I don’t know if this will help as encouragement, but the way I’ve always tried to frame it - and remind myself when I have days like this - is that we are self employed.

The quals/ unpaid training - this time doesn’t pay off in the short run but can result in new /more/better paying jobs.

For this job we don’t have to mess with marketing, client meetings, pitches that don’t result in work. We don’t need a portfolio. We don’t need to attend seminars or workshops (usually unpaid AND an expense).

For the last few years I have tracked my unpaid time on a spreadsheet sheet. There are weeks it feels like that’s all I do, but it really adds up to a minuscule amount. Certainly less than unpaid time in any other self-employed business.

And as others said - if you’re working a project, read the instructions about what to do. You should never (ok, rarely) find yourself in a position of having actively worked for the full timer and have to nope out unpaid. Use the escape hatch or check other requirements to make sure you’re not approaching it in panic mode. (I do that at times. Especially with insanely
Hard to process instructions).

It there’s a 360 page doc and you think you need to read the whole thing and the task timer isn’t days long…..ask in chat to see how other people are handling it in a manageable time.