Freelancing Taught Me The Value Of Time

Freelancing taught me the value of time. 

Many of the habits I picked up as an hourly employee didn’t serve me well when I started freelancing. Working hourly, I would finish working for the day, and then I had time remaining to spend however I liked. The idea here: working to gain time off. When the time off came, I impulsively decided how to spend it without any monetary consequence. 

If we work hourly, we aren’t in complete control of our time. There are even short-term benefits to wasting time. Of course, wasting time rarely pays off in the long run. But when it’s 3pm the day before Christmas Eve, who can blame you for reading a few of your favorite blogs before your holiday starts at 5? 

Freelancing, on the other hand, taught me the value of time. When selling deliverables and results, clients often don’t care how long–or short–it takes to deliver. They only care about the results. Spending as little time as is viable to still achieve a high-quality service is the best way to manage time as a freelancer. You can take on more projects this way, and make more money. 

This had massive implications for how I spent my time off work. When I worked hourly, there were no monetary consequences for wasting my time off. Take cooking, for example. It didn’t make sense to buy pre-made meals, or get take out. I wasn’t getting paid for my time off, so why would I waste money on expensive food when I could spend my time off cooking meals for cheaper? But when I worked freelance, every hour could be spent making money. Spending 45 minutes shopping, cooking, and cleaning has direct monetary implications. Maybe I saved $5 by cooking, but maybe I also lost $100 by not working in that hour. 

Time is the most valuable resource we have. Once it’s spent, it can’t come back, and none of us know how much time we have left. If money is our only motivation, then that motivation will break down really quickly. But if a rich life, full of doing all the things we really enjoy, is our motivation, then having as much time to spend doing those things is what we should be aiming for!

I feel this blog was a bit choppy, and that’s because I’m still grappling with this idea. I’m still learning how to hard boil this down into a set of rules and practices. 

My advice? Pick up a freelance project. It has helped me start to see the value of my time. It might help you too.