In writing this 'book'... I need your help.
It's a collaborative work. It always has been.
If you’re new here, you might not have noticed that I’m effectively releasing small chunks of chapters of content every week, which will - over time - build up into a complete and comprehensive resource on mental health and freelancing.
Right now, whilst I slowly recover from what I can only put down to catastrophic emotional and physical burnout (see here), I’m working on the table of contents.
I must have written this TOC a dozen times over the last ten years. There are so many times I’ve aimed to structure the most complete and exhaustive version of this, but never really managed it. Perhaps the challenge of a non-funded project.
But Leapers has always been a collaborative project - it’s been built upon the stories, insights, anecdotes, questions and concerns of thousands of freelancers that I’ve spoken to, worked with, been in communities along side. When I hear a problem, I explore it, understand it, and try and capture some useful resources to play back.
So in that same spirit - the contents for this ‘book’ will also be collaborative. If there’s a topic, a concern, a worry, a question that you have - please share it with me (I’ll treat all comments as anonymous if you DM me), and it’ll shape what we’re going to cover here.
Right now - the table of contents looks something like this:
(there’s a living version of this here)
What is mental health?
Why does mental health matter more for freelancers?
What at the things affecting freelancers most?
Deep dives into the core themes and foundations of freelancing wellbeing
_ Active Awareness
_ Financial Wellbeing
_ Purpose, Positioning and Progress
_ Behaviours and Boundaries
_ Isolation, Connection and Community
_ Client Behaviours and Communication
_ Legal, Contracts, Payments and Process
_ Marketing, Pricing and Value
_ Emotional Experiences
_ Confidence and Mindset
_ Rejection and Resilience
_ Feast and Famine
_ Sickness and Holidays
_ Parents and Carers
_ Neurodivergence, disability and long-term illness
_ Discrimination and bullying
_ Dealing with Issues
_ Self-Employment and Burnout
_ Disaster Planning
_ Life Changes
_ Feedback and Learning
_ Futures and development
_ Closing things down
Deep dives into specific and common issues affecting our mental health
Frameworks to tackle key challenges
Frameworks to holistically maintain and improve our wellbeing
Tools for critical issues and challenging moments
Things others (i.e. hirers and beyond) can/need/must do to support freelancers
Recommendations for freelance friendly businesses
What the future of freelancing should and could look like
For every chapter, we’ll go deep into what the research shows and what resources, tools and techniques we can apply to improve things.
And for every chapter, I want stories from you - my fellow freelancers, of your lived experiences of the matter - because I find that hearing from others helps massively - not least because it helps us recognise… it’s often not you, but the system.
So, I have two asks for you:
If you’d like to share your story - drop me a note. Can’t promise I’ll use everyone’s full story, but the more we start with, the better.
If you’ve a question or thought or concept you’d like to see unpacked here - drop me a note. Again, can’t promise anything, but I’ll take all feedback on board.
And finally - I don’t think this is going to be read as a book, but more a coffee table thing. You can read it starting at any point, in any order. A book for the digital, rather than for print. So whilst it might seem like a lot, that’s because it’s a complex and nuanced subject.
If you would like to support the project, please do consider upgrading your subscription. It’ll help me commit more time and research to the open project.
Recently seen
» The NDA podcast - sharing stories that creative industries don’t want told.
» Cognitive debt - are we offloading too much of our thinking?
» The solitude generation - isolation a major issue for the world
» CEST tool updated - but only surface level impact?
» Calls for frameworks around AI impact on youth mental health
» Is AI worsening mental health in journalism
Drink less coffeecaffeine.
I’ve been told I need to reduce my caffeine intake.
If we’ve ever met, you’ll know that I’m a huge coffee nerd. So not being allowed to explore and drink as much coffee as I want makes me sad.
So I’m grateful to the crew at Craft Decaf for sharing 25% off any of their products to friends of Leapers. Choose from their own offerings or a selection from some of the UK’s best roasters.
» Get 25% off your orders here
That’s all from me.
Until next time,
✌️mk