A Blog Not Limited

to web design, standards & semantics

Free Time? Quality Time.

Aug 10, 2012

Published in

30 People Shaping The Web. One Thought Every Day. All Year Round. Sugar For The Mind. The Pastry Box Project

Two years ago, when I decided to freelance full-time, almost all of my friends and family predicted I'd have so much more free time.

I naively thought so too. With my “own” schedule, I envisioned frequent half-days and regular days off. I thought of new hobbies I could start and all the books I would read and all the extra travel I'd do.

As it turns out, these predictions weren't quite right. In my July Pastry Box contribution, I discuss how my expectations for tons of free time have evolved into appreciation for quality of time.

Full-Ass

Working for myself, half-ass just isn't an option. For me to build my business and my brand successfully and the way I want to, the commitment is huge. Whether it is actual development, writing an article, editing a podcast or just thinking about a project, work takes up a large part of my life.

Reading this, it sounds horrid. “Working all the time” isn't what I had in mind, and I doubt it is a ringing endorsement for anyone considering making the jump to self-employment. But, as I detail for my Pastry Box, it is actually pretty damn great.

Go read it!

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123 Tax's Gravatar

123 Tax opines:

08/11/2012

It is amazing how people automatically assume that if you work for yourself you are a) loaded and b) have a fantastic work free lifestyle.

Only people working for themselves know how far from the truth this really is! Thank you for articulating this into your blog so eloquently.

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Emily Lewis

Yeah, that would be me: .

I'm a freelance web designer of the standardista variety, which means I get excited about things like valid POSH, microformats and accessibility. I ply my trade from my one-person design studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106 USA.

A Blog Not Limited is my personal blog where I pontificate about web design, web standards, semantics and whatever else strikes my fancy. Head on over to Emily Lewis Design if you'd like to see my work or, even better, hire me.

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