Image description: The words “The second time podcast” in black text on a purple background. There is also a sketch of a computer and mouse.
You can listen to this podcast in a number of places:
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts
- RSS feed (to open in your preferred listening app)
- YouTube
This website is the only place which has the script for the episode.
I know some platforms and apps have automatic transcriptions but I cannot endorse AI and will not take responsibility for their accuracy.
Episode Script:
Welcome to the Second Time podcast. This one will be a little different from the weekly update style. I have plenty to talk about, but simply do not feel like rehashing a load of unpleasantness from the past few weeks right now, so I’m not going to.
I’m going to talk about what life looks like in a broader sense right now. I originally thought I needed this episode for me, to tell myself I am doing enough, but interestingly, it also came up in chats with friends during the week, so I guess it’s something that may be valuable to more than just me.
Earlier in the week I saw a social media post about how unsustainable life is when we all need to have two or three jobs.
I agree, AND I also often feel like I’m not doing enough. So, mostly to convince myself I am already juggling too much, here’s what I’ve been doing:
- Applying for an obscene quantity of jobs. This is my main task each week, up to around ten hours. If you think ten hours doesn’t sound like a lot, you forget that a) as explained in episode one, I apply for a high volume of jobs and b) ten hours a week doing the most soul sucking, deeply tedious work is worse than having a job you hate. So, it’s a lot of hours when you take all factors into consideration.
But on top of that, I’m also doing:
- Basic slash first step social media for my consulting business, Normal Systems
- Basic slash first step social media for my editing business, Oh Shit, My Draft
- Reinvigorating my Redbubble store, firstly by sharing links to existing products
- Sharing and selling occasional digital art product on my art account
- This podcast
- Blogging
- Advocacy work (a few government submissions, emails to politicians etc)
Oh yeah, and I
- just published a book
- I’m doing edits on my next three books
- I’m doing first draft of my next fiction series
- I’m submitting a YA manuscript to trad publishers
- I’m attempting small paid writing works – eg journals or zines, poetry and essays
- Weekly publishing on Substack
I’m also:
- Planning the bigger and better steps and promotional activities for both Normal Systems and Oh Shit My Draft
- Trying to remain an active member of disability communities and offer support to friends
- sharing my (non monetised) Youtube videos
- In the draft stages of creating a mini workshop on creativity while chronically ill
And doing all this while watching my redundancy payment dwindle, and needing to pace so I don’t have a major health decline like I did last time I was unemployed and looking for work.
Oh, and I haven’t gone into this, but due to both technical and disability reasons, there’s a NOT SMALL possibility I will be unable to get centrelink if it comes to that, so I don’t even have that meagre option in my future.
And I still think I’m not doing enough. The whole problem with this is that the thing I need most – a job for an income asap, is the part that has the most discrimination involved. I can’t “80/20” rule job hunting because the data to decide what a worthwhile job is doesn’t exist. People don’t disclose their discrimination plans. I can’t optimise it. I can’t “hack” it. There’s no data and no way to gather the data.
Sure, I’m taking steps to get an income in other ways too. The problem is, they all take time, and with an energy limiting condition, I can’t do ten million steps a week. These are a lot of little things I’m working on – and some may get five minutes a week, some may get half an hour. It just depends what I have to give. I have to pace, otherwise I’ll end up unable to work. Frankly, it’s unwise for me to be doing 99% of this, but what choice do I have? I have no backup. No family. No inheritance, likely not even meagre Centrelink to back me up. I’m on my own. And I’m doing my damn best.
Mutual aid corner this week is highlighting a Go Fund Me for my friend Emma. She’s housebound, mostly bedridden, and is struggling to get appropriate medical care. They are using this Go Fund Me to find private specialists who may be able to help her, given that the public system abandons housebound and bedridden people. If you have the capacity to give or share, I know Emma will appreciate it.
Links referenced in the episode:
Recorded and edited by myself, Vanessa Smith.
Intro and outro music by Ben Dawson.
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