2014 - Where I Spent My Freelance Time

2014 was the first year where I religiously tracked where I spent my freelance time, which includes nights and weekends work, outside of my full-time job.

Here is the breakdown:

Total - 707 Hours (13.5 hours / week)

In 2014 I spent on average about 13 hours a week outside of my full-time job. I work a consistent 40 hours a week at my full-time job, so I generally work about 53 hours a week in total.

Development - 473 Hours (9 hours / week)

Development includes all of the time that I spend to complete a client project, or one of my own side projects. Of the 473 hours, 75 hours were spent on my own projects.

Blogging - 41 Hours (3 hours / post)

The blogging category simply includes all of the time that I spend writing blog posts. This comes out to about 3 hours per published post.

Education - 61 Hours (5 hours / month)

Education is made up of time I spend specifically focused on learning something new. I'm not sure how to interpret this number, as I spend almost all day, every day learning. The distinction is that this is time I set aside to read development books, watch conference talks, attend Meetups, read blog posts, etc.

This is specifically non-billable time. If I need to learn something to complete a client project, I would categorize that time under development. In addition, this does not include the hundreds of hours of podcasts that I listen to over the course of a year.

I need to rethink how I categorize education time, as I feel this number under represents the effort I put into keeping up with my craft.

Job Search - 48 Hours

I've been looking for my perfect job outside of freelancing for quite a while now. I like my current position fairly well, but I know there is a better job out there for me. This time includes interviews, email exchanges, negotiation, resume writing, and everything else that goes into searching for a new job.

29 of the 48 hours were spent on a project that I wrote as part of an interview process.

Clearly, I would like to make this 0 hours in 2015.

Client Meetings - 23 Hours

Client meetings are face-to-face meetings (including video conferences), not email exchanges. I'm very pleased with this number, my clients have all been very reasonable and appropriate with my time.

Administration - 61 Hours (1.2 Hours / week)

Administration is made up of answering client emails, doing my own software upgrades, Meetup organization, and some research. Administration is anything that doesn't fall into one of the above categories.