Being freelance in a heat wave

I can’t deal with this hot weather at the moment. You might think that it’s easier for those of us who work from home but actually being freelance during a heat wave is no picnic either! I thought I’d share the ups and downs of my freelance day (with a good GIF or two of course) whilst battling with ridiculous temperatures.

8am: Already hot and bothered

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Like everyone else in the county, we’re already hot and bothered. And yes, there’s a moment of smugness in the fact we’re escaping a commute and could have a lie in to compensate the fact we woke up in a state of the perpetual state of hot and cold depending on the location of the fan. But it ends there: because there’s no escape for us in our houses. It’s hot and it’s only going to get hotter. And we have no office air con or work pals to moan to about the heat or to slink to the beer garden with at the end of the day. It’s just us-and the heat in a battle to the end…

11am: Your inbox is empty

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We’re up and working. But unfortunately nobody else. Everybody in the blogging, media or PR world is either a) on holiday or b) pretending to be on holiday. In an office, you can at least meet face to face with the people you need to speak to. There is a moment of excitement when you get a response-but it turns out it’s an out of office declaring they’ll be out of the country for the next two weeks and to call Camilla in an emergency. The problem is you don’t know who Camilla is and you’re trying to figure out whether ‘pay me so I can eat’ is an emergency.

12:30pm: Hot or cold drink conundrum

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In a bid to escape the heat and refreshing your inbox every 2 minutes, you head to your nearest coffee shop. This leads to an important drink conundrum. On arrival, you immediately order a larger cooler (which is basically just ice and sugar). This is heaven until actually, you realise the coffee shop has air con and, because you downed your drink in approximately 30 seconds, you’re now freezing.

You then order a tea to attempt to balance out your inner thermostat but then are too hot when you leave the shop. So the cycle (and email refreshing) continues.

14:00: You don’t want to do anything

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It’s hot. Nobody is answering your emails and you suddenly feel like quitting for the day.  Isn’t this why you went freelance in the first place? So you could work when it suited? Spend the afternoon in the park on a whim and qualify for an off-peak gym membership?

Except you remember a) everyone is at work so you have no one to hang out with and b) whilst those people at work are sending you tweets about the weather and browsing on facebook, they’re actually getting paid for that. Whilst every day off you take feels like one step closer to not being able to pay your bills.

16:00: Frustration reaches its peak

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You just know everyone has decamped their meetings to the pub and park-or just been told to go home early. Is there anything better than your boss telling you to clock off early? But you ARE the boss and deciding when to do so can be tricky (and telling yourself doesn’t quite have the same ring to it). You miss having colleagues to walk to the pub with for after-work drinks (choosing to ignore the fact that one of the reasons you went freelance is because you spent your life despising socialising with colleagues). And suddenly feel lonely.

18:00

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Hurrah-you’ve survived the day. Until you’re non-freelance partners, friends or family arrive home fuming. Turns out they weren’t in the pub and had to actually work a full day despite the heat. You’re so excited to have someone to talk to but that last approximately thirty seconds after they ask ‘Enjoy a day sunbathing?’ or seeth ‘we can’t all spend the day topping up our tan.’ and the warm and fuzzies disperse.

Anyone else hoping this heat wave will end soon so we can actually get some work done?

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