Your 9-5 isn't killing you; you are

Season 20, Episode 10: Your 9-5 isn’t killing you; you are
24 May 2026 – Predictability and monotony don’t have to be a bad thing, as told through my office job and a new movie I just watched (no spoilers, don’t worry).

As many of you may know, I recently started a new job. It’s my first full-time experience, as well as my first time sitting at a desk all day everyday. I’m working in an organizational/business administration role, something that doesn’t particularly fit who I am or what I dream of doing for work.

Although, really, I’m never sure exactly what I want to do for work. Being a writer would be a dream, to whatever degree I’m able, but I’m practical enough to know I’ll likely need something else as well.

It’s a boring job.

I spend most days staring at my Outlook inbox, filling gaps in work with the solitaire app already on my work laptop.

I wake up at 6:30, leave my house at 7:30.

I get home around 5, I play Tomodachi life for half an hour, I watch random TV and go to bed at 9 P.M.

My routine is bland and monotonous, something easy to slip into and get tired of. It’s partly why I’ve been struggling to get my articles out on time (even this one being a day late). It’s not that I’ve lost my passions, it’s that it sometimes feels like adding another thing into the routine.

So how do I break it? How do I get back into the swing of bursting with ideas to write about?

I don’t really know, but I’m trying to learn. So far, I’ve purchased by AMC a-list membership, and I’ll be breaking up some of my post-work evenings with seeing films.

Yesterday, I spent the day with a friend who returned home for the summer. I got home too late to go to the theater, but I still wanted to see a movie. So, I opened Netflix.

It’s never my first choice of streaming service, but it was the first that popped up on my TV. I thought, I’ll scroll through my options then probably go somewhere else.

Turns out, a film adaptation of a book I’d wanted to read but never got the chance had been released without my knowing. I remember hearing about it’s production, it’s really awesome cast with Sally Field and Lewis Pullman. The movie is Remarkably Bright Creatures.

All I knew about it was that there was an octopus, revealed by the book cover I’ve had on my want-to-read list since it was released. Other than that, though, I knew nothing about the characters or the plot.

Maybe twenty minutes into the film, I started readily predicting the plot elements that would come. Part of me tried to find alternative solutions, but my gut instincts ended up being mostly correct.

It’s a bad thing when movies are predictable, right? Just like it’s a bad thing when life is always predicable, right?

As I came to finish the film, growing attached to these characters I didn’t actually know too much about, this negative view of predictability, and in turn monotony, began to swirl through my mind.

The film subtly comments on routine, on comfortability in a place that might not truly speak to you. It didn’t aim to suggest that all of this was bad, though. Instead of that, it’s goal was to emphasize finding the way you fit within what’s already good (at least this is what I got from it).

Of course, in real-life this shifting of perspective is only merited when the thing you’ve got is genuinely good and beneficial for you.

In my case, despite the way my job can be boring, tiring, repetitive, it’s still something good. I’m learning so much that will help me in any future workplace, and deep down I know that I need routine to survive.

Without something so cyclical and symmetrical, I struggle to get out of bed or do anything at all productive.

So, how do I balance the monotony and the good?

The answer might be so simple we all overlook it, or so simple that it’s actually difficult: reframing the narrative.

My first step is watching movies, but I’m hoping to go beyond that.

There’s no chance I stop my solitaire rampage at work, however I can work harder to suck all the good from the days I have at this job. When I do this, I can not only help the company I’m working for but also myself in my future.

I can come home and make my lunch for the next day, not drowning in the repetition of it but savoring the opportunity itself. I can value the new recipes I’m learning, new foods I’m trying.

I’ve discovered I’m the type who loves packing a lunch, and it being a routine makes it even better.

(Leave any lunch ideas you have in the comments, I’d love to try them!)

Looking for little things that are good allows routine to be something beautiful as opposed to boring and repetitive.

Like in Remarkably Bright Creatures, sometimes we need a shift to see we’re okay exactly where we’re at. Instead of trying to break my routine, I’m adding fun elements to it in order to get the most I possibly can out of it.

This is how monotony becomes something more exciting than we’re trained to suspect.

Something I still struggle with, but am trying to get better at, is connecting with people throughout it all.

I’m an introvert, who enjoys being alone, and I’m frankly happy with the friends I have, often causing me to not seek out any more. I have two other interns working alongside me, but I haven’t made any efforts to be their friend outside of work.

I don’t necessarily want or need to be their friend, but my lack of effort tells me I at least need to take a closer look at the people I do have.

For example, my mom drives me to work most days (we don’t have enough cars in our house) and some days we say nothing of substance at all on the way there. I want to highlight the good that could so clearly come from those short, daily drives.

I can spend the weekends and evenings with the friends I have now, instead of allowing myself to waste away in my bedroom. I’m good at balancing my social battery, but sometimes I get so stressed about the idea of it waring out that I don’t make any efforts to be with them at all.

Being more present outside of work, fostering those relationships, will help make every moment seem more meaningful, despite it being some part of a larger routine.

Many people claim that the “9-5 life” isn’t for them. This is completely valid, and after living that life for two weeks now I can see how months and years of this could inherently exhaust a person.

I also think, though, we’ve become so used to instant gratification and being busy with something in our hand or on our screens that we refuse to work toward something that could be good.

Not everyone loves their jobs, and especially not those who work office jobs. But they don’t inherently hate their lives, they find ways to love the routine.

If you’re not built for it, that’s fine. If you notice that you’re struggling with a 9-5 or something of the sort but can sense a hidden well of potential around, inside, and outside of it, maybe your bias against it has been ingrained into you when it needn’t have been.

I always said I wasn’t made to end up working in an office day-to-day.

That being said, as I’ve gone through college and have thrived on routine, just to now be thrown into the ultimate challenge of monotony, I find that maybe I am exactly built for this lifestyle.

It’s not easy. And that’s okay.

Satisfaction in work, relationships, self-esteem, and life in general takes so much more effort than we want it to. But I’m finding that the effort is part of what makes it so worthwhile in the end.

Also, I have the same shoes as Lewis Pullman’s character, and was even wearing them the day I watched this film. I’m taking it as a sign of the importance it might hold for me.

I think it could be important for you, too.

P.S. To book-readers, I’ve officially bumped this book up to the top of my list. How do you think it compares to the movie?