Alright, our next question is from Vinny. Vinny asks, "How should I adjust my approach to hourly billing after becoming many-fold more efficient after instituting deep work?" He elaborates, "Ideally, freelance projects would be either flat-fee based or an appropriate rate per hour." He says, "I don't always, however, have this ideal situation.

Take this contrived example. I'm billing $100 an hour with an existing client, working six hours a day for $600. After becoming a proficient deep worker, I can get the same amount of work done in two hours. Explaining this to an existing client would be tough. Would it be reasonable to continue billing for six hours after working two hours in an environment where rates can't be raised and clients won't pay by value?" Well, Vinny, you can't bill for hours that you didn't actually work.

That's not going to be the solution. The two things you said that can't happen are ultimately the two things you need to happen. So you may need different clients. You may need a different structure to your work. The traditional way you deal with getting better at your work is you raise your rates or you work less.

That is the economic levers you have. So if you become a more proficient deep worker, it's not just you get work done quicker. You're probably doing it at a higher level of quality. So the standard approach there is keep raising the rates you charge. And now for less and less work, you're making the same amount of money.

Or you switch to the value-based billing that you talked about here, and you can double or triple the amount of clients that you're servicing in the same amount of time. Those are the two options you have. Those are the two classic options as you get better at a freelancer.

I'm going to point you towards a book that I talk about a lot on this show, Company of One by Paul Jarvis. He really gets into this. He really gets into if you have a business that's basically just you. And you're not really looking to grow this into some sort of massive concern with tons of employees that you'll one day sell for tens of millions of dollars.

What's the right thing to do? And he really gets into exactly these issues. How do you get more from your time? How do you get paid more for your time? How do you figure out that balance of how much you want to work and don't want to work? How do you figure out should I take my increasing skill and efficiency to work less hours?

Or should I take my increasing skill and efficiency to make more money for the hours I work? He really gets into those questions. It's the questions you should be asking now. My only advice here is don't be so quick to say, "I can't raise my rates. I can't switch to a value-based approach." I think the reality here is that you have an existing client that's a pain and doesn't like those type of things.

Think beyond that client. Think about the future clients you could sell. Think about the future services you could sell. Think about just being super clear. This is how I work. This is how I do it. Don't take it or leave it. I'll give you one more book that gets into that latter bit as long as we're talking books.

Jenny Blake has a new book coming out called "Free Time." Actually, I interviewed Jenny Blake. There's going to be an interview with her on this podcast soon. In that conversation, which is coming out soon, and in her book, which is available now for preorder but comes out in the winter, she also gets into how she had to radically change her agreement with her clients.

Say, "I don't do this anymore, and this is how it works." Very scary. You assume that everyone's going to run away and that you're going to be homeless within six or seven days. Doesn't usually happen. If you know what you're doing, if you know what you're about, if you're delivering good work, you have more leverage.

We've got to get your confidence up to apply this leverage. So look at those two books and think, "How can I actually take advantage of my increased efficiency and effectiveness?"