🧑🏻‍💻 How I work a 3 day week as a freelancer

Most people start a business for two reasons:

1. To make more money
   

2. To have a better life

   
   

Unfortunately, most people seem to forget reason number two shortly after they start.

Kat Boogaard shared her experiences of rediscovering reason two, remembering that she started her business to have a better life, and her subsequent journey detailing how she cut back her working hours so she can enjoy her life and work properly again.

While I don’t think she got all the systems set up right, this is a refreshingly honest piece and the article is well worth a read. Here are some of my key takeaways:

🗓 Tip 1: Take it one step at a time.

She started small, by just removing Fridays from her schedule.

Then a year later she cut Thursdays out too.

💰 Tip 2: Adjust the business model to focus on high quality clients

Here are some of the changes she made:

• Raised her rates

• Stopped working with clients who weren’t enjoyable and easy to work with

• Stopped taking projects outside of her niche

  
  

💬 Tip 3: Communicate boundaries

Finally, she needed a massive overhaul in how she communicates with her clients.

Her clients now know that she has boundaries:

• She is not available for same-day calls

• She typically responds within 48 hours

• She doesn’t fulfill urgent requests or rush jobs

• She has full control over her schedule, not them

  
  

You train your clients with every interaction. Almost all clients are reasonable people, they just need to know your rules and it is your responsibility to communicate them.

I just spent 10 days in Spain celebrating my birthday with friends. Time off as a freelancer is absolutely possible.

💡 Quote I'm pondering

"There are only three ways you can delegate: to people, to software, or to the word “no”” – Tim Ferriss

I often use the acronym ESAD to help identify in what order I should tackle a problem. Eliminate, Simplify, Automate, Delegate.

First, I try to Eliminate the problem. This comes first as it is the best possible solution, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all”. Saying “No” is the first phase of elimination.

Simplify and systematise comes next. Try to trim it down and make it easier to do.

Automate what you can. Software is your friend.

Delegate only when what remains is truly important. Very little makes it to this point.

Your time is precious. Make sure you spend it doing the things that make the biggest difference for you.

I shared this in my Work Smart Wednesday newsletter. Want the full set of related insights? You can read them here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-december-4-2024

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