Just as Mental Health Day arrived last Sunday, I'd burnt out. Completely. Then, yesterday, I almost got bazooookered by an ambulance whilst crossing the road on the phone (unrelated, but the timing would've been all kinds of ridiculous).

The burnout hit me like mild depression, no joy upstairs, it was pretty horrendous. Like a good fool, I'd mistaken remote working, travelling, as a "break". I'd been to the UK and Andalucia, but had continued working. My last real break had been 6 months ago, in April. Even then I hadn't properly disconnected as I started to think immediately about what to do with Town Spot. Flexible schedule, but deceptively taxing. 

Being a freelancer and having my own side project meant that I was doing something at least every day, even on the weekends for around 1 hour each day. There was no obvious holiday credit to use up like in full-time jobs. Like everything that comes with being independent, you have to do it yourself. 

It's taken me a week of staycationing and doing next to nothing to recover, buuuut I'm back! (I hope). From now on I'm going to take at least 6 weeks' holiday each year, in 2-week chunks. I'm excited to find out what I do with the time. 

I thought people on Linkedin were just attention-seeking about burnout, but man oh man it's real, baby. 

Have you experienced something similar? What structures have you put in place to avoid this? 

Hopefully, you'll hear more from me now, maybe not. Most likely I'll be on holiday instead. 

Take care of yourselves x