Holidays and Stress

Every year, blogs, magazines, newspapers, and even news shows run specials about how to deal with the stress of the holidays.  They offer good advice for every day people dealing with financial strain, familial drama, and how-am-I-going-to-stick-to-my-diet worries.  They give tips on how to save money, how to keep the peace with family, and what foods you can eat without worrying about fitting into your New Year's dress the next week.

However, they tend to overlook the additional stresses that just so happen to come with being a writer during the holidays, particularly if that writer uses writing as a livelihood as some of us do.  ::raises hand::

One of the beauties of freelance writing is that we can (usually) work from anywhere.  That means we can take a vacation and still be able to meet deadlines.  It's wonderful, in theory, but it also means we don't really get time off unless we're willing and able to not get paid for it.  So when the holidays roll around, you may not be able to take off a few days to spend with the family that's in town, which adds considerably to the stress that already exists.  (For advice on balancing writing and the holidays, check out my post from last month.)

One of the major stresses for (freelance) writers is the realization that if we don't write, we don't get paid.  So it's very tempting to write through the holidays to be able to have a little extra income available.  However, you run the risk of being more stressed with a crazy holiday schedule than you would if you took a few days off.

One solution to this is to plan ahead for taking a few days off.  See if you can get extra work between Thanksgiving and Christmas (or earlier) to make up for income you may lose at the end of December.  It may be a great time to pick up extra hours, as well, since other writers may be visiting friends and family, or scaling back their workload for the holidays.

Another source of stress for writers can be organizing financial records for the end of the year.  Self-employment can be a little crazy during tax season, and it's important to have everything organized to make the process a little easier.

To help keep yourself from worrying too much about your financial records during the holidays, try getting as much done early as possible, then working on it a little each day for the rest of the year.  I, for example, have an expandable file folder and each pocket is one day of the week.  I put the receipts in the folder, and then when I update my accounts ledger once a week, I initial and date the receipt, then move it to a set of file folders marked with the months of the year.  Staying organized is one way to help keep stress to a minimum.

There is always some stress that comes with holidays, especially if you're hosting or visiting friends or family.*  But if you plan ahead, take it little by little, and remember that you're really supposed to be having fun, you can have a happy holiday season, stress-free!

*NOTE: This isn't a comment about drama; it's a comment about how stressful it can be to keep a group of people happy.