Lovely Girl   +  special

This weekend I met up with a friend from college who has a cushy new consulting job. "My boss is so chill," she gushed. "We get six weeks of paid time off, and I can take a day off whenever I want."
I almost choked on my veggie burger and asked for a referral. Almost. "Yeah, my boss can be a real b**** sometimes," I confided. "She wouldn't let me take off Columbus Day, and she makes me put in lots of overtime."
My friend laughed, thinking I was kidding. I wasn't.
Show of hands: how many of you work harder and longer at freelancing than you did when you were working for the man?
I thought so. Many of us leave our jobs for the flexibility of freelancing, then end up feeling we're chained to our laptops pounding out query letters and emails to editors (or maybe that's just me on an especially intense day). Of course, most of this pressure is self-induced, because freelancers tend to be highly driven and hard-working. And we'd rather boss ourselves than have someone else running our lives.
Steph Auteri has a great post reminding us not to skimp on sleep, food, or bonding time. How do you balance your personal needs with your professional drive? When you're crunched for time, what needs are non-negotiable?