up my workday rather than feeling like I should be doing more, working into the wee hours of the morning, burning myself out, and then having to take long stretches of time to recover.

2. One topic at a time.

My brain isn’t great at switching gears. Going from copywriting to creative projects to the blog to marketing tends to leave me drained and exhausted.

So I came up with a solution to that one, too. (A solution, to be fair, that I am wildly imperfect at implementing, but does work when I do make the effort to implement it.)

Instead of working on the book project, a copywriting project, and administrative stuff all in one day, I limit myself to one thing.

If I’m going to work on the book, I’m going to focus all my energy and brainpower on the book. If I’m writing travel articles, I might do three first drafts for three different magazines, but they’ll all be in the same category: creative writing about travel. If I’m copywriting, I’ll focus my energy on copywriting.

For me, this creates a whole lot of efficiency, eliminates a whole lot of distraction (my mind is less likely to wander back to a marketing conundrum if I’ve been working on travel pieces all day), and makes me feel less fragmented and exhausted at the end of the day.

3. Administration gets its own day.

Taxes, monthly billing/tracking, tracking expenses, checking in on business goals, mailing things, printing things…instead of trying to wedge this stuff into my normal workdays, whenever possible I set aside full days for administrative stuff and errands.

This also gives me a break from creative and problem-solving thinking, which I find makes the day after admin day a really productive and creative power day.

Are you an anxious freelancer? What works for you?

Did this post help you? Share the love by:

:: Buying a copy of my Italy, France, Switzerland, Paris, Barcelona, or Prague guides (already have one? Gift another to a friend!)

:: Clicking here before you make your next Amazon order (it doesn’t matter what you order, if you start by clicking from my site, I’ll get a commission!)

:: Donating to keep this site going.

Share this post!