The holiday season is fast approaching. Unlike those with a 9-to-5 jobs, freelancers work around the clock. That’s the nature of your job as a freelancer.  But just like everybody else, we deserve a break to enjoy the festivities.

As a freelancer, you’re your own boss and you have no one to ask for a day off. So you have to find a way to create such time for yourself.

That can seem like a very daunting task as creating that block of time to enjoy the holidays seems almost impossible. But the good news is that there is a way you can have the free time you need to enjoy the festivities with everyone else. Here exactly how you can manage time off as a freelancer this holiday season.

Plan ahead

If you want to have the holidays to yourself, then planning ahead is key. To get more time off for yourself means you need to put in extra hours. But don’t worry, it will be worth it. I promise.

Get all your projects and tasks you have of the month in perspective.  This will help you prioritize the tasks and projects that you need to give urgent attention to first.

That’s just one aspect to planning ahead.

The next thing you need to do is to draw up a budget of how much you need to make for you to comfortably enjoy your time off without feeling the pinch in your finances. This will help you know how many projects you need to take up to make up for that period.  Since you’re the boss, no one is going to give you a bonus unless you work it out yourself.

Be disciplined

It will take a lot of discipline to make sure that you follow through with the deadlines you set for yourself. Since you’ll be working harder and for longer hours you need to remain focused and resolute to carry out your projects as at when due. Use incentives to keep you motivated to keep going. What better incentive than to know that you’ll get to spend time with your loved ones during the holidays and relax to your fill!

Learn to say “NO”

Sometimes you may be tempted to take up a project or two even though you’re full to the brim with projects. At that point you need to allow yourself to be practical and say “No” to the offers that come in.

You may want to get yourself some time off but that doesn’t mean that you should work yourself into burnout.

Outsource what you can

If you tried but couldn’t get yourself to say “No” to the project that comes in, the next practical step to take is to outsource those projects to freelancers who will be available during the time when you’re going on holiday.

The best part of being a freelancer is that you have access to a friendly family of freelancers. The freelancer community is full of talented freelancers who do awesome work.

Once you’ve outsourced the job, you can have the freelancer send the project back to you to for vetting before you send it back to your client. That way you will still earn from the project and help create jobs for other upcoming freelancers.

How do you manage time off as a freelancer?