11 months ago yesterday, I quit my full-time job and I’ve been wandering around this crazy freelancing world ever since.

2 months ago today, I started learning how to rock climb.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that rock climbing has become a very big part of my life. I go about three times per week. Rock climbing is a form of meditation for me (and, I imagine, most of the people who do it). When you’re on the side of a cliff, eighty feet off the ground, you’re not thinking about what bills need to be paid or what rude thing @webkenny said on Twitter. When the only thing keeping you from falling is fingertips on a ridge and bent toes on a nub of rock*, the only thing you’re thinking about is not falling.

Rock climbing has changed me. It’s transformed both my physical and mental self (selves?). I’ve always been a pretty tough cookie on the inside. It’s been interesting to see myself become someone with a decent amount of physical strength as well. It’s also been interesting to see myself become someone who has something enticing me to get the heck away from my computer once in awhile.

I’m sharing all of this with you because it relates to a topic that’s very near and dear to me lately. Work-life balance. I first started talking about it here.

To totally contradict myself, I’m going to confess something to you.

I work weekends a lot lately.

Weekdays are arbitrary. The weather isn’t.

It’s INSANE to spend every day, all summer long sitting in front of a computer. Even if you shut down at six, that only gives you three hours to enjoy the outdoors and the (dimming) sunlight. Change your schedule for the summer. Personally, my new outlook is: if it’s going to be raining on Sunday and gorgeous on Tuesday, you can bet that I’m going to work my tush off on Sunday so I can go play on Tuesday afternoon.

I loved this article that Natalie posted the other day, in which she said: “When you started your business I bet one of your main reasons for doing so was the freedom to create your own schedule and work your own hours… but are you actually taking advantage of the freedom you have and scheduling regular time out?”

This is the benefit to not working for the man, my friends. We traded stable incomes for the ability to work when we want AND play when we want. I hope you’re doing both.

* there’s a rope to catch you if you fall. but you still don’t want to fall.

I. love. Tickspot.

I was first introduced to it back when I worked for CommonPlaces. I didn’t really like the widget then. Mostly because I hate being told what to do. (Some of us are just better off working for ourselves…)

But I love the widget now.

Timer is timing – I am working. Simple as that. There’s no time for Facebook when this little diddy is calculating my productivity.

I use the dashboard widget on my Macbook, but any of them will achieve the desired effect.

Give it a shot. Let me know how it goes!

Maron was referred to me by another cool gal named Leah. Maron is a fantastic artist who was looking for a way to sell her art online. We talked about a custom shopping cart, but that was a bit out of her price range. Instead, we settled on integrating an Etsy Mini Cart. Her website also features a gallery. We also moved her blog over (from a free wordpress.com blog) so that everything is in one concise, professional-looking place.

As you can see, the site was designed around one of Maron’s pieces. Lovely! Go take a peek at ArtbyMaron.com.

Here’s what I want to discuss with you today. If you’re new to self-employment, chances are good that you’re going to fight me on this one – but I promise, I say this because I want the best for you.

Take back your weekends.

This is a tough one. To be honest, I’ve only sort of implemented this strategy, and only in the last couple of months. When I started freelancing, I used to hang out in my office all the time. I definitely never dared to leave for an entire weekend. I had major separation anxiety. I was convinced that my business would totally fall apart if left unattended for more than a few hours. I know that I am not alone in this.

When you’re self-employed, it’s next to impossible to maintain a set schedule or normal business hours. This is especially true for those of us who do most of our work behind the curtain (writers, illustrators, programmers, designers, etc.) than those of us who perform on a stage (consultants, massage therapists, coaches, etc). It is so easy, then, to let your work take over your life. And how silly is that? Aren’t we all fighting this self-employment battle – taking this journey – to reclaim our lives?

One of the first times it occurred to me that I shouldn’t be working weekends was on a Sunday back in January. I attempted to tell a client that I was out of the office (which I was) and that I’d help her out Monday morning. She said, “Oh, come on. I know you work weekends.” (She wasn’t saying this in an aggressive way – she was someone who worked weekends, too. And none of my clients are nasty. Knock on wood.)

I wanted to throw a tantrum. Tell her, “You’re right. I usually DO work weekends. But I don’t want to work TODAY. Today I want a break. Today I want to do something else.” I wanted her to respect that boundary. But there was no boundary there to respect. I had set the expectation that I was available 24/7.

What finally brought my work-free-weekends to fruition was my breakup with Noah. (I haven’t talked about that here, but if you follow me on Twitter, it was all you heard about for most of April. Thanks for sticking by me through that, by the way. We’ve since reconciled.) I realized that my need to work all the time had helped literally destroy my life. I won’t bore you with that string of epiphanies, but I made a big change starting then. I am done with for for the day at 6pm. I don’t work weekends.

There are exceptions to every rule, of course. Sometimes my client in Australia wants to video chat at 8pm. (Hi Donna! <3) Sometimes I need to be out of the office for part of a weekday and I make up for that by working later into the evening. Sometimes I do work on a Sunday to play catch up or give myself some wiggle room to take some time off during the week. But I do this in secret. The boundaries are there now. I stay away from e-mail on weekends. The office line goes to voicemail after 6pm. I have learned how to say, “I’m leaving the office in a half hour, but I’ll definitely be in touch first thing tomorrow morning.”

It’s probably no surprise that I’m much more productive this way. I’m in the office by 7 most mornings and I’ve accomplished enough by noon most days that I could just leave then and feel good about it if I wanted to. I’m still a workaholic. I want everything to be done yesterday and that will probably never change. My work is hugely important to me and I would never put that on the backburner. I’ve just learned to make myself and my non-work life a priority, too.

And! I’ve changed my logo up a bit. Don’t panic. It’s not SO different. But just different enough. Let’s compare!

The new one:

vs. The old one:

As you can see, I’m pretty excited about this. What do you think? Do you love it? Tell me you love it.