Building A Dream Job

This past weekend I went with Ceyshe’ to her aunt and uncle’s house on Tsaile Peak to participate in a Blessing Way ceremony for them and their new house. The ceremony actually goes on for several days, but the part we were there for was mostly just an all-night sing, in Navajo. Since I don’t speak (or sing) Navajo, what this meant for me was spending the night staring into the fire and meditating. I liked it.

One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is how to structure my days to best advance my interests while working full-time writing. This is a delightful problem to have. This is a chance, knowing everything I do about how I work best and what I need to do, to design my own dream job. Not to figure out how I can squeeze in some writing time, or to decide what I might have to skip to get some business in, but to build the kind of job that gets results, feels comfortable and fun, and never gets dull, the kind of job I can keep forever.

The requirements at first seem like a tall order: arrange things to maximize my use of personal energy, take care of business, leave time for a social life, and stay flexible enough to avoid feeling trapped and to be able to take advantage of opportunities without upsetting everything. Wow.

Here’s what I’m thinking is a good plan:

Morning: Big Project Writing

In the morning, first thing after waking up (and exercising), put in two to four hours of writing on whatever is the current main project.

Midday: Extended Lunch

The extended lunch gives me time to meet someone for lunch, or catch a lunch presentation at the art museum, or take a nap, or read in the sunshine, or take a swim, or anything like that.

Afternoon: Business

The afternoon can be devoted to business activities: submissions, accounting, marketing, e-mail, whatever, and maybe some client work.

Evening: Social Events, Special Engagements

Evenings are the most flexible time, for spending with family and friends, or socializing, or taking classes, or perhaps reading or speaking somewhere, or pursuing a smaller project, or maybe putting in extra time on a big project.

This will be the schedule for Monday through Friday. On weekends and all State and Federal holidays, the business portion of the agenda will be taken off, and the writing portion will be as much or as little as is desired.

What a great schedule! No set times, maybe not even a clock, yet abundant time for all the writing and business I need to do. Heavy writing and steady business disguised as a laid-back operation. I think I will work very hard to make sure that I can keep working this cushy job.

The best part is that this can be done from anywhere. I can work from my home in Phoenix, but I can just as easily work from San Diego for a week, or a month in Navajoland, inspired every evening by the view of Tsaile Peak at dusk.

I’m really looking forward to this, but I’m wondering: why did I wait so long?