The Hard Parts of Working for Yourself
For anyone working for themselves, where there is no end to the day and nobody to compare notes with. It sets a finish time, puts a person in the day, separates the quiet-month money, and makes room for one full day off.
Self-Employment · Work · Boundaries · Loneliness · 9 items · once a week
The checklist
- Set a finish time and stop at it — work with no edge quietly takes the evening too.
- Put one actual conversation in the day — a whole day of your own company narrows how you think.
- Work somewhere that is not your bed — a spot you can leave is what ends the day.
- Keep a quiet-month fund apart from this month's money — irregular income needs a buffer, not hope.
- Say no to the work you already know will go badly — the bad job costs you the good one.
- Invoice on a fixed day each week — a standing day is easier than remembering to ask.
- Find one person in the same trade to compare notes with — nobody else will tell you your rates are low.
- Take one full day off and tell someone you are taking it — a day off you announce is harder to give back.
- Write down what you earned this month — a real number ends the vague dread about it.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it once a week, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.