This Is My Biggest Mental Hurdle as a Freelancer -- and How I Work to Overcome It

The perks of freelancing have been written about in great detail. No more commuting! Set your own schedule! Wear lounge pants all day! These and many other perks make the pros column for freelancing long and enticing, but there are plenty of cons to keep in mind, too. Fluctuating income, no health benefits, and more complicated taxes are just a few downsides that keep the list balanced.

I've been freelancing for more than five years now, and I feel like I have a fairly good handle on things at this point. But there's still one mental hurdle I struggle with every day.

Taking time off when you don't actually clock in or out

A few months after I started freelancing, I set up a budget so I could track my income and expenses and see how they lined up. As the months and projects went by, I was able to get a more accurate picture of what my average hourly rate was for all the clients I worked with. This was great for helping me project what my annual "salary" would be as a freelancer, but it also had a negative effect: Now I knew exactly how much my working time was worth, and I couldn't stop thinking about my downtime in these terms.

If I needed to bring my car in to get serviced, I was going to be down $60. If I wanted to take a summer afternoon off and go to the lake, I'd lose out on $150. I got so focused on counting my time this way that I was cutting my morning workouts shorter or eating my lunch faster because I'd calculated how much those extra 10 minutes of work would be worth.

As a freelancer, it's true that you can generally take time off whenever you want to, but it comes at a literal cost since you don't have an employer covering your paid vacation or sick days. Any time you're not working is time you're not making money, which can be a scary thing when you don't always know when your next paycheck will come in or how big it will be.

The importance of work-life balance

I've never been a very career-first type of person, and I'm a big believer in taking all the vacation time owed to you at work. But when I started freelancing, I no longer had clearly delineated "vacation time" or "work time." It was all just...time. Time that I could fill with as much or as little work as I liked. And I was slowly tipping the scales too much in one direction.

After a while, I had to take a step back and reprioritize. Yes, I wanted to earn as much as I could, but it was more important to me to rest, to take a day off just because, to enjoy my downtime without guilt. I have years of work still ahead of me before retirement; there's no sense in burning out now.

Make freelancing work for you

A December 2023 study by Upwork found that 64 million Americans freelanced in 2023, which was 38% of the workforce and up by 4 million from the year prior. Clearly, freelancing is popular, and only getting more so.

If you're a freelancer or are considering making the move, there are steps you can take to shore up your personal finances and give yourself a bit more peace of mind. Build up an emergency fund that can eventually cover three to six months of necessary expenses so you know you have a cushion to fall back on during any lean work months. And store that cash in a high-yield savings account so you can access it at any time, but it can grow at a steady rate until you need it. It's also a good idea to invest any money you won't need in the near time, whether in a brokerage account or retirement account, so you can set yourself up well in your later years.

While I still fall into the habit of seeing my time in dollar amounts, it helps to remind myself that I have plenty of savings and I'm investing for my future. It's more important to take time for hobbies, adventures, and rest than to squeeze out a few more bucks from my day.