I don't know about you but I'm mentally exhausted at the end of most days once I'm off work. It's relatively uncommon for me to even have energy to invest in my normal hobbies, let alone self-improvement/ learning new skills.
Agree with this. Am a software engineer and musician (composition). Exhausting to do both.
But, have also found you can switch between them if you're a consultant. You work on medium-term length projects, build up a bank, quit, then focus on your other interest for a few months. Need to live frugally, but it is possible (have been doing this cycle for years).
Very interesting! Any chance you have written more extensively about this somewhere? I am a consultant but it's hard to get my clients to leave me alone for more than a week.
Haven't written on this, but can give you the important details of my form of consulting:
1) I tend to work at medium to large companies (Stubhub, Atlassian...) from anywhere from 7 months to 1.5 years. The reason being, as mentioned, that it's tough to do two things at the highest level at the same time. So I prefer to completely commit to one thing at a time - seems like for you, you have a lot of longterm clients that are constantly hitting you up for work. Guessing you're going to have to say no to new projects once you're ready to focus more on your interests.
2) So, when I'm working on a consulting job, it is my primary focus, and they get the best of me. And, I try to do at least 7 months of work, so that I do a substantial amount of work for them and they feel good about it - also, if you do too short a period, it will make it harder to get another job later on.
3) Although, it's important that while working at a consulting job, to keep up and improve your skills at whatever your outside interest is. Because if you don't, wow, you can really lose your skills and when your switch back to your interest, will need a ton of time to refreshing yourself. For me as a musician, this means would spend an hour a day practicing before work, specifically "sight-singing" as it is one of the most important skills for composition. In fact, would actually not just maintain the skill, but got a better at it over the course the consulting job.
4) When you have enough money and finish your consulting job, quit and switch back to your main interest. Will typically need to spend some time getting back up to speed. Sometimes this can take one month, other times (if you did a really long consulting job or you find a new skill you want to learn as is often the case for me) it can take a few months.
5) Now, fully focus on your main interest. You need to treat it just like regular work because it requires a ton of discipline, because it is so easy to get distracted and not do anything (I say this as I write this comment to you as a distraction from practicing:) For me, need a weekly work schedule (work mon - friday) and a daily routine to keep on track.
6) And just a suggestion about any outside interest. Work on smaller projects rather than trying to shoot for the moon. Because everything is takes a lot more work to do it at the highest level. Yeah, if I aim to create a music composition that I think will take a couple month, it often takes 3 or 4 times that, especially if I'm trying out a lot of stuff that I've never done before. I'd rather create something small that is really good than work on something large that I'll never finish.
7) And at least in my opinion, using this method, the quality of my compositions is quite high (at least to my standards) as they are my primary focus for months at a time.
8) Oh, and live cheaply. I used to live in SF, but moved way outside the city to save money (saved like 40% on rent, which went from $1350 to $700 - living with roommates in both situations).
Yes, you are right about my clients. And while the difference is subtle, it sounds like you are doing more of "contract jobs" than "consulting". But no matter what it is called, clearly it fits your goals, so that's great!
This year we're actually taking advantage of my work better than ever before with foreign travel and "make a schedule around weather/fun activities". I don't have any concrete plans to do what you're doing but maybe someday. It's a very interesting idea.
