You will stay on top of deadlines better
In your freelancing, when you promise out work, you (should) deliver when the deadline has come, or earlier. You don’t want to let your client down and hurt your reputation when you don’t deliver on time. Freelancing helps your academic career because once you get in the mindset that deadlines actually matter, you will never turn in another late assignment again. Because most professors do not allow late assignments, this hurts your grade quite a bit when you don’t turn one in.
Just like it hurts your reputation if you don’t deliver on time, and just like it hurts your grade when you don’t submit something on time, deadlines are vitally important in both freelancing and academia. Thus, improvement in one realm will surely pay dividends in the other.
You will stay better organized
Since it will hurt you greatly if you don’t keep your freelance business organized (i.e. invoicing, receipts, taxes, contracts, etc.), most freelancers quickly learn to get organized fast. This can help you with your academics as you will want to keep everything in your life organized, which will rub off on your academic career.
Being organized doesn’t only mean knowing where to find stuff either. It also includes knowing when to get things done (a to-do list and mad scheduling skills), planning ahead, and a host of other things that all will also help you in your academic career as well.
You will focus more in your classes
Having the experience freelancing and learning all the things involved with your particular field, be it design, photography, copywriting, etc. will make you want to learn more. This it will help you pay more attention in your classes that are tied somehow to your freelancing.
For instance, if you are a designer, you will more than likely pay more attention in your design-based classes, and want to produce better work in those classes as well. If you are a copywriter, you will more than likely pay more attention in your technical writing classes and brush up more on grammar and spelling, not to mention putting in the extra effort in your writing assignments as well.
More focus in your classes will surely pay off not only in your academic career where your grades are concerned, but can help you take the newly-learned knowledge from your classes and start applying it right away to your freelancing career.
What are some of the ways freelancing has helped your academic career?