I keep telling myself that ‘next month I’ll take some time off’ and it keeps on…not happening.

Don’t get me wrong: I feel lucky, because the reason it keeps not happening is because I keep getting more and more work. I don’t say this to boast, but to hopefully share some positivity amongst all of the ‘our industry is falling apart!!!’ posts I keep seeing on Linkedin.

Anyway: August was supposed to be a summer break, but I’ve just started working with a digital nomad-championing brand who approached me to redo their website (and some other bits) so we’ll try again for September!

A few other updates for this newsletter incoming, too: I’ll be bringing back the weekly (rather than every-other-week) newsletters as well as a podcast (hopefully!) this month. Keep reading to see what’s new and what’s changing 🙂
But first: some tips for when things feel tough:

I run a $35 USD monthly community called Momentum for early and mid-stage freelance writers and, twice a month, you can ask me any questions 1:1 via Voxer. So many of the questions I’ve been asked recently are mindset related: how to keep going when things feel tough.

And I get it: as much as I’m fortunate enough that my freelance writing business is pretty self-sustaining nowadays, it wasn’t always this way. So today I wanted to share some tips on what to do and how to keep pushing when things feel tough in the industry.

Do one thing a day that you couldn’t do with a ‘proper’ job: (BTW: I refer to full-time/office jobs as proper jobs mostly as a jokey thing now – I know we all have proper jobs too!) for me this looks like 11am workout classes, spontaneous afternoons off to play Padel with friends, random Tuesday scuba diving trips or naps whenever necessary. In short: things that would be tough to explain to your manager if you worked in an office. I do this to bring the novelty back into my business.

Make a list of everything you’re proud of doing professionally: As freelancers we are almost always looking forwards not back. It’s good to work towards goals but we should all be spending more time remembering our achievements, too. Take 30 mins one day next week to write out everything you’re proud of already achieving.

Write a letter to current you from Future You: I like to do this once a year. I write a letter from Georgie of August 2026 explaining what I’ve been up to, where I’m at now, my achievements throughout this year etc. It’s great for helping me to consistently work towards my goals and remember why I’m doing this.

Take some time off! (This is a reminder for me, too) – don’t wait for exhaustion and resentment to hit. If you’re feeling frustrated/angry/other negative emotions about the industry and your work, take some time off. There’s absolutely no shame in doing so. Take a day to do lots of tech-free things that bring you joy (creative hobbies? a good walk? some fun baking?) and listen to good music. I promise you’ll feel a little calmer by the end of the day.

Make a plan and then make it a little easier: Sometimes we set ourselves goals that feel very intimidating or exhausting. And then we get frustrated that we don’t complete the goal. Write out your goals for the month (feel free to send to me for accountability!) and then make them 10% easier. Cut a few things. Extend the deadlines you set. You want your goals to be pretty easy to achieve for that nice boost of dopamine, which’ll help you with the motivation to hit the more difficult goals.