When you’re freelance or self-employed you’re very likely to have more free time than your friends who are gainfully employed.
That’s because as a freelance you work whenever you like and as much as you try to organise your time evenly, sometimes you just end up with blocks of time that goes unfilled.
I’m having one of those days today.
It’s 11h and I’m waiting for someone to send me a press release, reply to an e-mail and a couple of other things before I can actually do any work.
So what do you do? Well, a couple of things.
Start a new project
Time is a gift – that’s why they call it… *shudder at corny saying* – but seriously time’s there to be used and wisely. What greater use of time than to pursue a project that’s of personal interest to you. Maybe as a freelance journalist you’ve always wanted to write that book but haven’t had time – well, now you do! Or if you’re a developer, build an app that people can use or something that solves a problem in your daily life.
Learn a skill
My personal choice for free time is to study. Whether it be a new language (currently, Japanese), a programming skill (currently, Ruby on Rails), a hobby (currently, illustration) or something else, using idle time to build yourself as a person is a pleasure that people who aren’t freelance or self-employed would kill for.
You make your own rules and with the internet at your finger tips, you can learn anything that you fancy – usually for free, too!
Relaxation is not wasted time
Probably because of our culture of productivity, we are raised to believe that taking time to just enjoy watching a film or taking a stroll is time wasted.
But just because there are no tangible products coming from a nap, for example, the intangible results are myriad.
Taking our nap example further: a 20 minute sleep is a great way to refresh yourself. It also gives your brain a bit of time to process a lot of information quickly and in a way that it would not do if you were tapping away at your keyboard just to fill the time.
Many of your best ideas will come to you in relaxation time. Consider these ideas a product, if you must.
I just love a siesta!