A few weeks ago I shared my Awesome Work-From-Home Freelance Writer/Editor schedule and talked about how I structure my workdays in a way that makes sense to me. Writing in the morning, handling email and admin around midday, and working on editing and marketing in the afternoon has helped me create a really useful workflow that makes me feel comfortable during my workday and get more done.
There are a ton of other advantages to being self-employed, of course: not having to deal with horrible bosses, navigate toxic coworker relationships, deal with pointless Day Job shit, or fight the pressure to care about your company when you really don’t. Avoiding these downsides is pretty awesome, and it’s helping me feel better about my creative work/paid work balance.
One HUGE advantage, though, is that when you work for yourself, you have a flexible schedule. That means you can schedule your own work when you want to, as long as it gets done.
A flexible schedule comes with some pretty sweet benefits, so in the spirit of High Fidelity, here are my Top 5 Advantages of a Flexible Schedule that come from being self-employed:
1. You Can Sleep In When Necessary
I talked about this in my post on getting consistent sleep, but I can’t stress enough how much this helps me. If I have a late night for whatever reason and have to wake up to a blaring alarm clock so I can be at work at a certain time, I’m going to feel groggy, distressed, and in a bad mood, which means I won’t be able to concentrate on my work.
However, with a flexible schedule, as long as you don’t have a morning appointment (which I rarely do, partly for this reason), you can spend an extra hour or two catching up on the sleep you missed so you can feel better when you do get up. Feeling better at the start of your workday, even if it’s an hour later, can make you feel more focused during the time you actually spend at your desk.
You’ll have to make up that extra time, of course, but you can do that when you’re feeling more alert—and not blurry eyed after a sleepless night.
2. It’s Easier to Schedule Appointments
I absolutely LOVE this about having a flexible schedule. When I worked 9-to-5 Day Jobs that required me to be at a set place for a set amount of time, I always found myself stressing when I had a dentist appointment or needed to run an errand at a place that was only open during the exact same hours when I needed to be at work. Under a traditional Day Job schedule, I had to fret about using paid time off, jump through elaborate hoops of permissions and scheduling, and sometimes couldn’t even leave work at all.
With a flexible schedule, though, I just make the appointment for a time when I’m free, then mark it down in my trusty schedule book as if it were any other client meeting. No hassle, no fuss.
3. You Can Do Work In the Order You Want To
I also talked about this in my post on my new work-from-home schedule, but it bears repeating: When you have a flexible schedule, you can plan your day in a way that makes sense to you. Do you like working on larger projects in chunks of several hours at a time? Make a plan, and you can do it. Or, would you rather work on a lot of smaller projects every day to create more variety? Make a plan, and you can do it.
When I worked traditional Day Jobs, I often felt stifled by having to do things in a certain way at certain times, but being able to make my own plans around what works for me gives me more freedom and less stress around the same work.
4. You Can Handle Things That Come Up at the Last Minute
Leaky basements suck. So do sick kids, car troubles, and remembering that you forgot to buy an ingredient for the special dinner you promised to cook that night. These things all come up unexpectedly and are often urgent—which can lead to a lot of stress.
When you’re at a regular Day Job and a problem comes up, you have to either wait until later to deal with it, or take time off—which isn’t always possible. With a flexible schedule, though, as long as you’re not working against a deadline or have an appointment, you can make time to take care of whatever crisis just emerged, leaving you free to put out the fire and go on with your day.
Even during those times when I do have to cancel an appointment because a crisis came up, I feel more relaxed about it knowing that I don’t have to ask my boss: I make the decision to cancel myself, without getting approval from anyone.
5. No “Run Out the Clock” Situations
There’s an episode of The Office (the American version) where the long-suffering Stanley, bored and disgusted by the latest workplace idiocy, utters the line, “This here is a run out the clock situation.” Stanley’s required to stay at work and suffer through whatever stupid shit his bosses throw at him, and because he gets paid either way, it’s in his best interest to grit his teeth, stay on the clock, and waste his time by doing nothing at all productive.
I’ve had my share of these situations at plenty of Day Jobs, and while these jobs occasionally allowed me to do my own productive creative work while still earning a paycheck, more often they just led to frustration and wasted time—both for me, and the company. I felt exhausted during and after these ordeals, and it put me in a negative, slothful mindset of just wanting to run out the clock.
In the self-employed, flexible schedule world, though, these moments are few and far between. You’re getting paid to produce productive work, not sit through pointless ordeals, so you can organize your workday to avoid these run out the clock situations. And when they do very occasionally come up, they’re easier to get through when you know they’re directly tied to your business and/or paycheck, and not some time-wasting garbage activity instituted by a clueless boss.
Final Thoughts
I’d be lying of course, if I didn’t talk about the disadvantages of being self-employed: inconsistent income, no benefits like paid days off, and not getting paid for time when you’re….less than productive. These of course are enough to deter many from the route I’m on, but honestly, I’ve been dealing with all of them pretty well, and in my case, the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks.
If you’re on a self-employed flexible schedule, or considering moving to one, you might want to consider these advantages and how they might help you structure more of your own time, thus leaving you freer to do your creative work on terms that make sense to you. If your goal is to enjoy a better life with more flexibility, this path might well be for you.