Taking time off before burnout

Time away from work needs a place in a medical writer’s commitments, alongside project deadlines. Holidays, protected days off and longer breaks can create room for rest, relationships and interests beyond work.

Rest as a commitment

Frequent, refreshing holidays can be treated as a condition of sustaining work, with enjoyment and relaxation mattering more than the destination or activity. ¹ Relaxation should remain a priority alongside client work and running the business, because growing demand can exceed what its owner can balance. ^{2, 3} Clear boundaries and breaks before exhaustion are recommended ways to avoid freelance overwork. ^{4, 5}

One freelancer described repeated periods of 12–15-hour days, seven days a week for three weeks under extreme pressure, and advised against doing this even when projects were enjoyable. ⁶ Making time off happen requires deliberate action rather than expecting someone else to arrange it. ⁶

A vacation booked nine to twelve months ahead with a non-refundable deposit can help protect the commitment. ⁶ Clients should be told the dates early, with work planned before departure and delayed inputs waiting until after the return; willingness to postpone the holiday should not be implied. ⁶ Leaving work devices behind and keeping a phone off except when essential help preserve the break. ⁶

Social commitments can make shorter breaks harder to cancel, such as a long lunch with someone at least once a fortnight or swimming or walking with a companion during the day. ⁶ A public-speaking club can provide enjoyable time away from deadlines, provided public speaking itself is not stressful and the activity does not become another pressured business obligation. ⁶ Enjoyable relationships with clients and declining work that creates excessive deadline stress can also matter, though refusing work depends on being able to afford it. ⁶

Different ways of protecting time away

Freelancers differ in how completely they disconnect. ^{7, 8} One took long trips but checked email every few days for urgent matters; another kept vacations entirely free of voicemail, email and work calls. ^{7, 8}

One writer combined errands efficiently, protected exercise after a few hours’ work, aimed for weekly yoga and occasionally took a full day off on a weekend or weekday for a mental lift. ⁷ A two-person practice aimed for a three- or four-day weekend each quarter and reserved social evenings in advance, while finding a planned winter week away harder to achieve. ⁹

Another writer protected a 7 am gym visit because evening exercise was displaced by deadlines and calls, tried to leave the office at 5:30–6 pm, and kept weekends for family and friends where possible. ⁸ His evenings could still contain business administration, and he acknowledged often missing lunch. ⁸

A writer reflecting in 2016 on three early years without a holiday recommended these practices: ¹⁰

• Keep children in sight as a reminder of life beyond work.
• Make time during the day for family and schedule work around it.
• Encourage a partner or friends to make plans that include the writer and are difficult to cancel.
• Do no work on vacation, including calls, email or even a small amount of work.
• Allow a bridge day before a vacation to decompress and another after it to return mentally.

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He told clients that his vacation began one or two business days before his actual departure to absorb last-minute requests, and gave them a return date after a day at home. ¹⁰

Another writer’s decisions after prolonged overwork included four to six weeks’ holiday a year, spa or yoga-retreat breaks and activities entirely different from medical writing, such as bodywork, yoga teaching and tarot reading. ^{10, 11} She credited these choices with helping sustain a long career and suggested alternatives such as music or art. ¹¹

In 2024, another writer described an annual August week without a phone or computer, by the sea with loved ones, as helping her reset. ¹² After the first experience, better backup plans reduced emergency interruptions on the next break. ¹²

Burnout and a sabbatical: one writer’s experience

A freelance writer’s 2014 account described a thriving career and income alongside gradual burnout, with family duties providing the hard stops that initially limited work. ¹³ Once her children were older and those stops disappeared, work expanded into weekends and time at a holiday home. ¹³

Before an April 2012 holiday she worked continuously for two weeks, including one day from 2 am to 11 pm, while waiting for subcontracted work that did not arrive. ¹³ She travelled exhausted, stressed and upset, cried through much of the week and snapped at her family. ¹³ On returning, allocating project days in a spreadsheet showed that she could not accommodate all her commitments even by working every weekend. ^{13, 14}

Therapy initially helped, but overwork returned: during a hospital admission for an infected tooth in August 2012 she was still working at 2 am. ¹⁴ By March 2013 she felt unable to stop and decided with her therapist to take a sabbatical. ¹⁴

She immediately stopped accepting new work, finished existing commitments over the next two months and arranged for friends to cover regular clients, who accepted the arrangement. ¹⁴ At the end of May 2013 she submitted her last project and set an out-of-office message for the summer. ¹⁴

The break included planned trips, family events, gardening, journalling, knitting, daily exercise and dog walks. ¹⁴ Clients were supportive, and by Labor Day she felt ready to return with September already booked. ¹⁴

A year later she rarely worked weekends, kept exercising and journalling, knitted rather than worked in the evenings and used occasional maintenance therapy. ¹⁴ Keeping her inbox below 100 messages helped her feel in control, and she noticed and acted on relapses into old working habits. ¹⁴ The break also created room to develop teaching, speaking and webinars. ¹⁴

In a 2016 follow-up, she described these lessons: ¹¹

1. Know how many days each assignment needs, allow one or two extra days, and track capacity in a spreadsheet; no open days means no capacity for more work.
2. Combine work and personal calendars, including protected exercise time—90 minutes daily in her case.
3. Work in uninterrupted morning or afternoon blocks rather than scattering calls throughout the day.
4. Keep a regular schedule; hers ran from about 6:30 am to 5 pm, included work, meals, exercise and a nap, and excluded work after dinner.
5. Have a dedicated workplace with a door or a screen that hides the desk after work.
6. Limit weekend work, using any necessary time mainly for email and organising the coming week.
7. Develop friendships and hobbies outside work that provide reasons to stop.
8. Plan at least two one- or two-week vacations and several long weekends each year, with projects due before departure and new work waiting until return.
9. Set a realistic financial goal; once that month’s target—$5,000 in her example—is booked, treat the month as full and the remaining time as personal time.

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The pressure to keep working

At AMWA’s 2023 conference, experienced freelancers described fatigue, constant stress, workaholism and lost hobbies despite having freedom to take time off. ¹⁵ Even busy writers reported fear of work drying up as a reason to continue taking more. ¹⁵ Their discussion emphasised making their own health a priority rather than continually caring for others at their own expense. ^{15, 16}