by Ashleigh Kluck

Picture this: You’re three months into your freelance business and receive a text from a client—on a Saturday—asking you to complete a last minute request. You’re at brunch with your friends, enjoying the sun, and perhaps a mimosa. I can imagine your immediate response is to complete the request—because you don’t want to lose a client.

Is this what “being your own boss” looks like? Working 24/7 and never feeling like you have a true work/life balance? As someone with six years of experience in the freelance game, I want to share my tips and lessons I learned the hard way about why it’s important to set boundaries upfront with clients—and yourself, for that matter!

(1) Clear Channels of Communication

Looking back on when I started my freelance career, one of the biggest mistakes I made was giving out my personal cell phone number to clients. Don’t do this. In my experience, even clients who hire you as a contractor (not a full-time employee) break the boundaries of work and personal time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received “This is totally not an emergency, but can you …” (post this, update that) at 6 a.m. or 10 p.m. And because I’m known to be a people-pleaser—especially when it comes to my clients—I respond, no matter what time of day it is.

If email is too slow of a communication channel for you, I recommend Slack. While clients can still send messages at all hours of the day, you can choose to “pause” notifications after a specific time—or for the whole damn day, if you want.

(2) Set Work Hours and Stick to Them

Another pitfall of freelance work that I fell into is working every single day of the week. I work from home, and my laptop is easily accessible. Why not get a little more work done on a Saturday if I have the time? Nope! Take the time to rest your mind and body. Enjoy other aspects of your life—even if that’s just sitting on your back porch sipping coffee. Work can wait until Monday, or whenever you decide your workdays are. It’s important to set boundaries, like work hours, upfront with clients, so they know when they can expect a response from you. Just because social media runs 24/7, doesn’t mean you have to.

(3) Establish an Office Space

It can be hard to shut off your work brain if you carry your laptop from the desk, to the couch, to the bed. Instead, establish one area of your home as a designated work space. It could be an entire room, a corner of a room, or your coffee table—whatever works best for you! While there will be times you may need to work elsewhere, you’ll be less tempted to break work hour boundaries if work is designated to one area of your home.

(4) Use Do Not Disturb

My last and final tip for protecting your peace as a WFH freelancer: Use Do Not Disturb frequently. This applies to Slack notifications, and the handy “Focus” or “Do Not Disturb” iPhone features. As someone who uses her personal cell phone for work, I get notifications from accounts all night and day. And since it’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole of working (like engaging with accounts on behalf of clients) while laying in bed, I turn on Sleep mode, which silences everything except the calls or notifications I’ll allow through the night. I also use the Focus feature when I’m deep in a creative project, and want to avoid any disturbances or interruptions.

Whether you’re a freelancer or full-time employee, working from home can be detrimental to your mental health if you don’t establish clear work/personal time boundaries. I hope you take at least one or two of these tips and protect your peace! And if you have questions about embarking on a freelance journey for the first time, my journey is an open book. Send me a DM on Instagram!

Ashleigh Kluck is the owner of Volt Station Media, offering DIY & Done-For-You Email Marketing for online coaches and e-commerce brands. Her expertise lies in crafting launch campaigns and nurture sequences that cut through the noise to sell high-value products and services. She’s also the host of the “Mamahood Is A Trip” podcast, where she shares all the wild, wonderful, and “why is this wet?!” moments of motherhood, all while traveling full-time in an RV with her husband Jake and their daughter, Oakleigh.