Burnout is misalignment, not tiredness

Amy Rogers is a design engineer who recently moved back into a permanent role at the company she'd been freelancing with. Her generalist career has spanned user research, around five years as an embedded product designer, and five years freelancing from March 2020, when she became known as a Notion consultant and Notion ambassador – a path that started with her organising her own shopping list in Notion. Along the way she's illustrated mascots, built websites and painted murals for clients. A straight-A student who insisted on taking art at A level, she keeps her creative side close: she crocheted an entire blanket, square by square, on her commute into London.

Burnout often comes from doing the wrong kind of work, not too much of it. Amy can work ten hours straight, but being told "just do it, don't think" on work she doesn't understand or agree with is what grinds her down.

Don't budge your day rate: if they can't afford you, they don't need your help. Amy found that clients who haggled before the work had even started, or who got a discount, felt they could push her around.

Find a freelance community to lean on, not just to win work. Amy's was like a work Slack when she didn't have one: somewhere to ask how to send an invoice, share memes and become known as the Notion person.

Let your other skills power up your specialism. Amy's clients didn't just get Notion know-how: her illustration, design and coding skills meant custom icons, banners and API-built features for their workspaces.