Hi there! Well, as you can tell from the title, my big news is that I've quit my 9-to-5 job. So I want to talk about why I did that, how I did it, and what I'm going to do next.
Why I quit my job
Firstly, why? I am going to be quite vague about the details here, just for a little bit of privacy. Although I am a published author, I have been working at an educational institution for the last almost 7 years. That's been a remote role, which has been great for me being able to travel. I started in a teaching role almost 7 years ago. I loved working with the students, I loved seeing them get a concept and finally have a breakthrough in their understanding. But on the downside, it was a casual or a sessional role, so the work wasn't guaranteed from term to term.
So 3 years ago, I was offered the opportunity of a role further up the chain, which was a more stable role, still remote. I took that. I did it for a year, and then 2 years ago, I was offered the opportunity to apply for the role above that one again. I was fortunate enough to get that promotion. So for the last 2 years, I've basically been a middle manager. I had five staff in my team. The role was quite stressful and constantly making decisions, and also spending all my days on Teams / remote meetings. I found it really stressful and hard to switch off after work, which started to affect my health and my sleeping, and I just didn't have the energy to do the things that I wanted to do.
I'm a massive introvert who likes to take time to think through decisions and needs a lot of time on my own. I found it really exhausting and draining, and to be honest, most days after work I would literally curl up on my bed, stare at nothing, and try and decompress. So it was affecting my health. I was sitting all day. Decision fatigue meant that even deciding what to have for lunch was too much after I'd already spent all morning making decisions. So I'd end up grabbing things like toast or crackers or something easy that didn't require any thought.
I had no energy to do anything like go for a walk before or after work, and I didn't have the time through the day to go for a walk. Basically, I was stuck at the computer 9 to 5 through the day. I stacked on a heap of weight, I wasn't sleeping properly, I'd wake up in the middle of the night stressing about work and couldn't get back to sleep. So it really started to take its toll on my health.
It also took its toll on me mentally, and it affected my creativity. I just had no energy or no creative brain power to be able to do the things that I wanted to do, like write. And even though it was a remote role, which I was very fortunate that that was the case - I didn't have to commute, and that was one of the things that kept me there for so long - being a 9-to-5 job, it didn't give me much room for flexibility.
I live in a motorhome, but because of being in a 9-to-5 role, I may as well have just been in a house somewhere. I was mostly restricted to traveling or exploring on the weekends, and I couldn't take advantage of the weather. Say, "Oh, today's a nice day, I might go out and explore today and then work tonight.". I didn't have that flexibility. I was also restricted to some extent where I could stay because I was on Teams meetings all day, so I needed to stay somewhere that had good Wi-Fi.
There were some positives to the job. I did learn a lot. I got a lot of confidence from being forced into doing some of the things that I was doing, like presenting and being forced to lead a team. It threw me out of my comfort zone, but in a good way. So I learned a lot of skills and I gained a lot of confidence. I enjoyed the people I worked with, but the job itself was just starting to really wear on me.
What did I do about it?
It wasn't a quick decision. Looking back over my journals over the last 12 months, I've seen my thoughts start to crystallize about "I need to get out of this job and do something different." About 12 months ago, I started journaling that I couldn't see myself doing this in the long term. At that time, I planned to go until around March 2025, which would have been my 7-year work anniversary. I started to save and build a freedom fund. I was fortunate enough that my expenses are quite low and my salary was reasonable, so I was actually able to save a fair chunk of my earnings each month.
Not long after, after I'd made that decision, I started to bring the timing forward even more and then started thinking that I would quit at the end of October 2024. These days work around term dates, which was what the majority of my role worked around. So I went a bit harder on my savings, and then I started to bring it forward even further. Around Christmas time, I decided that I would stick it out until the end of June and put my notice in towards that time.
So towards the end of April, I hit 6 months' savings of expenses and I put my notice in. That was about 10 weeks' notice, which is excessive, but I wanted to give time for a good handover to the next person. As it turned out, the timing ended up being quite lucky for me because after I put my notice in, massive changes were announced at the company and morale ended up being quite low. So I feel like I've escaped even more stress by leaving when I have.
What's next?
Well, I'm almost 54. I'm way too young to retire, but I'm not keen on going back to the 9-to-5 in a hurry. As I said earlier, all going well, I have at least 6 months' expenses saved, plus I have a separate emergency fund. So from now until Christmas, I want to try being a full-time author. It's an experiment. I'm realistic enough to know that it's unlikely that I will be able to replace my income in the next 6 months, but I want to see what I can do in that time frame.
I have seven books already published, plus another one on the way, and I can release at least another one before the end of the year. I'll be totally transparent: at the moment, I'm only making a couple of hundred dollars a month on my writing. So as you can see, I have a long way to go to be able to replace an income, but I want to see what I can do when I have the time to write, release, and to make time for things like promoting.
But more importantly, I want to see a couple of things. As I said, it's an experiment. Am I going to see enough progress in the next 6 months to say, "Okay, this is possible in the longer term"? And secondly, is it something that I even want to do, or is it just something that I feel is the ultimate goal that I should want to do?
So that's my plan, and I'll re-evaluate it at Christmas, see where I'm at then, and decide which direction that I want to go. Or something else may come along in the meantime that I decide I want to try. I could try freelance writing, like travel writing as an alternate income stream as well, and I used to be a copywriter, so I could always go back to that as well.
I've also started a YouTube channel, and while it would be great if I could get monetized to be able to have it as a separate income stream, I've also started it as a way to learn some more skills, to learn presenting to camera, which is difficult, and also editing and all of the things that go along with that. Because who knows what skills could come in useful in the future?
I may end up getting a part-time job, preferably one with no responsibility and no stress and, most importantly, no Teams meetings. There could also be opportunities to pick up work while I travel, for example, cleaning around the caravan park or picking up work in hospitality. The possibilities are endless.
But whatever happens, I won't consider it a failure, no matter if I have to go back to a full-time job or if I decide I want to go back to a full-time job. It's an experiment, it's a sabbatical while I'm in the fortunate position to be able to try this.
So in the next 6 months, as well as focusing on my writing and my author business as a whole, I also want to focus on my health. I want to move my body, I want to eat healthier and lose some weight. I also want to rest and recharge, and I want to find that spark of creativity again. I want to try photography again. Maybe I'll learn how to use all the manual controls on my camera! I just want to try different things and see what sparks joy.
As well, I want to take advantage of the freedom to travel. I will have more freedom in where I go and when I go. So I hope you'll continue to join me on that journey.
To be honest, it doesn't feel quite real yet, and probably won't for a little while. I'm excited, but it almost feels like a holiday, not that I won't be returning to work at all.
There is a part of me that's thinking I'm crazy for doing this, but life is just too short, and I want to take the risk and see what happens!
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