Averting Freelancer Burnout: Strategies for Self Care and Mental Wellness

Grazia Ravelli, a well-being and performance coach, runs her talk at Freelance Unlocked 2024 like a coaching session: topic, reasons, current situation, then a small step you choose yourself. Her message is that stress does not cause burnout by its quantity but by how you manage it. She says her tool is awareness, and she frames the session as coaching, not treatment.

What the talk covers

• The topic: she describes burnout, citing the World Health Organization, as an occupational phenomenon of prolonged work stress that shows up as physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. Freelancers have particular stressors, in her view: working alone, the time spent finding work, and the toll of turning projects down.
• Stress as a strategy. Like a possum playing dead, she says, many of us freeze or ignore emails at weekends.
• A car image: there is an accelerator, working and fighting for work, and a brake, rest and recovery. She asks how much of your time goes to each.
• From her employer's interviews with over a thousand high performers, she says only 11 percent stay sustainably in their best zone. The two factors are motivation and mental fitness, meaning how aware you are of your state.
• Two lists: how you would act as your ideal client, one who does not keep pinging you, and what you will say no to, since every yes is a no to something else. Then pick one tiny change, such as protected breaks, and anchor it with a calendar slot, a prepaid session or a promise to someone.

From the Q&A

On clients who send emails at 9 p.m., she says it comes down to your expectations of yourself: good enough is usually enough. For procrastination she suggests the smallest possible first step. She says naming your inner critic creates distance.

Who it's for

Freelancers who feel stretched and want one habit to try.