DayJob v ArtJob, Round 1 goes to DayJob

I’ve been busy at work. 12 to 15 hours a day busy.

I hope that it will mellow out today, and I will be able to get back on schedule.

I have an ambitious schedule of art production after all. I paint on Monday and Tuesday, draw on Wednesday and Thursday, and work on print projects all weekend.

The impact on my “night” schedule when I am this busy at work are two-fold:

  1. I spend many hours at work, hours I planned to spend creating art. I was at work till 10 pm last night, but my schedule has me painting from 7-10 on Tuesday nights. No painting got done.
  2. After 12 hours at work, I am too tired to get anything done at home, even basic stuff like clean up. Last weekend, after working over 12 hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I had to spend most of saturday doing chores like laundry, dishes, running errands and cleaning my apartment. I didn’t get to spend 4 hours with the brayers and blocks, making prints, as I had planned.

When I have to spend my nights working at DayJob, not only does it displace the time I scheduled that night to work on art, but it displaces time afterwards that I have to spend catching up.

It has been a conundrum, and not how I planned to start the year. I set a rigorous schedule of art production for myself so I could start strong, right out of the gate. Instead I got put in another race.

It’s not necessarily bad, because the work I am doing at DayJob right now is decent, and I have gotten some assignments that I am interested in, and bestow me with greater responsibilities.

When I come home from work however, I see my art supplies waiting for me, and I see my calendar listing out what I planned to accomplish that night, and I know that it is too late, and I am too tired, to get it done.

When I get set back liek this, and I get tired like this, it has a toll on my emotions. I feel dissappointed, and I end up feeling sluggish. My energy levels go down.

What I am learning is that some days, and some weeks, I will have to put art on the side, so I can do a good job at DayJob, bring home the bacon, and pay the bills. It may set me back a week or two, but it is what will create success for me in the art field.

The trick is to realize that I have not gotten behind, but have just spent my time in other ways. I don’t focus on what I didn’t do in the past, but what I will do in the future.

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5 Responses to “DayJob v ArtJob, Round 1 goes to DayJob”

  1. Dave Doolin says:

    How is this week working out?

  2. Deacon says:

    About the same as last week.

    I was at DayJob till 8:30 last night.

    I lost Monday to an irrational drive to get a new bass guitar. Hopefully by this weekend I will be caught up and ready to finally storm the gates.

  3. Fran Civile says:

    quote”The trick is to realize that I have not gotten behind, but have just spent my time in other ways. I don’t focus on what I didn’t do in the past, but what I will do in the future.”end quote

    You have your answer in those words you wrote Deacon…
    Fighting what you can’t change saps your energy without any satisfying
    results for your art or your day job… and you mentioned some good things
    about the work at the day job 🙂

    File your plans while you flow with life’s gifts…

    Fran

  4. Deacon says:

    Thanks for stopping by, Fran!

    Discovering how to manage both a full time job and a full time aspiration (other than my job) is tricky. I’m discovering what works for me as I go.

    I also discover a whole lot about what doesn’t work.
    .-= Deacon´s last blog post ..Inspiration, Perspiration, Motivation, and Grueling it out =-.

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