Carpe Day Job
Stop waiting to do your best work.
I don’t work at Google. Or Apple. Or Facebook. Odds are, you don’t either.
This isn’t a knock against either of us. We can’t all be Jonys — I’m not sure that’s really what my brain is suited for anyway. There are too many good problems out there. In fact, every job I’ve had possessed its own set on unique, challenging knots to untangle.
Sometimes though, the worst knot can be the job itself.
Like everyone, you crafted this platonic ideal of what work should be. This job has been slowly assembled across summer jobs, internships, 9-to-5s and every freelance night you’ve ever had. Grafting the stellar bits from previous work-experience and pruning the unpleasant parts. This 9-to-5 Nirvana is what you (probably) and I (definitely) are waiting for, and we’re opportunity-poorer because of it.
Like Tears in the Rain or A Unicorn in a Pipe Dream
Even if you ended up working at a highly enviable position or for yourself, there is the inescapable reality of “Work” on either side (Exhibit A, Exhibit B). The 4 years I spent freelancing was a grind. Freelance, where the ratio of deadbeat-to-punctual clients was depressing. Freelance, when I designed and coded tractor-websites to almost-but-not-quite-pay the bills. And where I spent so much time wearing my PM and Accounting caps, I never really got to spend all that “freedom” I thought I was earning with the practice.
And yet sometimes, idly, I still think I should give Freelance another go. Why? Because that’s how our brains work.
We focus on the desirable aspects of the choices we want to make and forget to count the grind-work details that on paper “aren’t so bad.” This is, in some cases, OK. We don’t have the cycles to run full simulations on any given situation, and it’d probably be paralyzing if we did. We just need to keep this limitation of our meat-brains in mind when we try to imagine our next career-step.
Compound with that sobering realization with our own mortality and maybe it’s time to stop waiting. Considering how fleeting and precious life is, you and I may spend our entire lives in that tunnel waiting for a unicorn that never shows up. The work you have now is the only work you are certain to ever have. If you are crippled with depression at this thought, find a new job now. If you aren’t, stop waiting to do your best work. Get out of bed, and go for it.
My execution is flawed. I’m open to suggestions. But, for what it’s worth, here’s my process to doing my best work during M-F.
Gut Check
One of my favorite truisms regarding relationships can also be applied to work. You do see your coworkers a lot more than your wife, husband or kids after all.
“When the only constant in every failed relationship is you, it’s time to consider that you might be the problem.”
I have been that constant for a while. My barometer for whether or not it’s time to move on were:
- Am I learning?
- Is there room for advancement?
- Am I doing work I’m proud of?
And while I used to consider all three of these the responsibility of my employer, now I’m starting to learn that’s not really the case.
There’s slack enough to phone your work in at most jobs. Granted, running at 100%, 100% of the time is impossible, but a habit of maintaining the status quo is wickedly easy to fall into. Maintainable disaffection is pretty punk rock until you’re 40. The problem is, amazing work never requires cool disaffection. That same divestment of self, waiting for something better to happen to me tomorrow was hollowing out today’s potential.
On Leveling Up
Some work is bound to suck. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be living on a speck drifting in a vacuum. Entropy and atrophy, as the cliche goes, touches everything. Especially work. Oftentimes, the difference between a project’s failure and success isn’t how the best parts are executed, it’s the worst parts. The late-night, caffeine-shake, eyes-will-no-longer-stay-focused minutia are where excellent results are found.
No one has a problem with the first mile of a journey. Even an infant could do fine for a while. But it isn’t the start that matters. It’s the finish line. — Julien Smith, The Flinch
My father often described hard times and obstacles as tests from God. “He wants to see if you’ve learned the lesson yet,” he’d say. The lesson being patience, humility, temperance, whatever higher-road you needed to take during those tests. Even if you failed, it was OK. There were plenty of opportunities; you’d just get the test again. And if you passed, well, fantastic. You’re ready for more difficult tests.
Bringing our childish, impulsive, pain-averse natures to heel takes practice. Thankfully, life provides ample opportunities for that kind of practice with brutal frequency. We’re talking daily opportunities to get those hard parts of the job right.
Without that practice, any friction, annoyance, even unexpected complexity, ends up as highly corrosive to the end-product.
This is important to the pay-stubs and passions we chase on the weekend.
Gravel in your Guts
In life and work, we don’t have many constants we can solve against — death, higher taxes, and simple requests from other departments always eat up the most time. These are really the only things we can count on at work. Everything else is in fluctuation. Like a honeymoon or like a kidney stone, eventually, it’ll pass.
I would just encourage you to be patient, be thankful for what you’ve got, and stay hungry for the next thing. Do your best work with what resources you have. The old design student advice is still true for both of us; even if our bosses consistently shoot it down, giving it our all will give us a hell of a case study for our portfolio later.
by Dan Cassaro
I guess what I’m getting at is, you’re not powerless.
If you’re anything like every single person I’ve met in this industry, you bring two armfuls of uninhibited enthusiasm to your trade every day you wake up. Remember: the Man wins when you stop trying and sell your 55 hours a week for mediocrity. Damn the Man. Embrace where you are, what you have and let that feed into what you will be. If your job is a Kobiyashi Maru, (unworkable, unwinnable and no cheating allowed) that’s one thing. If you can make a difference though, then do it. Go forth, punch the clock, and be excellent.
Further Reading
Your Work is a Gift
Stay Scrappy
Your Purpose Is Not Your Job
The Flinch
And if you need the push to GTFO:
How Designers Destroy the World
