Welcome back to Alchemy for Authors!
Balancing the demands of a day job with the dream of being an author can be overwhelming, but it’s absolutely possible to thrive in both worlds. In this episode of Alchemy for Authors, I’m sharing practical tips and mindset shifts to help you make the most of your time, protect your creative energy, and stay focused on your writing goals—even on the busiest days.
Whether you’re feeling stretched thin or just looking for ways to better integrate your day job and author life, this episode will leave you feeling inspired and empowered to keep going.
As a bonus, make sure to download your copy of Affirmations for Authors with a Day Job here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/dnj980xva5
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Preorder J.D’s book Something I Keep Upstairs here.
- Enter to win a stay in the haunted house that inspired Something I Keep Upstairs here.
- Grab your copy of Claire Taylor’s book Reclaim Your Author Career here.
Check out my Author Resources page here: https://jobuer.com/author-resources/
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Find the full transcript of this episode below.
Please note: Some links may be affiliate links that help support the show.
Download your FREE copy of Affirmations for Authors with a Day Job here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/dnj980xva5
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Episode 98: Tips for Surviving the Day Job as an Author
Jo: Hello, my lovelies. Welcome to episode 98 of Alchemy for Authors: Tips for Surviving the Day Job as an Author.
So my hope is that so far 2025 has been kind to you. I know this year has been a bit of a tough start for a lot of people out there. What with Mother Nature and the crazy that’s going on in politics around the world. But I’m hoping that despite all of that, you, my listener, are doing okay, and you’re finding time to enjoy the things that you’re passionate about, that you love, that you’re finding time to read good books and do lots of writing.
So in the last episode, I had the lovely J.D. Barker on the show, and I just wanted to do a shout out for that episode. It is was one of my favourites. I had a lot of takeaways from it. And so I’m highly recommending if you haven’t listened to it yet that you make time in your schedule to go back and listen to Episode 97: Fearless Storytelling and the Future of Publishing with J.D. Barker. My hope is that if you’re anything like me you get some pretty juicy takeaways from that, and ideas that you can implement in your own author career as well.
Also, if you love spooky things, then I’m highly recommending that you go read some J.D. Barker books as well. And maybe enter his competition that he has for the launch of his book, Something I Keep Upstairs, where you and three friends could win an overnight stay in a haunted house on an isolated island that inspired his book. So I will make sure that all the links to all of those are in the show notes again. And like I said, if you haven’t already, go check it out.
So, in my personal news, I am really just, I don’t know, surviving day by day, I guess. It’s been a little bit of a crazy start to 2025, not as insane as it’s been for a lot of other people, mind you. But as this goes live, I am back at my day job and getting prepped. As you know, I’m a teacher, so I still have a week before I’m back with the kiddies. But there is always a lot of work that goes on behind the show. And, really most of January so far, work has been pretty heavy on my mind, not just because it always is at this time of year as I plan for the year ahead. Anybody that knows anybody in education knows that there’s a lot of planning that goes on and a lot of work and that that goes on behind the scenes. And so you’ll understand that. But I’m also navigating a little bit of burnout and that from last year. Last year was quite a tough year, in my day job and personally. And so, hence you would have heard my episode over New Years where I talked about wanting to make 2025 a lot more focused on my writing and my author career. And so this week’s episode goes along with that.
I know that there are many of you out there who are in a similar situation to me, in which at this point in your author career, you also need a day job or you’ve elected to have a day job to help sustain you financially, if not in other areas as well. Some of you listening to this, you’re living my dream life and you don’t have a day job and that’s fantastic, but you still might find that this episode has some tips for you or inspiration in how you can really help focus in on your goals a little bit more. Primarily though, this episode is for those of you juggling a day job with your author career.
Now, I know under this topic, we’re all in very different situations. There are lots of different reasons for having a day job along with a writing career. Sometimes it’s by choice. People choose that they, rather than a writing career, they might want writing to be more of a hobby. Or they enjoy having the day job and the perks that that brings, whether it’s that they love what they do, the inspiration they get from it, the relationships, the peopling that they get to do that jobs often provide us, which is important for a lot of people, particularly as writing can be a little bit of a solitary endeavour.
So whatever your reason for having a day job, mine is a little bit of everything. Primarily the job sustains me financially. What with the mortgage and the last couple of years interest rates have increased significantly and the cost of living has increased, and so having that financial stability is really important to me and my family at this point. However, I also get lots of satisfaction from different aspects of my job as well. My absolute favourite part of my job is my interactions with the people there. I work with the most amazing colleagues. I have wonderful, wonderful students. Even though I’m a big introvert, I really, really enjoy those relationships that I’ve built and interacting with other people and that. And that really goes to inspire a lot of my stories and writing anyway.
I’m also fortunate enough that I have been able to, over the years, align my job a little bit more with what I’m passionate about, which is writing and that. And at the moment, I’m a High School English teacher, primarily, and so I get to try and pass on my love for the written word to other people, and, I don’t know, I think that’s really awesome.
So yeah, personally, I get lots of perks out of my job. Doesn’t mean that I don’t have that wonderful dream of wanting to experience being a full-time author. And I’m not committing to, when I have that experience, doing that forever. I’m not going to really know if I love it until I do it. This year, however, I’m committed to my present employment. But of course that goal is still in the back of my mind, as I talked about a couple of episodes ago about one day getting to the point where I can actually enjoy and be comfortable enough making a living from my writing.
So with those goals in mind and a lot of brainstorming that I have done over the last couple of weeks, I wanted to share with you some tips that I have for helping you survive a day job. Now when I say survive, I know that sounds really quite dire because like I said, some people really love their day job and it’s not about surviving through it. So I get that’s a little bit clickbaity. But I have also had a myriad of jobs over my life in two different countries and lots of different industries, and sometimes we do find ourselves locked into jobs where it feels like we are just surviving. And I’m not here to talk about reasons why if you’re in that situation, you should maybe consider leaving, because I also know that sometimes that’s not as easy as it sounds. And so that is a personal thing that you need to come to, whether you should be remaining at the job that you’re in or not. I’ve also experienced in the past what it’s like to be in a really toxic environment and not be able to leave, not from a lack of trying. And so I do know what that’s like and I do know how incredibly hard that is and you absolutely have my sympathy for that. Because it’s not something that I would wish on anybody. However, as I talked about in some of my earlier podcast episodes, it was the catalyst to get my butt in the chair and get my first few novels written. So there is that. Sometimes we need those horrible things to happen to get us on the path that we know that we’re supposed to be on and have been procrastinating. Again, I wouldn’t wish a toxic work environment on anybody, but I’m well aware that sometimes we find ourselves in these situations.
Now, the tips I’m also going to share with you, they range from practical tips to help you get your writing done. I know something that a lot of authors struggle with who have day jobs is finding the time and that could really be an episode on its own and maybe it will be. But I am going to touch on practical tips. I am also, because it’s the nature of the show and the nature of who I am, going to share with you some of my more, maybe, woo-woo mindset tips as well. But at the end of the day, both practical and slightly woo-woo, it all comes down to mindset. Mindset is really the key to you being able to juggle both a writing career or your writing goals, obviously, not everybody wants to make writing a career, but your writing goals and a day job.
So, these are not in any order. I recommend maybe you take notes for those ones that resonate with you, and I sincerely hope that there is something here that you’re like, ooh, I might try that, and you go away feeling a little bit inspired and excited to implement some of these in your day to day.
So, first up, I want to talk about prioritising. When you are juggling a day job, your love for writing or your writing career, and all those myriad of other things that we all have going on as well like family and friends, and maybe hobbies and everything else, it is absolutely essential that we get really clear on what our goals are for the year and how we’re going to prioritise things.
So depending upon what your goal is for your writing, or your goals, I recommend not having too many big goals, make them plausible for something that you actually can work around all your other obligations. But you want to focus on those high impact activities that will get you closer to those goals. So if you’re wanting to write a book this year, obviously the writing is going to be your highest impact goal. Yes, you may have other goals around maybe establishing a social media account, if you haven’t already, establishing a newsletter list, and those can all be incredibly important, but first and foremost, you need to focus on getting your book written.
Now, I know this sounds really simple, but in my own experience, it is amazing how many times I set goals and then focus my energies on the wrong thing, on these little side quests that don’t actually bring me as close to my goal as focusing on those high impact activities. For me, I’ve talked about how this podcast in particular is going to potentially be looking a little bit different this year, fewer guest interviews as I try and claw back a little bit more time for writing my books and getting my books out there in the world, which is my highest impact goals. I want to publish more books, earn more money, yes, but the writing the books comes first. And so I have found a way to prioritise what is important to me, what I need to make room for, and how I’m going to go about making that space.
So, first and foremost, make sure that you’ve got some goals in mind of what you do want to achieve, and make sure that they are goals that are possible to achieve. Winning awards and whatnot, although wonderful goals to have, they’re things that are out of your control. So make sure that you’ve got good clarity around goals that are in your control and that they’re plausible for the time that you have. So choose tasks that align directly with your 12 month goal or your quarterly goal or whatever time frame you’ve given yourself. And then make sure that that is first and foremost on top of your mind in any planning that you do for the year ahead.
Also consider that your writing routine or your writing goals are manageable for this year. So take inventory of any big, activities or anything that you have lined up for this year. If you’re getting married, if you’re having children, changing jobs, going on vacation, keep all these in mind when you’re starting to plan out your goals, and ask yourself if your goals are actually manageable in the time frame that you’ve allowed yourself. We quite often overestimate what we can do in a short period of time. I know myself personally, I am queen of doing that, thinking I can achieve a lot more in a very short period of time. At least now I know that whatever my time frame for something is, it usually takes at least three times as long, so I can build in a little bit of that extra time.
And it’s not just about those physical activities, those physical events and that, that you might encounter throughout the year. It’s also about you knowing your energy reserves well enough. If you have a chronic illness or other health related things going on, then keep in mind what impact that that might have upon you reaching your goals. Do you need to build in a little bit more of a safety net of time to make sure that you are not overloading yourself? And that any routines or deadlines or anything that you’re setting for yourself remain manageable.
For myself, Monday to Friday, when I’m working, I need to allow myself the grace to be happy with writing anything and not necessarily meeting particular word count targets. I personally can find my job incredibly emotionally and mentally taxing and so some days I come home and there is really absolutely nothing in the tank for any quality of work or even really to do much more than to crawl my way into bed. So giving myself the grace to be okay with writing anything during the Monday and Friday, is going to keep myself in a better mindset than if I set lofty goals of having to write one to two thousand words every night. Now in the past I have been able to do that and I’ve kept myself accountable with word count goals every evening. Just the way that my schedules work, I am an evening writer, rather than early morning. As it is, I get up most days at 4:30am in the morning to attend the gym, so between that and getting to my day job early, there is not much time to do any writing until I get home in the evenings.
So, setting goals, daily goals and that, is fantastic, but again, make sure that they are manageable and give yourself the grace to change them around if you need to. For myself, where I have blocked on my calendar big chunks of time for writing, I tend to write better myself when I’ve got a big chunk of time, these tend to be more weekends, breaks, public holidays, those kinds of things. Knowing yourself well enough as to how you work, is also incredibly important because we are all different. I know I hear a lot of people saying, write in those small moments, and I will say a little bit of that if that is possible for you. Grab 15 minutes, 10 minutes here, there. I know overall for myself, I can take notes on ideas that come to me, or brief little snippets of description and things like that, but I can’t actually do any quality writing in that time, or even really string a sentence together in those short little blocks. Having my particular flavour of ADHD, I think means that I need that chunk of time, because that first while, whether it’s half an hour or even an hour in some cases, is just, you know, getting my butt in the chair and feeling my way into actually doing the work. And so that first little while is not necessarily very productive, but it is my process of getting into my writing and from there I can easily write for hours on end. My hyper focus kicks in and I’m good to go. But I am slow to get into the actual writing itself.
However, what I do want to experiment with this year is when I have breaks during the work day, which isn’t always the case, to be completely honest. And if you’ve ever known or been a teacher, I think you’ll understand this, that even though, in theory, we should have breaks through the day and lunch breaks and whatnot, there are times that that just does not happen. However, when that does happen, and I’m fortunate to actually get my breaks, if possible, I do want to try and experiment a little bit with at least writing down some ideas and whatnot, and taking advantage of that time so that when I do get home in the evenings, I can maybe speed up my process of getting into the deep writing because I’ve already got some ideas written down, or some sentence starters or something written for myself.
Right. So one of the big things for me, and this is not going to be applicable to everybody, but for myself is that I am personally wanting to work on my emotional resilience when in the work environment. Some of you are going to be incredibly lucky and you work in work environments where resilience is not needed maybe quite as intensely on a day-to-day basis. Probably being an introvert, as much as I love the people that I’m surrounded with at my day job, it can be really mentally and emotionally taxing. Also, I work with teenagers and if you remember back to your own teenage years, everything feels like it’s life and death. Every small little inconvenience can feel like a really big drama, and I have the horrible tendency to get too emotionally involved, I think, in other people’s dramas. So, building some emotional resilience. Also, when things go wrong in what I’m doing, or I get negative feedback in some instance, which happens in all jobs. If you’ve ever done customer service, then you have my full sympathy, I’ve been there and done that and it can be incredibly tough. So knowing how to protect my energy through this year is going to help me in the bigger picture of maintaining my progress with my author career outside of the day job.
So some of the things that I’m really wanting to pay better attention to this year, is making sure that where possible, I limit my interactions with particular people, and this isn’t just for the day job, this is outside of the day job too, but particular people whom I feel more mentally, emotionally taxed or drained from. Now, this isn’t always a possibility in my day job, I’m expected to, you know, interact with a lot of people and students and that. And so avoiding is not always going to happen. But there are other ways that I can set some boundaries probably a little bit better and just learn to protect my energy to ensure that I’m not taking on that emotional mental energy of other people and necessarily fighting other people’s fights for them. It’s a bit of a tricky thing for me because I do have a strong sense of social justice, and so when I see somebody being harmed in some way, my tendency is to just jump right in there and try and fix things. And I need to butt out a lot more, I think. And that would serve me really well with maintaining my energy to put towards other things, more important things like my writing.
Part of that around that building that emotional resilience and protecting my energies and that, is also making sure that I am including some real, practical kind of grounding rituals in my day to day as well. It’s really easy for me to get all tied up in my head or my emotions, and so for me personally, I need to be a little bit more grounded. One of the things that I’m doing that’s working really, really well for my mental health and resilience and whatnot, is getting back into that routine of going to the gym, which my husband and I are doing now, I think, regularly five days a week, which is pretty cool, except for, of course, the early mornings, which I’m not a big fan of. But starting every day with that physical exercise has really been helpful.
Another thing that I want to implement is also putting something in place from when I transition between work to coming home. I do my writing at home, obviously. I have a home office and everything like that. I live very, very close to my workplace, so there’s not much of a commute. So, I’m thinking of ways that I can just separate my work self from my home self and not bring with me the energy of the work day and things like that. And I had it suggested to me even just going for like a 10-20 minute walk might be enough just to, over time, signal to my brain that the work day is done, time to focus on other things, family, writing, etc. So that’s something that I’m looking at implementing as well. Doing something like a quick walk or what not to signal that the work day is over. And also, just to get bring myself a little bit more into my physical body, so I’m not stuck in all that emotion and thought and everything.
I also think it is incredibly, incredibly important, and I feel really, really fortunate in this aspect, that you also make sure, particularly if your job is really taxing, or if you’re in a little bit of a toxic workplace or something, to lean on those positive relationships in your life. Make sure that you, wherever you can, surround yourself with people that actually fill you up, that make you feel better, that energise you. And make sure that you’re doing the same for others as well, please, because I think that’s really, really important. So if you can, forming relationships at work, even that make you laugh, that make you smile, that are safe havens if you need to go have a rant, I think that is really, really important. And also forming some positive relationships outside of work so that you’re not letting the heaviness of your workplace, if there is a heaviness there, completely devour your sense of self-worth and your energies and that outside of work as well. And I’m talking from personal experience here. I have been in that situation, and so having really good friends and wonderful family and that around me, are absolute God sends and always have been. So that is something that I recommend.
Also, if you are in a situation where I said at the beginning, if you’re in the situation where your workplace is not fantastic, I know that it can be a little frustrating when people are like, well, why don’t you just leave? And sometimes there are circumstances, which means that it’s really, really difficult to do so. Whether the job market’s just not there for you to replace the income or to get into your niche or whatnot or, as I’ve had in the past, you’ve been blocked from moving on to another workplace by negative comments from your boss. These things can happen. Regardless, I think it is probably good to have some kind of plan or strategy in place for your exit, even if you don’t know the exact date. Start planning for it now because it’ll give you something to look forward to, to focus on. Remember also why you are doing the job that you are doing. It could be that maybe it is just purely for the financial aspect. In which case, remind yourself that this job is in fact supporting your dream. It is that stepping stone. It is only a chapter in your journey, but is that stepping stone to get you to where you want to be, to fulfil those goals that you have in mind for yourself. If you can, set a clear timeline to get out, to exit, then do that. Having that, knowing that the situation you’re in, the job that you feel tied to, is actually only temporary in the bigger picture, that can be quite motivating.
I also recommend just to protect your energy. To get really, really good with setting boundaries and saying “No”. Don’t be afraid to, where you can, decline projects or commitments or anything that doesn’t align with your goals or steals time from what you’re actually working toward. I think it’s really important to keep in mind what is important to you. Is it more time with your family? Is it more time to write? Then please, please learn to say no, to set those boundaries so that you can hold on to that time for the things that are important for you outside of work. I know this is easier said than done in a lot of instances, but again, trust me from experience, the more you say no, the better you get at it, and the less people expect from you in the future. When they’ve heard no a few times, they learn that you have boundaries and that respect comes.
So another tip: Remember your “why”. My very first episode, I think it was, of Alchemy for Authors, I talked about getting really, really clear on your author “why”. A fabulous book that has also helped me along my way is Reclaim Your Author Career by Claire Taylor. She comes from your motivation behind writing from an Enneagram context. But I found it really, really helpful to cut through the BS that we usually spin, particularly around the concept of we’re doing this for money, which I know a lot of us, most of us, when we talk about wanting to be an author and that, that’s not actually the case. We’re doing it for deeper things than that, but sometimes we don’t know ourselves as well as we think we do, and we come up with these ideas around our motivations for wanting to be an author that are denying some of the subconscious motivations that we actually have. And so again, Reclaim Your Author by Claire Taylor I found is really, really useful for this if you’re open to learning about the Enneagram. But remember your “why”.
And something you want to do, that I’m going to be talking about in this episode, is keeping your “why” and the reminders that you are an author at the forefront of your mind, even when you’re in the day job. And I know this can sound controversial because there’s a lot of people who are like, well, when you’re doing your day job, you should be 100 percent focused on doing your day job and you shouldn’t be thinking about anything else. I am not one of those people. For starters, I have ADHD – trying to keep my mind on any one thing at any time is near impossible. Also, as much as I enjoy my day job and that, it is not enough for me to feel is my purpose to give up 40, 50, 60 hours a week, whatever it is. I need to know that my day job, in some way, is a stepping stone towards what I feel is my purpose, my real purpose for being here, or aligned with those goals that really bring me alive. I hope that makes sense.
I personally am not opposed to keeping in mind your life outside of your day job while you’re at the day job. Obviously, you don’t want it to impact upon the job that you’re doing. I feel that I’m personally a hard worker and really give a lot to my day job and it wouldn’t feel right for me to cut corners, but it does feel right to me to remember who I am innately and what I want from my life as a person outside of my day job. And personally, I think in my particular context, it makes me better at my day job, because my students know that I’m an author. Not that they have read my books, and I wouldn’t necessarily encourage that. But I think the strength of my relationships with my students is that they know that I am a person too, outside of the school environment. So there’s that.
Remember your “why”, though. Remember why you are also doing the day job that you are doing. Remember the importance of your author career and how the day job contributes to that, and how all of this has a purpose towards moving you towards your goals and your vision. Use your vision of what you want for your author life as the fuel when you need to in your daily efforts at the day job, even when work challenges arise.
So if you’re really clear on what you want to achieve as an author, then you can find a way to align your day job to feel like it is helping move that needle for you to get closer to those goals. Which in a lot of ways may benefit your day job, because you want to do a good job. You want to earn more money, maybe to, you know, invest in better editing or book covers or whatnot. You want to strengthen your relationships with the people you work with because, hey, you never know, they could be future readers of yours. They could turn out to be some of your biggest fans. Obviously, that may not necessarily work for all authors and depending upon the genres that they write. But I have found for myself that I have somehow managed some of my biggest fans through my day jobs. They’ve just kind of come about. They’ve found out that I’m an author, that I’ve written books. They’ve looked for them. They’ve purchased them. They’ve read them. They’ve raved about them. They’ve shared them with friends. And, hey, that’s cool. That’s just a way of me expanding my audience, which was not planned, but is one of those really fortuitous, outcomes from having a day job. So there we are.
Again, I’m going back to setting boundaries at work. Make sure that you’re limiting any extra emotional labour. If you’ve got Negative Nancy in the office, who’s always coming to you to whine and complain and whatnot, then that, for starters, can be a bit of a time suck. But also, you don’t need that emotional tax on you to bring you down, to sap your energy. So find ways, polite ways, that you can move the conversation on, move yourself on and away from that person, or just shut the conversation down. Alternatively, if you are not a person who has the tendency of taking on the emotional labour of others, then it could be an amazing opportunity to mentally take some notes of your colleagues, or what not’s, dilemmas or concerns or mannerisms, because who knows how that may play into future inspiration for a character or scenario, plot point or what not in one of your future stories. Just saying.
Do protect your time while you’re at work as much as you can. Now remember as I’m going through all these tips, these are really pep talks to myself because I kind of suck at this. Avoid staying late when it’s not really that necessary. Taking on extra duties that really aren’t essential. Remember everything you say yes to, you’re saying no to something else and you don’t want those no’s to be towards things that are more important outside of your day job. Or that those no’s are actually going to cost you writing time or family time or whatnot. You know what the perfect balance is for you. There might be some things that you’re like, yeah, I am gonna do this and that’s fine. Like I said, you do you. You’ll know what’s best for you. But if you are a people pleaser who tends to say yes to everything, then I’m just going to say, just be aware that you could be sacrificing some of your writing goals along the way. So do as much as possible to protect your time.
Here’s a controversial one, but I’m going to say it anyway, because everybody’s situation is different. Everybody listening to this episode is going to hear through a different lens of personal values and that, but I am going to say, consider using your leave strategically. So if you have annual leave, maybe consider planning or blocking some of it off to use towards your writing goals. You may also, depending upon the nature of your job, if it is, like I said, an emotionally or mentally taxing one, use your leave and that, strategically for rest days or for self-care days. Like, we, as a society, I think need to get a little bit better, a lot of us, at putting our health and wellbeing first. And, if you’re a perfectionist or a people pleaser, that is something that we can struggle with. And so I guess the controversial part is that I’m saying maybe also consider using your sick leave strategically.
I know every country comes at this a little bit different between annual leave and sick leave and that. In the teaching profession, here in New Zealand, our annual leave is set for us, I guess, it’s the school breaks. And it’s actually called No Contact Time, which means that there is an expectation, I guess, that we are still getting the work that needs to be done, done during that time. We just have no contact with the students because they literally are on break and holiday. Hence, you’ll hear a lot of teachers talking about working through their breaks. We also have call back days for professional development and everything like that.
As teachers we’re allocated a certain amount of sick days during the year and I know in this profession, at least, the sick days are meant for sick days. And so it might be in other professions, you’re actually given personal days that you can take personal leave days with or without pay to attend to appointments or, other things. We are encouraged to have any appointments outside of, work hours, which is probably similar in a lot of industries. What we’re not encouraged to do is to take sick leave as personal days or personal health days or anything like that. Even taking a sick day as a teacher can be a whole lot of extra work as we have to plan for other teachers to come in and cover our classes and things like that. But as you build your author career, I do want to pose the idea that you use your leave days available to you, whatever they are, strategically with what works best for you. And that might be that you’re coming up to a writing deadline and you need to take a couple of days, call them sick days, whatever you like, you need to take a couple of personal days to ensure that you hit that deadline. Then I’m giving you permission to do so. I’m just suggesting that you keep that in mind, that that is a possibility. It might be that one week has been particularly tough, I am giving you permission to take a day or more to rest, to indulge in some self-care, and get back to where you need to be. Mainly because look, a lot of us don’t give ourselves permission to do that. And not only does that actually by not taking those days when we need them, impact upon our ability to do our day job well, because we’re not bringing the best of ourselves to our job, it’s also going to potentially encourage burnout or sickness down the line. And that in turn is going to impact upon you reaching your writing goals for the year. So if we can pre-empt getting ourselves into those states of burnout and overwhelm and take days of leave as we need them, then I’m going to encourage that.
And again, I’m saying when you need them, but also maybe when you want them. Maybe you need a day before a big in-person signing just to prep and get yourself organised and that. And yeah, you do what you need to do, because at the end of the day, this is your life. You only have this one life. Your days on this planet are numbered, my friend. And so be mindful of how you spend your days. My experience has unfortunately also taught me that we are completely replaceable at our jobs, no matter how awesome of an employee we are. The loyalty that we often give to our day jobs is not necessarily always reciprocated. And so, you do what is important to you.
So I’ve talked a little bit about creating a buffer between work and home and how I want to implement maybe going for a 10-20 minute walk or whatnot to signify the end of the work day and the beginning of my time at home, doing my writing, hanging with my husband and cats and all that good stuff. If you’ve got a commute, then maybe that’s the time that you can use to start to create that buffer between work and home. If you’ve had a tough day, and you’re on public transport or something like that, maybe you need to have a bit of a rant on paper and write down all the really dumb things that happened that day just to get it out of your system. Or, something that I tend to do if I’m having a bad day, is I put on loud music. I don’t know what it is, but loud, angry or silly music totally shifts my negative energies and that into something more positive, gets me psyched up. That is also something that I do.
Like I said, I live really, really close to my day job, so there isn’t a commute. I’ve had other jobs that I’ve really loved the long commutes, and I’ve used that time while I’ve been driving to work to listen to podcasts on writing, or to listen to playlists of music that I’ve put together for certain books and that, to keep me in the mood in thinking of that book. Even though I live really close, I still drive to work, mainly because what I take to work, backwards and forwards, I’m not able to just carry, and it’s enough of a distance for walking that it wouldn’t be very convenient to do so. So my day job’s further enough away that it’s useful for me to drive that, or I need to drive, but doesn’t take long in a vehicle. And so, not fantastic on fuel or whatnot, but I do find when I need to, I will go for a little bit of an extra drive on the way to work and returning from work, drive around a few extra blocks and that, either with my music going or listening to snippets of some podcasts or something that gets me into that positive vibe, and reminds me of why I’m doing what I’m doing, what my goals are, gets me excited. I’ve talked about how I always make playlists for each book that I’m writing and there is something about music that it instantly switches me into the gear for writing, which is really, really cool. But if I can just go for a little bit of an extra drive out of my way before getting to work in the morning, listening to those playlists, my brain is already starting to put story ideas and everything together. And I find that when I get to work, I’m in a really good mood. But also, it’s opened those doors for me to keep percolating some ideas through the day so that when I get home, I’m ready to sit down and actually do some physical writing.
Other recommendations of things that like people do to kind of break that, um, or put a buffer between work and home is, when you get home, taking a shower, changing clothes, just anything that you think will signal to your brain that the working day, that your day job for the day is over.
Like I said, these are not in particularly good order, and I’m backtracking all over the show, so I hope you can just like follow along with me, and something’s gonna jump out for you here.
Remember when you’re planning for sustainable author progress, small, consistent steps towards your goals are going to be invaluable. So again, this is that reminder to, if you can write something, every day, something is sometimes better than nothing. If you’re a little bit like me where you generally need a big batch of time, make sure that you have set aside, during the week, time that you can batch your creative work. Whether it’s weekends or you’ve set yourself some days of leave strategically to kind of get your work done. Whatever it is that allows you, built into your schedule, time to move that needle closer to your goals, but also that it’s sustainable. So if you are a person like me who likes to plan far ahead, then planning for small, consistent writing goals is fantastic. So if you’re like, okay, well, every day I’m just going to write for 10 minutes minimum. If I do longer, fantastic! But I’m going to set my timer and when I get home at this time, I’m going to do 10 minutes. Then, that counts and I want you to also celebrate that because you are creating momentum and movement towards what you’re trying to achieve, without hopefully overwhelming yourself with bigger, loftier goals.
So I want you to celebrate every small step. And it might be that you even want to keep a log of this day I took this step towards my author career, this day I did this, this day I did this. They don’t need to be big things. It might be that you just replied to a reader’s email, or you just signed up for a book promo, or you wrote, you know, 10 lines of your new novel or whatever it is. It might help to keep track so that you can celebrate that you are making progress even when you feel like you aren’t.
I’ve talked also about, in a roundabout way, minimising some of your job stresses where possible. So putting in those boundaries and putting things in place to build your emotional resilience and whatnot. Make sure that you’ve got a really good support network around you. If not at work, then definitely outside of the day job. If you are one of those people that other people, colleagues seek out for you to help them solve their problems, learn to say no. Put in some boundaries. You can still be caring about it. And direct your colleagues to the people who might be able to better help them. But make sure that you maintain your boundaries and emotional space and everything as well.
Focus on your core responsibilities. It might be that you need to go back and look at your contract for what your job description actually is. Somewhere along the line have you taken on more job responsibilities that were just kind of insidiously laid on you? Like go back to what is it that you need to do. I’m still going to encourage you to do your job responsibilities to the absolute best of your ability, but focus on your core responsibilities, not other peoples. A lot of us, I think, in our jobs can be all too eager to fix things that we see need fixing that nobody else is putting their hand up to do. Remember again that what you say yes to, you’re saying no to something else.
If you are in a tough or toxic environment at work, document everything. I know this is lots of extra work for you, but I do highly recommend that you keep a record of any negative interactions or incidences in case you ever need it in the future. It protects you. And hey, like I said, sometimes the villains in our real life, can be fantastic inspiration for villains on the page.
Right. So something else that I want to encourage, is find ways that you can transition your identity more towards your author identity than your workplace identity, and you can do this even in your workplace. It might be that you start the day visualising yourself as an author, that you mention to your colleagues or workmates or something that you are an author. In some of my early episodes, I talked about how I adopted the identity of author before I had officially published my first novel, because I was kind of saying to the universe, yes, this is who I am. This is where I’m headed. I’m going to own that identity now because it is a part of me and, Hey, look, it manifested and I’m not lying. It is the truth. I am an author. So really embrace your future self, who you see yourself becoming, and don’t be afraid to wear that identity now. It can also keep you really motivated during difficult times.
So whether you set aside a few minutes in the morning or during a break or something during the day job, you can even maybe spend some of that time visualising who it is that you are working towards becoming. Maybe instead of a three-book author, you’re working towards becoming a four-book author, because your goal for the year is writing another book or something like that.
Celebrate your milestones as well. Like really do keep in mind that even the small things, the small successes are worth celebrating. Like really be your cheerleader and build yourself up to reinforce with yourself the progress that you’re making, the steps that you’re taking towards your goals. If you are in a toxic environment, then this could be key to keep you motivated and keep you going and sustain your mental health a little bit as well.
Right. So now I want to talk about the really fun stuff, the stuff that I’m most excited to implement this year. And they’re things that I have done in previous years as well, but there’s some new ones that I’m looking forward to really doubling down on. So we’ve talked about prioritising. We’ve talked about making sure that your goals and that are manageable, some ways that you can build that emotional resilience and that in the work environment, if you’re not necessarily in the safest environment. Why it’s important to remember your “why”, to set boundaries, to consider using your leave strategically, to consider creating a buffer between work and home. That you’re ensuring that your goals and plans that you have for your author progress is actually sustainable and maybe incremental as well. The importance of minimising job stressors where possible, and how you can start considering transitioning your identity.
So this next part kind of builds on that, that transitioning of your author persona, and also ways that you can bring your author persona a little bit more into the workplace. And these are just some ideas and tips that, may or may not be helpful to you.
For myself out of sight is out of mind. And so I can get so focused on what is going on in the workplace that it is so easy for me to forget my reasons for being there and how they align with me achieving my author goals. So one way that I keep at the forefront that I am an author first, rather than a teacher, is to use a range of anchors in my environment. And, the reason that I want to put my identity as author first, beyond a teacher, is that when I’m in my workplace, I tend to only see myself as being a teacher and I can get incredibly overwhelmed, a little bit like the teenagers around me, feeling that my day job is, you know, life and death and all that. That is because everything else seems to fade away and I forget about it. So keeping at the forefront of my mind, the benefits of my day job and how it is actually beneficial to my writing career down the line, and the fact that I want a writing career, is absolutely essential to keep me motivated and in some ways sane, as I go through the day to day.
Now, like I think I mentioned before, my day job allows me financial stability, allows me the opportunity to purchase, you know, all the book related things, the covers, the editing, the learning that I want to do and everything, the software and whatnot. It also gives me the opportunity to interact with people and not be an absolute hermit, and to listen to other people’s experiences and to interact with people who’ve had such diverse life experiences. And this is all amazing fodder for story ideas, and character development and all this stuff that could find its way in different forms into future stories. It keeps me inspired is what it is. It allows me a forum for gathering story ideas.
So to anchor the fact that I am an author into my day to day, here are some of the things that I do.
I do actually always keep a writer’s notebook with me. Pretty much it lives in my handbag or on my desk. I’m really fortunate that this year at least I have a small little closet really that is my own personal office. Nobody else uses it. So it is my own space. I can do what I like with it. I have a desk, I have a chair, filing cabinet. I have all my work stuff, obviously, lesson planning, resources and all that good stuff, but I also have privacy in that I can pretty much decorate it and, and do what I please with it. I have a writer’s notebook available to me that I sometimes also bring into the class, because I have to say, kids say the most craziest things at times, and fortunately I’m an English teacher, so me saying, oh, I’m going to write that down, because who knows, it might end up in a story one day, actually it gives my students permission to also take note of what is being said, what’s going on, to make sure that they’re jotting down story ideas as they come to them. They have full permission to do so. In fact, I encourage them to also have their writers’ notebooks. And so if they see their teacher using one, then I’m hoping that encourages them to use it as well. And we have discussions around that. So I’m really fortunate that my day job kind of aligns with my writing as well, and is complimentary to it.
But regardless, even if I wasn’t teaching, I would ensure, I like good old pen and paper, I have a writer’s notebook, I would ensure that that was accessible, so that in my downtime, in the quiet moments, I can jot down any ideas, or awesome snippets of conversation, or turns of phrase, or something through the day when I have the opportunity to keep those ideas in mind. I also use my notes app in my phone as well to capture ideas because sometimes that’s a little bit more convenient. Like I said, I do want to try and get a little bit better with, when I do have breaks during the day, to try and dedicate five or ten minutes, maybe when I’m eating lunch or something, if I have that opportunity, to jot down or brainstorm any plots or characters or scenery or, you know, anything like that, that might be useful for when I get home and actually do my actual writing.
Visual reminders for me are really important, like I said. And again, this kind of ties in with my good old ADHD, the out of sight, out of mind. And so having some visual reminders of what my big goals are, what I’m trying to achieve is really essential. Way back when I had created my first reader magnet, a collection of short stories, Between the Shadows, I hadn’t yet published a book, but was determined to do so. I was using a lot of these things to try and anchor that vision in my mind. So this is where it’s a little bit like mindset slash manifestation and woo-woo. I had quite a bit of a commute at that point. I worked out of town and drove there. So I would do all the things like I was saying about listening to playlists and that, but I also printed out and laminated a copy of the cover of my short story collection, and blue tacked that onto my dashboard so that on my way driving to the job, that I did not particularly love at that time, I would catch glimpses of the cover with my name on reminding myself of my, like, it would instantly remind myself of my goals. It would make me feel a little bit cheered on that, look, there’s my name where an author’s name is supposed to be on the cover of a book. And yeah, it just it helped a lot to keep that sense of this is why I’m doing this. This is why I’m going to this particular day job that I don’t love, because, you know, it’s financing my author career. And until I find something else, I’m just going to keep at it. But it also reminded me what I was working toward.
So this year I’m considering actually putting some of my book cover mock ups actually in my office, where I can kind of see them. They’re not visible to the public. My office is so small that I don’t generally, there’s not room to have anybody else in my office with me. So it really is a bit of a personal space that I can get away with this without feeling a little bit… um, I don’t want to say embarrassed for having my book covers there on the wall where I can see them, but yeah, I just, I feel better about maybe not parading them in front of everybody. I don’t know if that makes sense. What I am going to do, though, is, put a digital cover wallpaper on my laptop that I use at work that has my book covers and that on it. It’s not going to impact my job in any way. And again, I’m pretty much going to be the only one that ever sees it. It’s my personal laptop and whatnot. And I had lots of fun creating it in Canva. So that was cool. But it’s just so that every time I open my laptop, turn on my laptop, there’s that reminder of why I’m here, what I’m doing this for, the goals that I’m working towards.
I talked a little bit about listening to inspiring content, podcasts, musical playlists for books and that kind of thing on the commute. Again, I don’t have much of a commute, but I do often have to stay later in my workplace to get jobs done and I’m working alone. I’m in my classroom. Sometimes my workplace kind of requires me to do blackboard drawings and things like that. I know for some of you, you’ve probably got a lot of questions around that. It’s a little bit unusual and I won’t go into it, but it can mean that I’m at my day job working late alone in my classroom sometimes, doing something that I actually enjoy. I do enjoy art. And I can use that time or when I’m, you know, alone in my class or whatnot with my Airpods and listening to that content that inspires me while I’m working. So I do have the opportunity for that. And maybe there’s opportunities depending upon what your day job is, where maybe you too have the opportunity to listen to music or listen to podcasts or do a little bit of, you know, learning towards your author career, without it actually impacting upon you doing your job.
I have also done, and this is a little bit different. So I have a planner that I use for work that I purchased. It’s my personal property. It’s just like a day planner that keeps me on track of what I’m teaching, what my schedules are every day, and all the rest of it. Now, I’ve changed it up a little bit this year, in that I purchased just on Amazon, it was just this little sticker set of like 50 author related stickers or something like that. And I love myself some stationery and stickers and pretty coloured pens and all that awesome stuff. And so in setting up my planner for this year with, you know, what I’m teaching and when assignments are due and all that good stuff, I also went through and stickered my planner, meaning that I had all these wonderful author related stickers of you know typewriters and quotes about writing and six figure author and all this awesome stuff on every second page or so. I’d sneak in a sticker. Because again, it’s only me using this book. It’s only really for my eyes, and having those little visual reminders of my journey and the path I’m on, it’s important to me and it works. It just, those little reminders are really needed for me. A lot of you are not going to need these. I do. So, that was kind of fun and kind of makes me smile every time I turn a page and see a new sticker. So, there’s that.
I also do make sure that even though it’s a work-related planner, like I use it specifically for work, I do also have some of my author deadlines and things like that, things that are important to me, marked in there as well. And I do that in a different coloured pen. I personally like purple, so I do that in a purple pen and I mark down, editing deadlines and things like that, so I can just, keep in mind that my day job is not my whole life and that I have other things going on in the background. I’m also hoping it’ll be useful to remind myself whenever I’m tempted to take on extra responsibilities that I have obligations outside of work and commitments that I need to keep as well. So there’s my hope.
I think it’s really important to also schedule outside of the day job, artist dates and author inspiration, and things like that, so that you can keep yourself in that creative energy. So maybe you book in throughout the year some virtual author events or conferences, or some in person ones. Maybe it is that you need to use some leave strategically to attend these and you do what you gotta do. But keeping in that creative energy and putting those things as a high priority for yourself and then working your day job around them, I think is really important. Or even just having them outside of your day job is going to help you bring that energy and that excitement to your workplace as well.
Shifting your perspective about your day job is really, really important. So frame any challenges that you come across as part of your day job and you will, because we all have, you know, our good days and our bad days, but reframe them as being just a chapter in your story and your journey towards reaching the author goals that you are striving for, but also reflect on how these experiences might inspire your writing and characters going along.
I have this horrible tendency in some professional development and just general staff meetings and that, to zone out a little if I’m not careful enough to really work on my focus. I can get bored easily if it’s something that I’m not too excited about, or doesn’t relate specifically to me, or I don’t feel is all that relevant to me doing my job well. And so in the past, I’m usually the person in the meeting who’s doodling in my planner or whatnot, because it helps me focus a little bit better. But I have also, and will continue as long as I need to, jot down notes at the back of my planner of things that I can draw from the conversation, from the professional development, or from the meeting, that could be twisted and used in future stories.
So I have done this in the past, where I’m not personally very good with first aid stuff and blood or any of that. It makes me quite nauseous and faint and all that kind of stuff, even just talking about it, and broken bones and whatnot. And when I’ve had to sit through and do like first aid certifications and things like that, the practical’s not so bad, but when I’m hearing the stories that our first aid instructors usually like to give that’s quite in depth with blood and guts, I really struggle to sit there and listen to it because it makes me feel quite ill. So, in the past, my way of getting through that is to try and be a little bit more removed and to take notes as if I’m taking notes to write a story. So, I’ve tried to come at it with a little bit more of a clinical mindset, and oh, okay, well, this is really interesting that this is how you saw this person’s injury. I’m going to write down some of the description you’re using because who knows, I might be able to use that in the future if one of my characters ever finds themselves in the same situation. I don’t know. So, yeah, I’ve done that a few times where if I’ve really struggled, and what’s been talked about is not at all relevant to me doing my job well, I will jot down notes of maybe the surroundings, the room we’re in. I start a lot of my stories based on settings, so that has worked for me in the past. Or I write details of some of the clothes that people have chosen to wear. I don’t normally pay attention to what people wear. So bringing my focus onto something like that is all stuff that I’m like, Oh, well, you never know. I might be able to have a character wear something similar, or I let’s find some creative ways of describing this that I might be able to use later down the line. So pretty much what I’m saying, my way through boring PD or meetings, not all meetings and PD is boring, but when it is, I tend to go into author mode a little bit more and treat it as research, and use it to take notes that I might be able to use in the future for my writing. So having that shift of perspective might be helpful for you as well.
I think also thinking of your current self, and being grateful for your current self doing the hard yards and setting the foundation, because that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re setting the foundation for our future self, for our future success. And when your day job does get overwhelming, just reminding yourself that this is temporary. You are working towards something greater. There is a bigger picture here. This isn’t the be all end all. It’s easy I think sometimes to get that tunnel vision and feel like we’re stuck going through that Groundhog Day, and so reminding ourselves that this is all part of our journey and maybe one day we will have a really cool origin story to share with others about how our author success came to be. Who knows?
Also, when we have those bad days and those bad interactions with others that can sometimes happen, reflecting on those experiences might also help with your writing and also character motivation. Trying to get inside of people’s motivations for doing or saying the things they do, might help you with your character development as well.
Something that I rely on a lot is gratitude. At the end of the day, and when I’m in a bad mood, I always try and list down, if not mentally, then physically on a piece of paper, all the things that I actually am grateful for. And I find that’s pretty easy for me to do now and pretty easy to shift my mindset as well, because I’m pretty grateful for a lot of things in my life. So taking the time to jot things down that you’re grateful for, I think is a really useful tool. But also, also challenge yourself to write down all the ways that your day job benefits your creative endeavours, that it benefits your author career as well.
One thing that I’ve done almost every year is I also wear a piece of jewellery that usually has my word for the year. Normally I go through My Intent, and I’ll put the link in the show notes as well. And I have a little disc and a bracelet that has my word for the year. I’ve not done that this year as I’m kind of repeating the word from last year or that little phrase from last year. But having something on my wrist that reminds me all the time of what I’m striving for is, I think, a really good anchor as well.
I have also, written up some affirmations, and I’m probably going to put them on the wall in my office so that I have them staring there so that if I have a bad day or just need a little pick me up, even just reading through this list of affirmations tends to be enough to change my mood. And what I’ve done for you is I’ve actually written these out and I will share them with you in a link in the show notes, or if you go to my website and look up this episode, there’ll be a link there for you to download my Affirmations for Authors with a Day Job. So you can have those too, and maybe they’ll be helpful. Sometimes we might just need a little bit of an affirmation or a mantra or something to keep us going through the day and keep us smiling and doing our jobs.
So I think that’s kind of the majority of what I had in mind, of tips for surviving the day job as an author, making sure that you’re making space for your writing, that it is a priority in your mind, that your author career is a priority, even when you’re in the day job. That you’re using anchors if you need them to keep your focus and to not instead get waylaid with the busyness and sometimes craziness that we endure in our day jobs.
If you are lucky enough to have a day job that actually complements your writing endeavours, then that is fantastic. I know some people intentionally choose jobs where there is downtime so they can actually work on their writing at work, or, the day job helps build some author skills as well. I have always been an incredibly shy person and don’t really like talking out loud, or in front of crowds of people, until I got into teaching. And even though it still makes me anxious at times, if it’s a crowd of people that I don’t know, like if I’m speaking about my books at an event or something like that, I know that that has helped prepare me a lot more, teaching a room full of students, that public speaking and that has really benefited and is one of those transferable skills that will actually help particular parts of my writing career as well. So if there are ways that you can align what you do in your day job with author related skills, then that is awesome.
If you’re in your day job for financial support, make sure that you’re being really disciplined with ensuring that you are putting money aside from your paycheque specifically for your author related costs and goals as well. Make sure that you actually are using your job to benefit you in that way. Make sure that you are putting some boundaries between yourself and your job, that your goals are manageable, that they’re sustainable, that you’ve really considered them in terms of how they work around your commitments with your day jobs and how you’re going to be able to reasonably meet those goals as well.
Anyway, that is a lot of talking from me. This was one of those lovely episodes that’s completely unscripted. And so I know I’m a little bit waffly and a little bit all over the show, but I’m hoping you go away with at least one tip that you could implement that might be beneficial for you, and help you keep your author goals at the forefront of your mind and keep that momentum going as we move through this year. It’s early in 2025. I know a lot of people are either already back at work or going back to work fairly shortly here, and so I’m hoping this helps set you up for better alignment for reaching your author goals this year.
So if you have enjoyed this episode or gotten anything of benefit out of it, I would really, really love if you could leave a review or tell a friend about it. Alternatively, you can support the show by making a donation through https://buymeacoffee.com/jobuer. I’m again, going to recommend if you haven’t already go back and listen to the previous episode. I personally really loved talking with J.D. Barker, and I think a lot of you might get some cool inspiration from him as well.
And I also want to remind you that I have written out, just for you, a list of affirmations and mantras that I’m going to be putting in my little office and referring to often at the day job to keep me motivated and focused and have all those feel good vibes as well. So I’ll be putting the link in the show notes so you can download that and have that for yourself and use it in whatever way feels right for you.
On that note, until next time my lovelies, I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and I am wishing you a wonderful week ahead, writing, working, both, whatever it is for you.
Bye for now.