How to handle going freelance: Part 2

Science Museum 

As my 1st part in the series, imaginatively titled 'How to handle going freelance: Part 1' was about staying in, this shall be about going out. Feeling trapped, chained to your desk all day is not got for the soul. If my timetable allows it, I take a full afternoon off to go and explore this beautiful beast of a city I live in. Being the first time living in London with spare time more than a weekend, I've been loving the opportunity to explore in the quieter working hours. Here are my tips for letting steam off as a freelancer...


1. Be a tourist

Get out there and explore where you live, go to the places you've always wanted to go but never had the time. Freelancing is tough, full of knock backs, rejections and at first balancing the money but the perks are being you are not in a office and you have the freedom to work to your own timetable. An afternoon to a museum or see a exhibition in the quieter working week hours is my idea of joy. This week I went to the Science Museum, with the intention to see the original 16th century texts on display of Alchemy and the beautifully intricate illustrations. There is bizarrely a Martin Parr exhibition on too which I hope to back to soon, I thought the £10 entry fee was pretty high. Non?
Last week it was the V&A as in this post, lot of my recent posts are from my afternoons off.

2. Working out of the home
Finally live the dream of being one of this cool hipster kids with laptops in Starbucks - life goal achieved! Some days you just need to get out of the house but yet to gain your afternoon off, hence taking your work with you. Pick a reasonably quiet cafe with wifi and you could be set up for the whole day. It is obviously expensive choice to do everyday but the change of scenery is welcoming. I feel I get less distracted and if you pick a cafe near a university, typing away with students feels productive (even if you are just writing your blog ;) ). Good finds so far is the Costa at the gigantic Waterstones on Gower Street, Moka in Harringay and a Starbucks in South Kensington. Any larger Starbucks seem to be ok if not the most atmospheric.

My first ever white bloomer!

3. Hobbies
With more spare time, why don't you use it more productively by concentrating on your hobbies, or take up a new one? I've been enjoying reading more time before bed as I know I'm not often up at 7:30am. I've had a go at bread making, feeling very middle class and getting in to ma' bread flour. An hobby can be therapeutic and a bit of 'me' time.

4. Go to the movies
Benefits of going to the cinema during the day, is many cinemas have early bird tariff. I love the Curzon in Soho which does this, a great little cinema with great little snacks :). Get out and feed your soul with interesting independent film you don't normally watch. Pick one at random and buy a ticket - have actually done this. If you're having a bad day, go and see the loudest shouty blockbuster and let your senses be blasted - also done this.

5. Don't feel guilty
Most importantly, don't feel guilty for taking time off. I certainly felt the pressure going for a walk when I think I should be at my desk writing more emails and making more phone calls. These activities are for you, to keep you uplifted and energised to carry on catching that career. Actually quite a lot of the things I do in my spare time I see are positive for my career; cooking to eat well, the exhibition visits and reading are broadening my mind and learning. Heck, even this blog is good for me. So if you take anything from this post, be it don't feel bad for taking time out. It is a stressful situation and your hard work means it will be temporary.

Next post, I will talk about what the frig I am actually doing to get work.