top of page

Freelancer Burnout: How Making Money Could Cost You Everything

Updated: Oct 15, 2020


I teach out of my house in a Chicago suburb.

I don’t get as many glamour clients as I would downtown, but I love both the commute and the rent. For a long time, though, I taught from a shared studio on Michigan Ave. in Chicago’s Loop. While I did, I was acutely aware of both the commute and the rent, and arranged my schedule to maximize my income. I would routinely schedule 30 students in three days. (I know...right?) Thanks to the 80/20 law I never actually saw that many students in that time, but I did see a lot. Typically, eight or nine a day.

You read the title. You know what I’m going to tell you. And you’re right; I did burn out. Both on a daily basis, and overall.

We use the term “burnout” in a pretty cavalier way these days, but it’s a real thing. It’s ICD-10 description is “vital exhaustion,” which I think is interesting, because it means that even the government (the Center for Disease Control publishes the ICD) recognizes that you’re sick when you run out of juice, or “vitality”.

Some of the symptoms of a private voice teacher or coach exp