As a freelancer and creator, I’ve always felt a sense of guilt about my work.

I thought I wasn’t productive enough, that I could be doing more, that I was lazy and disorganized.

Now that I’m older and wiser, and achieved some level of financial success, I can say with more certainty exactly how much work it takes to get where I am.

So this post is for anyone who, like me, has that feeling of guilt that they’re not doing enough.

My earnings as a content creator

In January 2025, I earned $4,751 as a content creator. Not a huge amount of course, but this is my main job since 2023.

It’s completely passive income and allows me to travel the world as a digital nomad.

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So how much work does it take?

Most days I’m only productive for around 3-4 hours.

Some days it’s only 1 hour, some days it’s 8, but it usually adds up to 20 hours per week.

Yes, this looks like only half of the 40-hour week that most people are doing.

I must be really lazy, right?

But do people really work 40 hours per week? Is every minute of those 8 hours spent working? Of course not.

Studies show the average employee only works 2-3 hours per day.

What are they doing the rest of the time? Here are some of the responses:

  1. Checking social media – 44 minutes
  2. Reading news websites – 1 hour 5 minutes
  3. Discussing out of work activities with colleagues – 40 minutes
  4. Making hot drinks or smoking – 40 minutes
  5. Searching for new jobs - 26 minutes

I mean, I do all that stuff too. I just don’t count it as work. If I counted all that I might say that I’m working for 6+ hours each day because that’s how long I spend in front of the computer. But honestly, it can’t be called work.

Nobody is paying me to be at the desk. Unlike an employee, who is ‘working’ as long as they are physically at work. If I’m not being productive, I might as well go and do something else. So very often I do.

The bottom line is that my productivity is about the same as the average office worker. So I’ve stopped feeling guilty about these 3 hours of work per day.

Defining ‘productivity’

One last thought.

In video games, there’s a concept of the ‘main quest’ - the one that progresses you through the story, and the ‘side quest’ - a mission you do for some extra perks, but it doesn’t progress the story.

I think about that a lot.

In work, and even in life, I remind myself to do the main quest. Work that moves the needle.

For me, that’s creating content - writing, recording, editing, or coding.

A side quest would be accounting. It’s a necessary part of business, but it doesn’t generate income. The biggest side quest for me is answering emails. That’s a tricky one because it doesn’t generate income, but I don’t want to be rude.

Anyway, there are lots of things that people consider productive work, but really are just side quests.

Question this constantly. What I’m doing right now - is it moving the needle?

If you focus for 3 hours a day on your main quest, then I’m sure you can achieve success as a content creator.