At the beginning of this year I launched a Substack called Freelance Well — an A to Z guide to wellbeing for freelancers.
Every week I work through the alphabet and share a micro wellness tip to help people build a freelance life that's happy and healthy.
The spark came after I was made redundant. I worked with a career coach who was freelance himself, and he said to me, "I think self-care is going to be really important for you." That really stuck.
As a freelancer, you're driven, committed, courageous, but all of that takes a lot of energy.
You're always having to overdeliver, whilst keeping the pipeline going and growing your business. There's not a lot of space in there for you-time. And if you have a tendency to let that slip, it so easily will.
So it became a self-accountability project as much as anything else.
What are some of the exercises freelancers can actually do?
My favourite is J — Jam Session. When your energy's low and everything's quiet, you stick on a favourite song, get up, sing, and dance. Nobody's watching. It sounds simple but it's a fantastic energy boost and reset, and it's sparked some really fun conversations in communities because music connects people on so many levels.
Then there's Eye Yoga — the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. When you're working from home you can get so focused you forget entirely. I'm even thinking of getting artwork of an eye above my desk just to remind myself.
And N is for Nourish Days — once a month or so, visiting somewhere new, getting out of the headspace of your business and clients, and finding inspiration in the world.
Knowing about these things and actually doing them are two different things — how do you remember?
Physical prompts really help. For the High Five Habit — where you high five yourself in the mirror every day — I had a Post-it note on my mirror. For eye yoga, I'm thinking about that artwork above the desk.
But I also think it's about making these things part of the conversation. I got the Jam Session going as a topic in the freelance communities I'm in, and once it's being talked about it becomes important, something you remember should be part of your day.
My ultimate vision is an A3 poster with the full A to Z on it, like those old nursery alphabet charts. Something you can put on your wall so it's always there.
Honesty though, I don't do all of these things perfectly. I started this Substack partly to hold myself accountable. It's a self-help tool as much as anything else.
Why does mental health matter so much for freelancers specifically?
It's just not talked about enough, and it really should be. Freelancing is a career choice where wellness gets deprioritised, but it's also a career choice where it genuinely needs to be front and centre.
Isolation is a big part of it. As a freelancer you're often plugged into a client team but never truly integrated. You have to make a real effort to find peers who get what you do, people who can be a sounding board, offer advice, and stop you working in a vacuum. I call that P for Peer Pleasure.
The freedom and flexibility of freelancing are real, but if you're not careful you're also switched on twenty-four-seven, chained to it, thinking about it all the time.
The whole idea of Freelance Well is to make the antidote to that bite-sized, easy, and most importantly, fun.
Lucy Revett is a Freelance Senior Copywriter & Editor and creator of Freelance Well.
