1) How do I follow my passion with a Day Job
I speak with artists who often have a day job that’s completely unrelated to art – But would like to practice art, make cool projects and follow where their heart leads.
The problem – They don’t know how. 🤷♂️
I was one such person whose day job wasn’t art – and I wish I could share some actionable tactics on how to go about ‘cultivating your passion’ without having to quit your job.
Because it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It’s not a binary.
Here’s the first tactic:
• The Rule of 1-3
It’s simple :
– Decide (1) ONE project you want to create in a given quarter (12 weeks)
– Spend 3 Hours of Focused effort/week on that project.
3hrs of deep focused work per week – For 52 weeks is 150hrs/year. 🤯
You can do a lot with 150hrs.
– You can make a Comic Book
– Create a 3min Animated Short-film
– Create a 20-50 part Illustration series.
– Make a Children’s book
– Create and Run an Art YouTube channel
And many more. ✏️
– You can schedule this 3hrs as one solid block per week (I like saturdays)
– or 2 x 90min Blocks/week – Wed and Sat or Tue, Thur
– or 3x1hr Block per week
Never underestimate the power of compound effect. It’s apparently the 8th wonder of the world. 😮
2) No Time to Draw
Here are some other tactics to “follow your passion” without loosing the roof above your head.👇
– Spend 15mins/day first thing in the morning working on your passions.
– Always work on ONE project/season. Avoid the lie of a “multi-passionate creative”.
– Focus weeks – Getting a week off from work? Time to run a week long sprint on your project.
– Focus weekends – Spend one whole weekend once In a while to gain some leg up.
– The Instagram rule: Check your time spent on Instagram – Dedicate at least that amount of time/day on your work before browsing reels (I know you too well my friend ;))
– Prioritize a Consistent/sustainable routine over a hard, perfect one.
– Take at least one solid rest day a week (crucial for creativity)
Finally – Believe that it’s possible.
– Anthony Trollope wrote 50+ Novels working a post office job.
– Einstein had a day job when did some his important work in physics.
You don’t need to quit to start. If you haven’t started already – the job isn’t what that’s stopping you. It’s managing time. ⌛
3) Favourite Quote of the Week
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.”
– Seneca
That’s it.
I’ll see you again next week 🙂
Best,
Kesh.

