It's slow season for my business, and I'm currently recovering from two periods of back-to-back busy work and bad mental health. Taking a breather in between projects can be a blessing, but it comes with a cost. Now I have to juggle recovery and the stress of finding more work while fitting in business strategy and growth tasks.
Slow seasons require a lot of discipline and tenacity—a hard ask when I just want to sleep for days. Still, it's a great time for reflection and planning, and I'm determined to make the most of the downtime. Here are some ways you can, too.
Do a mental health and work review
Quarterly planning is an important part of any business, but are you doing it for your mental health as well? I decided to try to summarize some of the big stuff with a post-busy season review.
Some questions I asked myself, courtesy of my former business coach, Lacey:
What were my highlights and lowlights?
What did I do well and not well?
What systems did I and did I not have in place?
What worked for my mental health?
What was missing that I needed?
While the lowlights were fairly obvious (almost zero free time, bad depression and anxiety), looking for highlights ended up being quite valuable. When things got rough, I had to find ways to make the most of my free time to stay healthy—and I learned a lot in the process. I spent quality time with good friends, walked to the local library a lot, and discovered some favorite new dishes—all huge lifesavers.
Something I didn't do so well this time? I got excited about lots of new work and ended up spending more than I meant to. This led to a smaller financial cushion during the slow season. It's a rookie move, and I regret it, but I'm glad I recognized the mistake.
Next, look more closely at the things that really worked for you. What things in your daily life helped you reduce stress? What self-care tactics, habits, or hobbies did you fall back on when you needed to recuperate or relax? For example, I gravitated toward spending time outside, baking, sewing, and watching Korean dramas.
The same goes for things that didn't work as well. You may not be able to lean into every stress reducer or avoid all the things you don't like, but I found it helpful to map them out.
A review doesn't have to be good or even complete, but I encourage you to start somewhere. My brain doesn't remember details well when my depression flares up, so I've given myself permission to create a "living doc" that I can add to whenever I recall something new.
Create a healthy baseline checklist
A healthy baseline checklist is just that: a list of things that keep you healthy. It could be as simple as exercise or a healthy diet, or it can get very specific, like when you work and sleep. You can use it as a sort of roadmap to see what you need to live a healthier life and identify where things are going wrong when you're struggling.
I've written and rewritten mine probably a dozen times, partly because I keep adding to it. Many of the items are things that sound obvious, like financial wellness, scheduled vacation time, and access to affordable healthcare.
But I've also added some more targeted items, including:
A 2–3-month income buffer separate from my emergency fund
3–4 months of housing planned out
Living within walking distance of nature and/or basic amenities like a library and public transport
It's worth noting that while many of these will stay the same throughout the year, a few items might shift a bit depending on what season of work you're in. Access to nature is a constant for me, but I also tend to need more pre-prepared meals when I'm busy and focus more on financial needs when work is slow.
Don't know your own healthy baseline? Start by tracking your mental health and productivity to get to know your work habits, or determine your preferred work style.
Make a mental health plan
The first two steps focused on reflecting on the past and applying some of those lessons to what you're doing currently. Now you'll need to figure out how you can work on maintaining a healthy baseline moving forward.
In a recent article, I shared some lessons I learned about working through busy seasons with bad mental health. The main takeaway was that the boundaries and coping mechanisms I'd put in place no longer worked well for me. With that in mind, I'm creating a plan that reflects some of the changes I need to make to better support my mental health.
Slow season and sick day funds
Managing bad mental health during a busy work season is expensive. I saw a big uptick in day-to-day expenses, like groceries and takeout, as well as entertainment. During my busy season review, I also learned I wasn't happy with my spending habits when I felt more financially secure with lots of work.
With those two concerns in mind, I've decided to start two separate funds that will help me balance things out financially. The slow season fund will subsidize my income while I look for work, and the sick fund is there to allow me to take breaks when needed.
Mental health-focused diet
When I looked back on my diet during that six-month period, it wasn't good. I'd gravitate toward easy-cook, carb-heavy meals that caused a lot of energy spikes and crashes. As important as it is to eat healthy when your health is suffering, I decided I wanted to make the change more permanent. So I'm working on overhauling my whole diet to focus on more sustainable, energy-boosting foods.
Healthy baseline checklist review
Last time, my extra-bad depression seemed to come out of nowhere—a scary prospect for someone who relies on irregular income. This gave me the idea to revisit my healthy baseline checklist regularly by asking myself three questions:
Am I meeting each need? For each item on the list, I answer "Yes," "No," or "Working on it" with relevant notes.
What can I work on? Here, I make a new list of things I could improve over time, like finding more work or setting up another therapy appointment.
What's out of my control? For a control freak like me, it's important to recognize that certain stressors are a part of life, and I can't fix everything. Weirdly, it helps.
I hope that by checking in on how my needs change and what I'm doing to meet them, I can find ways to reduce some of the stress in my life before it triggers more health issues.
Build new work systems for the next busy season
If you're chronically ill, disabled, or neurodivergent, you probably already have to consider how your health and well-being interact with your work life. But some don't even really consider it until things go wrong. For me, a better work plan is all about helping me manage my time, focus, and energy better by setting some new boundaries and systems.
Busy season budgeting
Some of my extra spending during those busy seasons was necessary to keep me healthy, but I could've done a better job of preparing financially for a slow work season. From now on, I plan to:
Pay myself a small one-time bonus when I hit certain income goals to help me celebrate without overspending.
Put any extra income into savings and not commit to any big purchases for at least a month.
Set aside an additional small percentage of big paychecks toward my sick day and slow season funds.
These are inspired by my younger sister, who's a teacher and opts for smaller paychecks during the school year, so she still gets paid during summer break.
Another thing I want to be better at is letting my money work for me. I plan to keep all extra funds in secure high-yield savings, interest checking, or money market accounts.
Work capacity limits
Limiting yourself when work pours in is difficult, but I know I need to be more circumspect about my limitations. It's all about balance: if I'm only doing client work—and lots of it—I have less time to keep my business running or take care of my health.
Here are a few things I could do better next time:
Set a limit on how much work I take on based on my income goals for the year or quarter and work hours I've set for myself.
Block off daily/weekly time for business admin, planning, marketing, and strategy, no matter how busy I get.
Pick 1-2 rest and recovery activities from my review and healthy baseline checklist to practice each week.
Seasonal work tasks
One of my biggest mistakes was not starting to look for more work when I was busy. I had a lot going on, but panicked job-hunting is never a great idea. I'd like to create a short list of marketing tasks I can easily complete at any time, like posting on social media or networking with fellow writers.
I'll divide this list into several categories:
Tasks I can (and should) complete at any time. Basic business planning, admin work, client work, and marketing tasks like posting on social media would all fall into this category. I also have side projects to keep up with, like my podcast.
Busy season tasks. Even though I have less brain space for non-client work when I'm busy, I want to practice consistency. Networking, industry events, and promoting my current work online could all fall into this category.
Slow season tasks. These will obviously be more marketing-heavy (like looking for new clients), but could also include business strategy and planning. I'm also thinking I'll add a few skills and alternative income streams I can work on to keep my brain active and less focused on panicking about work.
One big positive that came out of this slow season was that I finally started my own LinkedIn newsletter, which has led to a lot of great networking and reach.
Breaking the work cycle
Every business has busy and slow seasons, but the feast-famine cycle can take a toll on your mental and financial health. The biggest lesson I've learned this year is that letting myself fall into this cycle costs way more than it's worth—especially while battling chronic illness.
Being proactive about prevention is always easier said than done, but I think these strategies are a good start. I hope you find them helpful, too.
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