When I first got rumors of the layoffs at my former job, I had a brief flash of panic and then almost immediate acceptance — which quickly gave way to excitement. Because aww yeah: it’s about damn time I got back to working for myself.

I’ve been working full-time for someone else for four years, and I’ve absolutely got the skills to support myself freelancing. But in facing down the prospect of going back to work for myself, I’ve had to confront some of the challenges that I’ve dealt with poorly during past forays into freelance life, and make efforts to fight them off this time around.

• Isolation
I’m a social creature, and honestly part of what I liked best about my old job was getting up and heading into an office full of interesting smarties. The last time I freelanced (LA in late 2002) I got deeply depressed because I never seemed to get out of the house. Days would go by and I wouldn’t speak to anyone but Andreas. I started picking out clothes to wear weekly instead of daily. I started getting almost a low-grade agoraphobia where, because I’d been in for so long I didn’t really want to go out. It got sort of sad.
THIS TIME: Thanks to the twin joys of my laptop and abundant wifi, it’s easy to spend several of my workdays out and about at my favorite tea shop and even friend’s houses. I’m thinking of starting a casual freelancer’s club where some of us can gather together at a fellow freelancer’s house, compare notes, and share wifi.

• Burn-out
When I’m working for myself, I tend to get compulsive. I can’t NOT check my email at 11pm, and I can’t NOT reply. I can’t NOT work on a Saturday. When there’s no 9-to-5 it’s all to easy to end up working 7am-midnight, and then what happens? Of course I burn out. Then I go limping back to working for someone else, where I can leave the office at 5pm and stop thinking about it. It’s hard to maintain life/work balance when you work for yourself, and that balance is important to me.
THIS TIME: I’m trying to learn that for me, self-discipline means not overworking myself. I have to take breaks and consciously stop checking my email. I have to turn the computer off after 8pm.

• Existential career crisis
Despite all my ambitions and abilities, without someone telling me what to do, at times I hit these strange existential crisis points. When the days and weeks and months stretch in front of me with only my own scheduling to deal with, I sometimes experience these floating “What does it all MEAN” moments that can reduce me to hiding in bed and chewing on the bedsheets. This isn’t really helpful to anyone.
THIS TIME: Structure my time not just daily, but weekly and monthly. Build longterm work/career objectives to work towards, so that when my day-to-day tactical work slows a bit I still have a big picture to keep in mind.

Oh, and all this is to say that if you’re looking for a freelance copywriter or social media consultant/blog coach, I’m your woman.