A Day in the Life of a Full-Time English Teacher and Part-Time Writer
And a Ph.D. student…
And an avid reader. Just wanted to cram that in.
If you know nothing about me, here goes. I am a full-time English teacher. I’ve been doing that for the past 7-ish years, and I love my job. It complements my “writing side hustle”. Let me explain.
Writing is fun and therapeutic. But writing can be lonely, too.
During the quarantine, I spent a chunk of my time writing and learning. In those days, I hardly met anyone. I taught my classes online, so there was no direct interaction with people in real life — it was all virtual.
That’s when I realized that I genuinely and truly loved meeting and teaching people face to face, and this is what I want to talk about here: what my life as a teacher and writer (and now researcher) looks like.
I work 16 hours a week as an EFL teacher
Elon Musk works 16 hours a day.
16 hours a week is nothing. It gives me plenty of time to start a business, and then some. I’ve been in the online writing space for 5 years. I’m still not where I want to be in my business. Heck, I don’t even know if I should call it a “business”, but it’s a work in progress.
I am very fortunate to have a flexible schedule.
What my schedule as an English teacher looks like
- Monday: Off. That’s right. I stay home, write, watch courses, read, and relax. My favorite day.
- Tuesday: I teach kids from 4:10 to 6:00 PM and adults from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
- Wednesday: I teach kids from 4:10 to 6:00 PM. These little demons drive me insane. I once heard a teacher say, “I’m getting a vasectomy” and I laughed it off. Now I know what he meant.
- Thursday: Adults from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
- Friday: Adults from 3:00 to 6:00.
- Saturday: Adults from 2:00 to 5:00 PM
- Sunday: Adults from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
As you can see, it’s insane how much free time I have.
All this free time and I still haven’t been able to reach my biggest goals. Shame on me! The guilt kills me. Hitting goals is how I feel confident. How I feel good about myself. I met people who got to where they wanted to in a few years, sometimes months. My wife and I want to have kids and I have to be financially able to provide for them.
Money-wise, teaching alone isn’t enough. That’s where my writing came in.
My part-time writing schedule
The problem with my writing schedule is I don’t have one (Wanna be honest).
Probably not what you want to hear. Tim Denning, one of my favorite writers ever, says:
“No writing schedule, no writing career.”
I don’t write as much as I should. When I’m not intentional about my writing, it’s easy to forget it. Every time I sit to plan out my week, there is a feeling of overwhelm that comes with it.
I’ve talked about how I would love to have a mentor plan things for me because I’m a terrible planner.
Here’s my messed-up writing schedule (don’t judge)
Note: My writing schedule fluctuates depending on client work, meetings, conferences, and, well… life.
- Monday: I usually read and write stories on Medium. That’s where my focus is at these days. I’ve been writing on this platform for years, yet I’ve seen new writers achieve significant results from just months of posting consistently. It kind of lit a fuse in me. So I doubled down on my writing. You’re welcome, ego!
- Tuesday: I write for 1 or 2 hours before heading off to work. I wake up between 8 and 9. I have breakfast. Then, I spend my mornings reading and writing.
- Wednesday: It is exactly like Tuesdays. And I also make sure I go out for a run so I avoid feeling burn-out.
- Thursday: After Monday, Thursday is the second-best day of the week. I go to work at 6:30 PM, so I have the whole day to read, research, and write. It all depends on what assignments or client work I have. I get a lot done on Mondays and Thursdays.
- Friday: I rarely get stuff done on Friday. In the morning, I watch courses or I read/write for my research paper.
As for Saturday and Sunday, I use them to spend quality with my family.
As I’m writing this post, I’m realizing for the hundredth time how much free time I have in my hands. Yet, sometimes because of everything I’m expected to do, it doesn’t feel like I have free time. Weird. I could spend my days writing dozens of posts if I want to. Who knows how many posts I would have published by now? Other things I regularly do include reading novels, playing video games, and watching Anime or Netflix. Without these, I would feel lifeless.
My schedule is weird and unstable. I’ve tried copying other people’s schedules but they usually don’t work for me.
My academic research
And then there’s my life as a research student.
I’ve become a Ph.D. student in 2022. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Truth be told, I hate academia. I’ve pursued online writing to escape it, only for it to find me. Doing research and reading academic articles have got to be the most boring things I’m doing these days. It’s really not for me, yet there is a part of me who longs to be called “Doctor”.
Dr. Mehdi has a nice ring to it, so…
I was afraid of one thing. Turns out it’s legit
My supervisor says academia is a full-time job.
There are a bunch of tasks I have to complete every week. So much reading to do. The worst part is that the novels and books I’m reading are terrible. Old classics that put me to sleep. And there’s nothing I can do about it. My supervisor recommends we (his students) read 50 articles and 5 books a month. I watched my soul leave my body for a split second when he said that.
I’m nowhere near that, but here’s what I was afraid of:
I didn’t want my research to affect my writing progress. Lo-and-behold, it did. It’s been hard to juggle between them, and it’s probably the reason I gave up on setting a writing schedule. Now and then, something important comes up: a conference, a meeting, a webinar, etc. I remember I planned things to the tee before all this. I even wanted to copy Tim Denning’s writing schedule.
Then, monster Academia knocked me off course.
I’m going to get through it, eventually
Everything has a beginning, middle, and end.
Life is testing me. Will I make it? Well, it’s a good sign that I’m still here. Life challenges you sometimes. I almost gave up a few months ago. I’ll never forget it. I was on the verge of pulling the plug on everything. But that’s a story for another time.
There you have it. Over to you. I’m curious… What’s your schedule like?
