I am currently unemployed, but I used to be self-employed- as an internet-based jeweler. There is an old cliché about being self-employed: you can choose to work any 90 hours a week that you want. There is a lot of truth to it. It takes a lot of work to run a business like mine, and I worked my butt off for a number of years there.
However, as I was my own boss there were things I could choose to do on my own. My accounting system was my own. My expensing system was my own. I could write things down my way and keep track of things the way I felt like it.
My business operated fairly locally, and the majority of my travel was by car. But, for instance, if I had a potential client (I did high-end sales on contract) in Buffalo, I could make an appointment to view the stone for sale at any reasonable time for them- lets say 6:30 in the evening after they get home from work, with the assumption being that we'd discuss it over dinner. I talk with them and discuss with them, I tell them the stone will be worth, lets say, $30-40k. We agree to terms, a contract, a 5% or $1750 commission based on the greater, with my listing for sale the next day and a guarantee of sale by 12 days from the meeting.
Now, I have a lot of options on this. I could leave my house in New Jersey at 5AM the same day and drive like mad to get to Buffallo in time, check into my hotel after the meeting, and list the stone from my laptop the next morning. Or I can leave the house at 3 pm the day before, get there at 3 in the morning, grab a hotel room, and get up at 3 in the afternoon to prepare for the meeting.
Because I could set my own pattern of life, there were methods of travel and living availible to me. But I wouldn't say it gave me more time. Just time more on my own terms.