How to create dynamic and sustainable work world during times of change

AI disruption, federal layoffs, and constant economic shifts has many freelancers asking: How do I stay relevant and financially stable when everything keeps changing?

The answer is building what I call a “Fluid Career” — staying versatile, connected, and ready to pivot. 

To make your career more fluid is to first see yourself as your own employer (you are the boss!) and to distribute your time investments across different contexts to diversify where you create value.

Here are five practices that will help your freelance business become more adaptable to weather whatever comes next.  

1. Be ruthless with your time
   Maintaining multiple projects with totally different people and logic makes time management essential for your success and your sanity. The upside is you have dynamism and variety, the downside is that you can easily get overwhelmed if you’re not intentional with your time. You need to be really honest about which activities support your current goals so that you don’t take on more than you have capacity for. Which means you have to let go of the idea that you can do everything. (You can’t.) 
   
   Action: Sit down and create a list of how you’ve been spending your time for the past month. Write a mission statement for this work chapter (What's your main objective? What would feel most satisfying?). Then update your to-do list against that mission statement and let go of anything that doesn’t support it. 
2. Water your relationship network 
   We know that networking matters but we tend to do it in spurts, usually when we’re actively looking for work. If you stay open to new opportunities, and trust that you never know where a new connection might lead, you’ll have pathways to new collaborations and places to contribute. Beyond just reaching out, starting up an actual joint side project can help deepen relationships and lead to paid work opportunities. 
   
   Action: Set two weekly calendar reminders: one to reach out to a new connection, one to send a warming note to an existing one. Then actually do it.
   
   Action: Brainstorm three collaboration ideas and who your dream team would be for each.
3. Tend to your financial house
   With income constantly in flux, you need more financial diligence than the average W-2 employee. A Fluid Career doesn’t mean you’re signing yourself up for a stressful relationship with money, but it will require consistent attention until you get to a position of steady abundance. 
   
   Action: Set up a weekly financial check in to review recent income and expenses and tend to any outstanding admin (i.e. sending invoices or follow up pokes).
   
   Action: Do a monthly finance review where you project income for the next 3 months, determine what additional income you need, and assess how much time you have available for new work.
4. Sharpen your skills 
   In the same way that Instagram once turned everyone into a better photographer and recent computer science graduates are struggling to find entry level engineering jobs, we don’t know how new technologies will disrupt which skills are valued next. No job is 100% AI proof. So, take a little time to be upset by this, and then get proactive about adding new skills to your repertoire that will help you remain in service (and therefore paid) as the landscape shifts.
   
   Action: Conduct a listening tour where you ask people in your field, including hiring managers and people who are more experienced than you, what they see as a differentiating capability or quality for someone in your position. How would they recommend you stand out?
   
   Action: Identify a new skill set that appeals to you and feels like something people will pay for even with automation. What skills feel distinctly human-made and human-valued?
5. Keep your portfolio current 
   You never know when someone is going to ask you for your website, LinkedIn, portfolio, or resume. Keeping these updated means that you don’t have to scramble in order to be responsive to a new opportunity. Start keeping a log of recent projects with images, links, and resources so you're not hunting for materials later.
   
   Action: Create a document that will house a list of all the projects you haven't yet added to your job sites. Fill it out now with recent work, bookmark it, and set a monthly reminder to update it.
   
   This might feel like a lot of new habits. Remember, you don’t have to do this all at once. Start small and then build. 

To get you in motion: choose one action from this list to do this week. Make your way through the list one week at a time and check in to see if it’s making you feel more sturdy about your work.

Once you’ve made your work more fluid, you’ll spend less time getting in motion because you’ll already be in motion. And that adaptive state is key to creating a career that can weather the changes ahead.