My Life Operating System as a Low-Energy Successful Freelance Creative

I’m a creative. Writer. Painter. Freelancer. Nihilist. Spoonie. Introvert. Lover of rain and everything cat.

Here’s what I do to have a good life, doing pretty much whatever I want.

If you identify with at least some of the above, you’ll love it.

If you don’t, you’ll hate it with a vengeance. Except for the doing whatever you want part.

1. Waking up without an alarm.

I let my body and mind wake up whenever they feel like it. But they choose the same time every morning.

The only downside (if you want to see it that way) is that you wake up during the weekends at the same time you do during the week.

I like it that way, but you might want to sleep more, and if you program your internal clock to wake you up at 7 every morning, it will do just that.

Of course, if you have cats, the whole alarm system is flawed from the get-go, but let’s just ignore that for the time being.

2. Breathing exercises for about 10 minutes.

I use the controlled hyperventilation method. It’s the same one that Wim Hoff uses.

Just be aware that breathing in that much oxygen will make you high! It will give you energy and prepare you for an easier day. Your whole body and brain will feel revigorated.

It also makes me laugh like crazy for absolutely no reason, but it might have the opposite effect on you.

For example, I used to do the same exercise following a YouTube video and it always made me cry. It took me a while to figure it out: it was the sad music in the video, so I stopped using it. Who needs extra crying, right?

3. A 15 minutes slow movement routine.

It can be yoga, it can be indoor walking, pilates, etc. My body needs to wake up, but not brutally. So I treat it gently and lovingly.

Ok, I’ll admit it, I would probably be way more invigorated by a snappy HIIT, but you’d have to get a bear to chase me for me to muster up that amount of energy in the morning.

4. Work, sort of.

Although I could easily be working from home, I choose to do my writing from a co-working space. There I can sit at a desk wearing something pretty and having lunch with people I don’t work with. It’s great!

It’s much more difficult to work from home, where I have a comfy bed, 2 warm cats and nobody can see how much pie I can eat in one go.

I need the confines of society to keep me working (instead of eating).

I get there at around 9. I don’t drink coffee, so I only pour a huge glass of water, open my laptop, and get right into creative mode.

I enter the flow state immediately and it lasts for about 4 hours.

I use this time to write an article or 2. It depends. No 2 articles are the same and some could take me 1 hour to finish, but others could take me 4. You never know.

Writing is a fickle master and I give in to its whims.

6. The highlight of the day — lunch.

At 1 PM I have lunch with my co-colleagues. They’re a group of 7 men. Which would make me Snow White, if I weren’t such a rabid feminist.

Just kidding. I am a feminist, but not the rabid kind. The type that loves men and wants to see them thrive just as much as women do kind.

I love these guys and I’m having a wonderful time in their company. They’re funny, sweet, smart, and having lunch in a joyous atmosphere is the best.

7. No work, sort of.

After lunch, my energy levels and creativity decrease drastically.

There’s just something about that period of the day from 2 to about 4 that just doesn’t want you to do anything. So I don’t!

Well, it’s not anything at all. I use that time to do things that I don’t consider work: answer emails, edit writing, pay bills, respond to people commenting on my articles and read other articles from the writing community.

This is the time I use to do activities that don’t require creativity or high energy. And creativity always requires high energy, don’t you think?

8. More no work.

I leave at 4 and go home to my 2 cats. I feed them and we play together for about half an hour or as much as they want, really, but they get bored quickly. Usually, I waste time until 6 PM. It’s the most relaxing activity you could ever do.

I eat my last meal at 6.

I do intermittent fasting and I eat within a 6-hour window. In case you’re wondering, the only hunger pangs I get are in the morning, never after dinner.

9. 1-hour meditation.

Right after dinner. It makes me feel amazing and the main result is that I’m almost never anxious.

And when I say almost never I mean it only happens when anybody else would be anxious, like if I have to speak on stage or something. But for the rest of the time, I go months without feeling the smallest amount of anxiety.

10. Exercise time again.

Meditation gives my brain a good boost, but my body needs one too. After all, I do spend my days either sitting or lying down.

Bodies don’t like that. So I do some weights training.

No big deal, very light weights, high amount of repetitions. I’m not trying to look like a beast, I just want to keep healthy and mobile.

No more than half an hour, but it makes me feel great, especially when followed by an extra hot shower.

11. The evening is up for grabs.

Usually, it’s watching or listening to something, in bed, with the cats: a movie, YouTube videos, etc. It’s something informative 90% of the time.

Entertainment for the sake of it bores me to death. Even on YouTube, if the image doesn’t bring any extra knowledge, I scroll through Pinterest at the same time.

I believe this constant learning is where I get a lot of ideas for my writing and art.

12. Go to bed when the body says so.

Usually, it’s at around 11 PM.

PS: I don’t journal. I tried it and found it useless for my well-being.

I’m very much in touch with my emotions, I don’t need to dig deeper for them and I’m constantly bombarded with ideas for writing anyway.

Since I am a writer, I also don’t need to be doing even more writing.

My whole life is journaling!

Even when I don’t feel like it, I try (and sometimes fail) to stick to this routine. It has great benefits for my emotional and physical health.

If I feel the need for something else, I remind myself I’ve got the weekend.

The weekend is a no-rules zone: I meet friends, go shopping, eat when I want and how much I want, go to the movies, do not exercise, go on a road trip, or just spend the whole day in pajamas if I feel like it.

Don’t think I didn’t try to do this the rest of the week, but it just doesn’t have the same appeal if you do it all the time.

Discipline makes everything better. Even the no-discipline days.

Why this works for me but it might not work for you:

• I’m an introvert, so I don’t need as much interaction with people.

I actually need a very limited amount, that’s why I spend most of my days alone. Even if I try to squeeze more of it in there, I get tired of all the chit-chat and commotion.

• I’m a misanthrope and nihilist, so I don’t usually enjoy the human activities that most people do.

And by that I mean I don’t like anything than what I already do, because whatever is society-related, validation-inducing or people-pleasing is nothing but boring to me.

• I get a lot of joy and fulfillment from learning new things.

Most people consider that an annoying chore.

• I only cook my food during the weekend, because I have a food addiction.

Being constantly surrounded by food would result in me giving in to my addiction. It’s quite costly to order in 2 times a day for 5 days a week, but it works to keep me healthy.

• I don’t have a lot of life-imposed limitations and restrictions that most people do.

I don’t have a family, so I can dedicate my time to whatever I please. I’m financially safe, so I don’t have to do things I don’t feel like for money. I don’t pay rent, I don’t have any kind of debt, so I have greater freedom to choose my actions with fewer consequences.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t wish some things were different.

• I wish I had the energy to write more. Maybe even paint more. And maybe even write some poetry.

But for low-energy people, you only get a certain amount. There’s no point in forcing it.

If exercising and eating right don’t do it, the next level is drugs and you don’t want to go that way. Or at least I don’t. Not judging if you do.

• I wish I had more money, for 2 reasons: travel more and give to charity more.

I still do those, but not to the extent I’d be content with. However, I’m not willing to pay the price of working for someone and I don’t have the energy to work more anyhow.

However, there are some things I don’t miss and never want to do again:

• A regular job. Working for somebody, anybody: a boss, a client, whatever person that tells me what to do.

• Partying. I’ve never been a party person, but I always had party-type friends. And for the sake of friendship, I did what they were also doing: going out clubbing.

I hated it! I was the one constantly looking at the time: is this over yet?

I regret it now, but at the time I didn’t realize that you can actually opt out of regular life and just do your own thing. Happy I finally got there.

• Trying to be somebody I’m not, just because I didn’t fit in. It’s pointless and you never get what you want anyway. Never again!

Conclusion:

This system works for me and it works well. It wouldn’t work for a lot of other people. From what I noticed, people have very different lives and needs than my own.

But if one of you out there is reading this and finds s/he too is a spoonie artist lost in this chaotic world of constant socializing and intense hustling, give my system a try.

You’ll find a whole other dimension of possibilities hidden behind just being different.

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