Overwhelm and Your Upper Limits as a Writer
We all know how rough burnout can be…but what about living in a constant state of overwhelm as a freelance writer? You want to make sure that you're working as best you can and reaching your potential, but how do you balance your upper limits, avoiding overwhelm and burnout, and avoiding a ton of stress?
In this week's livestream, we'll go over how to deal with overwhelm, burnout, and stress while handling your upper limits and writer potential in healthy, sustainable ways.
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Today. We are starting with AUP date because I don't think I'm gonna do a live stream for the next couple weeks. Cause I'm gonna take some time off. So today we're starting with AUP date. So they're both kind of sleepy today. It's a little cold in this room, so we're just starting with AUP date. They look super Stu ugly, but once I crack this treat or something they're gonna and make some moves, I can see Charlotte's bugeye yeah, there she goes. Hey, good girl. All right, Perry. Are you ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Did you catch it? Oh, you were so close. Did you get it? Oh, hold on. We need trio management.
There we go. Okay. We got it. It was underneath. It was underneath sheet that we raped. All right, let's do one more. All right, Charlotte, can you show 'em your skills? The girl, she never misses. She never misses. Yeah. We're starting with AUP date Vicky because it's Friday and I feel like it and they look like all stars today. Okay. Ready? Oh, Charlotte. We, no matter what I do with the camera, like one of you is like never on it. Hey Diana. Hey Vicki. Welcome in. All right, Bo ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Oh buddy. You're so close. Right? Good thing is you hit it back to me. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job, buddy. All right, everybody caught one today. We have two catches, so we're doing great. Hey Annie. Welcome in <laugh>. Yeah, I, I think starting with theup date is always nice, especially on a Friday, you know?
Right before people take off time for the winter holidays. Now everybody's staring at me. Okay. We'll do one more and then we're gonna get to our information, but we're starting with puff date, cuz you guys look so cute today. All right, Barry. Ready? Barry. 1, 2, 3 dog. Oh buddy. You tried. It's behind you. Hold on trio management. Did you get it? Oh, you did good job. Okay. All right. Ready me. Good girl. She's our athlete. She's just our little athlete. Okay. So let's talk about her topic. We're talking about overwhelm and upper limits as a writer and how they kind of work together. Um, cool. I'm glad you guys all say hello to each other too. It's nice. Right? You wanna say hello and welcome people in and I think it's all nice that you guys say hi. All right. And if I end up last time, so last time I ended up with, um, I ended up with trios on my call.
So if you see any trios know that or any like weird things, uh it's trios <laugh>. So here's the deal when we're talking about burnout and we're talking about overwhelm, it's really easy for us as writers to become overwhelmed. It's really easy because we have to do a bunch of different things in our business, right? So we have to do marketing. We have to deal with, with our deadlines. We have to work on all of our proposals, client, um, contracts and negotiations and invoicing. We have to deal with taxes. We are running a small business. So we have to do all the small business things, right? So the deal is that it's normal. I think when you're first starting out and as you kind of grow to new levels as a freelance writer to get overwhelmed. So if you're someone who is overwhelmed as a freelance writer, I just wanna normalize that.
That happens it's you shouldn't be overwhelmed all the time though. So, um, when we are, are kind of working through all of our processes, right? We don't wanna live in this constant state of stress. And I've done this many, many times, like I've done this many, many times where I've lived in this constant state of overwhelm and stress and it causes me to burn out and it's just really exhausting. So there's a few things that we can do with it. There's a few things that we can do to handle all that stuff. So we're gonna talk about that first. So number one, I have numbers so we can put the numbers in. Okay. Where are the numbers at? Oh, here, there. Okay. So number one, now that we have numbers, number one is that like, this is normal. It's normal to be stressed out when you're running your business, it's normal to get overwhelmed.
It's not normal to be stress rest and over on all the time, that's usually you gotta fix some puzzle pieces there. And I've had to do that many times, like when I've burned out or when I've been really stressed, I know that I either need time off or I need to fix my schedule or I need to get different clients who, um, maybe have longer timelines and I don't do rush work or I pick different types projects or I stop doing certain things in my business that are like taking time and do other things. Welcome in. Welcome in Tommy. Um, yeah. So there it's normal to get to a place where this happens, especially when you're trying really hard. Right? A lot of times we're trying really hard to make our business work, right? These, all of these things that we're doing to make our business work out.
Goodnight. Hope you have a nice sleep. You look so cute over there. Every time, every time I try to fix this. So Y y'all are both on the thing as somebody moves. There you go. Oh, but you look so cute. Okay. So number one, that's normal, but number or not number two. But when we're dealing with that, one of the things that I found is really helpful is not to ignore it. So for me, I used to ignore it all the time. I used to just be like, I'm fine. It's gonna be fine. Or like, this is normal to, to be this stress out. Or it's normal to, I have a hair poking me in the neck. Okay. It's normal to just be worried all the time, but it's not. So you kind of have to start processing your feelings, right. You have to kind of start processing all this overwhelmed stuff and processing the stress and be like, what's actually stressing me out.
Where can I work out? My overwhelmed? Am I overwhelmed? Just because I'm trying to take on too much too soon. Am I overwhelmed? Because I overbooked my calendar. Am I overwhelmed? Because I feel like, um, I just kind of like am trying to do too many things at once. Uh, am I overwhelmed? Because like I'm trying something new and when I try something new, it makes me feel overwhelmed. There's a whole bunch of things that we can think about. We have to kind of process those feelings because if you don't, then you just live in the state, which is what I did. I wasn't like always processing the overwhelm or the stress or the burnout or all the negative things that I said about myself. So I just keep kept getting overwhelmed and I would just live in this state of stress and overwhelmed when I felt really all the time.
And it's just because I, I never really like processed it or thought about why it was happening or really kind of just like, let myself feel that way for a while. I was just like, you know what? This is normal. Sometimes it's normal to feel overwhelmed, especially when you're trying really hard or when you're trying to like grow your income or grow a business or get new clients, you kind of have to likes it for a second. And it's not fun. It's not fun to sit in all those negative emotions. And it's not fun to like, realize that maybe you're stressed because, uh, you're just like used to being in a stressful situation or, um, that you feel like your business is never gonna make it or that, um, you suck as a writer or like, it's not fun to start digging up all those negative thoughts and negative feelings.
But the deal is when you start digging them up and you start processing all that stuff, then you can kind of start moving on. And like, I feel that for me, a lot of what really helped was starting to notice things like, especially when I start feeling overwhelmed or stressed. So when I start noticing these little things that I do along the way where I'm like, oh yeah, I'm really stressing. You know, like I'm getting a lot of headaches. So I'm, I know I'm really stressing. Um, or I'm getting a lot of stomach aches. So I know I'm feeling really anxious or I'm feeling overwhelmed because I feel like I just wanna cry all the time or crawl into a dark hole. Uh there's like these little things, like for me, it wasn't just like knowing like, okay, like I just feel this constant, like buzzy feeling and I'm just like, oh, what's going on?
Oops. And, um, once I started identifying, started identifying those and then kind of like moving along that path, then you can kind of process them. Then you can kind of move along and then you can finally figure out a plan for dealing with that. Right. So then you can kind of set yourself up for success. So for me, a lot of times it's like, I'm getting a headache. I know I need more sleep. And I know I need to push some deadlines out. So like, if I get more work, my deadlines need to be further out. I can't take any like two week turnarounds right now. I know that I need to plan time off. I know that if I'm feeling a lot of stress and overwhelm, I need like a break from stuff. I've like, usually my problem is like, I overload my plate.
I like to have my fingers in a lot of pies. I just it's, I there's a lot of things I wanna do. So then I end up having a lot of stuff, um, to manage and that just like it wears on you over time. So for me, it's like sleep. I need time off sometimes. Um, I just need to kind of like take a half day. Uh, I've done that a few times or hi. Um, or I just kind of like, I don't know, sometimes it's comfort food. Like sometimes I'm just, just like, you know what? I've been working really hard. I don't feel like making dinner tonight. I'm gonna have some comfort food. Right? There's some things that we need to figure out like our own personal stuff, like what's happening. Right. And, um, what we can do to kind of like help us process and move forward from that.
So it's not that we just like eat comfort food and we're like, okay, cool. Like now I feel better. It's not really like that. Right. We all know that's kind of like the temporary solution or like we have to figure out all the things of like breaking down why this is happening. Getty says stressing over many non-writing family. Yeah. Well, Getty, you have a lot on your plate. That's something else, right? Like if you have a lot on your plate personally, and, um, that's affecting, right? Like your business stuff, there's times in your life, hello. There's times in your life, where yes. Would you like to lodge a complaint? Would you like to tell someone about your complaint process? There are times in every business owner's life where in every writer's life where your personal issues, you know, take up space. Ready? Good girl. Ready, bud.
Good job guys. They take up space. Right. And that's normal. Like I, um, I think we've talked about this before, but I wrote down in my journal for the longest time was, um, there's more to life than work. And like, I, you know, I love my work. I love what I do. I love working with my clients. Um, I love the writing that I do. I find it really fascinating. I love my students. I like, you know, putting on my freelance writer, wealth lab, course. I like doing all my coaching stuff. Um, there's lots of things that I really like to do, but there are times when your personal life and your personal stuff just kind of takes over. Like, you can stress about how you can't really get into your work because you have to do deal with personal issues. And like, that's why I kept writing that down.
Like there's more to life than work because your work is just part of what you do. Right. And there's all those studies, right? There's that long, long time running Harvard study that talks about people, um, like the best quality of life was the relationships in their life. Right. It wasn't that they accomplished all these things necessarily, or that they, um, had all the plans in their life go. Right. It was like that they had quality relationships and the quality relationships, often of times come down to your personal stuff. Right. It's not really about, um, your work stuff, although it can be right. But it's just, your relationships are really important. And then when you have to deal with that all the time, right. And then you have to deal with personal and family issues like that happens, right. Our law life is not a hundred percent work and our life is not a hundred percent achievement.
And you know, like we often talk about the robot stuff, right. Like I said, it would be fun to be a robot. This is one of those times where like, when you wouldn't have to deal with personal family stuff, cause you'd be like, I'm a robot. I don't care. I just do my work. Right. But we're not, we're humans. <laugh> and we have emotions and we have family issues and we have, um, personal crisis that we have to deal with. And we have these guys, right. Like, you know, I talked about this before, where we had, um, you know, we had, uh, our previous dog Bruce before we got Charlotte. Right, right. Good job.
Um, we, you know, our previous dog before we got Charlotte was Bruce and he died really suddenly like out of the blue, you know, he got really sick and he passed away and we never really knew what happened to him. And I had to take a long time off of work, you know, that was really hard for me. And, um, I just couldn't do my work. And I, it was, you know, when you lose a family member, it's really hard. And when you're dealing with someone who's sick, like that's really hard. And sometimes that has to be the priority over your business stuff. And it can be really overwhelming. It can be really stressful. And, um, it can, can really push you basically, you know, to your, to your upper limits. Right. But sometimes that has to be the priority. Like you're never gonna look back on your life and be like, I wish I had more deadlines.
You're really, you know, I feel like a lot of times you look back on your life and you're like, that was a really good time. And I'm glad, you know, even though that time was really hard, I'm glad I spent time with that person. Or I dealt with that issue or, you know, dealing with that issue and working through it, you know, really helped me solve all these problems. Um, or sometimes it's just hard, you know, sometimes things are just hard and you can't really predict what's gonna happen. So I just wanna say that like, it's okay to be overwhelmed and it's okay. Sometimes if you have to prioritize personal stuff over business stuff, I mean, we're on here, right? We're talking about running a hiring freelance writing business. But a lot of times you have to like your, your whole life decades. If you're a freelance writer for decades and decades and decades, there's never the percentage of that time.
That would be personal issues would be a lot higher than you think. Right. You can't just go through years and years and years with zero personal issues. That just doesn't happen. Right. So I'm glad you guys are sending positive vibes to each other too. Yeah. It's just, you know, that happens. We have to deal with personal stuff. There's unexpected things that happen. And you know, that has to be dealt with. It's just, it's just understanding that personal life stuff happens too. It's not just business stuff and it's not just like trying to make yourself feel guilty for not doing all the business stuff. Like there are times when you have to prioritize the personal stuff. Okay. Next thing that we're gonna talk about also, we have a grumble. I, I don't know if you guys can hear her, but she's over there grumbling. She was asleep. She was going to sleep well, not us asleep, but she was going to sleep. And now she's all now she's all sassy and awake. All right, buddy. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job, buddy. Good job.
Good job. All right. We're gonna talk about our next thing. So, um, one of the things I did wanna mention about upper limit stuff is that Charlotte, that lights not gonna get to, if you guys ever see Charlotte and she looks back, she's like really worried that lights are gonna fall on her or get her like, or something taller than her is gonna reach out and grab her. She like feels like she lives in a haunted house. She's just, she's nervous Nell sometimes. It's okay. All right. So let's talk about upper limit stuff. So there's a few things that I've learned from burnout that helped me with my upper limit. So I oftentimes, and I think this happens to other writers too, is that you oftentimes don't realize your upper limit until you've crossed it. So you get really overwhelmed and stressed and you're doing all these, um, deadlines.
You're working with clients. You're trying to do all your marketing and send your invoices. And what ends up happening is you are, um, like way past your limit. Like this has happened to me many times. It happened to me a couple times this year where it's just like, I realize too late in the game. Right. Like that I'm way past my limit. And then I'm like, I need time off, but I can't get time off for like another month or two or three. Um, and it's just part of the process. So for me, I've been more thinking of it as like a learning process and more like an ameba. So the deal is that Eagles are no, I mean, lights, like not, not Eagles, like, like, like ceiling fans or lights or like stationary objects. So not Eagles, like she's, she's afraid of like stationary lights <laugh> and tall objects.
So, um, yeah. Um, what was I saying? Uh, oh, so I often like over go things, right. I go over my upper limit and then I scale back. So I've been thinking of it more as an, a MEbA of things that kind of like wiggle and move around. Like it's more fluid it. So instead of thinking about it as like this staunch very specific upper limit, I've been more like, okay, it's kind of an ebb and flow process. And I have learned that in as a freelance writer and as a business owner, um, I more learn from the hard stuff. So I learn a lot of the times from making mistakes and I learn a lot more from like me falling down and scraping my knee and like banging up my face and like making a lot of mistakes than I do from being like, don't do this or prevent that or whatever.
So for me, a lot of times it's like this wave, so like, I'll go beyond my upper limit. And then I'm like, okay, I need to come back down to like normal time. And then I'll like ramp up my work and ramp up stuff and I'll go over my upper limit it. And I'm like, oh, okay. And I learned something each time that happened. So when you're kind of going over, I know you guys are putting stuff in the chat, so we'll get to so high, grumpy, high grumpy making grumbling noises over there. So when you cross your upper limit as a writer that happens, like, I think that's part of the process of learning, um, what your upper limit is and what you're capable of and your, oh my goodness. Not today. Not today. Global muffin. Not today. You can lay down though. You can lay, lay down.
Well, you can grumble. All right. So when you're kind of going through this process, I think that's just part of it. It's part of running a business and learning, um, what works for you and what doesn't. And for me, a lot of times that process of upper limit and coming back down and going over my limit and coming back down every single time I've done it, I've learned something about myself in the process, and I've learned how to better take care of myself. I've learned how to not make so many mistakes. I've learned, um, you know, a lot of different things about myself in the process. And sometimes I think there's a lot of material out there that talks about avoiding burnout or avoiding like basically like skating across your upper limit, right? Like reaching your potential by skating across your upper limit. But what really happens is like you, it's always kind of this up and down effect.
Like, I guess you could, you know, be at your potential, but there's always a point where like, you know, for me where I wanna try something new or I wanna experiment with, so, or I wanna push myself a little bit more and that's just part of it. I feel like when you're kind of wanting to reach your potential and you want to really expand a bunch, you can't grumble no grumbling today. Um, when you kind of wanna get to a new place, that's just kind of gonna happen. Um, I think that learning from it is really important. And I think thinking of it as like this ebb and flow motion is more important than kind of beating yourself up. So like there's times when I talk to writers and they beat themselves up, they're like I burned out or I did too much stuff. Or, um, you know, I like made a mistake or I did this thing or I worked too much and now I'm really exhausted.
Like, that's part of the process. Like, like I said, I think there's some times where it just makes more sense where you have to fall down and scrape your knees and make a mistake. And like, it hurts a lot. <laugh> and sometimes we learn better from that. Like I know I'm just the type of person who learns better from that. I, um, you know, I put a lot of like prevent things in place, you know, I try to pay more attention to my sleep when I'm feeling tired or stressed or burned out or overwhelmed. I try to pay more attention to, um, my schedule, my deadlines. I try to pay more attention to like, am I actually, you know, exercising or walking the dogs? Or like how much? Or like, um, am I meditating, you know, with head space or whatever. So, um, there's all these different things that you can look at, but there's also when you're trying to do too many things at once, right?
Like you don't, I, for me, I don't realize it's too many things at once until it becomes a problem. So like for a while I'm moving along and everything seems to be running as a well oiled machine. And then it kind of like, it blows up. So sometimes that happens. I think that's just part of the process. Uh, at least for me, it's part of learning like, okay, well, this doesn't work, but these things did. And then now that you have the things that did work, you can move on and do other things. So, um, Diana says, since I started learning about the biz side of freelancing, I've become obsessed with it. It's exciting, but so tempting to overdo. Yes. Like the business side of freelancing is really fun. Like I've always found it really fun that you can get new clients. Like you can always get new clients.
There's always new clients. And I think it's really fun to work with different types of companies. There's not that many. Um, like for me, working at one company all the time is not nearly as exciting as being able to work with all different types of companies with all different types of audiences. Um, and being able to help all different types of people. Like that's really exciting, but it's really easy to like take on too many clients or take on too many deadlines and then be like, oh crap, this is too much. Right. It's really fun to do all the business stuff. Like, it's really fun to like, watch all of these things grow. Right. It's really exciting to plant your seeds and watch your little plants grow. And you're like, we did it. But then at some point you're like, it's raining and thundering and all my plants are suffering.
Hell, there's a flood, but that's part of the process, right? Like there's things we can control and things we can't. And sometimes the things we can control, we just kind of like overdo it. And sometimes it's things we can't control just end up taking over all of our stuff. Right. Like that's kind of the personal stuff, right. When you have to deal with personal stuff or family stuff, there's a lot of times when you can't control that and it's still like, you know, it still affects you. I'm glad. I'm glad you said that Diana it's really, really easy to overdo.
Oh no, Vicky. This is like a, she has a thing. So she has a thing from like, when we adopted her. So it's not a behavioral fear of like Eagles and con or it's that, um, she is like really sensitive to certain things because of like, she came from, she had a rough before we adopted her. She had a rough time. So, um, like she's really scared of plates or like she, you know, there definitely, we figured out like things have were thrown at her or she was hit a lot or whatever. So like her fear is like stuff coming down at her. So that's, it's, it's not, it's like her abusive previous owners before we adopted her. So, um, and yeah, I agree with Annie too. It's also hard to pace yourself. Right? There's a lot of times where, um, it can be hard to figure out the pace.
That's what I was talking about with the ebb and flow and the upper limit stuff. Right. So as you kind of go along, it's hard to figure out the pace when you're learning a new business, right. It's hard to figure out what you should be doing and when, or how much, or what's too much for you or what's too little. And that's part of the ebb and flow is like to reach the upper limit part, the upper limit ebb and flow part is you kind of have to figure out the pace like this is, um, goes back to the same thing about doing work, right? Like, so for me, I used to write one article. Like the very, yes. Hello. I see you over there. You can, you can wait, I'll give you one after this. So, um, for me, I started out doing one article.
Like it took me a whole month to write my very first reported article. And now I can write like 10 to 20 a month. 20 is like usually too much. Um, but like, it took me a whole month to write my very first article. Like I whole month doing one article and now I can do a lot. And that's just from like trial and error learning things. And that's part of pacing yourself. It just takes some time. Yeah. I do have grumble trouble today. She's just kind of like, she was like going to lay down and yeah, she does sound like the MGM studio line. Charlotte. Why? Why do you have to do this? Me. All right, Bo ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job. All right, Charlotte. Let's see if we can get you to do some things that we've been trying on. Pop,
Pop. Nope. Getting your pop. Ew. You DRD on me. Gross pop. Come on. Ew. Gross. Okay. Paul, gimme the, this one. Come on. No, you gotta do the pot thing first. Pop this one. Oh, we almost got good girl.
All right. We've been trying to get her to lift her own leg. Like as part of it, instead of just like us lifting it. That's what I've been working out with her. So maybe we'll get her to go it ready? One to two, three dogs. Oh buddy. You're so close. Did you get it? You need help. Did you get it? Oh, you did. Good job. All right, man. Ready?
Paul. <laugh> on. Nope. Paul. Yeah. Gimme this paw. Come on. No, you gotta gimme the paw first. No, don't not giving you that. <laugh> no, you got me to pop. Come on, come on. Good job. Good girl.
We did it. I hope everybody saw that. She lifted her own leg. We've were working on that for so long. All right. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dogs. Oh, very, very, really? You really shot that one. Ready? 1, 2, 3. Good job. All right, everybody. That was my crowning achievement. I've accomplished what I needed to accomplish for the day. We got her to lift her own paw. We did it. We have successfully trained our seal. We did it. Okay. Um, she could be a lion for Halloween, I guess it could be a behavior fear of like flying things. But also when we have, um, when we have, uh, um, vultures, she like goes nuts. She always wants to murder them. So that's why I'm kind of like one thinking it's not behavioral, cuz she's not afraid of the vs. She like want, when they fly over, she has a meltdown.
Like she's trying to like tell 'em the business. So I don't, if I feel like if she was afraid of Eagles or afraid of um, like overhead flying animals, like then she wouldn't be like freaking out at the vs and like trying to take them down. Good job everybody. We did it. All right. Um, if you have any questions you can pop 'em in the chat. If you feel like this has been helpful so far, or if you feel like Charlotte did a great job lifting her own paw today, give a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna learn more about Billy you high earning Lance writing business subscribe, uh, you can always submit questions or topics. Now that we have a thing for it. Here it is. So you can always submit a question to be answered on the livestream. I actually have one, I think that was submitted, but I couldn't put it in the livestream.
So we'll do that next time. But you can submit a question or you can go to man.com/question and to submit a topic. Like if there's a topic about freelance writing or running a freelance business that you wanna answer, you can go here and submit it. Cool. Um, okay. Last things. So we wanna talk about sustainable and healthy ways to go through things. Yeah. It's totally true about the vs. Right? Like she totally wants to murder them and like, she's always like, Hey, come down here and fight me. Like they, um, the vs <laugh> the vs. A lot of times like, uh, corral themselves on our roof or like our neighbor's roof. And she's always like get down here and fight me like a real dog. Like she has a, a, she really has like a meltdown about it. So, um, yeah. So the vulture thing and the, yeah, I think the Eagle thing, she's not like scared of it.
Okay. Let's talk about potential and let's talk about sustainable, healthy ways. So, uh, or not potential, let's talk about healthy sustaining ways. Okay. So let's talk about this. This is our part two. So now that we have numbers, now we can do that. Do do, do part two. Eventually we're gonna have like some stuff on here. I also have this. So just cuz like I have one Giff so I'm really excited. We're gonna talk about part two with our healthy, sustainable ways to deal with this. So eventually we're gonna have more gifs and things to share. Um, Vicky says she's convinced, okay. We did it. <laugh> we bit, um, eventually I'll have other things on here, but for now we're kind of like just going with, so here's the deal. Every time you get overwhelmed or stressed or you burn out or you like go over your upper limit, you have to write things down and pay attention.
Okay. So this is what I've learned the most is like I have to pay attention to very specific things or I end up repeating the process too many times. So like this year I knew that I needed more time off. Like I had paid attention to several different things. Uh, and I knew that I needed more time off. So for example, one of the things that I do <laugh> I know everybody have about the goose tip. One of the things that I do, that's very destructive is I have a revenge bedtime. I forget what it's called. It's called revenge bedtime syndrome or whatever it is. So it's a real thing and I didn't believe it until other people started talking about it. I found this like on Instagram. So, um <laugh> yeah. Dog. Yeah. Like me definitely choose Jeff. Yes, exactly. No, they are geese.
You know what? They're geese. I don't, or they're like a very weird type of duck. I don't know. We'll have to someone, someone identify what that critter is. Okay. Where was oh, revenge. Bedtime. Yeah. So this is a, a real thing. I didn't believe it until, uh, I started reading about other people who had this problem, revenge, bedtime syndrome or revenge, bedtime, whatever it's called is basically like you don't get enough time during the day. Like you feel like you're doing stuff all day. So you stay up late at night because it's the only time that you feel like you have to yourself. And I do this all the time when I'm really stressed or over wound or burned out, I will stay up really late or I'll stay up all night. So I've done this many times. Um, I will, um, finish my work a and sometimes I don't finish my work until like, this is when it gets really rough.
So sometimes I don't finish my work until like 10:00 PM or midnight or 1:00 AM and then I'll stay up for another two or three hours because as I want to like come down from that. Right. So yeah. Revenge, bedtime. Oh, revenge, bedtime procrastination. That's what it is. It's this, I thought it was totally a fake thing that I was doing, but it it's a real thing. Um, and so if I finish my work really late, I will end up do or what ends up happening is like, I finally have a day where I don't work a ton and then I'll just stay up all night and like fall asleep at like six or seven in the morning. Yeah, I do. Yeah. <laugh> she says that's me. Yeah. It's a real thing. And it, I often do it.
I know you guys can hear her rumbling. She's just like being a wild beast. Can you lay down? Thank you. Okay. Good girl. No <laugh> okay. So this is something that I do and it's really destructive, right? So what ends up happening is like, I don't end up getting quality sleep. I don't end up getting a ton of sleep and it kind of ruins my whole sleep cycle. So one of the things that I did this year that was really rough, was like, I, I haven't been on a very good sleep cycle. So like my bedtime has like, you can't like look away when I look at you, when you make noises, like you think you're like getting away from going away from it. Um, so this says revenge, bedtime procrastinate describes the decision to sacrifice, sleep for leisure time. That is driven by a daily schedule lacking free time. That is 100% my problem. So when I'm doing a lot of deadlines or client work, or I have a lot of calls or I have a lot of things where it's like, I have to move very precision, like through my schedule. Then when it comes time to go to bed, when I'm like ready to go to sleep, then I don't really wanna go to sleep. I wanna have time to myself.
Gumble muffin. Okay.
Sh sh, okay. So for example, when I want that free time, I will just sacrifice it. So this year I have gone to bed anytime from 9:00 PM to 7:00 AM. This year has been really rough and this is what I end up doing. So at nine, sometimes I'm really tired and I like can fall asleep at 9:00 PM and I'm good to go. And sometimes I revenge bedtime procrastinate and I end up going to bed at seven o'clock in the morning. And this is usually on like a Friday night or like a Saturday night when I know I don't have appointments the next day, but I will go to sleep at like 7:00 AM and wake up at noon and like, not get any sleep and it's not good quality sleep, and this is a problem. But I started noticing it in myself like a while back. So these are things where we have to start making a list of what we do.
Um, the other thing that I really dealt with over the last couple years is like comfort eating when I'm like I'm stressed and I'm tired. And, um, I'm overwhelmed. I need to like eat a snack or I need to do this thing. And I, wasn't taking very good care of my health. Like recently I've been able to actually start working out again and I feel a lot better about myself and I feel a lot better about my health. And I've been more careful about what I'm eating and there are things that you just kind of, um, I don't need seal removal. She's good. She's laying down now. Um, so I've been, I pay attention to these things and I'm write them down. So like when I start craving certain things, like when I'm really tired, I crave a lot of chocolate or sugar. Um, and normally I don't like things that take like taste like sugar.
Like I really like chocolate BARDA, but, um, I don't like really sugary snacks and I don't like really sugary like treats, but when I start doing that and I'm like, oh, I really want something sugary. That's when I know I need sleep. Um, or if I feel like I forget things or, um, there's a whole bunch of things that I do when, or I feel like I don't wanna do anything. Like, all I wanna do is just lay around and like watch movies. There's a whole bunch of things that I pay attention to now that are like really big signals that I'm overdoing it and that I need, or that I need to like really find a better sustainable schedule or, um, a way to put in my workouts into my week or, um, just things to kind of help me keep working to my potential that I wanna reach and do all the things that I wanna do without like eating tons of sugar and not sleeping and, you know, being crazy with all the things I'm doing.
So I think when you're trying to figure out a sustainable way, like every time you go over your upper limit, you need to come back down, you need to kind of come back down from that. And what I mean by that is write it down. Like, how do you actually come down from that? What have you been doing? What have your habits been? Uh, sometimes I'm like really snappy. Like I get really irritated really quickly. And that's another thing when I'm not getting sleep when I'm really stressed and it's not good. Right. That sucks. That sucks for like people around me. And I don't really wanna be around people cuz I know that I'm not like being a general joy. I'm being a pain in the butt because I'm like irritable and annoyed. Um, and these are things like I write down. Right. I, I write down all these things I'm doing.
Um, and I think that really helps you kind of plan for the future when you start noticing these things, right. Like, huh, I notice this week I'm craving a lot of sugar. Like, well how's my sleep been? Or I know that, um, this week, like I feel tired is that because I haven't really been getting quality sleep or like sometimes what ends up happening. Right. When I go through my revenge, bedtime procrastination, um, I will sleep a lot in the coming weeks. Like I'll sleep like 12 hours a night for like several weeks. And then I'm like, but I'm still tired. And it's just because the sleep, uh, quality is not good. So you kind of have to pay attention to all these things that happen when you're kind of like, how did you get over your upper limit? What kind of habits did you have?
What kind of like, it could be personal, like mental habits, like when your mental health isn't doing very well, like you're feeling depressed or you're feeling really anxious or like doing small tasks seems really difficult. Like taking a shower or brushing your teeth or making dinner for yourself. And you're just like, you know what I'll do. I'll just go through the drive through, or I'll just do this thing. So you gotta pay attention and all that stuff. And then also like, are you working out, are you taking care of all the other, you know, taking care of your pets? Are you walking them? Um, and are so many different facets of that? I think that when you have your own personal things, like, I don't think revenge, bedtime procrastination applies to a lot of people. I'm sure it applies to many thousands of people, but, um, that's something that you kind of have to pay attention to over time.
That's how you build a healthy, sustainable schedule. That how you build something that's actually, you can keep up with instead of keeping, adding things to your plate. And you're just like, why isn't this working? Um, that's what I used to do. But when I started paying attention to all these things that happened, right? Like when I wanted a ton of sugar or when I had really bad headaches or at one point I developed like a cough because I wasn't sleeping very well. Um, or like I'm not working out and I don't feel good about that. And I feel tired all the time or I'm snippy and irritable or I have revenge, bedtime procrastination, uh, or I feel like I'm not filling my own cup. Bless you. I, that, you know, all of that stuff kind of comes together. Yes. Hello. Would you like to back up into your seal spot back up, back up, back up, back, up, back up. All right. Ready Charlotte or actually ready? Bo 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job, buddy.
All right, Charlotte. You have to do the paw Paul. This one. Ready? Paul? Yeah. Good girl. Good job. All right, let's try one more time. Here you go, buddy. Good job. All right. Charlotte. Paul pop. No pop this one. Pop <laugh>. You know what to do? No, you can't have it. You gotta gimme your pop pop. Come on. You just did it. Come on, Paul. No, don't do out me. Pop. Come on. You wanna try this? A no <laugh> you can lick in between my fingers, but you can't get it. Nope. You gotta do pop. Good girl. We did it.
We did it. Everybody be really proud of my dog trading skills. It only took me like 10 years to get her to do that. Actually not 10 years. It's taken me like three to four years. All right. We did it. Okay, cool. So I don't see any questions in the hopper. I hope that this was helpful. Um, I think, yeah, she used up all her pickle. She used up all her trio energy and she's just like, doesn't wanna do it anymore. All right. So here's the deal. Last thing I'm gonna say is that overwhelm isn't normal. When you're bill a business, it's okay to be overwhelmed. We just don't want it to be happening all the time. It's okay to get stressed out. That happens. What we wanna do is pay attention to our habits and wanna pay attention to how we actually got there and then write that down so that we can pay attention to like how we fix it in the future.
So like, if you're feeling tired or you have headaches or revenge, bedtime procrastination, or you want sugar a lot where you're not taking care of your body or, um, whatever yours are, like, whatever your personal things are, like, maybe you skip out on the small little things that you make, you know, feel really good about like you stop making yourself a nice warm cup of tea in the morning, cuz you're just like, that seems like a lot of effort, even though it's your favorite part of the day, right? These are all the things that we wanna make sure that we pay attention to going forward. It's okay to be kind of like a MEbA ish and go up above your, over, over your upper limit. That happens. It's just part of the process of building a business. But in order to have our healthy, sustainable business, we have to know the mistakes we're making or the habits that we're forming, uh, or the things that are happening.
So we can correct that for the future so that we can create a sustainable schedule. That makes more sense and really take care of our mental health. Right. And, um, not get sucked into this like cycle of feeling burned out and hating our jobs and hating all of the, you know, all of the things like, you know, if you're starting to feel really bitter about your clients or you feel like everything is just kind of imploding and you'll never make it, like there's a lot of really negative thoughts that happen in there. So we gotta pay attention to all those things. Last thing is that sometimes you're gonna have to do personal stuff instead of business stuff. Sometimes you're overwhelmed by personal things, family things, friends, things, whatever. And you have to deal with that first that's normal. We can't spend a hundred percent of our time on our business.
Um, and you usually like, as things go, we can't even really spend half of our time on our business. We have to spend time doing other things too. Yeah, this too. This is a good point from Annie. Yeah. Like if you're getting like doing some fun things or you're laughing a lot or getting connection, that's really important. If you feel like you're not connecting with other people or not laughing a bunch or you feel like you don't have any fun in your schedule. That's something else that I really struggle with is like, there's been many times where I'm just like, I'm not doing anything fine. Like all I'm doing is working or all I'm doing is meeting other things like meeting deadlines or meeting clients or meeting meetings. <laugh> um, and I'm not doing enough fun things. Right. And walking the dogs is really fun for me.
So that's a really important thing too, that we need, need to pay attention to. Cool. All right. If you ever have anything that you wanna get answered on the live stream or any topics you can put 'em in Mandy ellis.com/question. And also I've been getting asked this, I also have my free pricing guide. So you can go to Mandy ellis.com/pricing guide, and you can download it. It's free update it regularly. Um, it has like a general ballpark for a whole bunch of different types of projects that we often do as freelance writers. So you can pick it up there. And when you pick that up, you'll also get my weekly emails. So you'll get my weekly emails, letting you know about what we're doing for that week's live stream. And also it gives you like tips and tricks in the emails and it covers all the different topics that we like, all the different things we have to do as freelance writers.
Cool. Right. So cool. I hope everybody has a good Friday. Charlotte's over here grumbling. She looks like she's in a recliner right now. Bo's like over there taking a nap. All right, one more. And then we're done. You guys have add so many, but Charlotte you've gotta work for it. Ready, but 1, 2, 3 dog. Good. Right. Charlotte, can you do one more? Can you do one more? Oh, you almost did it. Come on, Paul, give me this one. Paul. No, come on one more. One more. Yeah. Good girl. Paul. Good job. All right. We've got it. All right. I will see you. Um, who knows just as like a heads up. I probably won't do a live stream for the next couple weeks, just because of the holiday stuff. And I need a little personal time off. I may hop in and do a random live stream who knows we'll be up for surprises. Uh, but um, hope everybody has really good winter holidays. Hope everybody enjoys some time off, get some rest time. And, uh, we'll be working on our path over here. So hopefully maybe we'll get to high five by then. Who knows? I hope everybody has a good Friday and I will see you soon. Bye.
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