{"id":6250,"date":"2016-04-27T10:47:41","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T05:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=6250"},"modified":"2016-04-27T10:47:41","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T05:17:41","slug":"lessons-from-a-full-time-freelancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=6250","title":{"rendered":"Learn to Do Your Finances and Get Used to Loneliness: Lessons From a Full-Time Freelancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\nO<\/span>ne year ago, I walked out of an office<\/a> as a full-time employee for the last time.\n\nNo, I didn\u2019t win the lottery. I\u2019d decided to become a full-time freelance writer<\/a>. Of course, I had questions swirling in my head: Would I get enough clients? Could I do my own taxes? Most importantly, what would I do with my work clothes? Well, 12 months after ditching formal employment, I\u2019m happy to report I have zero regrets.\n\nThe best thing for me, really, is the ability to have control over my time. I\u2019ve felt that in corporate life, work has this magical ability of expanding to fill time \u2014 meetings<\/a> that should have been emails. Concalls where, \u201cHi can you hear us\u201d takes more time than the actual discussion. WiFi issues that lead to mini-revolutions. The usual\u2026 Once, I actually sat down and calculated that I spend more time justifying and explaining my work than doing the damn thing itself.\n\nI can limit these workplace annoyances now that I\u2019m on my own, and no longer must succumb to the one-size-might-fit-all approach of the 9-to-5. I can slog 20 hours a day (done that), chill all day at a cat cafe (done that), decide to start a new podcast (done that<\/a>), or get high and make a strategy presentation (er, let\u2019s just say that\u2019s a theoretical possibility). I can also factor in time for reading, exercise<\/a>, and annoying my cats (which are arguably more important than making the same presentation for the third time).\n\n

The best thing for me, really, is the ability to have control over my time.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nSecondly, I get to choose what I work on. No matter how much you love your job, chances are, there are some aspects of it that you don\u2019t enjoy. I liked my time in advertising<\/a>, but wasn\u2019t very chuffed about some things \u2014 for example, I always needed to sell services that I wasn\u2019t entirely convinced about myself because the company needed the revenue. Now, I can be selective about what or who I work with. I can take on new projects for the sole purpose of learning something new.\n\nThe obvious flipside to this is \u2014 you need to hunt and relentlessly pitch to get the kind of work you\u2019re good at and enjoy. I\u2019ve sometimes done work well below what I should be paid, in calculated risks for getting more work done later. It\u2019s worth remembering though, that when you freelance, you will have only yourself to blame for headaches. In a corporate setting, your colleagues<\/a>, boss, clients, or a substandard coffee machine could serve as suitable alibis for your own incompetence or laziness. Not any more!\n\nYou get to choose how your career goes. I remember once, after getting a promotion<\/a>, I felt chuffed \u2014 I had a salary hike, and would be responsible for a lot more. But soon I realised I was going to need to slog a lot more. That evening, I had a hard conversation with myself asking whether it would just be better to be where I was. Was I at that point where I\u2019d willingly give up 10 per cent of my salary to have 10 per cent more free time? (Yes, it was one of those existential moments).\n\nEventually, my debate concluded with the reminder that I would never fucking need to travel in Mumbai<\/a> anymore. If long meetings don\u2019t get ya, Dadar station will, as the saying goes. If I were to take out-of-work reasons to freelance, not needing to commute tops the list by a mile (or 22 km, to be precise). Traveling by road, while bereft of sweaty armpits and stampedes, has its own problems, and even if you choose to distract yourself with books and podcasts, could get infuriating. Avoiding the mental and physical trauma associated with just getting my arse to work is worth a lot to me. Good riddance, Western Railway! While this should not be your primary reason to quit employment, it\u2019s a bloody good addition to the \u201cpros\u201d column.\n\n

No matter how much you love your job, chances are, there are some aspects of it that you don\u2019t enjoy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nAnother pro: I can stop making excuses to not go to work parties. Okay, we might be scraping the bottom of the barrel here, but being an introvert<\/a>, I genuinely loathe \u201csocial\u201d time. One of the things that drove me to take up freelancing was, strangely enough, an article that highlighted the downsides of working from home, which warned that you wouldn\u2019t have anyone to talk to. I thought that was great! If you\u2019re the type that needs people around, then freelance might drive you nuts, or at least make you take up a coworking space.\n\nStill it\u2019s not all rosy in the freelance garden. You need to hustle every single day. Even one rejected pitch can discourage you. In my first semi-freelance stint (when I was moonlighting along with my day job), I lost two of my longest and most lucrative clients in the space of two weeks, and that took a lot of wind out of my sails, and made me scared to go back to freelance for a while.\n\nEventually, I learnt the art of not putting too many eggs in one basket, and the need to do your own finances<\/a> (learn Excel!). Oh, and you will need to have tough conversations with yourself. If you thought an annual review with your boss was tough, wait till you speak to yourself in the mirror. You can\u2019t fool yourself. For many, the ups and downs of freelancing can be enough to drive them back to full-time employment.\n\nBut thankfully, my life has been pretty decent since I went independent and have no plans to go to a place where I need to use one of those ruddy biometric scanners. Now if only someone can tell me what to do with those work pants which have been lying unused for the better part of a year.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t need to win the lottery to quit your job. All you need to do is ask yourself if it\u2019s worth giving up 10 percent of your salary to have 10 percent more free time. And congratulations, you are now ready to be a freelancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":362,"featured_media":6251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov"],"yoast_head":"\nLearn to Do Your Finances and Get Used to Loneliness: Lessons From a Full-Time Freelancer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You don\u2019t need to win the lottery to quit your job. All you need to do is ask yourself if it\u2019s worth giving up 10 percent of your salary to have 10 percent more free time. And congratulations, you are now ready to be a freelancer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=6250\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learn to Do Your Finances and Get Used to Loneliness: Lessons From a Full-Time Freelancer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You don\u2019t need to win the lottery to quit your job. All you need to do is ask yourself if it\u2019s worth giving up 10 percent of your salary to have 10 percent more free time. 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