With my first full week as a freelancer firmly under my belt and a glass of wine firmly in my hand, I’ve drawn breath to reflect on the last five days.

Monday got off to a flying start. I was sat at my desk at 9am, coffee in hand having already been for a run, feeling pretty pleased with myself. I spent the day writing content for a client and even took a call about an offer of work – I was living the dream.

I came back down to earth with a thud on Tuesday. At 10am my laptop decided to do a two-hour unscheduled update, my email provider suffered a technical glitch and I couldn’t access email until 2pm, and to top it all off I received a letter from HMRC requesting me to submit a tax return! I was suddenly very aware that I had no IT support and no colleagues to vent to. I also began to ponder the possibility that after the sheer amount of forms I’ve filled in over the last couple of weeks, HMRC and my accountant may know more about me than my husband.

When I decided to go freelance and set out my plan to work three days a week and spend the other two doing creative writing, I don’t think I fully appreciated how much time would be spent setting myself up, doing admin tasks or discussing potential work/marketing myself. However, the fact I’m having to make time to talk about potential work with potential clients is a lovely problem to have.

Wednesday was a new day and I decided to travel to Cambridgeshire early ahead of a client meeting the next day to spend time with my family who live in the area. Having the flexibility to do that was truly liberating, however I did spend the whole day trying to resist the urge to check email (I failed!).

Thursday, I had a brilliant day at a client site, working alongside the marvellous Rachel Miller, where I ran focus groups and had the opportunity to meet some lovely people. It was one of those days where I could hand on heart say that I love my job.

Although Friday was meant to be a creative writing day, I cheated and did some client work. While I really enjoyed it, I am acutely aware that it’s a slippery slope and before I know it I’ll be freelancing five days a week and the novel will never materialise. However, I do have some lovely friends who have promised (threatened) to call me every week to find out how many words of the novel I’ve written…I’m hoping next week to have a number higher than zero to report back with.

However, I finished the week with a big smile on my face, and am already looking forward to Tuesday – I think that says it all.