Closeup of donuts, apples, and coffee

Seven year report

Published 2021-09-30

I just closed my September invoices & updated my books for the month. This is the seventh anniversary of my latest jag of full-time self-employment. I have had other, much shorter, such jags in the past — usually as a few months between “regular” employment. I pretty much always have at least one side gig, so that was a typical pattern, especially in my 30s and early 40s.

But this is also the 84th continuous month that I have maintained the same project management system (which I hand-rolled in Django, natch). So I can assess my productivity with some precision.

In the past seven years I have:

  • produced 1551 deliverables
  • in 152 projects
  • across 56 initiatives (approximately: “websites,” “apps,” or “products”)
  • for 17 clients

which means that every year, on average, I produce:

  • more than 221 deliverables (more than 18 per month)
  • on about 22 projects
  • for seven websites or products

The past three years I have given more than 75% of my time to just a few initiatives for one client, which skews this rate a little.