Constantly looking for clients, dealing with loneliness and uncertainty, and navigating blurred boundaries between work and personal life can lead to significant anxiety for freelance journalists.
These conditions can discourage freelancers and impact the quality of their work. Fortunately, however, there are ways to mitigate them.
Here are seven tips for freelance journalists to manage their anxiety and achieve the work-life balance they desire:
Confront your fears
Freelancing can be a roller coaster ride with highs and lows. Your contract with a media company may end, or a story may be rejected. You may worry whether future pitches will be accepted. When you’re especially down, you may wonder whether freelance journalism is the right path for you.
Confronting these fears head-on is crucial for navigating the lows of freelancing.
“The more we avoid [our fears], we come to believe, ‘I can’t do that.’ Keep on submitting your work and if it doesn’t work in one place, try to submit it in another place,” said Dr. Mitchell Schare, professor of clinical psychology at Hofstra University.
“Look at rejection as a source of growth, not failure,” Schare continued. “Any feedback you can get on a piece – ask for it. You may want to readjust it before you send it someplace else.”
Set strategic, achievable financial goals
The financial pressures of freelancing can make you feel disconnected from your work. While you may love what you do, earning a steady and sufficient income to cover your living expenses can be challenging. Setting SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound – financial goals can help you manage your anxiety.
Start by identifying your monthly expenses, then work backward to calculate the income you need to earn per hour, or by the month, to cover your bills. During busier times, consider taking on extra assignments to offset periods with lighter workloads. In your financial plan, remember to build in time spent looking for assignments.
Having multiple regular clients in niche areas, such as health and astronomy, can provide stability; if one client is not offering work, another might.
Consider taking on work outside of journalism, or journalism-adjacent work, like social media management and administrative virtual assistance, to supplement your income. This can allow you time to establish yourself in the market and negotiate for better rates, as you will feel less compelled to accept lower pay.
Focus on the present
It is easy to get overwhelmed by negative thoughts when you are anxious. Practicing meditation or mindfulness in everyday activities, such as breathing and eating, can bring your attention to the present moment and help you realize that some things in life are beyond your control.
“Think about thoughts and the associated emotions as waves on a beach: they come in, crash down and then pull back out and it’s peaceful,” said Schare. “Sometimes we’re angry about something that happened, like ‘my article was rejected,’ and you process that and you let it go – that it wasn’t accepted and maybe someone else will accept it.”
Just write
There are moments when you just cannot bring yourself to write. Experiencing a creative slump can be incredibly stressful, especially if you have a major assignment you fought hard to get.
When facing a deadline, it can help to just get some words down on your screen or paper, Schare advised. Force yourself to start and keep adding to it, even if for only a few minutes at a time. This helps your brain generate ideas for your story.
Journaling is also beneficial, as it helps process thoughts and emotions while stimulating creativity. (Just remember to keep it private.)
Re-reading your previous work can also help stimulate creativity. “It doesn’t hurt sometimes when you have writer’s block to think about your successes and once in a while go back and read a story you wrote,” Schare said.
Join a support group
Freelancing can be lonely. Friends and family may struggle to understand your profession, and watching them advance in their careers can make you doubt your own accomplishments. Without a manager or colleagues to provide direction and consult with, you may feel unmotivated to continue your freelancing.
In these situations, having a peer group you can turn to is important. The Society of Professional Journalists Freelance Community, for instance, hosts events and programs to support freelancers.
“When we have writing blocks, when we are feeling down because we’ve been rejected, or when we’re stressed because of the finances, what is most helpful is to have peers with whom you can share your woes because they get it,” said Schare.
Have a routine
Having a routine, even a simple one, can provide structure and organization to help you manage stress.
“Make time for regular self-care, keep a healthy sleep routine, monitor your nourishment and hydration, and engage in regular movement and exercise,” said Dr. Tara Quinn-Cirillo, a counseling psychologist based in the U.K. “Create good boundaries with work and home life. If you are balancing multiple deadlines, don’t work on them all at once. Make a realistic and manageable plan for when you will work on each.”
Take breaks
In the fast-paced world of journalism, there is constant pressure to work more than is healthy. Taking breaks is important.
“When you work on something intensively, you need to put it down for at least a day. Walk away from it, let it just sit and turn your attention to something else; do something fun. Then, calmly reread your piece,” advised Schare.
"Pushing through [an assignment] in one go is never helpful and will likely lead to burnout," Quinn-Cirillo noted. "Get out of toxic organizations or media relationships.”
Experiencing anxiety is normal, but if you feel overwhelmed, speak with your doctor or a mental health professional to address your concerns, receive helpful information, and discuss treatment options if needed.
With the right strategies, you can thrive as a freelance journalist.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash.
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