The Freelancer’s Hourglass

Time-Tracking vs. Energy-Tracking

Spoiler: It’s not about working harder. It’s about working with yourself, not against yourself.

There’s a well-worn productivity trope that haunts most freelancers: “Track your time, or your time will track you.” And while there’s value in knowing where your hours go, I’ve found that tracking my energy has given me far more insight into how I actually get things done — and why sometimes, I don’t.

Because here’s the truth they don’t tell you: not all hours are created equal. A 9am hour after a good night’s sleep isn’t the same as a 4pm hour after three back-to-back Zoom calls, a looming deadline, and an unfinished lunch.

Time tells you when. Energy tells you how

As freelancers, we’re often obsessed with optimising time: billable hours, Pomodoro blocks, calendar colour-coding. But productivity isn’t just a puzzle of neatly slotted hours — it’s a rhythm. And rhythms have ebbs and flows.

When I started noting not just what I was doing, but how I felt while doing it, things changed. I realised that editing dense academic texts? Best before lunch. Creative ideation? A post-walk, tea-in-hand, late-morning affair. Admin? Only possible when I’ve ticked off at least one “meaty” task for the day.

Tracking energy doesn’t mean abandoning structure — it means designing your structure around your natural state, not forcing your natural state into someone else’s ideal schedule.

The Freelancer’s Hourglass: A New Way to Look at Your Day

Imagine your energy like sand in an hourglass. Some tasks — deep thinking, writing, strategy — use up the fine grains. They need more focus, more patience. Others — quick emails, formatting, invoicing — are heavier and clunkier, easier to slot in when the sand’s running low.

If you pour all your fine grains into fiddly admin before lunch, don’t be surprised when writing your pitch deck at 2pm feels like hiking uphill in flip-flops.

So ask yourself daily:

• What kind of sand do I have right now?

• What tasks are best matched to this moment?

• What can I defer without guilt because the energy’s just not there?

Practical Ways to Track Energy (Without a Spreadsheet Spiral)

1. Add an energy column to your task log.
   Beside each task, rate your energy: 🔋Full tank, 😐Meh, or 😴Drained. Patterns will emerge — I promise.

2. Build a personal energy map.
   Over a week or two, jot down what times of day you feel focused, scattered, creative, sluggish. Use it to batch your work.

3. Swap “to-do” with “can-do”.
   Some days, your list will laugh at you. Reframe it: “What can I realistically do with the energy I’ve got?”

4. Design your day like a playlist.
   Don’t stack all the heavy hitters in a row. Mix in lighter, less cognitively demanding tasks to recharge without stopping completely.

What This Looks Like in Real Life

• I now book editing projects in blocks that match my mental stamina — no 3-hour editing marathons at 3pm anymore.

• I schedule my student sessions during natural high-energy times (late morning, after my second coffee).

• I unapologetically nap or walk when my brain is cooked — and weirdly, I make up the time with better output later.

This isn’t indulgence. It’s strategy.

You’re Not a Machine, You’re a System

And systems need maintenance, feedback, and flexibility. Time-tracking is a tool. But energy-tracking? That’s the intelligence behind the tool.

You don’t just need to know where your hours go. You need to know what kind of human is showing up in those hours.

So here’s your permission slip:
Work with your energy, not just your clock. The results are real, the burnout is less, and you’ll rediscover a pace that feels a lot more like freedom — and a lot less like a job you gave yourself.