Part-Awesome, Part-Amazing ... it's Part-Time!
/It's officially the 2nd week of my new part-time schedule! Woot!
Well, part time in the sense of how the lovely company I work for defines it. I've been working 32 hours/week, but starting now I'll be working 24 hours/week.
Back in the piece I did for UMBC Magazine, I mentioned what a huge boon it was to my productivity five years ago when I moved from 40 hours to 32. Just having one extra day without a 2-hour commute + 8-hour workday = LOADS more art was created. That year was when I finished a 152 page graphic novel, self-published it, and started selling all of my books to comic book stores for the first time.
I've wanted to drop another day off my week for over a year, but hemmed and hawed over whether or not it was all that feasible. Losing all your benefits is a pretty scary thing. I'm lucky to have a boyfriend willing to take me on under his company's benefits (and we can without getting married, to boot!) , but depending on someone else still ooks me out.
To prepare for this big change in income, last year I divvied up how much money I'd lose on my paycheck in going to 24 hours. Then I set up a savings account to slowwwwly, over the course of several months, take out more and more of my paycheck deposit each week to account for the loss. I figured that was the least painful way I could get used to my new thriftier situation.
Right now I'm getting a lot of "Are you CRAZY??" 's and "When you come back to full-time ..." 's but so far, just thinking of all the good this extra time will do when dumped into the career I want to be my full-time gig (comics, illustration, design, y'know) . . . there isn't a regret in sight.