What does work/life balance really mean to a freelancer?

I was talking to someone who asked about work/life balance as a freelancer. It's something that's usually seen as a worthwhile goal, yet people aren't sure how to achieve it consistently, nor are they completely sure when they've achieved it.

Even a regular employee for a company faces this balancing act. But the challenge is usually assumed to affect freelancers more. The thought is that if you're a freelancer working from home, you'll have more difficulty separating your work life from your home life.

Of course, this assumes you actually want to separate it. I'm going to go against the conventional wisdom which says that, as a freelancer, you should set aside time only for work, and set aside time that is only for family or personal endeavors.

Balance is absolutely necessary. But I think some people take it a bit too far and stifle what should be one of the most important parts of being a freelancer, especially one that requires creativity like design and copywriting: flexibility.

For me, it's more of an easy flow between the things that I do whether it's working or spending time with my family. I might move back and forth between the two multiple times a day. That kind of goes against the usual advice of having fixed hours for your working time at home. And once you're done for the day, you don't come back to it until the next day.

But that's part of the joy of freelancing... moving between work and personal life as needed and on your own terms, not putting things into fixed hours or a set schedule. That's just a normal job where you're an employee.

I'm not a designer for X number of hours a day and a husband/parent for another set of hours a day... I'm all those things all the time and I focus on each aspect of what I need or want to do as appropriate. For some reason, that solved any problems of chasing after some undefined goal of "work/life balance".

I think people end up feeling too guilty (or made to feel guilty) if they can't have their life broken down into these very clear sections of time where they're either working or they're not.

I'm all for saying 'no' and not taking on more than is reasonable when it comes to work. I'm definitely not someone who over-books himself. And if you feel you're most productive by spending fixed time or hours handling certain tasks, by all means continue to work that way.

But as someone who works with people in different time zones or countries - and gets inspiration for projects at unexpected moments - I don't get hung-up on thinking that I should only be a business owner at fixed times of the day or only on specific days.

As the saying goes, "Your mileage may vary."