How long is your Workday?
Self-employed September 24th, 2007If you are self-employed, the ability to work when and where you want is a huge benefit; at least for me. But at the same time, this flexibility can also cause quite a few problems. For instance, there is no boss telling you to get your work done. Generally speaking, the only motivation you have is that to make money and retain clients.
So how long is your workday? For me, this seems to fluctuate day in and day out. And at the same time, defining the length of my workday is never easy to do.
Take today for example. I started work on my first project of the day, a feature article, at 705 am. Four hours later, I have finished that project as well as many others. And guess what? This blog post is the last planned item that I have to complete today. This leaves me the option of doing several things until 5 o’clock rolls around.
First off, I could get started on my work for tomorrow. While I never like to do this, I will probably take an hour or so to get a head start. Another option, and the one that I have been taking advantage of, is to work on new business opportunities. As I have discussed, I am starting several new blogs that are taking up a lot of my time. But as long as I have several hours to work on them each afternoon, I should be able to keep up without any problems.
Of course, do not let these short workdays confuse you. Even though I have finished all my work today in four hours, there are other days when I work 10 hours or more; it all depends on my work load, as well as what I have going on in my life at any given time.
All in all, it is a great feeling to work half a day from time to time. But of course, being self-employed is not all fun and games. For as many half days that I work, there are just as many nighttime and weekend hours!
September 24th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
10 - 12 hour days are the norm lately…figuring out how not to get overwhelmed with new projects can be a challenge at times.
September 24th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
My days tend to vary, as a freelance web designer I have many days where I have no work and days that I am snowed under, its gonna get even worse now that I have started a degree at uni. But the thing that motivates me most is the fact that I can see my mates working for pizza houses, supermarkets etc. getting paid pittance an hour and me getting a nice amount more (a couple of days ago I got £120 [$240] in one day for about 4 - 5 hours work so I think money is probably the main motivation but also it is something I enjoy a lot. As you say days vary, I could be working for a few hours one day and get a lot of money but then could be working for a client the next and come up against problems which take hours to rectify.
PS, nice blog
September 24th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
What kind of work do you do Simon!? That’s a lot in 4-5 hours and is it some kind of occasional work or you do it every week?
September 24th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I work for 8-10 hours/day normally. But there are times when I have to work 12-14 hours/day or even more, depends on what I have in mind.
The more you work the more you earn.
In the last year I’ve been working around 2-3 hours/day and I was earning around $3k/day hehe.. those times are long gone now, and I have to work more.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
It varies…the thing is, I don’t really consider it work. Almost everything I do has a long-term objective of making money - but writing just doesn’t always feel like work to me. I probably spend 12-14 hours a day working on things with some internet browsing in between. I’m reading your site right now, for example. Is this work? No…but is it educational - yes!
My paid work (not personal projects) varies between 4-12 hours. This week I don’t have tons lined up (yet), last week I was putting in 15 hours a day. Oh the life of a freelancer…especially one that is just starting off.
September 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Everybody seems to be on the same page here. There are long work days, and then there are short ones as well. I guess that is the life of a freelancer. But as Chad says, it is nice because when you love what you do it does not seem like work!
September 27th, 2007 at 8:55 am
It depends on whether or not I am working on a deadline. If I am working on a deadline, it could be up to ten hours. Typically, though, I work between four and six hours a day. I try to average $25 an hour, but I get less for some projects, more for others.
September 27th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
apart from my day job I have no set working schedule