Two years ago I started logging every working hour — client work, admin, chasing payments, marketing, learning, everything. Not for billing. For understanding where my time actually goes.
The results surprised me.
The breakdown (average week, 2024-2025)
| Activity | Hours/week | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| Client work (billable) | 22.5 | 56% |
| Admin & invoicing | 4.2 | 10.5% |
| Chasing payments | 2.8 | 7% |
| Marketing & outreach | 3.5 | 8.7% |
| Learning / upskilling | 2.1 | 5.3% |
| Proposals & quoting | 2.4 | 6% |
| Meetings (non-billable) | 2.5 | 6.3% |
| Total | 40 | 100% |
The revelation
Only 56% of my working time generates income.
That means if I charge £50/hour and work 40 hours, I'm not earning £2,000/week. I'm earning £1,125 — because 44% of my time is unpaid.
My real hourly rate is £28.12.
The worst offender: chasing payments
7% of my week spent chasing money I've already earned. That's 2.8 hours per week, or 145 hours per year — almost a full month of work, unpaid, just asking clients to honour their invoices.
This was the single biggest thing I fixed.
What I changed
- Upfront deposits on every project (50% before work starts — no exceptions)
- Milestone payments for anything over £2,000
- Automated reminders — I set up a system that sends polite chase emails automatically at day 1, 7, 14, and 21 overdue
- Late payment interest clause in every contract (you're entitled to this by law in the UK)
- Stopped accepting Net-60 — my terms are now 14 days, non-negotiable
Result: payment chasing dropped from 2.8 hours/week to 0.4 hours/week. That's 125 hours per year I got back.
The other fixes
Admin (10.5% → 6%)
- Templated everything: contracts, proposals, onboarding emails
- Built a client tracker to stop juggling spreadsheets
- Standardised my invoicing (same format, same day, every time)
Proposals (6% → 3%)
- Created a project quote calculator with standard rates
- Pre-written scope sections I can mix and match
- Qualify harder upfront (say no faster to bad-fit leads)
Meetings (6.3% → 4%)
- 25-minute default instead of 60
- Written brief before every call
- "Could this be an email?" as an actual policy
After optimisation
| Activity | Before | After | Hours saved/week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Client work | 22.5h (56%) | 28h (70%) | +5.5 |
| Admin | 4.2h | 2.4h | 1.8 |
| Chasing payments | 2.8h | 0.4h | 2.4 |
| Proposals | 2.4h | 1.2h | 1.2 |
| Meetings | 2.5h | 1.6h | 0.9 |
| Marketing | 3.5h | 3.2h | 0.3 |
| Learning | 2.1h | 3.2h | -1.1 |
Billable percentage went from 56% to 70%. Same 40-hour week, but I'm now earning £1,400 instead of £1,125 at the same hourly rate. That's £14,300 more per year.
Or I can work fewer hours for the same money. I chose a bit of both.
What I'd tell myself 2 years ago
- Track your time for one month. Just one. You'll be shocked.
- Your hourly rate is a lie if you're not accounting for unbillable time.
- Payment chasing is the biggest ROI fix — every hour you spend on it is an hour you're not billing.
- Templates are freedom. Every repeated task should have one.
- Calculate your real rate — I built a day rate calculator that factors in all this stuff.
Free tools I made based on this data:
- Day Rate Calculator — factors in unbillable time, holidays, expenses
- Freelancer Client Tracker — track clients, projects, invoices
- Business Expense Tracker — HMRC categories, CSV export
All free, all browser-based, no signup.
Anyone else track their time like this? What's your billable percentage?
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