How to Stay Productive During Hiatus or Unemployment
A Freelancer’s Guide to Handling Transitions
It’s the first day of hiatus/unemployment and I have a list of things I want to get started on. I’ve been waiting for this time off for months. I’ve been planning and plotting exactly how I’ll spend all of this glorious free time. I’ll have time to write more. I’ll have time to meditate more. I’ll have time to take those online classes I’ve had my eye on. I’ll have time to clean out the closets and tidy up the house that I’ve been neglecting. I’ll have time to go to a yoga class in the middle of the day. I’ll have time to make all those appointments that I didn’t make when I was working.
That’s how the mind of a freelance tv editor thinks. Always looking ahead to the time between jobs to start living life.
But now it’s here and it’s happening again. It’s a paralysis that takes over me. I’m stuck in a deep, thick, pool of mud that is sopping up all of my motivation and excitement. I call this The Resistance. It’s a force inside that stalls me. It happens every time I end a job and have some time off. I become an expert procrastinator. Television that I never had an interest in is captivating. Napping seems like a great idea. My pool calls out to me. The internet easily sucks me down the wormhole of distraction.
