This reminds me of something I think I heard Elizabeth Gilbert say in a podcast. She said in the early days she called herself her own ‘Sugar Mama’, using her day job to fund what she loved to do—write!
I think the key word in your post here is ‘boring’. If the 9-5 is stressful it depletes my energy. My job used to be busy but fairly routine and easy. My writing pattern resembled your method and flowed more when my job was this way. In recent months some changes occurred and now it’s a stressful place to be. It’s depleting my energy so I’m searching for a new less stressful one—which is like a second job!
Exactly! So glad you picked up on that. 5 years ago I had an extremely stressful job that took everything out of me. I ha zero capacity for anything else and came to the conclusion that that is not a good way to live
Karin, I really resonate with what you’ve shared here, especially about the type of 9-5 making all the difference.
Like you, I’ve found that the best creative flow doesn’t come from a high-stress job, but from one that’s structured, relatively calm, and—importantly—boring. When the job isn’t mentally exhausting, it leaves just enough bandwidth for creativity to flourish in the margins.
I love that Elizabeth Gilbert quote too—being your own “Sugar Mama.” That’s exactly how I think about it. My job funds the dream, and it protects the dream from pressure. I don’t have to monetize my creativity prematurely or compromise it to survive. That’s a privilege—and a strategy.
You’re right that job stress can become a creative block, and searching for a better-fit job is definitely like taking on a second role. Wishing you clarity and calm as you find a new rhythm. You’re not alone in that search.
You might be onto something with this, Karin, and Benjamin also clarified for me. The 9-5 needs to be on a certain (boredom) level in order for the brain to keep doing its critical work in the background. Good luck with that next job!
Benjamin, this is a great article! Everything you have just described I have been trying to tell my friends for years, and not one of them has ever listened. Funnily enough, I have been using some of the processes that you have mentioned, hence telling my friends, and they work!
People seem to get caught up with romanticising what they want without actually understanding the process they must adopt to achieve what they want. There is a process to success, which comes with rules, and having a job is the best place for those rules to be understood, however, it has to be the right job; a job that doesn't stress you and gives you that mental space to breath. Routine is a great thing also, which is well undermined and not appreciated.
Humans are creatures of habit, like all of the creations on earth. We just need to create good habits through understanding.
I have found that I am at my most creative when my mind if fully relaxed; diffuse mode, as you have stated, this allows the creative energy to flow into me effortlessly. You can't be creative under stress, that is what I have found anyway.
I really like your perspective here. That your day job shouldn't be made to be seen as something that stands in your way from pursuing goals, but can actually help you do so. I will say, I really struggle finding the time for family, work, and writing, and would be open to some suggestions.
I also really like how you break out your process. Its interesting too because within my job is when I get a lot of my subconscious inspiration. Alpha wave vs. beta wave states in your mind was also a revelation to me and how we can actually help program our minds to subconsciously accomplish what we want it to and that our need to be "ok" with boredom is critical to this. How can we create if we're constantly inundated with people, screens, doom scrolling etc.
Again, really enjoyed the read and makes me want to re-examine my own process!
Great post, Benjamin. I believe you've alluded to this before in a Note (and if I'm wrong on that, my apologies!)
One of my dilemmas - but also my salvation - is in having a 9-5 that I can apply creativity to. This is exactly what I have as a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) lecturer at three Japanese universities. The dilemma part is that it does take up my time. The salvation is in seeing learners do things they hadn't done before or felt held back from doing. When it comes to my art as a cartoonist, I have to maintain a sharp line between it and TEFL - I can't let the horses of the one interfere with the horses of the other.
But it does have this effect - right now, I'm bursting with ideas with my comic strip. One thing that helped me this winter break is that I had the time to increase my productivity to three strips a week, explore and get going with Notes, and it paid off - at the beginning of February, I had 23 subscribers on my Substack. By the time my classes resumed just this past week, I had 94.
(For anyone here from Europe or North America - if the timeframe I'm talking about seems odd, it's because the academic year in Japan begins in April and runs through to the following January, with a summer break between semesters and a winter break between academic years.) I do find myself feeling though, if only...if only I could do it full-time. If only I had an income stream worthy of the name. If only...if only...and yet I see how it makes sense to have what would seem to be constraints seen differently, as guides or guardrails, instead of going too far or too deep in absorption with one thing or another.
It is all about a balancing act - the trick is to maintain the balance.
I wish i knew this when I first started my professional career AND built a digital business. I was soo burnt out. Great read!! Thank you for sharing this with us!
I like the concept of what you're writing here, Benjamin, and I've sat here pondering for a while since reading it. I want to believe you are right. But I have doubts...
As I read through the breakout of your day/evening I wondered how to free up those hours before and after work to do the reflection and editing and writing. For any working parent out there (and you may be one, I don't know!) those are the hours spent with kids and family, if you aren't putting in extra work hours...
I am one of those people that you wrote about. The one who left, not necessarily a boring job, but one that depleted every bit of me. Parent or not, there was nothing left of me at the end of the day(s). Dream life/ job? I couldn't comprehend that. Until I made myself the priority. Only by stepping away was I able to see that something better could exist.
I would have loved to make my job work for me the way you have done. For me....I need to allow the dream to take shape apart from the 9-5.
I appreciate your perspective and I'm going to continue pondering....thank you for that!
Hi Lisa. I totally get that. Five years ago I was in a management job that took everything out of me. On days off I just felt like lying on the couch…I had no capacity for anything else outside of it and ultimately I quit it…that’s why I titled it boring job because the one I have now is very different. Ultimately it’s a case by case decision that everyone has to make but I do think that a lot of us make excuses instead of looking for solutions and that’s really what this was about.
Thanks for a great read, Benjamin! It makes a lot of sense, and after burning out in my old job/leadership role, I'll be definitely looking for something more managable next :).
It's a matter of priorities, really, isn't it? Figuring out how much of your soul you want to invest into another, and how much into yourself.
Yes it’s a balancing act for sure. I believe we have to find ways to make it work. Some people get obsessed and cut everything out of their life to focus on the side hustle… I find that imposes an unsustainable level of pressure and sets the wrong expectations for something long term.But I agree that everyone is different and it can work for some
Thank you for that clarification, Benjamin. Agreed, everyone has their own situation to work through (and it's so easy to make excuses!) I'm still pondering....so you've clearly made an impact with this one. Or hit a nerve...heh heh.
I'm with you on this one, Lisa! It's not that one's truth is truer than other's, but I think it strongly depends on the kind of job you have.
As a teacher, I used to come home completely depleted. It wasn't a matter of not being able to free up an hour here or there, but being so mentally exhausted that you couldn't string two ideas together, let alone build on a dream.
Looking back, I think the worst part is that I accepted the status quo. It felt like the most normal thing to me, to come home with a splitting headache every single day😮💨.
Yes, that sounds familiar, Suzy! And you hit it on the head saying that (we all) accept it as the norm and if we can't make it work then there must be something wrong with us. But perhaps it's the system that's the issue. Thank you for sharing!
This was such a good reminder...I really needed it today. I was mid-rant to myself (again) about quitting and building something of my own but this helped me slow down and actually rethink how routine and boundaries can support me. Thank u!
This resonates so deeply with something I wrote just yesterday: “Don’t follow your passion. It might wreck your life.”
I learned the hard way that abandoning a solid foundation for passion alone can lead to burnout, instability, and disillusionment. Passion without structure, without a container, can unravel you.
What you’ve articulated here, Benjamin, is exactly the ethos I’ve come to embrace: your 9-5 isn’t the enemy—it’s the funding model. It’s the training ground. The structure. The rhythm.
I love this idea of the 9-5 as a creative engine, not a constraint. Like you, I’ve found that my best breakthroughs happen because I’m working. Not in spite of it. The mental space between tasks, the forced routine, the steady income—it all forms the scaffolding that supports the creative process.
And this part hit me square in the chest: “If your only vision is to ‘get out’, you’ll stay trapped in escapism.”
That was me for a long time. Fantasizing about escape instead of integrating reality into a longer-term vision.
Now, I’m playing the long game. Building freedom before I leap. Using the 9-5 not as a prison, but as a platform.
Thank you for writing this. It’s exactly the kind of message more creators need to hear.
Yay. So glad I’m not the only one. It feels like it at times, it seems that everyone online is bashing jobs and telling you to quit but it’s definitely no the right approach for everyone
What a great read! All the productivity advice out there present the side hustle as the only valuable work and the 9-to-5 as an obstacle that needs to be overcome. There barely exists a take on how still appreciate the job you once chose and how to integrate the side hustle in a wholesome way.
I agree, and there are many permutations of this scenario. For example:
1. Your job is making you (mentally, physically) sick.
2. Your job is one that isn't conducive to having 'ideation and reflection' time, because your brain and/or body is too tired or overworked.
3. You've been laid off of fired, and now you have a (time bound) opportunity to *make something without going back to finding a job*.
I could probably think of several more. I've seen (and experienced) all these permutations. But mainly, I don't think it's simply one 'w2 job or self-employed creator' binary choice.
Yes agreed. There is a lot of nuance here. Most people who rail against jobs use minimum wage low agency examples. But there are many jobs which are actually a lot more entrepreneurial than starting a “one person business”
This is a beautiful bit of synchronicity. I have been stuck on the idea that I am not truly walking my path unless I am brave enough to upend my life to turn my creative pursuit into a business. My gutsense is strong thank goodness so I haven't fllowed my ego whims. After five years of focussed work towards independant publication of my poetry (thrilling)I instinctively knew that this year was calling me to do less but keep taking forward "main character" steps. Your two-hour process is gold and this article was a nod I'm on the right path.
Thanks for writing against the norm. The ideas you shared were very insightful, and the spiritual power of constraints concept really made me think a lot about my own creative process. Glad I came across your work!
This reminds me of something I think I heard Elizabeth Gilbert say in a podcast. She said in the early days she called herself her own ‘Sugar Mama’, using her day job to fund what she loved to do—write!
I think the key word in your post here is ‘boring’. If the 9-5 is stressful it depletes my energy. My job used to be busy but fairly routine and easy. My writing pattern resembled your method and flowed more when my job was this way. In recent months some changes occurred and now it’s a stressful place to be. It’s depleting my energy so I’m searching for a new less stressful one—which is like a second job!
Exactly! So glad you picked up on that. 5 years ago I had an extremely stressful job that took everything out of me. I ha zero capacity for anything else and came to the conclusion that that is not a good way to live
Karin, I really resonate with what you’ve shared here, especially about the type of 9-5 making all the difference.
Like you, I’ve found that the best creative flow doesn’t come from a high-stress job, but from one that’s structured, relatively calm, and—importantly—boring. When the job isn’t mentally exhausting, it leaves just enough bandwidth for creativity to flourish in the margins.
I love that Elizabeth Gilbert quote too—being your own “Sugar Mama.” That’s exactly how I think about it. My job funds the dream, and it protects the dream from pressure. I don’t have to monetize my creativity prematurely or compromise it to survive. That’s a privilege—and a strategy.
You’re right that job stress can become a creative block, and searching for a better-fit job is definitely like taking on a second role. Wishing you clarity and calm as you find a new rhythm. You’re not alone in that search.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, Margo. It's nice to know someone else gets it and understands!
I appreciate the well wishes and hope to strike a new rhythm soon. I can feel it humming on the horizon.
Thank you for this! 🌹
You might be onto something with this, Karin, and Benjamin also clarified for me. The 9-5 needs to be on a certain (boredom) level in order for the brain to keep doing its critical work in the background. Good luck with that next job!
Thank you, Lisa! 🙏
Benjamin, this is a great article! Everything you have just described I have been trying to tell my friends for years, and not one of them has ever listened. Funnily enough, I have been using some of the processes that you have mentioned, hence telling my friends, and they work!
People seem to get caught up with romanticising what they want without actually understanding the process they must adopt to achieve what they want. There is a process to success, which comes with rules, and having a job is the best place for those rules to be understood, however, it has to be the right job; a job that doesn't stress you and gives you that mental space to breath. Routine is a great thing also, which is well undermined and not appreciated.
Humans are creatures of habit, like all of the creations on earth. We just need to create good habits through understanding.
I have found that I am at my most creative when my mind if fully relaxed; diffuse mode, as you have stated, this allows the creative energy to flow into me effortlessly. You can't be creative under stress, that is what I have found anyway.
So true. Many people love to romanticise a fantasy life but have no intention of actually getting there
I really like your perspective here. That your day job shouldn't be made to be seen as something that stands in your way from pursuing goals, but can actually help you do so. I will say, I really struggle finding the time for family, work, and writing, and would be open to some suggestions.
I also really like how you break out your process. Its interesting too because within my job is when I get a lot of my subconscious inspiration. Alpha wave vs. beta wave states in your mind was also a revelation to me and how we can actually help program our minds to subconsciously accomplish what we want it to and that our need to be "ok" with boredom is critical to this. How can we create if we're constantly inundated with people, screens, doom scrolling etc.
Again, really enjoyed the read and makes me want to re-examine my own process!
So glad this helped. It took me a while to come to this conclusion but if we want to achieve something then we must find ways to make it work
Great post, Benjamin. I believe you've alluded to this before in a Note (and if I'm wrong on that, my apologies!)
One of my dilemmas - but also my salvation - is in having a 9-5 that I can apply creativity to. This is exactly what I have as a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) lecturer at three Japanese universities. The dilemma part is that it does take up my time. The salvation is in seeing learners do things they hadn't done before or felt held back from doing. When it comes to my art as a cartoonist, I have to maintain a sharp line between it and TEFL - I can't let the horses of the one interfere with the horses of the other.
But it does have this effect - right now, I'm bursting with ideas with my comic strip. One thing that helped me this winter break is that I had the time to increase my productivity to three strips a week, explore and get going with Notes, and it paid off - at the beginning of February, I had 23 subscribers on my Substack. By the time my classes resumed just this past week, I had 94.
(For anyone here from Europe or North America - if the timeframe I'm talking about seems odd, it's because the academic year in Japan begins in April and runs through to the following January, with a summer break between semesters and a winter break between academic years.) I do find myself feeling though, if only...if only I could do it full-time. If only I had an income stream worthy of the name. If only...if only...and yet I see how it makes sense to have what would seem to be constraints seen differently, as guides or guardrails, instead of going too far or too deep in absorption with one thing or another.
It is all about a balancing act - the trick is to maintain the balance.
That is fantasist. Congrats on the growth and also on the teaching. It is not an easy role. I tried it for a year when I was in China
Well, I’m a grizzled vet - 28 years of TEFL. But when art re-entered the picture, it did begin to have the effect it has!
Great piece. Hot takes are so rarely hot. This is fire.
Thanks Karl. I appreciate it
I wish i knew this when I first started my professional career AND built a digital business. I was soo burnt out. Great read!! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Same here. I’m going for longevity here and that means taking it a bit slow
I like the concept of what you're writing here, Benjamin, and I've sat here pondering for a while since reading it. I want to believe you are right. But I have doubts...
As I read through the breakout of your day/evening I wondered how to free up those hours before and after work to do the reflection and editing and writing. For any working parent out there (and you may be one, I don't know!) those are the hours spent with kids and family, if you aren't putting in extra work hours...
I am one of those people that you wrote about. The one who left, not necessarily a boring job, but one that depleted every bit of me. Parent or not, there was nothing left of me at the end of the day(s). Dream life/ job? I couldn't comprehend that. Until I made myself the priority. Only by stepping away was I able to see that something better could exist.
I would have loved to make my job work for me the way you have done. For me....I need to allow the dream to take shape apart from the 9-5.
I appreciate your perspective and I'm going to continue pondering....thank you for that!
Hi Lisa. I totally get that. Five years ago I was in a management job that took everything out of me. On days off I just felt like lying on the couch…I had no capacity for anything else outside of it and ultimately I quit it…that’s why I titled it boring job because the one I have now is very different. Ultimately it’s a case by case decision that everyone has to make but I do think that a lot of us make excuses instead of looking for solutions and that’s really what this was about.
Thanks for a great read, Benjamin! It makes a lot of sense, and after burning out in my old job/leadership role, I'll be definitely looking for something more managable next :).
It's a matter of priorities, really, isn't it? Figuring out how much of your soul you want to invest into another, and how much into yourself.
Yes it’s a balancing act for sure. I believe we have to find ways to make it work. Some people get obsessed and cut everything out of their life to focus on the side hustle… I find that imposes an unsustainable level of pressure and sets the wrong expectations for something long term.But I agree that everyone is different and it can work for some
Thank you for that clarification, Benjamin. Agreed, everyone has their own situation to work through (and it's so easy to make excuses!) I'm still pondering....so you've clearly made an impact with this one. Or hit a nerve...heh heh.
I'm with you on this one, Lisa! It's not that one's truth is truer than other's, but I think it strongly depends on the kind of job you have.
As a teacher, I used to come home completely depleted. It wasn't a matter of not being able to free up an hour here or there, but being so mentally exhausted that you couldn't string two ideas together, let alone build on a dream.
Looking back, I think the worst part is that I accepted the status quo. It felt like the most normal thing to me, to come home with a splitting headache every single day😮💨.
Yes, that sounds familiar, Suzy! And you hit it on the head saying that (we all) accept it as the norm and if we can't make it work then there must be something wrong with us. But perhaps it's the system that's the issue. Thank you for sharing!
This was such a good reminder...I really needed it today. I was mid-rant to myself (again) about quitting and building something of my own but this helped me slow down and actually rethink how routine and boundaries can support me. Thank u!
By all means build something else but at least get the foundations and some revenue flowing in before you quit
This is awesome. I’m sick of the escaping the cubicle marketing messages. Definitely taking advantage of the escapism we have inside.
This resonates so deeply with something I wrote just yesterday: “Don’t follow your passion. It might wreck your life.”
I learned the hard way that abandoning a solid foundation for passion alone can lead to burnout, instability, and disillusionment. Passion without structure, without a container, can unravel you.
What you’ve articulated here, Benjamin, is exactly the ethos I’ve come to embrace: your 9-5 isn’t the enemy—it’s the funding model. It’s the training ground. The structure. The rhythm.
I love this idea of the 9-5 as a creative engine, not a constraint. Like you, I’ve found that my best breakthroughs happen because I’m working. Not in spite of it. The mental space between tasks, the forced routine, the steady income—it all forms the scaffolding that supports the creative process.
And this part hit me square in the chest: “If your only vision is to ‘get out’, you’ll stay trapped in escapism.”
That was me for a long time. Fantasizing about escape instead of integrating reality into a longer-term vision.
Now, I’m playing the long game. Building freedom before I leap. Using the 9-5 not as a prison, but as a platform.
Thank you for writing this. It’s exactly the kind of message more creators need to hear.
Yay. So glad I’m not the only one. It feels like it at times, it seems that everyone online is bashing jobs and telling you to quit but it’s definitely no the right approach for everyone
What a great read! All the productivity advice out there present the side hustle as the only valuable work and the 9-to-5 as an obstacle that needs to be overcome. There barely exists a take on how still appreciate the job you once chose and how to integrate the side hustle in a wholesome way.
Exactly. and I think that’s wrong. The idea that you have to quit your job to live the dream is in my opinion just wrong
Great that voices like yours are out there
I agree, and there are many permutations of this scenario. For example:
1. Your job is making you (mentally, physically) sick.
2. Your job is one that isn't conducive to having 'ideation and reflection' time, because your brain and/or body is too tired or overworked.
3. You've been laid off of fired, and now you have a (time bound) opportunity to *make something without going back to finding a job*.
I could probably think of several more. I've seen (and experienced) all these permutations. But mainly, I don't think it's simply one 'w2 job or self-employed creator' binary choice.
Yes agreed. There is a lot of nuance here. Most people who rail against jobs use minimum wage low agency examples. But there are many jobs which are actually a lot more entrepreneurial than starting a “one person business”
"Use your job to feed the dream until the dream can feed itself. " Yes to this! And I'd add, feed me too!
This is a beautiful bit of synchronicity. I have been stuck on the idea that I am not truly walking my path unless I am brave enough to upend my life to turn my creative pursuit into a business. My gutsense is strong thank goodness so I haven't fllowed my ego whims. After five years of focussed work towards independant publication of my poetry (thrilling)I instinctively knew that this year was calling me to do less but keep taking forward "main character" steps. Your two-hour process is gold and this article was a nod I'm on the right path.
What a great read! I never thought of it like that. Thanks for the new perspective, I appreciate it.
Thanks for reading Michelle. I truly believe that the solutions are much closer to us than we think
Thanks for writing against the norm. The ideas you shared were very insightful, and the spiritual power of constraints concept really made me think a lot about my own creative process. Glad I came across your work!
Thank you Yashriaj. It’s always worth revisiting common sense concepts