It doesn’t matter if you work on-staff or if you work as a freelancer, summer is the slow time. Just try to find all four people that need to review and approve your project once their kids are out of school for the summer. Things languish in review for weeks, if not months, only springing back into action after Labor Day.
So it’s no surprise that with schools letting out this week and last, the annual slowdown has begun. It happens every year. But this year, there’s an edge of panic to it. What if those people don’t come back after the summer? I know of at least two companies that are facing layoffs in the coming months. And so, that subliminal fear comes creeping back: what if the recession has finally hit me? What if I never work again?
This, of course, is completely unreasonable, but the fear is a good thing. Fear is what keeps us motivated. Fear is what keeps us from playing hooky and spending our days at the museum or the beach. Fear is what drives us to network, to socialize, to sell ourselves. You don’t have the same incentives when the work is pouring in. Those are the days where you grow complacent, believing that the flow of projects will continue indefinitely. Those are the nights where you lie awake at night and wonder how you’re ever going to manage to survive the workload that you’ve created for yourself.
My goal for this summer is to take it easy, relax and enjoy the downtime. Sure, I’ll still take the time to network, overhaul my website and propose projects to clients new and old, but with the understanding that a slow summer is not the end of the world. After all, I have plenty of things on my to-do list to keep me busy through 2009.