I’ve often mentioned here that I seem to have my feet in two different worlds. There’s the world where I go forth and make money to buy the things I think I need, to pay my bills and to save for the child I don’t have yet’s college education.
There’s also the world where I fulfill my creative needs by writing or expressing myself in other ways. I also call this the “real work” world. If you’re a writer, you know what I’m talking about.
Most of the time those two worlds do not converge.
With 2011 winding down and with me being another year older (and presumably wiser), it’s occurred to me that I need to make those two worlds converge more frequently. In other words, how can I make more money doing that which creatively satisfies me?
I realize this is quite the dilemma for so early in the morning (I’m writing this at around 6AM Pacific time) but these are precisely the times when you tend to think about these types of weighty issues. I can’t help it, the thoughts just come to me and they need to be addressed — sleep or other considerations be dammed.
Returning to my point, I need to figure out a way (or ways) to make money doing what I love. I’m sure people out there must have faced a similar situation, so if you’re reading this and feeling inclined to help, chime on in.
Until help comes from unexpected but welcome corners of the Internets, I’ve gone ahead and formulated a plan on my own. Or, at least I’ve got an interim plan until something better comes to mind.
In truth, my plan is relatively simple as it involves doing pretty much what I already do and how I do it. The main difference is in how I will allocate my time during the day and what I will focus on.
For example, under this new plan I will now spend as much time writing something (a short story, script, blog post, etc.) as I do on the Internet. I include time spent on Facebook, Twitter, etc. in that as well. I also do this in hopes of reducing the time I spend reading Twitter, on Facebook or reading mindless blog posts.
Going along with that will be an attempt to “reduce the clutter” of my online information stream. In other words, I will visit fewer sites less frequently and try only to read those sites that feature what I consider to be “good” writing and not attention grabbing link bait disguised as writing.
I will also schedule my day better. I will allocate blocks of time to tasks and only do those tasks during that specific time. Of course, this will have to be somewhat flexible to allow for creative bursts of energy and inspiration so if I’m “on a roll” I don’t have to cut it off to fit a particular schedule.
Going along with that I will also have a definitive cutoff to the day when I won’t, for example, answer emails from clients or deal with other matters that don’t have anything to do with the creative world.
I think the term I’m looking for here is balance. Although, that may not be exactly applicable in this case. I’m not looking for balance, per se, I’m actually looking for a way to spend the vast majority of my time in that second, creative, world.
The best case is that those two worlds converge completely and I spend all of my work time doing those things which make me the happiest. If I could make a few bucks in the process, all the better.
Obviously, I’m still working on the full plan, but I feel pretty good about it so far. At least I’ve mostly identified the problem and are taking some steps to remedy it.
I know I can do better and I know this plan will evolve over time like any good one should. Stay tuned to see how the goes.
But until then, this is what I’ve got. And really, what did you expect at 6AM?
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Note – I’m not sure what the pic above has to do with this particular topic. I just like it, okay?