(Aspiring) freelancers: How many hours per week do you typically work?

[Klara]

Hello guys, I know it is hard to say and every week is different, but if you average it out:

1. how many hours per week do you work? is it sustainable not to burn out?

2. Do you have free weekends? If not, how many hours do you work on weekends?

I am now looking for a job, which is not going to be my LP, but I am still doing my LP on the side. However I am worried, cause for some time, I did not have a free weekend at all. And even when I have free time, I still feel like I should be doing something. My health deteriorates a lot, when I don't have free time.

I heard this podcast and this person said: "My friend who is a freelancer said they do that (also) because of the freedom. And I asked them - when was your last vacation? And they said - 5 years ago."

So I was thinking - is going to 9-5 job really a slavery? I mean, I had a nice job from cca 7:00 to 15:00 and then I had the whole afternoon off to wander off in nature and do sports and cook and such. I was happy with the money, to be honest. And I had free weekends. Since I started working on LP, I feel like I became this rat who just never stops. I mean I like it, but the whole point is that I do it diligently, not only when I feel like it, so I have to pick strength for it. Especially if I do it after regular work. Do you have that? If so, how do you cope with that - considering proper rest and such?

Thanks for your input and have a lovely day!

[Michael569]

I'm not a freelancer but trying to escape wage slavery by being a small business owner. I'm still balancing full time job and my small business but I think it would be fair assumption that as a freelancer or small business owner you'll be working weekends and holidays quite often. Ofcourse there may be months of no work and no income. That's a burden of going solo and other times you'll have more work than you can handle. 

3 hours ago, Klara said:

how many hours per week do you work? is it sustainable not to burn out?

at the moment around 9-12 just to do both work and LP thingy but neither is so hard to I would burn out. There is a lot of low-grade stress thou which needs to be carefully managed. 

3 hours ago, Klara said:

Do you have free weekends? If not, how many hours do you work on weekends?

About 6 hours per weekend day. SOmetimes none and sometimes more. As a freelancer or small business owner, your free time and your holidays will often be dictated by your clients but it doesn't have to be that way and if you play it right, you can easily have free weekends and even free fridays. And you probably could now but there is always that pressure of "I should probably be doing something now"

3 hours ago, Klara said:

I am now looking for a job, which is not going to be my LP, but I am still doing my LP on the side. However I am worried, cause for some time, I did not have a free weekend at all. And even when I have free time, I still feel like I should be doing something. My health deteriorates a lot, when I don't have free time.

Maybe in your case you need to spend some time gaining some savings to focus on wage slave job so that later on you can leave it having few thousands on bank account and spend a year 100% focusing on your LF wile living a simple type of life with low cost. Every journey is different and there is no blueprint for this. 

You might benefit from reading Seth Godin's - Process 

[supremeyingyang]

3 hours ago, Klara said:

Hello guys, I know it is hard to say and every week is different, but if you average it out:

1. how many hours per week do you work? is it sustainable not to burn out?

2. Do you have free weekends? If not, how many hours do you work on weekends?

I am now looking for a job, which is not going to be my LP, but I am still doing my LP on the side. However I am worried, cause for some time, I did not have a free weekend at all. And even when I have free time, I still feel like I should be doing something. My health deteriorates a lot, when I don't have free time.

I heard this podcast and this person said: "My friend who is a freelancer said they do that (also) because of the freedom. And I asked them - when was your last vacation? And they said - 5 years ago."

So I was thinking - is going to 9-5 job really a slavery? I mean, I had a nice job from cca 7:00 to 15:00 and then I had the whole afternoon off to wander off in nature and do sports and cook and such. I was happy with the money, to be honest. And I had free weekends. Since I started working on LP, I feel like I became this rat who just never stops. I mean I like it, but the whole point is that I do it diligently, not only when I feel like it, so I have to pick strength for it. Especially if I do it after regular work. Do you have that? If so, how do you cope with that - considering proper rest and such?

Thanks for your input and have a lovely day!

Well, you have to have the guts to decide for yourself when your product is good enough (Pareto Principle). If it's useful you do can overtime SOMETIMES. If you doing overtime ALL  the time, then some is fundamentally wrong.

40h, free Weekends (or compensation in more money and free days next week)

[Klara]

@Michael569 you work quite a lot I must say. Do you ever get tired? Like, I mean, don't you need like a day off to reset and refresh, and stuff like that? I noticed that when I rest, after that I get flow of new ideas, etc. 

Anyway, thanks for your answer! I will look at the book by Seth Godin.

EDIT: I now realized that I probably understood your answer wrong. You meant that you work in total 9-12 hours per week? That is like one working day per week?? For some reason I thought you work this amount in a day..

Edited September 30, 2021 by Klara

[Klara]

@supremeyingyang I agree, sometimes it is good to think more about what you are doing instead of blindly doing more and more. 40 hours is ideal in my opinion. If I work something around that, I am at the optimal energy level..

[Raphael]

20 hours ago, Klara said:

1. how many hours per week do you work? is it sustainable not to burn out?

10 - 20 hours. I also work on other things aside. Yes, it is sustainable and you can do it without burning out. The thing is to provide value. When someone is able to provide high-quality work people will pay for it more therefore there will be less need to work long hours.

20 hours ago, Klara said:

2. Do you have free weekends? If not, how many hours do you work on weekends?

I usually take Thursday and Sunday off, but I can also work on Thursday sometimes.

[Yarco]

2-4 hours per weekday to make $20k - $30k a year, never work weekends. The only time I'll work 8-10 hours per day is if I have a really busy month where I want to earn like $10k in a month or something.

Raise your rates. The people paying for your services don't have to pay all of the payroll expenses of having an employee like employment insurance, tax, vacation pay, pension, etc. So you should be aiming for at least $50 - $100 per hour or you will end up needing to work weekends and burn yourself out. Otherwise it isn't any better than a job.

[supremeyingyang]

16 hours ago, Klara said:

@supremeyingyang I agree, sometimes it is good to think more about what you are doing instead of blindly doing more and more. 40 hours is ideal in my opinion. If I work something around that, I am at the optimal energy level..

I'd prefer working even less, like 20h.

My Energy is influenced by the number of people I have to talk with (I'm a Introvert). Talking with people takes half my time, either meeting or periods with non-deep work.

[Klara]

@Raphael So basically you work part time..that is cool. I have to work 40 hours per week and THEN work on my LP and I don't sometimes have enough energy or enthusiasm. I felt like I am doing something wrong, cause sometimes I read about entrepreneurs who work like 60 hours in a week :-/ I guess I have limits and if I fill them with regular work, then there is not much room for something else..maybe it would be better to work part time I guess.

[Klara]

@supremeyingyang 20 hours, that sounds good that you can arrange your life like that. I totally understand the introvert part, like so much of my energy is burned on these small talk types of interactions..

[Klara]

@Yarco Wow, thanks for your input. What you wrote sounds amazing, but I am afraid, I am far too away from that now :-) I am in a phase where I am building my skills in my LP, so I dont even monetize it yet. But what you wrote about the rates sounds reasonable. may I ask - what type of work are you doing?

[supremeyingyang]

@Klara

That 20h-goalis an ideal I attempt to reach for 3 Years now. Even when I'll reach it, it'll might be a not lasting period in my life, but I can surely imagine enjoying my late 30s like that. By the way I don't talk about all work, I talk strictly about the work one is forced to do to make a living unless you are rich enough to live off the dividends. I work a lot more than even the 40h i talked about earlier, but that work I WANT TO DO and thus not a burden, but a blessing (so to speak)

Edited October 1, 2021 by supremeyingyang

[Klara]

@supremeyingyang Yeah, I was actually talking about all the work, not only the one that is forced. Cause I have this (maybe bad) habit of dividing my time into working (whatever work, it means producing something, being active) vs relaxation (reading books, doing sports, cooking, going in nature, meditating....). And I always struggle with balancing these. Maybe I shouldn't be dividing my time so strictly, but then again, if I don't rest properly, I feel my productivity is going down. So I don't know...

[Ineedanswers]

8 hours minimum every single day(about 60hrs a week) .no days off .what about you? Btw what are you specializing in?

Edited October 2, 2021 by Ineedanswers

[impulse9]

Don't treat it as work and then you won't have to ask that question. Instead you'll be asking yourself how many hours can I pour into something I love. You'll only burn out if you don't like doing it.

[supremeyingyang]

3 hours ago, Klara said:

@supremeyingyang Yeah, I was actually talking about all the work, not only the one that is forced. Cause I have this (maybe bad) habit of dividing my time into working (whatever work, it means producing something, being active) vs relaxation (reading books, doing sports, cooking, going in nature, meditating....). And I always struggle with balancing these. Maybe I shouldn't be dividing my time so strictly, but then again, if I don't rest properly, I feel my productivity is going down. So I don't know...

Why would you change how you do things? Maybe I don't understand that right.

2 hours ago, impulse9 said:

Don't treat it as work and then you won't have to ask that question. Instead you'll be asking yourself how many hours can I pour into something I love. You'll only burn out if you don't like doing it.

That sounds like that's the solution. Can anybody do it?

[impulse9]

@supremeyingyang Sure, provided they love their job.

Freelancing isn't a magical bullet out of wage slavery *unless* you absolutely love the living fuck out of what you're doing. Then it's going to be great, it's up to you to do the thing that you love.

[supremeyingyang]

3 hours ago, impulse9 said:

@supremeyingyang Sure, provided they love their job.

Freelancing isn't a magical bullet out of wage slavery *unless* you absolutely love the living fuck out of what you're doing. Then it's going to be great, it's up to you to do the thing that you love.

Isn't it also about you mindset? A dependent Person will be a wage slave, no matter the type of job.

You wrote 'love the living fuck out of what you're doing' - I think that's not practical for most people. A nice starter mover is not to hate what you need to do (like a stoic)

[impulse9]

@supremeyingyang Sure, if you want to burn out and not achieve your highest goals. Neutrality doesn't get you far with your life's work. You need true passion and true love for it to stand out.

That's why OP's question is wrong. It should be "how many hours can I put into what I love" instead of "how many hours do I have to suffer to make this work".

[hyruga]

Well, why not read the 4 hour workweek?