The new world of downtime

Now that the main part of summer is behind us, my very first summer as a self-employed person, I’ve had some time to reflect on how downtime is different for me now.

As an employee, I could pretty much count on going home every Friday evening and not coming back till Monday morning. I’d have that entire time to myself and didn’t really have to think about work stuff at all unless I wanted to. Every now and then it would be extra busy and I’d go in on a Saturday or Sunday to do a bit of catch-up, but that was the exception rather than the rule.

Not so nowadays. It’s unusual for me to not do at least a little bit of work every day. And if I don’t, I feel guilty, or just a little uneasy, thinking I’ll get behind  in reaching my “quota” for that week.

I had a funny experience a few weeks ago when I went into the Ottawa Business Journal office late on a Friday afternoon to speak to a few people. They used to be my employers…now they’re my clients. As I left the office, everyone was telling me to have a good weekend. It felt weird! I’ve hardly heard that at all since got laid off last fall! Weekend? What’s that?

Actually, I don’t mind this pace at all. In fact, I enjoy it. Living alone as I do, if I get bored, I just go into my home office and do some work. Plus I get a feeling of satisfaction when I look at my timesheet at the end of every day and see that I’ve been productive and moved toward my goal for the week. Conversely, if I don’t really feel like working now and then, no one’s going to look at me funny if I slack off for a day. I deserve it, after all…I only take an entire day off occasionally.

When I first went solo, someone told me about something she called “water cooler syndrome.” That’s what happens when newly self-employed people find themselves yearning for the camaraderie of having lots of other people around them at the office. She said it usually sets in around the 3-month mark, and she was pretty confident that I’d begin to feel it after a while.

So far, I haven’t, and it’s been ten months. I still love working at home, on my own, being my own boss.

Vacation time is another matter entirely, however. Last winter, I made arrangements with my Dad and step-mom to visit family in Newfoundland for a week in the summer. As the date approached, I found myself getting more and anxious about leaving my business behind for such a long time. A whole week! What would my customers do without me!

I sent out two rounds of reminders to all my clients letting them know I’d be away and to make sure to get anything in to me beforehand if they needed it during my absence. I told them I’d be available by phone and email if I was needed. But there was no chance that I’d be able to work on stuff while I was away.

As the day approached,  I started considering cancelling the trip, worried about leaving my clients hanging, and especially about doing only spending and no earning for nine whole days.

Even worse, once I reached Newfoundland, I was in such a remote area that I couldn’t even use my cell phone to keep up with any messages or emails that came in while I was away. Luckily, my hosts had wireless Internet in their home, so I was able to check in now and then. But it was far less connectivity than I’d been anticipating.

When you rely on yourself and no one else to generate your income, the idea of taking time off becomes one of those issues you lie awake at night fretting about. Will I be able to make up for the downtime later? Will I find myself with a big blank spot where cash flow should be somewhere down the road? Do I really need to take this time off??

Yes. I do. We all do. No one should work six or seven days a week indefinitely without a break. It’s not healthy. It’s not fun. And it’s not good for your business. You can become worn down and start thinking of work as a chore, rather than a pleasure. That’s a situation I hope to avoid.

As it turned out, everything worked out perfectly for me during and after my vacation. I went away and had a wonderful time, and when I came back I felt refreshed and eager to get back to work. There was even a bunch more unplanned downtime after the vacation because clients were also taking time off during the summer.

But that’s okay. June and July were slow, but August was a banner month. The one thing you can count on about summer is that it’s followed by fall. And, as anyone who’s been in the workforce for any length of time knows, that means that customers slowly begin to wake up and realize they have a bunch of stuff to get done now that it’s September again.

So…giddy-up!!

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