I chose to be forthcoming about my freelancing capacity because I already have a busy schedule, and I don’t want to invest energy on something I obviously cannot do. This also helps prospective employers, as they do not waste time on a freelancer that is not well-suited to the project at hand. Everybody wins!

That said, I can afford to do this since freelancing is not my primary source of income. Others may feel differently; indeed, in lean times one might want to take everything that passes by and simply burn the midnight oil.