You sound like a friend of mine who does freelance writing and editing. He thought it would be really great, he'd take a lot of Mondays and Fridays off, lots of holidays, quit working at noon. What really happened is that if he doesn't have a lot of work, he has to try and get some, and if he does have a lot of work, deadlines rule his life. He's afraid to take two weeks to go on holiday because his few regular clients might hire a substitute and decide they like the new person better.