How many hours a day do you spend on *paid* work?

[deleted] · 1 year

Anywhere from 0 to 10, usually about 4-6. I don't work full time (by choice).

bishop1847 · 1 year

I work about 4 hours a day (8 pomodoros). The benefits of working distraction free are huge: I can get more done in a smaller period of time.

This let's me focus the rest of the day on my product, which is my freelancing escape plan :-)

trippingupstairs · 1 year

I consider 5 hours of paid work a full day. I'm a freelance editor, so the time I'm paid for is time that I'm reading/typing/editing. Eight hours would be pretty exhausting. Many full-time jobs include a good amount of "downtime" when you're not working as intensely (email, talking on the phone, etc.) so I think fewer hours of actual work for a freelancer is comparable to a full day in an in-house job.

polyfractal · 1 year

Fulltime freelance web-dev, started about a month ago. I've been averaging about 25-30 hours a week split between two clients. I work on-site for one client, so I bill for the whole time that I'm on site (unless I'm obviously taking a break and screwing around on the internet).

I bill for the whole time because being on-site effectively keeps me from working with other clients, and therefore I consider the whole time there billable.

I work from home with my other client, and typically work ~4 hours a day for them (two or three days a week). I probably produce roughly the same amount of work, but I am quicker to turn off the timer since I'll take a "wash dishes" or "go to grocery" break more often.

For me, part of the perks of freelancing is having the freedom to go to the grocery at 1pm, or take a nap, or whatever.

michaelbuddy · 1 year

'Bout four or five a day lately by choice. I love helping people out but I'm just not all that motivated to sit in a chair all day. I picked the wrong career in a way. If I could manage I'd always work that few of hours and pick up some extra money doing something on my feet. Like filming or taking photos or woodworking. it's tough to find that life balance but I aim to even if I make less money. I didn't like my personality being in the same office everyday. Makes me turn evil. Winter and no daylight makes it triple worse.

onyxrev · 1 year

Web developer here. Last week I did 45 hours of billable time. That's with me punching out to grab a cup of coffee or take a leak, which obviously a full-time employer would usually let roll into your hours. Almost all of these hours are between noon and 4AM ;)

I also usually spend an hour a day doing sales (Craigslist, emails, phone calls). And I migrate when I work, so I spend probably another hour a day on my bike between coffee shops. Spend $20 on coffee/food in the process easy but I go crazy without the change of scenery.

doterobcn · 1 year

9-18 full time job (i've been working as a freelancer for more than 5 years for them)
18-19 Other jobs
21.30 - 02.30 - Other jobs

Thinks_Like_A_Man · 1 year

Something I learned a long time ago, when you are doing something to bring in new business you are making money. It's like planting crops. If you do it regularly, you won't have to worry if many of them fail because at the end of the year, you will have plenty to harvest.

pyxlated · 1 year

Freelance illustrator. About eight or nine hours. I treat it like any other job, so I'm careful not to angst myself into over-working, because I've learned that doing so always ends up impacting the quality of the work I put out.

magnetic_couch · 1 year

As a translator, work comes in infrequently and usually short notice with a short deadline. In which case I work until I finish. Ideally, this is no more than 8 hours a day.

When I was working on "open" deadlines (large volume projects with weekly deadlines but no volume quota) I often worked 9-10 hours a day. Mainly due to the fact that I'm paid by volume.

Preferably, I like to work 5-6 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. I prefer having free time everyday where I can get other things done than having work and off days.

daretoeatapeach · 1 year

Holy crap! You guys are working a lot more hours than I am. Glad I asked!

salubrium · 1 year

I worked 9am-12am yesterday with a 1.5hr break for dinner. I clocked 6hrs of paid time. Far too much of my time is spent responding to emails, answering calls, replying to people in Skype or Gmail chat, putting proposal's together. I also have a full time contractor, so managing him, pushing work to him etc. I don't event get time to do dishes, excercise or improving my website. I certainly need to bring my hours back to a reasonable level. It's a growing pains thing. I'm very wary of employing too many people too early.

jargoon · 1 year

Full-time Rails and iOS freelance developer, I probably clock 4-5 hours of billable time per day. The rest of the time is spent answering emails and doing "research" on Hacker News and Reddit. I also go to my local watering hole a few times a week, and I get a lot of leads from talking to regulars and random people there.

WhistIer · 1 year

Varies each day/week as it depends on how much work is coming in. I guess I do about five hours a day of paid work on average. I spend another couple of hours each day doing work related tasks (website, emails, client hunting). 30 minutes for lunch then an hour for gym at 3pm. I think exercise is almost as important as work, it refreshes me and gets me away from the screen!

grantmoore3d · 1 year

When I have a well paying client that I work well with who doesn't bother me or ask for stupid changes, I work 6 hours a day. When I have annoying clients or a poorly paying project, I work up to 12 hours a day. It fluctuates wildly but I'm trying to get to 6 a day consistently.

ultrafresh · 1 year

I'm not a "full-time freelancer" (as in, I have another full-time job), but I do freelancing on the side (web development).

Things like dishes, exercising, improving my website, etc. are pretty much last on the totem pole. They can wait, clients might not. If I have paid work, that goes straight to the top. That's what pays the bills. Second would be getting new clients, as they're the next ones to pay the bills.

Third would probably be bookkeeping, as that's how I actually get paid.

But, for me, it might be different. I've never been at a point where I have so much paid work that I'm unable to then do the "other stuff" (dishes, exercising, fun).

toastworks · 1 year

As a freelance audio video tech / filmmaker, I work 10 hour days on corporate jobs and 12 hour days on film sets.

cowboy_k · 1 year

Not nearly enough. :(

Phthnuh · 1 year

I work a 9 to 5 design job in an office building, the whole nine yards. I'm salaried, so I get paid the same no matter what. During my 8 hour day, 1 is lunch, leaving a possible 7 hours. During those 7 hours, I usually spend 1 or 2 in meetings, answering emails, phone calls, fixing the printer, etc, leaving approx 5 hours of actual design/layout/coding time that we can actually charge people for.

[deleted] · 1 year

half an hours

freelance

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