This week, FFWS has been on location! Here’s how you can use remote mobile work days to reset your focus and rediscover your passion.

Going Mobile to Refresh Your Work From Home Job

This week Fiddleheads & Floss Writing Services has been on location at Topsail Beach, NC. The office disassembled, moved, and set back up again from the comforts of a seaside camper.

Why? Because this little freelancer has come to a horrible realization – burnout. Working from home can create burnout in a way that’s quite different from the burnout of commuting to work.

Essentially, you can’t get away from the environment that’s creating those feelings of restlessness, emotional pressure, and lack of focus and motivation.

So, this week I packed up. Relocated. And, hit that professional and personal reset button.

It’s been the refresh I hadn’t even known I needed – until the opportunity came up to borrow a campsite for the week.

Signs of Burnout

How do you know you are burned out from your work? This is a common condition that’s easily remedied if you take the time to be honest about what you’re feeling and take the time to fix it.

Here are some of the signs you may be suffering burnout from your job, whether it’s a creative job like mine, or something else:

• Feeling physically and mentally tired in a way that doesn’t remedy with a good night’s sleep.
• Lack of motivation.
• Feelings of dread or otherwise negative feelings about your work.
• Lack of focus while working.
• Your work quality seems to be slipping, despite efforts to show up, keep up, and perform at your best.
• Increase or onset of depression, anxiety, and other mental health pressures.
• Loosing your focus on short- and long-term goals.
• Feeling like you are disconnected from your purpose.

Going Mobile to Reset Your Work-Life Balance

When your work-life balance suffers, so does your job performance. Many jobs have days off, worker support programs, and mental health support to help prevent or relieve worker burnout. But when you work from home, run a small business, or operate a sole proprietorship like I do – you are responsible for your own work life balance.

Think of a tea kettle.

In a corporate setting or on-site job, the tea kettle goes on according to a schedule or the boss’s orders, and it has an automatic shut off feature. The tea kettle, here, is symbolic for your internal working and cognitive pressure.

At home, or on your own, these failsafes are not in place unless you apply them yourself.

The tea kettle gets hot, boils, screams.

When you are burned out…that screaming goes on and on until you deal with the issue. In other words, you cannot ignore burnout, but you can plan for it to prevent it and take measures to correct it when you hear the “screaming.”

This week I heard the screaming. In fact, I’ve been hearing it for awhile and have not taken the time to address it. By going fully mobile with my work this week, I essentially hit the reset button on my work-life balance.

Instead of hours of work with intermittent small breaks, I did double the workload and still managed to spend time walking my dog, walking on the beach, or lounging by the pool with a book.

Yes, I got double the work done. Simply by leveling up my work-life balance and getting out of that office I sit in day after day!

Going Fully Remote & Mobile to Rediscover Your Passion

Going remote this week also did something for me that I did not expect. It helped me to reconnect with my passion of writing. My passion for my freelancing business. And my passion for living my most authentic life with an attitude of wellness and free-spiritedness.

In short – I’ve found myself again.

Rediscover your passion with your work today by going fully remote, even if it is just for a day! Here are some tips to help you get started:

Tips for Working Remotely to Avoid Burnout

• Keep it quiet. Let the people know who need to know. This keeps your phone and email more quiet so you can focus on your work, and your work-life balance tasks like breathing, journaling, and resting your mind or exploring the area between jobs.
  
• Prepare for working in a scaled-down office. Pack what you need. Prepare for power, charging, set-up, and setting. Reducing your office-sprawl temporarily creates a sense of problem-solving that challenges your cognition and keeps you on your toes.
  
• Choose the working location wisely. Choose a setting that feeds your soul. Choose a setting that you enjoy, feel comfortable, and that makes you feel safe and confident. Your happy place will do just fine. A coffee shop, a library, your car. If you can set up to work, go for it.
  
  (Sidenote – My car has a 3-prong outlet in it and converts nicely from mobile office area to cozy sleeping nook. I can set up my entire computer system, or a mini bedroom, right in the back of my car!)
  
• Prepare for handling distractions. I packed the good headphones for this trip – but oddly, have not needed them at all!
  
• Prepare for your physical needs. Access to bathrooms. Food and drink. A cooler for ice. Your meds, your favorite book or notebook and pen, cozy socks, sunscreen. Your mobile-office bugout bag should include items for your safety and comfort.
  
• Don’t overplan your time. Keep the todo list tidy and truncated. The point here is to lose the burnout and reconnect to your passions for your work. Give your mind the space to do that!

FFWS Is Ready for Business

Don’t be frightened when I say “I am burned out!” Fiddleheads & Floss Writing Services has been in business providing freelance work for over five years, and is just as hopping today as ever. I’ve just learned how to do this well. Burnout is a factor in creative services and I’ve developed a wisdom for recognizing it early and taking care of it.

So I can show up every day on the top of my game.

Now…I have client orders to work on today before I tackle that beach-weekend traffic as I am heading off the island and back to my home! Until next time, take care of yourselves, both professionally and personally. I hope these tips to avoid burnout, and for going remote mobile with your work are helpful for you! I’d love to hear your experience in the comments.

Rediscover your passion with your work today by going fully remote, even if it is just for a day!

— Christina M Ward
FFWS

Christina M. Ward is a best-selling poet and nature writer from the beautiful state of North Carolina. She studied Environmental Science and creative writing at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, where she was awarded the 2004 Arrowhead Prose Award. Christina’s best-selling poetry collections can be purchased on Amazon.

Christina works as a full-time freelance SEO writer and editor. Her professional work has been featured in Today’s Health Science, LA Weekly, Village Voice, Men’s Journal, Long Island Press, OK! Magazine, cbdMD, and VEGAMOUR, among others. When she’s not working, you’ll find Christina writing poetry, cross-stitching, working out, or spending time in the great outdoors.

Thank you for reading Christina M. Ward here at Fiddleheads & Floss Writing Services.