How to Be Slow: Recovering from Freelance Designer Burnout
Honest reflection on burnout—becoming the tortoise after being the exhausted hare
Lately, I’ve only been able to communicate through metaphors. This past year and a half, I’ve been the hare in the fable The Tortoise and the Hare. I’ve become exhausted from running so fast for so long. Naturally, out of exhaustion, I’m slowing down.
Last year, many people told me that if I kept going like this, I’d burn out. I called their bluff, thinking, Yeah, sure. I already feel like shit. How much worse could it get? But it’s real now: the burnout has happened, and I’ve realized they were right. I should’ve listened to them, but I didn’t know how to stop, slow down, quiet my mind. I was a hamster on a wheel that wouldn’t stop spinning. Everything felt so dire.
And here I am now: sitting on the sidelines, completely wiped, and realizing I need to seriously reconsider how I’m structuring my business so I don’t burn out again. I’m watching the tortoise crawl along, patient and steady and slow. I wonder how he does it. I admire him dearly.
It’s been difficult slowing down. My thoughts are disordered—a consequence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, OCD (and I can’t rule out that being a virgo might have something to do with it too). And to bring in some of my sociological teachings—I know need to stop putting the onus solely on myself. We are living in a capitalist nightmare, which claims it favors increased productivity but really prefers we work so hard that we put our heads in the sand and become too tired to deal with what’s really important. ICE has become the United States’ very own paramilitary group, executing and brutalizing non-violent individuals. There is a genocide happening in Palestine, funded by the United States. It feels so weird to go about the day like everything is fine when what’s happening outside our doors is so scary and concerning.
Everything feels dystopian. We are living in They Live—truly. Wake up sheeple! Put those sunglasses on and open your eyes to what’s happening right in front of you. I’m trying to market myself and work on book designs while all of this is happening in the world? It makes me want to throw up. At the same time, I can’t help but feel like I still need to rise and grind in order to make it in this capitalist hellhole. It all feels like a sham.
Throughout 2025, I worked countless 50- and 60-hour weeks. I’ve woken up hours before I needed to (I’ve never been good at staying up past 10pm, but I can wake up at whatever time my alarm goes off, lol). I’ve gotten up at 4am, sometimes even 2am, to finish the projects I’d stacked onto my plate, only to make less than minimum wage in the end. It’s been a race to scoop up all the projects I possibly could for the least amount of money possible. I’ve put every piece of myself into these projects, and I’m tired. I can’t do it like this anymore.
How to be slow?
Everything feels so overwhelming—work, social media, politics, everything. Everything is constantly demanding our attention until we have none left to give. I think there’s power in being slow, in understanding something thoroughly before moving on to the next thing, in treating each moment as purposeful instead of as a pastime.
Here are a few ways I’m trying to be slower this year so I can concentrate on what’s important, deliver better work, and be healthier…
Scheduling
Whenever I receive an inquiry, potential clients are usually eager to start right away and want the project finished within the next month (or, yesterday!). My typical reaction has been: okay, yes! Let’s gogogo!—even if that doesn’t fit within my schedule.
I’d like to reframe this initial reaction to be more like: okay, loving the enthusiasm and ambition, but let’s stop and think: what does my schedule currently look like? what timeline would best serve this project so it’s done with intention instead of rush? am I even the best fit for the project?
Pricing
I’ve finally created a pricing structure that makes sense for me. I tracked my time consistently in 2025, crunched some numbers, and built Notion databases with advanced filters, formulas, rollups to create quotes that are fair to both myself and my clients. It’s been difficult to deliver these quotes (they are a substantial increase from before, and it’s hard to charge an amount I can’t imagine affording myself). However, I’ve had to keep reminding myself that my previous rates didn’t factor in business expenses or taxes, I have to get my own health insurance this year (yay! Cheers to 26!), I’ve been skipping meals, getting migraines, and dreaming about work.
Many freelancers I’ve talked to struggle with pricing, especially because freelancing often requires a higher hourly rate than a salaried job. The tax rate is higher, health care and a 401(k) isn’t included in a “freelancer benefits package,” and we have to fulfill several other roles besides just “designer” (managing taxes, admin, marketing, project management, etc.).
Deciding a price that’s fair for both ourselves and our clients never feels simple. One thing that’s helped me is imagining myself in my client’s shoes: If I were hiring someone to design and typeset my book, would I feel confident hiring me?
I used to think I needed to know everything before earning that confidence. But learning is simply part of the job—if I’m not learning, I’m doing something wrong! Every project teaches me something new. I’m trying to remind myself that confidence doesn’t come from already knowing everything; it comes from trusting that you’ll figure it out.
My Grammy—also a virgo, btw—used to say, “If you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself.” As a perfectionist, this is something I think about often, but I take it as a reminder to hold myself to the same high standards I’d expect if I were the client.
Out of office
I’ve planned out all my out-of-office dates for the year, and I’m hoping to treat them as non-negotiable time away from work. I’ve been treating business trips as a replacement for vacation time; because I’m not doing client work, I tell myself it’s “time off,” when really it just keeps me from ever fully relaxing. I seriously have such a problem with taking time for myself and actually not thinking about work. I’ve had to remind myself: these trips are work time. They’re marketing time. They’re how I’ve gotten many of my clients. So I’ve blocked off some other weeks this year for “me time.” I hope I can stick to it.
Being in the present
I want to be in the present moment. If I’ve designated time to work on a task, then that’s what I’ll do. If I catch myself thinking about or doing something else, I’ll acknowledge it and then return to the task at hand. I want to stop being on auto-pilot. If something isn’t working for me, I don’t have to continue doing it that way until next year rolls around and I can fix it with a new year’s resolution. I have the now, the present. I can reflect and adjust at any time.
Removing senseless noise
I’ve turned off all notifications on my phone except for texts and calls. I want to stop mindlessly scrolling and gathering “inspo” on Instagram and return to the world around me. I want to give myself the opportunity to be bored, to doodle, to write, to read, to listen. Lately, everything has felt like an “agenda” of sorts, like I need a clear goal in mind before I do anything. I want to let go of that sense of obligation, to let my mind rest and wander, to explore and surprise myself.
Weekends
I want to look forward to my weekends again. This past year, my week has bled into my weekend on many occasions. I’m either working on my weekend or I’m thinking about work.
I signed up for a ballet class on Saturdays. At first I wanted to take a drawing or ceramics class, but those felt too adjacent to work. I think these classes would be better suited for after I’ve built some healthier boundaries between work and life. Ballet feels very much disassociated from design and publishing, and I’m excited to learn from ballet how to be slower and more intentional in my movements. I’ve already started looking forward to my weekends now that I have somewhere to be.
Community
Last year, I joined some design memberships and communities that I’m so grateful I stumbled upon. Being able to ask questions, share knowledge, and be vulnerable with other designers—people doing the same thing as me and struggling with the same problems—has been such an incredible source of confidence. I’ve felt so much more empowered. Freelancing is incredibly difficult: no HR department, setting my own prices and schedule, figuring out taxes and contracts, etc. Being part of these communities has shown me that most people are struggling with the same things, and together we can unite and start laying the foundation for fairer labor practices for all of us.
It’s still hard to hold certain boundaries. If I really want to take on a project but would have to cancel an out-of-office week to do it, the thoughts start spiraling: What if I lose that client? What if I can’t book another project to cover my expenses? These dire what-ifs push around my head constantly, and I worry about sticking to my goal of being slower.
As I (hopefully) move out of the doom and gloom of the burnout tunnel, I keep telling myself: remember this feeling. If I don’t, I know I’ll end up back in that tunnel—and that tunnel comes with its own dire circumstances: canceling or delaying in-progress projects, souring client relationships, not treating myself well and becoming physically and mentally unhealthy, and returning to a cycle of not making enough money to survive.
I’m pushing myself not to let go of these boundaries, because once I let go of one, I’ll let go of more. I can’t keep grinding it out and hoping it will somehow be okay. I have to make it okay. That’s the only way I can continue. I recently took a course (Book Production Management with Vanessa Robles), and after I admitted that I’ve never told a client when I was sick, that I even worked through pneumonia while struggling to breathe, she said (among other kind things I needed to hear), “Your health is all you have.”
I feel very vulnerable writing these thoughts out. In the design world, it often seems that everyone figures something out before they write about how they “solved” it. I’ve always wished that the designers I admire would share what they’re currently struggling with, instead of always showing the good stuff. So, in a way, I hope I’m writing to someone else like me, though it feels risky to disclose what I don’t know and what I still have left to learn.
My thoughts still feel like a ball rolling down a hill, sometimes helped along by the wind. I’m trying to catch up, to stop the thoughts, to slow them down. Sometimes I’m able to barely touch the ball—acknowledge my spiraling thoughts—before it slips from my hand again.
I remind myself: I’m watching the tortoise crawl along, patient and steady and slow. I wonder how he does it. I admire him dearly.
News for you!
Design
꩜ Has judging a book by its cover gone too far?
꩜ A return to print!
꩜ And… why has print never died?
꩜ Entry-level jobs are disappearing. The ladder’s gone—what’s replacing it, and who’s being left behind?
꩜ Okay Type’s favorite typefaces of 2025
꩜ Making work with purpose
Creativity
꩜ Emma Kate on how to beat burnout
꩜ 29 artists draw an apple (a reminder that even with the same prompt, we each create something unique)
꩜ Elizabeth Goodspeed on what happens when we treat the past like a stock library
꩜ Finding inspiration offline
Freelancing
꩜ Mental health in freelancing during 2025: Annual Report
Publishing
꩜ Jane Friedman: New Publishers and Agents in 2025
2026 Forecasting
꩜ Creative Boom predicts 50 fonts that will be popular in 2026
꩜ Pinterest Predicts 2026
꩜ It’s Nice That: Graphic trends for 2026
What I’m reading
★ New and Selected Poems by Marie Howe (W. W. Norton, 2024)
★ Delta of Venus by Anaïs Nin (Mariner Books, 2004)
★ Fierce and Delicate: Essays on Dance and Illness by Renée K. Nicholson (West Virginia University Press, 2021)
★ How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010)
★ Type on Screen by Ellen Lupton (Princeton Architectural Press, 2014)
What I’m listening to
☆ Abecedarians | Eureka (1987): post-punk / new wave
☆ Brutalismus 3000 | Eros Massacre (2022): hard techno / hard dance
☆ Saint Etienne | Foxbase Alpha (1991): alternative dance / indie pop / UK street soul
❤︎ Dear Hadley ❤︎
No submissions this month! Send me things, and I’ll answer them next time <3
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Hadley Hendrix is an Editorial Designer based in Chicago, specializing in publication design and typesetting. She works with publishers, magazines, and authors to design, layout, and typeset the covers and interiors of their publications.
I'll have to come up with new questions for the advice column, because this addresses a lot of what I meant to ask first (but got distracted by work): what might a (financially, emotionally, socially) sustainable creative practice look like in this pre-mad max cyberpunk dystopia we live in?
I'll try not to write an essay of my own here and just say I 100% think our culture has a weird relationship to error, failure and doubt. in my graphic design college classes, every once in a while, someone would mention something they struggled with in a project presentation. and multiple times I've heard teachers, TAs and even other students say we should avoid talking about any bumps in the road on our presentations. sure, if you're presenting your work to (potential) clients, you want to inspire confidence - in yourself and in the discipline of design. it's probably good to flex that rhetorics muscle every so often. but then that necessity becomes a virtue, and suddenly everyone's talking to each other like they're pitching a client, all the time. no wonder we feel so clueless and incompetent: we're surrounded by people projecting knowledge and competence like their lives depend on it. it really feels like the age of the grift right now.
which is why I gotta respect someone trying to say something worth saying about their actual circumstances. that's also work, stressful and underpaid work, and the result won't resonate with people every time. but if it's worth anything, I do appreciate it :)
Thanks for sharing Hadley, this is all so relatable. When you advocate for your self worth and health, you advocate for the wellbeing of all freelancers and we tip our hats off to you!