I go back and forth on this all the time.
I’ve had workdays where I had thousands upon thousands of things that needed doing, To-Do lists a mile long, people asking me every two minutes to do more things, and a string of deadlines that I absolutely had to get done no matter what. And it sucked.
But then I’ve had jobs where there wasn’t nearly enough to do (or nothing of any real importance to do) so that I had to stretch out what little work I actually had over hours and hours as I faced near-interminable boredom and a fury of clock-watching that made me feel like I’d be stuck there forever with no escape. And that sucked too.
This begs the question: Is it better to have a Day Job where you feel busy and overwhelmed, or one where you feel bored and underused? And which one is more conducive to doing creative work on your own time????
How I Feel When My Day Job Gets Busy
The Pros
Usually, a workday that’s busy in a good way (Let’s tackle some challenges! Look at this kick-ass thing I did! etc.) leaves me feeling energetic and positive, like I could keep working all night and do anything in the world I wanted to do. After days like this I come home excited, full of ideas, and eager to start the next project, and I’ve been known to go straight into other productive work (ranging from novel-writing to housecleaning) just to keep the momentum going.
One of the first entries I ever wrote in this blog was about staying focused at your Day Job so you can develop good work habits that can carry over into your personal work, and I absolutely stick by that. As much as some of us like to keep our Day Jobs separate, what happens there affects us in real ways that can be positive or negative, and the energy boosts we pick up after a focused day at work can be powerful, useful, and addictive.
The Cons
Honestly, though, it’s hard to keep this momentum going for long, because after too many super-busy workdays I tend to get really burned out really fast.
Too many busy days and too much stress leave me feeling pessimistic (“This hellish burn will never end!”) and drained (“Uggggggghhhhhhh all I want to do is lie down….”), both of which are negative feelings that I’d like to avoid in my creative worklife.
After a busy day I’m usually struck by the urge to lie down, though I don’t actually nap per se—instead, I take some distraction-free time to block out any and all remains of the workday so I can clear my head in preparation for getting some distinctly non-Day Job work done that night. The busier the day, the more head-clearing I tend to need, which means more wasted evening time and a greater likelihood that I won’t be working at my best.
Being too busy at a Day Job also tends to cause me a lot of external worry (What if I don’t finish the project in time????) that continues to nag at me outside of work, especially when I’m trying to focus on a project or clear my head before bed. Worrying too much before bed means I won’t be able to get to sleep, and not being able to get to sleep means I won’t sleep well, and not sleeping well means I won’t work well, which means that not only is my ability to work lowered by the stress, it’s doubly lowered by the lack of sleep. (Damn.)
Finally, being too busy at work often means that I have to work overtime, and any overtime I work is 1)Time that I can’t spend doing other things, and 2)Liable to make me think about work when I want to be thinking about other things. Not exactly conducive to getting your creative work done, is it?
How I Feel When My Day Job Gets Slow
The Pros
Then there are days when my work gets slow, and I tend to do a lot of…well, nothing.
These are the days when I come home clearheaded, not thinking about work at all (there’s nothing to think about!) and also eager to jump into a writing project—and since I’m not working overtime or spending an hour laying on my bed after work to de-stress, I find myself with even more time to spend on the work I want to be doing.
In a perfect world, I can get even more done during these slow periods if I can sneak in some personal work time during my Day Job—which I’ve managed to do a few times over the years ;-) Besides answering emails and paying bills while on the clock at my Secret Work-From-Home Day Job, I used to work a super-chill job checking boats at a lake while I was in college where I could read books during the slow times—which was often!
The Cons
Honestly, when my work gets too slow I start to feel shitty all the time. I find myself counting down the hours until lunch, the hours until the end of the day, and even the hours until a meeting (!!!!!!) that’ll break up the monotony. This leaves me feeling anxious, distracted, and oddly tired at the end of the day…which, ironically enough, also makes me want to zone out for a while before I dive into creative work, just like if I’d just worked a full and busy day.
Slow days also leave me with a lot of time to think, which can be really good if I’m mulling over a project (ideas for the novel, stuff for this blog, etc.) but really bad if I’m worried or distracted by something, which means I’m going to think about that worrying or distracting thing a lot. (Busy days, in contrast, tend to help me forget about problems that are bothering me—a useful fringe benefit of working!)
I also do a lot of phone checking when I’m stuck at a slow workday because I’m looking for something, ANYTHING in the way of stimulation to break up the day, and a stray phone message or email can be just what I need to get a little dopamine fix. Once again, the end result is that I feel scatterbrained and distracted and have to clear those feelings away afterward.
The Verdict
So it seems like when I’m too bored at my Day Job I feel tired, anxious, and distracted…and when I’m overworked at my Day Job I also feel tired, anxious, and distracted. How’s that for an M. Night Shyamalan twist?
Ideally, of course you’d be able to balance (who’d have thought?) between the two extremes so you could bring the positive energy from a focused workday into your non-Day Job work without suffering the negative effects of stress…but again, that’s an ideal scenario that ranks almost as highly as not having to work a Day Job at all. So, given the reality of two extremes, what’s the better way to lean?
Honesty, I’ll take the boredom route every chance I get—as sickeningly and excruciatingly bored as I’ve gotten at certain Day Jobs, and as slowwwwwwwwwwwwly as the time crawls by when I’m there, the negative effects from being bored aren’t as drastic as the negative effects of being busy, and once I’ve settled into evening worktime I’m able to tackle my real work with all the energy I wasn’t spending during the day, and that makes a big difference.
My weekends too tend to be even more productive, since instead of sleeping through half of Saturday to clear away the post-workweek exhaustion, I find myself getting up earlier and making better use of my weekends because I’m less tired, and that makes a big difference too.
Still, the boring Day Jobs aren’t always easy to get, and even if you can get one the job itself might not be for you. Rather than taking my advice as absolute truth, try thinking of it as a beacon to keep yourself on track through the tangled Day Job jungle, so at least you have an idea of what to aim for.
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