Hit 400 contract reviews in one month and my brain is still rebooting

I do freelance legal document review on the side, mostly for small businesses. Last month I somehow blazed through 400 contracts in 30 days, which is like a personal record for me. It started slow but then a batch of real estate leases came in from a property management company in Phoenix, and I just got in a zone. I was reading boilerplate clauses in my sleep, dreaming about indemnification sections. The milestone mattered because it proved to me I could handle volume without losing my mind, but also showed I need to cap my workload or I'll burn out. Has anyone else hit a crazy number like that and realized their limit the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.eva2h ago

400 in a month is brutal, I've been there and it fries you.

kai8396m ago

400 is a lot? Man, some of us WISH we could get 400 hours in a month. When you're grinding freelance or running your own thing, that kind of pace is just how you SURVIVE. @hannahj49 talking about scrambled eggs and twitching eyes, I get that, but a lot of people would kill for that kind of work. It means you're in demand, people need you, and you're stacking cash. Sure it's rough, but complaining about a high workload is a good problem to have compared to staring at an empty inbox.

hannahj492h ago

True that, 400 in a month turns your brain into scrambled eggs. I hit that once during a crunch and started having full conversations with my coffee mug. By week three, I was pretty sure my left eye was just permanently twitching and would never stop. The weird thing is, you don't even realize how fried you are until someone asks you a normal question and you reply with a work term they don't understand. Totally feel your pain on that one.