10 Signs You Have Gone Too Far Into Freelance Design

Freelance design is great, but nobody I know so far has remained as he or she was before after years of running a (often traumatic) freelance experience.

After a while, we’d like to think that bit by bit, we have evolved into something beyond human, with either supernatural abilities or mentally disturbing traits, and these are what I want to share today in this post: the 10 habits you develop when you fall too deep into freelance design.

Run through the list and think about whether or not these have occurred in you, or passed through your thoughts. Whether you love these traits or hate them, they are effects found in people who have gone perhaps, too far in freelance design.

1. You Want Everything Pixel-Perfect

For every recent project, as long as you have time, you want to zoom into every minor part and make sure those pixels sit in the correct positions.

You feel comfortable so you zoom out of the design, but wait, are they really in the right position? You decided to zoom into the design again just to make sure, then out, and in, and out, and in, a few more times. Just to make sure.

2. You Try To Undo Something In Real Life

After working on your computer for sometime, you retreat to do a sketch or write on paper. You make an error and and instead of trying to erase it like someone normal would, you feel compelled to push the undo key combos with your fingers. Woops, guess that didn’t work.

3. You Arrange Things Perfectly Without A Grid

This is a supernatural ability mastered via years of working on Photoshop. One day you realize you are designing a prototype without dragging out a grid, and miraculously the design looks so neat that you decided to measure the white space between columns – and boom, perfect alignment!

This coincidence makes you feel really proud and happy with yourself, like you’ve unlocked a lifetime achievement of some sort.

4. You Started To Talk To Yourself, And Sometimes Laugh Together

Loneliness sets in once you are into freelancing for some time. The room is too quiet, so you seek out some form of white noise to place in the background. Sometimes, the noise is you.

You crack a joke about how silly a design idea is, perhaps even laugh at the amateurish attempt, reminisce a little over how things were so much easier way back when… whoa, maybe it’s time to put some music on before we go full loco.

5. When You Bask In The Sunlight, For A Moment You Achieved Nirvana.

My longest record is around 30 days trapped inside my home (for work). The moment I step out from my house, it felt absolutely magical. You feel like you are finally free from the torture and suffering, and you promise yourself to stop taking up so much freelance work, and to live a better, more meaningful life, filled with sunshine.

And you always forget to listen to yourself afterwards.

6. Your World’s Resolution is 1920×1080

Due to an endless project rush, I tend to stay in front of my monitor all the time, and that also means that I have to handle my social life with that flat screen too. For the past year, everything meaningful in my life happened within that 1920×1080 screen. Yup, that’s my world, in pure 1920×1080 definition.

7. You Feel Happy When You Have Simple Interactions

You are trying to reintroduce yourself into society but catching up with friends is such a long-winded process which you cannot commit to for the long-term. But a brief conversation with the cashier at the grocery store or the cab driver is enough to make you feel warm and relieved (yup, I’m still here). Hm? What about the clients? If this is news to you, 99% of clients are probably from hell.

8. You Can’t Draw A Line Between Work & Life

Some of you may understand this subtitle more easily than others. In short, the work itself is already fun enough for you to commit hours to it, and the sense of achievement is believed to be as addictive as a drug. Bored? Just start a new project. You don’t need the balance between work and life anymore because you are freelance and freelance is you now.

9. Your Life Is All About Seeking Ideas

It appears that your brain is constantly thinking about new ideas, and everything you do is for ideas. Rest a bit so you can have more ideas later? Check. Go out somewhere or stare into the sky so you might have a creative moment? Check. Stare into the monitor screen for hours so the universe can communicate an idea to you? Err… never works, but triple-check. Actually think about the meaning of life for a few seconds? Cross.

10. You Think Life Is Awesome And You Cannot Stop It!

Did I say it’s a bad thing to go too far into freelance design? No, at all. Although I have developed so many questionably unhealthy habits through the years from freelance, not many people get to enjoy work at this level in their entire life. I appreciate it as it is and to me, it is better than a regular 9-to-5 job.

Do you think that working in freelance design is fun? Share your thoughts with us.