How I took a proper summer break as a freelancer

5 ideas for carving out a month of relaxation ☀️

Today is my first day ‘’back at work’’ after an entire month off. As a friend reminded me earlier, being able to do this ‘is kinda the whole point of being freelance!’ and yet this is the first summer that I feel I’ve planned and carried out a proper break (and I’ve been working for myself since 2013).

During this month I did no paid or voluntary work, no admin around my business, and even tried not to talk about my work too much! I had two gorgeous, relaxing trips to Europe (one for my Mum’s 70th and one for a friend’s 40th) where I swam, walked, sunbathed and ate good food. I felt my nervous system restore to normal for the first time in years. I chatted and was idle. I read. I wrote. I had fun making a lip sync music video. I sat around a fire pit with my extended family and sang songs. I played jazz with my friend’s parents in a French mill under a meteor shower.

This is the sort of summer I’ve wanted for ages but have never had. I’ve always been slightly plugged into a work project, had just one coaching call to do, one ukulele workshop to deliver, one more festival to run something at… I’ve often arrived at September needing a break already 😭.

If you have just started living a more Carousel life and you are struggling to prioritise or afford decent time off, know that it will come. Here are some things that have helped me, and hopefully will give you some ideas, (but always remember to make time to feel into what works for you!)

1. Save up for summer

Let’s not beat about the bush here: taking a month off needs financial planning. For the past 9 years I have reached August and had a panic that there is no work coming in. Year after year I was in the same position - a horrible pit in my stomach in the summer that I wasn’t able to make ends meet and that I was failing as a freelancer. You’d think I’d see the pattern (!) But I’m a living in the moment kind of gal, and these future-focused habits take time to land…

This January I decided to take control: I chose in advance not to rely on income during July + August and instead put money away every week towards a 3 month summer fund.

It was a small enough amount that I didn’t really notice it going out each week, but enough that I built up a decent pot over 7 months. Unlike in the past with ambiguous ‘savings pots’, which I would dip into, I didn’t touch this one. I got to the end of June and I had 3 months salary saved. It enabled me to feel calm and actually enjoy my summer, guilt free.

This is the kind of ‘advice’ that past Sarah would have screwed her face up at. Who even am I!?

2. Say no to work (even if the £ is tempting)

Since running Coaching for Teachers, where there’s no work during the school holidays, it’s felt a lot easier to enjoy the breaks. However, I do have other clients that work all year round…

July 2022 was a big learning for me. I had an online workshop booked in with one of my corporate clients, and then the date was changed to when I was going to be on holiday. I thought ‘it’s just a couple of hours’ and it was a decent fee but I wasn’t able to switch off until the workshop had happened, and by then the holiday was almost over. I did get the money, but I didn’t really get my holiday.

This year, the same client came to me with a request for a few days work in July. Technically, I could have done it, but I noticed my stomach tense up at the thought of trying to fit it in. It was good money, but as I imagined myself opening my laptop at intervals during the next month and being taken away from this well-earned time off, I knew that no money was worth forfeiting that rest time. This was a HUGE turning point for me in feeling autonomous with my work and time off. I also acknowledged that this was a financial choice I am now able to make, and maybe couldn’t a year ago.

(And guess what, the client ended up booking a different piece of work for next week anyway!)

3. Reframe July + August (thanks Kim)

July is weird. 

My wonderful friend Kim Willis called it this year with a reframe that has totally transformed my summer. Maybe July + August are actually supposed to be low key?

I’ve often got to July and felt like I’ve already had an amazing summer, and then, what, there are two more months of keeping the energy high? I spend summers feeling the pressure to be out and about, secretly frazzled and already ready for Autumn.

What if we saw midsummer (20th June aka Glasto week) as the high point of summer? Everything before it is a build up of energy, and everything after it, a breathing out?

This year I saw July + August as my recharge time before Autumn, and the recovery from the start of summer, (which was full of fun, festivals and play this year). I’ve felt total permission to be lazy, choose activities that actually feel restorative and go at a different pace. 

4. Reduce tech and comms 

For the first two weeks of my time off I was in Spain and I didn’t check my emails once. I also decided not to turn on roaming, and the property had no WiFi, so I was only checking WhatsApp every 2-3 days when I went to a cafe. This was total bliss. When I did connect to WiFi, I’d download the new messages, reply when back at the flat, and then send them when I next went into town. This felt like old school email writing, because I wasn’t getting into a back and forth conversation with anyone, and I was taking time to read and reply calmly. 

I think WhatsApp is the thing that steals my time the most. And I also kinda love it: connecting with people, brainstorming ideas, leaving voice notes etc. so I don’t want to stop it completely, but it was nice to be more boundaried around it. 

When back from Spain I did check my emails and replied to anything time sensitive, but mostly left things for this week. My out of office message managed expectations of when people should expect a reply.

It was good to feel a bit lazier around my phone and emails!

5. Be honest about what you want to do with your time

This feels like such a biggie that I’m going to write a whole other Carousel about it, but let’s just say, Sarah the FOMO queen had zero FOMO this summer. WELL DONE ME. Everything I was doing felt like things I had chosen and was fully in on. No comparison. No resentment. No feeling torn. I want to share how this happened in a later one, but for now I want to celebrate this, as being an Enneagram 7 it’s usually my biggest source of stress to feel like I want to be everywhere all at once!

A reminder that being able to take time off like this has been a decade in the making. I’ve had to build up stability through my clients, get to know the patterns of work, and get it wrong many times before a summer like this was possible.

What are you taking from this? Do you have anything you want to try? Do you have any questions for me? (I’d be happy to answer).

Big hug and nice to be back on the ‘stack.

Sarah

(Who is feeling zen right now, but let’s see what happens when I’ve looked at my 300 unread emails…!)