You come home from work, exhausted after answering 572 emails, receiving 79 calls, taking a meeting with your supervisor, sitting in a team meeting with your manager, and you throw your bag down crumple up into the couch, desperately reach for the remote, fumble with it, get to your favorite streaming service, and spend probably more time searching for something to watch than actually watching something.

But there’s a light itch, a gentle knock, a curious gaze outside the periphery.

But the itch can’t be scratched because there’s work tomorrow…

The fate of someone who works a full-time job seems to be this.

Someone who goes to work, comes home, does whatever they can to live some semblance of a normal life for a good hour, maybe thirty minutes, and then eats, showers, watches something, or scrolls through their phone, and goes to bed to do it again.

But that’s not what I believe a full-time job is.

My name is Matt Piper. I’m an actor, writer, filmmaker — and I work a full-time job.

And this is for the artist who has a job and still wants a life that feels… deeper than just clocking in and clocking out.

If that’s you, I want to share the system I’m building right now.

And I want to say this upfront, I do not have it figured out, but I definitely have been living and experimenting with it actively.

I’m not selling you some perfect routine.

I am giving you a practice. One that serves your art.

Here’s the problem:

You have a full-time schedule. You have responsibilities. You have a body that gets tired. A mind that gets foggy.

And still… you want to build something rich. Something lasting.

Something that is yours, but also something that can serve a far greater purpose in the hands of others.

But we can’t brute force our way there. There will be plenty of online influencers that are going to tell you that you should just suffer more and accept more suffering in your life to achieve the thing that is greater in your life.

Listen, I do know that we are going to be adding to your day—I know, I know, but please hear me out.

My experimentation is how to add things in your day to serve your art and not burn you out. So take my system for what it’s worth, and find your own way of implementing it for you.

Let’s start here:

Look at your constraints.

If you work 40 hours a week — whether that’s five days, or four long days — you don’t have infinite time.

The question isn’t, “How do I become a robot?”

The question is:

What can this job provide?

What is it actually giving you?

Because the job can grant stability in proper conditions, it can grant funds to work toward improving your art, or insurance to afford therapy, or the rebuilding of a foundation, whether that’s health, mentality, or physicality.

A foundation.

And building on top of a foundation can help create roots that are lasting. A deeper, richer, more vibrant earth is where you can start to plant the seed of something that makes the creation of the foundation worth it.

And you also have to look at YOU.

For example, I work best in the morning. My brain is clear, my creativity is present, and my coffee is handy. So my system is built around the importance of my mornings.

That’s why I’ve requested to work closing shifts from 1:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

Your schedule is your schedule. So navigate where best you could work a job that doesn’t necessarily take everything from you at either the morning or the night. Then work your art schedule around there.

Because working in this safe and stable environment can set you up for success, especially when you’re not thinking of:

-“Where is the money coming from?”
-“How am I going to be able to afford that?”
-“How do I force my art to become a financially viable option?”

That last one could kill your art quicker as opposed to making it last.

Along with this, the mindset will have to shift.

There’s a book called Slow Productivity by Cal Newport.

And the core idea — the thing that hit me — is basically:

Stop treating meaningful work like it’s supposed to be fast.

There’s nothing quick about the work we’re doing.

I’m writing a book right now, and my daily goal on weekdays is at least a thousand words.

And that sounds small until you realize:

I’m over 40,000 words in.

And I would not be there if I didn’t show up for those one thousand words

Not perfectly. Just consistently.

And here’s something that you find out the more that you show up for the work. It doesn’t take as much time as you think. A thousand words for me can happen in 30 to 45 minutes.

Sometimes an hour if I am struggling.

Here are all the times where your art counts:

-1 minute
-2 minutes
-3 minutes
-4 minutes
-5 minutes
Skip a few here (for times sake, you get my point)
-25 minutes
-30 minutes
-45 minutes
-1 hour
etc.

Your art counts the second you visit it, the moment you put time into it. The more that you show up, the more time that can be spent. You’ll find all sorts of ways to be creative.

Then you will start bringing creativity into your job, maybe not your mandolin, but paper and pen? Maybe you start thinking of how to do your job in creative ways.

Each moment you spend is a building block toward the something amazing that you wish to create.

So instead of dreaming about the day you’ll have time, you build with what time you have.

With my job, I have three days off, working a 4-day work week at 40 hours.

I work on my art during my workdays just before I go into work, writing my 1,000 words, but it’s what I do on my days off that are even more important.

3 CONTAINERS

There are three important days that I have within my week.

WEDNESDAY is for drafting and shooting, therapy, fitness, really the day to do everything

FRIDAY is for editing, posting, outreach, reaching out to loved ones, and appearing out of the hole that I put myself in trying to create a video.

SATURDAY is for very simple admin… and honestly, trying to rest.

Am I good at resting yet?

No.

But those three containers mean I’m not relying on inspiration.

I’m relying on a structure.

These three days exist as pillars that work to serve the things that are most important to me.

This is my basic lineup of what must go into these containers.

Now, if a full-time job is 5 work days in a week at 40 hours, there will be 2 extra hours that you will have to your name throughout the week. Use those!

Sometimes I think I would be better at spreading out my gym sessions with 2 extra hours to my day. But that’s just what I would do.

Here’s what that structure gives me:

It exists to give me a certain flow. As an artist, I’ve created a structure serving my art.

Because if I stop creating, I could function, I could live an existence… but I don’t think I would have as much fun. I don’t think that I could exist fully, presently. I don’t think I could see how our world is in disarray and how I’d like to fix it. I don’t think I would be able to see the struggles that I am going through and how to communicate them effectively, so that I may then begin to heal.

Sure, it’s a piece that goes missing, but when it’s a cornerstone, it becomes that much more crucial, and anything holding things up is second-rate to what art is for me.

So I don’t ask myself if I feel like it.

I ask myself:

“What’s the smallest version of the work I can do today?”

That still counts.

So if I had to condense everything into something usable:

You do not need to quit your job to be an artist. Maybe one day we will let our art carry the weight of fiscal responsibility, but until then.

We need to create structure within structure.

If you wanna watch the monologue of this, you can go here:

And I’d love to ask you:

What part of your art feels like the hardest part for you right now?

Starting? Finishing? Or staying consistent?

Leave a comment — I read them, and I’m building this channel with you.

If you’re ready to reconnect with your creative center—whether it’s in the mind, heart, or will—I offer 1-on-1 coaching rooted in Chekhov’s technique. We’ll move through your artistic blocks, expand your expressive range, and build a practice that honors your full self.

Book a free 30-minute session to feel it out. All follow-ups are $60 for 90 minutes.

👉 Schedule a Session