Q. I seem to always have difficulty balancing my schedule, with deadlines driving my working day. I thought that freelance work was liberating, but I’ve found that working for myself is as stressful as being employed full-time.

A. Welcome to the real world of freelancing! Working in your pajamas, sipping lattes at the coffee shop, or turning down all gigs in favor of plum assignments isn’t the way that we work. Okay, we can do all of this and more, but not on a daily basis.

Since launching out by myself in November 2002, I have had to relearn the whole employer-employee relationship. It has taken time, but my employers are now clients while I am not an employee, but a contractor. The difference may only seem trivial, but it is much deeper than that — I don’t feel beholden to anyone, nor is anyone beholden to me other than what the contract stipulates.

This means that I am free to negotiate the terms of the contract, set working parameters, and have a lot more leeway in the way that I do my work and complete projects. I still work very hard, but the master-servant role has given way to a partnership of sorts — we need each other.

Stress is a part of life, but it doesn’t have to control the way that you work. Deadlines must be met, but perhaps you should re-examine how they are set up in the first place. I can’t make writing easier for you, but I can encourage you to rethink your business relationships which can help reduce at least some of your stress.

Once you overhaul your business model, then you will find that self-employment beats working for someone else hands down.