I quit my job today. Well, officially, I gave notice last Friday, then I told my boss' boss today. But my last day is almost three months from now. You see, I can provide a generous notice because I don't have another job lined up (yet).
People have already inevitably begun to ask me what I plan to do. I anticipated this, so a few weeks ago I started a list of possible responses. Here they are, in no particular order:
- I’m writing a screenplay. I need to finish it by next March so I can submit it to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
- I need more time to make art in my cozy little backyard studio. Preferably before I turn 65.
- I’m starting a podcast (and/or support network) about(/for) other artists in offices.
- I'm going to revive my boutique wedding invitation design business. But maybe explore platforms other than Etsy!
- I’m working on a kids’ book based on the Cosmos series, starring a cuddly tardigrade as Neil deGrasse Tyson.
- I’m planning to volunteer at the cat cafe until they just give me a job.
- I’m compiling a “quit your day job” bibliography (see below) that will eventually be turned into a manuscript for a self-help book with the working title: “Little Boxes: How to get out of the office and into the studio...” (or something like that).
- I'm going to figure out how to make hand-stitched felt phone cases for Android, minus the carpal tunnel syndrome.
- I’ll be making videos for my YouTube channel “dances with kids” of me, dancing with my kids.
- I’m developing recipes for a cookbook called “Sweet on Oakland: Cookies Inspired by Oakland Neighborhoods".
- I’m starting a food truck business that serves only peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. Each PB&J order comes with a free carton of milk!
- I’ve signed a NDA and I can’t tell you where I'm going from here.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that not many of these responses will satisfy the question, "what are you going to do?" So, in other words, what people really want to know is, "how do you plan to make money?" Because, as you can see, I have no shortage of things to do to fill my time. And I do plan (hope) to monetize a few of them.
Before I get to the "quit your day job" bibliography promised above, here's a collection of thoughts I've already posted on this topic since my second kid came along over four years ago:
- 7 months post-break with baby #2, business not exactly picking up as I'd hoped
- Quit your Etsy shop! I got a day job.
- I got a day job, part 2.
- Work less, make art (that brief moment I worked an 80% schedule for all of 5 weeks).
- Aaaaaand back to 100% FTE I go.
- Katy Caboose, Hopeful Romantic (That moment I identified with a children's book character, a caboose who's "conflicted between her overwhelming feelings of unhappiness, self-doubt around the legitimacy of those feelings, and the fear that comes with making a change".)
Additionally, here are some things other folks have written on the topic, suggested further reading (and a few things to listen to and watch) if you're looking for a "work less, make art" reader:
- I Quit My Job Today, by Sarah Knight (plus related TEDx talk)
- On self-employment, workaholism, and getting my life back, by Lisa Congdon
- Happiness research shows the biggest obstacle to creativity is being too busy. Duh
- It took a century to create the weekend—and only a decade to undo it.
- Sol LeWitt’s Electrifying Letter of Advice on Self-Doubt, Overcoming Creative Block, and Being an Artist
- Doing Something Creative Can Boost Your Well-Being
- Money-Rich and Time-Poor: Life in Two-Income Households
- Avant-Garde Musician Forrest Fang On the Art of the Double Life
- Leisure, the Basis of Culture: An Obscure German Philosopher’s Timely 1948 Manifesto for Reclaiming Our Human Dignity in a Culture of Workaholism
- Viola Davis’ Best Supporting Actress Oscar Speech Totally Steals The Show
- Key takeaway: "I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life."
- 35 Odd Jobs Celebrated Painter Agnes Martin Held Before She Became an Artist
- John Cleese on the Five Factors to Make Your Life More Creative
- Why Capitalism Creates Pointless Jobs
- The Swan and the Blue Sail: Patti Smith on the Creative Impulse and the Childhood Epiphany in Which She Knew She Was an Artist
- Get out of debt with the debt snowball plan (so that you can work less and have more time for art!)
- The futility of the workout-sit cycle
- #QuitYourJobIn5Words
- Werner Herzog’s No-Nonsense Advice to Aspiring Filmmakers and Creative Entrepreneurs
- How To Retire Early And Travel: 20 Insider Tips From A 33-Year-Old ‘Retiree’
- Willa Cather on Productivity vs. Creativity, Selling Out, and the Life-Changing Advice That Made Her a Writer
- To Work Better, Work Less
- Geoff Dyer on the Paradoxical Rewards of Our Capacity for Disappointment
- How Talking to Passionate People Propels You Forward
- Freelance to Fulltime, via A Little Hut (link is to part 1 of 2)
- Specific to motherhood:
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Perspective That Comes With Motherhood
- Mother, Writer, Monster, Maid
- You can be a mother and still be a successful artist
- Listen:
- The Leap
- Why is my life so hard, via Freakonomics
- How Silicon Valley Can Help You Get Unstuck, via Hidden Brain
- Married To Your Business, via StartUp
- Watch:
- Pöpcørn: Recipes with The Swedish Chef, via The Muppets (because this is how I feel most days at my day job)
- Spike Jonze's commercial for Kenzo perfume (anyone who's ever worked as an arts administrator will understand why this is relevant)
- The case for the 32-hour work-week
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment