I’m currently on indefinite leave from work owing to stress / exhaustion / burnout.

Well, actually, I’m not.

The nature of my work – self-employed, variety of different roles – means I can’t really go on leave but I feel like I need a headline to capture attention.

I am trying to reduce my workload.

I’m grateful to have been as busy as I have with work lately, but it’s often been too much. My latest tax return suggests I’ve been earning well, but the price for that is that I’m often slow to reply to messages or don’t reply at all, I’ve sometimes struggled to be polite and friendly when I’ve needed to be and I’ve been unwell – in Egypt in particular – more often than ever before.

The last couple of years have been really hard in my personal life. Life can be cruel, and bad luck seems to come in clusters. As if the emotional weight isn’t enough, it turns out that difficult stuff like bereavement, probate, caring for an elderly relative and separation/divorce also come with a tonne of tedious, time-consuming and draining admin. The final insult is that you often have to pay fees for the privilege, to the government, or solicitors and so on.

As a freelancer it can be hard to say ‘no’ – you don’t want to miss out and you never know if/when the offers might stop coming. I like being my own boss and working to my own schedule and from home. I realise I’m very fortunate in that. But when things are hard I miss not having a boss who could tell me to take a break or not to take on that extra thing because I already have too much going on, or could hand over some of my work to someone else, give me permission to take sick leave, or tell people that ‘he’s not available at the moment’.

From now on I’m going to try to be a good boss to myself, politely declining work and sending myself away to take a break (as far as that’s possible).

So thanks for reading, sorry if you find me hard to get hold of or you catch me in a grumpy moment. I am really hoping things will get easier this year but thanks for your patience and understanding in the meantime.