how to plan for the holidays as a freelance editor
As a freelance editor, it can be difficult to plan for holidays or time off—and to stick to those plans. The flexibility of freelancing is a gift in so many ways, but it can also make it easy for work to follow you away from your desk and into your home life. (All the more likely when your desk is in your home!)
Your routine doesn’t have to be routine. Some freelance editors stick to a 9–5 workday, some moonlight as freelancers after clocking out of other jobs, and some adjust their schedules day by day. But regardless of what’s normal for you, there will be times when you want (or need) to plan for time away from editing.
I was commiserating with another work-from-home acquaintance recently about missing the ease of taking a sick day or vacation in a traditional workplace. It wasn’t always easy, of course—scheduling holidays often involved coordinating with other staff and project schedules, and it was stressful when a sick day overlapped with important meetings or deadlines. But I do miss the clarity. When most of my colleagues were located in the same office, the expectations were clear: I’m not here; we’ll connect when I return.
In contrast, my freelance clients come from around the world. They can’t walk by my desk and see that I’m on vacation. Dealing with last-minute illnesses or schedule changes is a different matter, but when it comes to anticipated absences, there are lots of ways to prepare yourself and your clients.
Here are some tips to help you plan for holidays or time off from editing.
Block off your calendar
Look ahead in your calendar to ensure that you know what’s coming up before you start getting inquiries from clients for those dates. If there is a day (or a block of days) when you know you don’t want to be working, block it off in your calendar.
Decide what to schedule
Here are some examples of routine events you might wish to protect in your calendar:
Civic holidays
Religious observances
PD days, spring break, and other school closures
Your birthday or anniversary
Loved ones’ birthdays
Family vacations
Don’t forget to include time off for things that aren’t a “break” but still require a step back from work. These might include:
Medical appointments
Caregiving commitments
Home renovations
House hunting or moving
Jury duty
Conferences or other educational commitments
These aren’t exhaustive lists, and they’re also not mandatory. But if there’s something that’s important to you, advocate for yourself and take the time you need.
Create a buffer
Depending on the event, you might want to include preparation time too. For example, as a parent, I block off a few days before Halloween (to finish costumes) and my kids’ birthdays (to bake cakes, tidy the house, etc.).
At the recommendation of another editor, this year I experimented with implementing built-in “recovery” time. We all know what it’s like to come back from time off and find an inbox bursting at the seams, with more emails coming in every day.
Previously, if I was off for a week, I would simply declare that I’d be away from my desk for a week. With this new approach, I state that I’m unavailable for one and a half or two weeks. That way, I can take those first few days back to settle my administrative needs and catch up on correspondence without worrying that I’m falling behind on clients’ expectations.
Notify clients of holidays in advance
Once you know which days you need off, it can be helpful to notify clients in advance. The way you do this can depend on the amount of time you need off and the degree to which you expect your absence to disrupt your usual workflow.
For example, if you’re taking a single Friday off to enjoy a long weekend, you probably don’t need to warn anyone. If you have a client who expects daily communication or has routine calls on Fridays, you can let them know individually. On the other hand, if you plan to take every Friday off throughout the summer, then it may be helpful to send a message to all your active clients so they know to expect a change.
Don’t assume that anyone knows your schedule by default. Holidays and the dates on which they’re celebrated can vary by country, religion, and culture. (For example, Thanksgiving falls in October in Canada and November in the US.) If you want to make an upcoming absence known, another option is to include a note in your email signature. That way, it’s there in advance, but in a more casual way than sending a dedicated email.
Set your out-of-office replies
If you want to notify people of your absence while you’re away, you can set an out-of-office reply to respond automatically to incoming messages. (Here’s how to do that in Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and Yahoo Mail.)
At its most basic, you can simply tell people when you’re out of the office and when you’ll be back. Depending on your clients’ needs, you could also consider offering additional information. This could include:
Contact information for subcontractors working with your clients
When you will reply to general inquiries
Clarification of what you are and aren’t reading while out of the office (in case there are items that you do need to address during your time off)
Answers to frequently asked questions
Update your website
If you have a contact form on your website, check whether it can be programmed to send out-of-office emails! If it can’t, you can modify the form itself. For example, you could add a line or two to the contact page and the confirmation message (that appears when the form is submitted) to clarify that you’re out of the office until [the date you’ll be back] and will respond when you return.
And if you use any online booking tools that are visible to clients, make sure to block off time in those too.
Automate what you can
In addition to the out-of-office emails, are there other emails you can automate? For example, could you pre-schedule reminders to clients who owe you revisions soon after your time away? Could you schedule invoices for interim payments to go out automatically?
The days before and after time off can be busy, but doing a bit of extra work to keep things running smoothly while you’re away can be extremely helpful to both your clients and your future self.
Build your own boundaries
This isn’t one of those posts that’s going to insist on the right way to take a break. I’ve had wonderful vacations where I haven’t turned on my computer once, and I’ve had wonderful vacations where I’ve worked in the evenings or taken advantage of a quiet moment to respond to emails.
You deserve rest and enjoyment, and it’s important to avoid burnout, but as someone who did let myself get burned out last year, I’m not here to tell you how to manage your time. Instead, I encourage you to be mindful of what you want your time off to look like so you can feel satisfied with your work-life balance in whatever way works for you.
Consider the following questions:
Do you need a completely work-free period of time? If not, when do you want to fit in your work?
Are there certain tasks you do want to do during your time off? (For example, I often respond to new client inquiries to greet them personally and let them know when I’ll respond more fully.)
Are there any clients whose responses you need to see during your time off? (If so, you can often flag incoming mail from a specific sender or direct it to a dedicated folder to make it easier to differentiate from the emails you’re saving for later. In Gmail, this is done through email filters.)
Don’t worry about others
Embracing the flexibility of freelancing means recognizing that we’re all going to use that flexibility in different ways. For every editor who insists that freelancers shouldn’t answer emails in the evenings or on weekends, there are others who thrive working in those hours. Likewise, while some editors may tout the benefits of a totally “unplugged” vacation, others may need (logistically or financially) to make their time off more of a working holiday.
As a freelancing parent, I’ve learned to accept that we all have different schedules and different demands on our time—and that that’s okay.
Be kind to yourself
In the end, it’s all about what works for you and your family.
Trying to plan for holidays and time off isn’t just about the logistics of notifying clients; it’s also about the mental preparation.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hustle of finding and maintaining work—and the fear that if you pause, you’ll lose momentum. Remember to be gentle with yourself. Not all time off is recreational: your life, your home, your health, and your needs matter. You matter.
And if you are taking time off for recreation, enjoy it! Whether you’re saving some moments to catch up on work or immersing yourself fully in the joys and celebrations your life brings, have a wonderful time. The memories you create will be there to lift your spirits when you get back to your desk—and to add to the quilt of experiences that you draw on when serving your clients.
How do you plan for holidays or time off?
Laura Bontje (she/her) is a freelance editor in London, Ontario, Canada. She specializes in fiction editing, with a particular focus on children’s literature. Laura is the author of the picture books Was It a Cat I Saw?, When the Air Sang (coming spring 2025), and more to be announced! Her tea of choice is orange pekoe with a dash of milk and a heap of sugar.
You can connect with Laura on Instagram at @LauraBontjeBooks.
