Leapers.
Freelancing is rarely consistent in terms of workload, but when you have extended periods of time where there is less work flowing your way, what can you do about it - and how do you deal with its potential impact on your mental health?
It’s September 2025 when I’m writing this, and I’m reviewing a guide we wrote a couple of years back, where I opened with: “It’s June 2023, and right now - for many of us - it’s been the quietest period of our freelancing careers.”
That’s right, more than two years ago, we were feeling the market slow down, and two years on, many freelancers would agree that things are still feeling challenging.
A poll back then showed two-thirds of our members were feeling work was very quiet, after very slow start to the year, and it being hard to find clients who are committing to signing off new projects, and Looking beyond the Leapers community, we saw there were no shortage of social posts from freelancers echoing the same. Flash forward to today, and LinkedIn continues to be full of not just freelancers, but permies also struggling to find work. It’s been a hard couple of years.
This naturally has been leading to lots of feelings of anxiety and concern - with the additional backdrop of increased costs of living, inflation, mortgage rates, fuel prices, and perhaps oversupply of more and more freelancers stepping into the market. Back then we didn’t have AI on the horizon either.
So it’s not surprising that this quieter market is influencing the mental health of not just our members, but the freelance community at large.
It’s important to be aware that many people are feeling that things are slow - and recognise that some thing are outside of your control. Whilst the number one reason to be freelance is a desire for more control over the work we do, many things are not in our gift to control, particularly things like the economic landscape or whether clients have budgets right now.
However, hearing phrases like “We’re all in the same storm”, “Everyone is struggling right now” and “Wait it out, things will improve” don’t necessarily help your particular situation, as broad observations and platitudes don’t pay the bills.
In this series, we’ll look at some tangible ways to manage the feelings of anxiety, what you could be doing during quiet periods, how to prepare and plan for quiet periods, and whether you should be considering alternative options.
I’d love to hear from you…
As with all of our resources, real stories from freelancers are invaluable - so I’d love to ask you to share your experiences of the last couple of years of being quiet.
What have you done to tackle feelings of anxiety? Have you changed your ways of working or offering to flow with the economy? Did you hope that “something will come along” was a good strategy, and got into a bad place? Or have you been doing okay? Drop me a note to tell me your experience of the last couple of years.
