Mike Rooney’s Six Months of Freelancing
In review, here are the numbers between then and now:
- hours worked/week: 40-50 => 16-20
- estimated vacation per year: 4 weeks => 12 weeks
- meals cooked/day: ~0.7 => 2+
- daily Zen practice (zazen): 15 minutes => 70 minutes, plus ~1 day a week at the Fire Lotus Temple
- weekly climbing / yoga: 0 => 2
- monthly income: unchanged!
My circumstances were a bit different in what caused me to start freelancing, but I can relate to a lot of what Mike Rooney writes.
The number of meals at home, even when I don’t have my daughter here, have exploded. I’ve learned how to love cooking once again. Exercise was non-existent when I worked as a manager at two hotels. I managed to take a long walk at least once a week, but that was about it. My mental and physical health is a thousand times better than what it was when working 50+ hours a week, and I’m able to focus on tasks much more easily, as well.
If it’s possible, I would encourage people to try and transition their work flows to a home office, as well.
