Perks of self-employment:
- Getting to brew my own coffee according to “best-practices” for portions, grind, etc.
- Snuggling with the kids in the morning.
- I get to control the thermostat.
- I set my own permissions on my own servers.
- My iPhone, wireless plan, and cable Internet are now tax-deductible.
- New MacBook. Also tax-deductible.
- If I’m up late and can’t sleep because I’ve got a project stuck in my head, I’m free to get up and work it out to a better stopping point so I can quiet my thoughts and go to sleep.
- Productivity has increased a great deal.
When you’re self-employed you can clock out to go to the bathroom or check up on Twitter. It’s not a 9 to 5 thing. When you’re “heads-down” coding, you’re actually heads-down, with no interruptions from Lync. It kind of reminds me of the “sleep cycles” of REM we go through when we’re sleeping. You get in the zone, and you stay there. You get out of the zone, and you clock out, go grab an energy drink, and sit down again and check your email. You might have your creativity spurred for a different project, so you log your hours and reset your timer and “clock in” again. And the cycle repeats.