It’s so slow right now, we all know things won’t pick up for a while. As a hustling workoholic this is the first time im looking at a longer dry spell (being realistic). Longtime freelancers how do you spend your downtime? Make the most of it aside from doomscrolling LinkedIn for job leads and sending cold emails?

Definitely been there. The long dry spells can be painful mentally. When friends outside advertising hear that you haven’t worked in a month or two, to them it sounds like vacation. But it’s more like a day to day stress ball of cold emails and taking the ghosting personally. It took me years of freelancing to figure out how to actually take a break from the hustle when the market is slow. So now, when it’s slow, I stop sending emails and I focus on personal projects - things like cleaning out a closet, finally going through my wardrobe or taking a pottery or painting class. You don’t have to work every day of the year to be a successful freelancer, allow yourself a genuine break and use the time for you.

Keep building your network, IRL and online. Maybe volunteer your time and reflect on how lucky you and I are not to have been sacked by megalomaniac billionaires this week. Plan the future so that it never comes to that.

When I freelanced, if I got offered a long gig anytime after September, even if the assignment wasn't as interesting or didn't pay as well, I'd preference it over short well-paid exciting bursts. Then I just learned to go with the flow. Right around mid-late October, everyone looks at their Q4/year end numbers and cuts all the freelancers and freezes hires. Then no one REALLY wakes up until end Jan/mid Feb. I just accepted that I'd likely be unemployed from Thanksgiving thru President's Day, cancelled the dog walker and spent a couple hours a day hiking with my (very grateful) cattle dog (they are excellent personal trainers, btw!), and pick one big important project that I'd been avoiding (tax prep, for example) and one big fun or educational or meaningful thing (volunteering at a shelter, traveling to somewhere interesting, indulging some time in museums) - and started looking for work again mid-late January. Once you sorta settle in to a rhythm it's easier to not stress out about not working. It's so hard right now - Q4, recession, inflation, etc. and the tech companies just dumped about 20,000 new people on the market. blerg. Looking for work in this moment is just so demoralizing sometimes.

I keep my schedule regular. I treat my weekdays as “work light” which includes an hour of learning in the morning (currently learning Spanish), followed by a few hours of networking, resume tweaks, doomscrolling, industry research, talking/meeting with other freelance buds, etc. But I give myself permission to 1) Logoff of work stuff by say 3pm 2) Go for long ass walks whenever the fuck I want and 3) Take the occasional “workday” off. Frankly, I find the side hustle/creative hobby thing exhausting. If I want to doodle or write or whatever, I’ll do it. But the pressure to always be creative and “on” is a capitalist trope and I just won’t do that anymore. And keep your weekends your weekends.

Dormant seeds only look like they’re doing nothing. 🌱

Sometimes I’ll hop on a plane and fly somewhere international on a one way ticket and just stay out there until I feel like flying back.

I have a separate career as a journalist, writing about finance in publications like the WSJ and the Economist. When the ad business is slow I focus on that, and vice versa.

All these comments reiterate to me that freelancing is inherently a temporary career choice. Negligible “career” advancement, instability, financial outages, fickle or ever-changing client roster. Unless you’re independently wealthy you’ll need to work until at least 65. How will our 45-65 years work out with no seniority, no experience managing big teams or navigating c-suite office politics? Are we going to just dial in as the “cool old creatives” reporting to the 36yo ECDs who worked their way up in the ft game?

What do you love outside of work? Do that. For example, whenever I have down time I work on my new album. Total time suck. :)

Something interesting I’ve noticed is that the gig I get usually comes totally from left field. And I would have gotten it without all that doom scrolling, but do I stop the zoom scrolling?… never. Wish I could. I know what you’re feeling right now. But it’ll all work out and be okay.

Get drunk and high.

Applying for corporate jobs again. Sad but it is what it is.

Send more cold emails

Learn .. study ... experience new things. It will 1. Distract you from your issues because you are unfamiliar and have yo pay attention
2. It will give you new experiences and insights so when you get back to the grind, you have a renewed perspective
3. Get to have fun.

I freelanced exclusively for 4 years and once October is over it's a dry spell that can last until spring. I did side hustle work for money during these periods and even sold my plasma when I needed more money than my side hustles were bringing. As to how to "spend my time" I have oodles of ways to spend my free time, I just never seemed to have much of it as I'm always chasing work.

You’ll always regret not traveling as soon as things pick up again

Paint, long walks listening to podcasts, organize some messy closets, clean. Doom scroll of course. Tweak my book and apply to everything. About to spend two weeks in Mexico so I’m currently planning that out. Make sure to save your money and don’t be too hard on yourself during the slow times! When it rains it pours

I’m not worried about the next gig the economy is what it is right now but overall it’s been a good 18mo. Like all of you it’s just an instinctive habit to always be looking, what I find interesting about this post was how other FL-ers shut off and focus on yourselves. Whether from necessity or choice we all came to freelancing probably saying or hoping optimistically it would mean taking more free time in slow periods or after you’ve made a full salary for the year or whatever your benchmark is. I’m definitely finding it much harder mentally to do in reality then In theory. It’s cool to hear how others have a mode or a schedule they can switch into.

I take my vacations during dry spells

Team up with a kick-ass freelance account executive. Sure they get a cut of the action but only if they bring you the work.

Just fan out with your interests and network around.