Real Words

“Thank God it’s Friday because to me Friday means I can work for the next two days without interruptions,” John Hope Franklin.

One of the things that I constantly play around with as a freelance writer is when exactly I want to take my “free time”. I’ve tried working a Monday through Friday and taking traditional weekends off. Sometimes that’s great because it allows me to be on the same schedule as everyone else which makes it easier to coordinate both work-related things (like interviews) and social things with other people who work a normal schedule.

But at other times, it has seemed better to work through the weekends and to take my days off during the week. Sometimes I’ll take two days in a row mid-week and other times I’ll take two days apart separately during the week. Having days off during the week has a number of benefits. It’s great for being able to do things alone - like going to museums or browsing through thrift shops - because places like that are empty on weekdays and there aren’t a lot of people demanding my time.

And, as highlighted by the quote above, sometimes it’s nice to work on weekends. Or rather, it’s nice to be creative on weekends. Work for many freelancers means interviews and answering emails and searching for new jobs online. We spend many of our working hours doing tasks that rely in some way on interacting (usually virtually) with others. On the weekends, nobody expects us to answer our email or pick up the phone so it’s possible to do the real work of being creative without those other tedious interruptions.

For me, no single set schedule has ever worked best. I try something for awhile and then I change it again. Or I alter my schedule to adapt to different projects that are going on or different obligations that I may have. But I keep trying. I think it’s important to be able to work on the schedule which suits you best, both professionally and socially. That’s one of the major benefits of working independently, even though it can be one of the more difficult parts to figure out.

Beyond anything else, I think the key is balance. It’s important to take free time and it’s important to make sure that you are also putting in enough hours on the job. Whether those hours are in chunks of five days work / two days off or blocks of time throughout each day or whatever, it’s important to keep defining the right balance for yourself as a writer and making sure to carve out a situation that allows for that balance so that you can always be at your best.