How to take days off...

[AussieCosplay]

I have barely taken any days off since April, and the few I have seem to have affected my income negatively.
I'm still building up my support base so this is part of it.

I know days off are needed to prevent burnout, but am finding it's really hard to "switch off".

How do you take days off without constantly checking to see how far your rank has dropped, or thinking about going online for "just a bit"?

Advice or anecdotes appreciated.

 

[doxxxy]

When you are a freelancer, work/life boundaries are pretty blurry. Instead of focusing on your ranking (which always changes), just focus on your monthly expenses and what money you need by what days. If you have a really good day where you make double, take the next day off or do a half day. If you're having a bad cam day with no money, log off and try later so you don't lower your score.

Also! Camming is supposed to be a more "fun" gig, and if you don't look like you're having fun, it's harder to make money because clients may sense that you're not feeling it. You deserve time off to rest and enjoy life! The more fun you're having, the better it is for business. Take some time to refresh your quotas, boundaries, and go out and have some fun today

 

[LaceyRoyce]

I have barely taken any days off since April, and the few I have seem to have affected my income negatively.
I'm still building up my support base so this is part of it.

I know days off are needed to prevent burnout, but am finding it's really hard to "switch off".

How do you take days off without constantly checking to see how far your rank has dropped, or thinking about going online for "just a bit"?

Advice or anecdotes appreciated. ❤

I will literally put my phone in a locked drawer.

It helps to have a planned activity that will take you away from technology too. Like plan a hike or something so you wont be able to self sabotage.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

I can't speak from a camming perspective. But, when I used to be 1099/self-employed, it made it difficult to think about days off due to no money coming in. Or, worse, taking a vacation since it was usually 2-3 times more expensive for me to take a vacation than someone with vacation pay since it also included unpaid time and the expenses.

What helped me was to sit down and figure out all of my expenses over the course of a year. Monthly, as well as what's paid once or twice a year such as insurance or annual fees/dues/subscriptions. Then, break them out by month, when I needed the money, etc. Doing it visually really helped put things into perspective.

After that, I banked money as much as I could without taking time off so that I had a cushion not only for some emergency expenses. But, also could afford a short vacation without causing undue stress.

It might help to track what you make daily, and then figure out historically what your slowest days are and plan for those on occasion if you can.

 

[AussieCosplay]

That's a fantastic idea!
Current restrictions here prohibit being more than 5km from home or more than 1hr for exercise.
But once our lockdown eases I will definitely go hiking again!

Today's solution is cleaning the house for my new robot vac so it doesn't die on its first attempt

 

[mike_aussie]

I'm starting out at twice a week to pace myself. I cam until the early hours of the morning because I have to be discreet and getting little sleep every day would be unhealthy. Besides, it's been many years since I had a high libido. I'm under no illusions that this could be a full-time gig, though.

For models who cam as their primary source of income I imagine the pressure to perform non-stop would be great. Maybe figure out a scheduled day off every week/fortnight and like ForceTen said try to time it with one of you lower income-producing days. If you make it part of a new schedule and be upfront about it your followers will hopefully be accepting and adapt.

 

[CheeseMoon]

Yes, it's hard to take time off when you have your own business and is responsible for everything in it, but working a full day 7 days a week is lingchi, the death of a thousand cuts. It grinds you down so slowly that you won't even notice until you suddenly snap. @ForceTen's advice is good: do some simple bookkeeping and make a budget (of sorts) so you know when or if it's economically feasible to take time off. Knowing you're all set even if you take a day or two off really takes the stress out of everything. Try to be your own salaryman.

I had my own business for about 10 years, and I worked so much that in the end even the fun and easy stuff (the "free money" gigs) started feeling like a chore. Ending up there hurts everything.

 

[Mila_]

I think this depends on your energy levels and motivation. When I first started I cammed every single day for a full year, I even cammed running a fever, it was addictive and a thrill for me to know I could just turn that thing on and make money. The motivation also depends on your background, if you come from a place where you work about 70 hours per week and your salary at the end of the month is $100 like it was my case, then the prospect of making the same amount in 1 hour is just too incredible to pass on. Once I was happy and secure with my savings account and knowing I had a firm grasp on what camming was and what it takes to succeed I did relax a bit more and started taking days off weekly. But I never felt pressured to cam as much as exhilaration over it.

 

[AussieCosplay]

I think this depends on your energy levels and motivation. When I first started I cammed every single day for a full year, I even cammed running a fever, it was addictive and a thrill for me to know I could just turn that thing on and make money. The motivation also depends on your background, if you come from a place where you work about 70 hours per week and your salary at the end of the month is $100 like it was my case, then the prospect of making the same amount in 1 hour is just too incredible to pass on. Once I was happy and secure with my savings account and knowing I had a firm grasp on what camming was and what it takes to succeed I did relax a bit more and started taking days off weekly. But I never felt pressured to cam as much as exhilaration over it.

Yes! I'm hoping that there will be a point where I feel comfortable enough financially to take my foot off the gas for a bit.
But I was also in a terrible financial situation before beginning due to health stuff so there's a constant fear of going back to that situation, physically or financially.
Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[Deleted member 37064]

Something I forgot to add in regards to the budgeting aspect that also has helped me out is to use a digital account manager/checkbook register such as Quicken, GNUCash, etc. I personally use GNUCash to keep track of my financial accounts (Savings, Checking, CC, Loans, etc). It's free and has served me well for many, many years.

While it can sync with the bank accounts and update accounts, I prefer the manual entry method. This way, I see everything that is coming in, or going out and feel the pain of manual entries and monthly account reconciliation. The less the transactions, the better I feel since it's just a quick daily check of a couple of accounts (Checking & CC).

Where the real benefit comes in is I can set up recurring entries for the monthly and yearly charges for the various accounts. Then, I set them up for 35 day auto creation ahead of when they actually happen. It's another visualization trick that gives me a realistic view of what will hit my accounts over the next month, including those annual renewals we tend to forget about. When doing this, there's a blue line that shows up, everything above it is actual balance and transactions. Then, what's below is per transaction forecast.

Other benefits are you can do reports, find all transactions of a certain type, etc. The one mistake I made was in the early setup, I didn't break my account tracking out that well for the categories. So, some reporting is kind of wonky. But, overall, doesn't impact me unless I want to go back more than ten years.

 

[AussieCosplay]

Something I forgot to add in regards to the budgeting aspect that also has helped me out is to use a digital account manager/checkbook register such as Quicken, GNUCash, etc. I personally use GNUCash to keep track of my financial accounts (Savings, Checking, CC, Loans, etc). It's free and has served me well for many, many years.

While it can sync with the bank accounts and update accounts, I prefer the manual entry method. This way, I see everything that is coming in, or going out and feel the pain of manual entries and monthly account reconciliation. The less the transactions, the better I feel since it's just a quick daily check of a couple of accounts (Checking & CC).

Where the real benefit comes in is I can set up recurring entries for the monthly and yearly charges for the various accounts. Then, I set them up for 35 day auto creation ahead of when they actually happen. It's another visualization trick that gives me a realistic view of what will hit my accounts over the next month, including those annual renewals we tend to forget about. When doing this, there's a blue line that shows up, everything above it is actual balance and transactions. Then, what's below is per transaction forecast.

Other benefits are you can do reports, find all transactions of a certain type, etc. The one mistake I made was in the early setup, I didn't break my account tracking out that well for the categories. So, some reporting is kind of wonky. But, overall, doesn't impact me unless I want to go back more than ten years.

Thanks, I'm just using QuickBooks at this point

 

[eden]

Personally one of the things I do is that I lie to myself on my budget sheet to make me look like I'm going to need way more for food and utilities than I actually do.
There's probably a less messy way to do this, but it's the trick I've done for 5 years now. It ends up working out that I can take days off and it won't affect my actual bills, lol. It gives me cushion!

 

[mike_aussie]

Personally one of the things I do is that I lie to myself on my budget sheet to make me look like I'm going to need way more for food and utilities than I actually do.
There's probably a less messy way to do this, but it's the trick I've done for 5 years now. It ends up working out that I can take days off and it won't affect my actual bills, lol. It gives me cushion!

Good advice. Always allow for more savings than you know you will need because you never know when the impulse spending bug will hit you or an unforeseen bill (like medical or something) pops up.

 

[Danigirl]

I didn't take a day off until I was no longer pay check to pay check when I first started. Now I can take about 10-14 days off a month and still make my monthly average goal. I try to only do that in the summer when it's all about trips (I bought an RV) and work harder in the winter months and save the rest. Biggest things are to make sure youre mentally/emotionally ok to cam- have fun hobbies and exercise, and don't rely on one site for all your income. I use affiliate, content, camming on mult sites, OF, panty sales etc. It makes tax time interesting but my income has doubled year over year with constantly making sure I'm not relying on one site that could have tech issues, fold or could be temp banned (I follow TOS but there's some horror stories).

Some days are just a complete clusterf*ck and i log off and take a break. It does help to have a schedule so your followers know when to find you and you can book in days off.

 

[thinkinboutit]

I didn't take a day off until I was no longer pay check to pay check when I first started. Now I can take about 10-14 days off a month and still make my monthly average goal. I try to only do that in the summer when it's all about trips (I bought an RV) and work harder in the winter months and save the rest. Biggest things are to make sure youre mentally/emotionally ok to cam- have fun hobbies and exercise, and don't rely on one site for all your income. I use affiliate, content, camming on mult sites, OF, panty sales etc. It makes tax time interesting but my income has doubled year over year with constantly making sure I'm not relying on one site that could have tech issues, fold or could be temp banned (I follow TOS but there's some horror stories).

Some days are just a complete clusterf*ck and i log off and take a break. It does help to have a schedule so your followers know when to find you and you can book in days off.

If you are ever up for it I would love to know about you manage your various cam schedules. I admire your work ethic and how you've diversified your income !

 

[Danigirl]

If you are ever up for it I would love to know about you manage your various cam schedules. I admire your work ethic and how you've diversified your income !

I use software to split cam on two sites simultaneously. I can handle three but Im a little bitter at Chaturbate right now so I cut them out lol.

 

[NattyB]

I'll plan to do something that day that still qualifies as "productive to me" so I don't feel guilty taking that time off, but make sure its something that wont take more than 2-3 hours. Clean out my car, repot my plants. marie kondo my closet, make a dentist or physiotherapist appointment.... whatever as long as it's something that still gives me a productive feeling. Then the rest of the day is whatever the heck I want it to be.