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Last week, FFJ co-founder Emma talked about her new plans to move in the direction of a four-day week. But some of us have been doing this for a while. This week FFJ podcast producer Maddie Drury discusses her decision to take Mondays off.
I didn’t become a freelancer to work nine day weeks. And yet, last winter I found myself saying yes to every work opportunity that came my way. Before I knew it, my diary looked like it had been attacked by a yellow highlighter; it was completely full for weeks on end. Plus, I was rotating around the same two workplaces so the opportunities for growth, learning, and diversifying my writing were limited. I was essentially staff without the benefits of long term security or a pension.
You’re probably thinking, ‘Oh boo hoo, tiny violin, you’re a working freelancer’. You’re absolutely right! I was mega lucky to have found regular work so financially I was sound, but my job satisfaction was in danger of falling off a cliff less than a year into my career. You guessed it, I was driving head first into burn out.
Something needed to change. I needed to create some boundaries. I needed to start saying no. I needed time to focus on personal projects so that my freelance freedom didn’t slip away. So I decided to take Mondays off. It’s the biggest luxury I have ever afforded myself and I’m not sure I can ever go back.
Of course, I couldn’t just make the change overnight. Saying no to work is a risky business when you’re a newbie that needs to impress editors, establish yourself as reliable, and hell, earn the damn rent. I set myself a date a few months ahead where I knew that the money from working ridiculous hours would have hit the bank account, and I would be able to fall back on it if work stopped coming in.
I remained as flexible as possible up until this point, continuing to say yes to work that came my way and expressing feedback to my editors. This meant an email here or there, reminding them how much I appreciated the work, which shifts I felt most at home in or areas of the newsroom I’d love to learn more about.
This helped me feel more secure where I worked and I felt part of the ecosystem. Surprisingly, it encouraged my editors to give me feedback in turn. Their constructive words gave me the confidence to feel I was doing a good job and they weren’t planning to get rid of me any time soon. It was an investment that went both ways.
Why a Monday? I’ve heard of other freelancers heralding the mid-week day off; Wednesday for cheap cinema deals, Thursday for the week wind down. But for me, I needed to choose a day where I’d have the most self-motivation. I could do shift work any day of the week, an early alarm and working with colleagues would be enough to motivate me to do a good job, but to work solo my head has to be in the right space.
Monday offers the promise of a new week, gives me a buffer from the weekend’s alcohol fuelled festivities or tiring weekend shifts. I could use Mondays for whatever I truly needed this way; a chance to blitz through some pitches or simply a deserved lie-in. And it doesn’t hurt that my local cinema has a Monday £5 ticket deal.
My Mondays are sacred now. I can comfortably move my work around this day with no questions asked and it’s given me the necessary structure to use my imagination in ways shift work can’t quite give me. It’s a day that reminds me why I love the freelancing lifestyle; I can wave my 9-5 flatmates out the door and blast my music loud while I type up a feature, I can go to the gym when it’s quiet, and I can go to my Spanish class because I know I won’t be interrupted by breaking news.
It might mean I have a few less pennies in the bank, but that’s not why I became a freelancer. This freedom is gold dust. Long live Mondays.
To learn more about Maddie and her work, follow her on Twitter @drurymadeleine
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Bye for now!
I love this idea. I've been freelance for a year now and am still learning to navigate and balance my workload. No easy task!
I relate with Maddie about her Monday's off on a personal level.
My reason is Mondays are the days when I feel relieved. I don't have to go or see owambes, church meetings or any family call outs.
It is a me day.