Episode 38: Smart Habits for Managing Freelance Work and Parenthood

Smart Habits for Translators

In today’s episode, we’re having a conversation on the topic that we briefly discussed in several previous episodes and that many of our listeners often ask about: being a parent and a freelancer.

Those of us who have kids know that parenting is a full-time job. But running your own freelance business can also take a lot of time and energy. So, how do you combine the two without crashing and burning in the process? We don’t have all the answers, but we’ll share our experience and what has worked for us.

Here’s a summary of our conversation:

• How old our kids are and how old they were when we started freelancing

• What we did to prepare and set ourselves up for success in that first year with a baby, how much time off we took before and after birth, and how we transitioned back to work after that

• How we manage to take care of our kids and run a freelance business, whether we have help, and how our typical day looks, considering our family’s schedule and needs as well as our work and other commitments

• How we prepare for and deal with sick days, half-days at school, school holidays, and emergencies

• How we handle long holidays and extended periods of time when our kids have to stay home while we work

• Our tips for overcoming family vs work guilt

• What our kids say about our work as translators and what they think we do all day

Resources we mentioned in this episode:

• Our on-demand webinar Smart Habits for Marketing Your Business in Unexpected Ways (Don't forget to use the code SMARTHABITS at checkout for $10 off!)

• Madalena’s course with Training for Translators: Copywriting for Translators: Identifying and Targeting Your Copywriting Market

• Madalena’s T&I Website Blueprint course

• ATA’s virtual workshop “Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References” (in Russian; March 13, 2021)

• Episode 7: Overcoming Family vs. Work Guilt

• Outschool: Virtual classes for kids

• Podcast episode by Speaking of Translation: Self-care and mental health in the pandemic

• The app we use for meditation: Calm

• Elizabeth Gilbert on distinguishing between hobbies, jobs, careers, and vocation

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

https://smarthabitsfortranslators.com/podcast-episodes/38