Do Freelancers Have Time To Work On Personal Side Projects?

The key to having time for personal side projects while freelancing full-time comes down to how we structure our work. We need to think in the way that our freelancing work funds our side projects. Simply put, we need to make enough money to work fewer hours on client projects, so we'll have time to work on our own.

When I embraced freelancing fully, I recognized I wanted the freedom to work on side projects regularly. My first step was determining the amount of income I wanted to generate and the amount of time I wanted to work on paid projects. I decided I’d work 40–45 hours per week and up to 30 of those hours would be paid. This meant I gave myself at least 10–15 hours per week to work on admin & side projects.

This also meant I needed to generate enough income from the 30 hours to sustain my needs and allow me to flourish. My hourly rate started at $75/hour and is now $85/hour. As it’s increased, I have more freedom to work on my side projects and less on client work. My goal for 2018 is to generate the same income while working fewer hours by charging a higher hourly rate. This will increase the time I'm able to spend working on side projects and eliminate me robbing any time from my family.

Over the past three years, I’ve made the time to work on side projects and have launched three noteworthy ones. Two small ones and one very large one. They’re listed below.

• Path Of The Freelancer - An Actionable Guide To Flourishing In Freelancing - This was my journey towards authoring my first book. It was a personal and important first step towards moving into a financially viable writing career.
• IDEMA - A Framework For Capturing & Sustaining Ideas - This was a collaborative project with a nemesis in my former marketing company. This system helped us move from order to chaos. 
• The Island Story - A Redemptive Parable Of Our Journey Home - This was a personal narrative I developed with my community. I published what was a verbal story into a written short story online. In addition to the story, I've published a storytelling framework for others to use in their creations.

With my journey, I've proven to be successful at freelancing while also working on side projects. I'm currently working on a weekday blogging challenge that begun August 1st, 2017.

An Update: January 16, 2025

I've been a freelancer since 2014, and I've taken on numerous side projects including blogging, podcasting, and publishing two books (almost done with the third). One way I was able to accomplish this was by increasing my freelancing rate each year so that over time, I could earn the same amount of income by working less time. That freed up more and more of my time to work on these side projects. So now, I work half my day, part-time, freelancing, and the other half on my side projects. My goal this year is to work out ways to earn more from my side projects so that I can further push the success of the side projects.

Photo by Olliss on Unsplash