How to Take a Freelance Vacation

When I began writing full time, one of the things I was looking forward to was being able to travel to Illinois to visit my family and friends without having to take vacation days from work.  I don't have to think about how many days I have saved up, or if my vacation would even get approved.  As a freelance writer who works almost exclusively online, I have the ability to bring work with me, so I can keep working on vacation as long as there's Wi-Fi somewhere.

Some see this as a downfall for working from home.  After all, if you can write anywhere, you can write anywhere.  You're never really on vacation if you're working on vacation, right?

Yes and no.

There are ways for freelance writers to keep working and still take a vacation.

One way to take a freelance vacation is to plan it as a traditional vacation.  Let your clients know you'll be away from the office for a set amount of time, and plan projects around your vacation.  Let them know where you'll be in case of an emergency, as you would your employer in a traditional job, but let them know you'll be on vacation (or out of town or however you want to word it).  Of course the disadvantage to this is that you aren't working on vacation.  The loss of income during the vacation may not be a possibility for you.

Another way to take a freelance vacation is to lighten your work load while you're gone.  Let your clients know you'll have limited time for projects because you'll be out of town, and cut back to, say, half-time while you're on vacation.  This method works well in balancing spending time with family and friends while still generating an income during vacation.  I don't know about you, but if I have a busy day with family and friends on vacation, I often want to return to my hotel room after dinner and relax a little bit.  That relaxing time could be used for work time.

Finally, you could maintain your work schedule and simply move your self to your vacation spot.  This method obviously limits the amount of time you spend with family and friends while on vacation, but it doesn't affect your income during the vacation.

Of course, there are variations among these three suggestions, and you can find your own balance between work and vacation.  The point I'd like to make is that despite freelance writers being able to work anywhere, we don't have to work everywhere.  Writing is work just like any 9-to-5 job, and just as cubicle jockeys need to take time away, freelance writers do, too.  Just because we work in slippers doesn't mean we don't work.  In the same way we can work anywhere, when your office is in your home, it's quite a bit easier to keep the office open, even after putting in ten or twelve hours in a day.

So don't be afraid to make plans and slip away for a weekend or a week or however long you need to recharge yourself, reconnect with family and friends, and remember why you're working as hard as you do every day.

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Photo 1 by NP

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