The Day Job Blog

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Are you hard at work on projects that bring you tremendous fulfillment but don’t exactly pay in folding money? Do you face the ever-harrowing struggle of balancing creative work with life’s other responsibilities? Is the job where you spend a substantial portion of your time not what really drives you, even though you do it anyway?

Then you’ve come to the right place. We all gotta keep the bills paid.

Budgeting 101 For Creative People

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Budgeting is awesome and literally everyone should do it.  As a creative guy with a Day Job, budgeting’s especially important for me since I need to track my Day Job hours and keep the accounts balanced while I finish my novel-in-progress.  Not only that, it also shows me how I’m doing in my quest to pay off my student loans and helps me track how much of my income goes toward essentials (like rent!) and how much goes toward fun stuff (like books!). Continue reading »

How Japanese Honne and Tatemae Separate Work and Home Life, and Why You Should Too

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I taught English lessons at a for-profit Japanese eikaiwa (conversation school) in Yamanashi Prefecture from 2009 to 2011, and one of the things that most struck me about the Japanese work environment was how easily the Japanese separate their work lives from their home lives.  There’s a lot of cultural factors at work here, but the one people explained to me most often was the idea of honne and tatemae: Continue reading »

I Paid Off My Student Loans!

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…well, most of them anyway.  Last week I cashed out a good chunk of savings to pay off one of my final two student loans, a financial move that cut my monthly payment by two-thirds (!!).  That basically equates to a ton more financial flexibility each month (i.e., more cash for whatever I want).

The biggest reason for the payoff, though, was to ease the transition into working fewer Day Job Hours.  Think about this: It took me 20 hours of Day Job work each month Continue reading »

Day Job Basics #5: The Real Reason to Have a Day Job

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So in Parts 1 through 4 I went through what makes a Day Job different from a Real Job, the philosophies involved with working that Day Job, and how to find which Day Job best fits your current goals.  I talked about money, time, and handling your energy, but there’s one really, really important thing left.

Working a Day Job serves absolutely no purpose if you’re not also working toward your creative goals. Continue reading »

Day Job Basics #4: Your Ideal Day Job

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So like I talked about in Part 3, there are all different kinds of Day Jobs, and they all place different demands on your time, energy, and sanity levels.  You might still be on the hunt for a bill-paying Day Job, you might have what you thought was a Real Job until you decided to make that mental switch to the dishwashing philosophy Continue reading »

Day Job Basics #2: What Makes a Day Job Different From a Real Job?

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Sometimes Day Jobs look a lot different than Real Jobs, like when people work as waiters (or, increasingly, as Uber drivers) in Hollywood while they audition for acting roles.  Sometimes, though, it’s hard to tell whether you’re working a Day Job or a Real Job, especially if you’re not sure what your goals are.

This is a tough question, so let’s talk about washing dishes instead. Continue reading »

Why Write a Blog About Creative People and Their Day Jobs, Anyway?

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I’ve been writing for a long time, and I’ve been reading books (and blogs) about writing for almost as long: books on craft, narrative, symbolism, genre, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t think of right now.  I’ve also read a lot about how to get your writing published (there are MILLIONS of people out there who can tell you how to write the perfect query letter. Well, maybe not millions, but a lot), as well as how to make a living as an artist/writer/creative person in the internet age, where things have changed from Continue reading »