I actually don’t know how people do it.

Spouse

Kids

Family

Job

Side business

Hobbies

Friendships

Workouts

Sleep? What’s sleep?

Now that I’m a father of an 11 month-old, I have even more respect for people who start freelancing as a parent.

Combine that with being a full-time employee?

🤯

So, the disclaimer: I have not been in this exact position as I’ve been a full-time freelancer since 2017.

But I can at least share what helped for me when I was juggling at least two of these scenarios (full time employee + freelancer), and what I’ve noticed other parents and full-time employees doing.

Ready?

Start by doing an audit of your time.

Look at a typical week (or imagine that existing), and write down:

• How much time spend on work

• How much time on family resonsibilities/activities

• How much time on hobbies

• How much time on sleep (if any) 🙂

• Etc.

Even if it’s not consistent, you need to have a realistic answer for:

How many hours/day can you dedicate to your freelancing business?

If you say:

“Only weekends”

You’re not gonna make it…

Sorry, but it’s the truth.

You HAVE to dedicate at least 1 hour/day to it.

Or you’re not taking it seriously.

When I started freelancing, I had a demanding job in a management role.

I left for work at 7am and finished around 6pm.

My only time to work on my business, after spending only a few hours with my wife, was in the evenings, and on weekends.

Because we needed the money, I couldn’t just limit it to working 1 hour/day.

So I was forced to make a compromise:

Reduce my sleep from 8hrs/night to 6hrs/night

Work 2-3 hours/night and 10 hours on weekends

…I sure don’t miss those nights, but it was the only way we could make it work.

Should you do the same?

It depends…

• How much cash do you have in reserve?

• How desperate are you?

• Do you want to work for yourself or not?

When you’ve answered these and done your audit, let’s try that again:

How many hours/day can you dedicate to your freelancing business?

Now that you have your hours, you need to work on WHAT you do with them.

Here’s a quick outline:

• Build a good portfolio website (or fix it if it sucks)

• Get clients

Don’t overthink the details.

Get a few paying clients. Then adapt and improve what you do.

Stop procrastinating and getting caught up in the fluff.

I’ll keep it short and sweet this week. You’ve probably got some soul-searching to do 🫠

Cheers!