Hey all—this week has me caught in the middle of a mad cluster of deadlines, events, and a bunch of other things happening at once (lame…). April’s also the start of the new school year in Japan, and the start of cherry blossom season, so I’ve been trying to make time for a bit of hanami as well…
With that in mind, here’s a rundown of what I’ve been spending my time on lately. Some of it, like the TEFL class, have strict deadlines I don’t want to fuck around with, but most everything else is self-motivated as I try to get caught up after losing a lot of time in 2018.
In no particular order, I’ve been…
Querying My Grad School Novel
As I wrote about a few weeks ago, getting a novel published on a mass scale starts by emailing agents who might be interested in your work. If the agent likes your query email they’ll ask to see the full novel, and if they like the full novel they’ll send you a contract. If you sign the contract, the agent starts sending your book off to editors who might be interested…and if an editor’s interested, you’re on the road to getting a book deal.
As I’m fast discovering (or rather, remembering from when I queried my first novel…), agents are busy and get TONS of author emails every week. While I’ve queried several awesome dream agents that I’d absolutely kill to work with, it’s hard to find more than a few who would for sure be a good fit, so I find myself querying agents who would probably be a good fit, or who might be a good fit, or who even have a chance of being a good fit, hoping to stumble on the right one.
I’m still finding lots of agents to query every week, and my goal is to submit to 100 of them before regrouping and possibly coming up with a new plan. I’ve been emailing five or six agents a week, and by the time this post goes live I should be somewhere in the mid-forties. Here’s hoping I can get to 100 by mid-summer…
Taking an Online TEFL Class
I decided to get a TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) certificate both as a professional credential that could open more career doors, and to learn more about English grammar and become a better teacher. The class is all online, is 100 hours long, and allows you a year to finish at your own pace, so taking it seemed like a win-win no-brainer.
…that is, until I fell madly behind my first few months in Japan and finished barely 10 of those hours by the halfway mark. That…wasn’t cool, and I’ve got a final deadline of July to get through the rest of those units.
Fortunately I’ve been learning from my mistakes and trying not to take on too much, so I’ve cleared my schedule as much as I can for the next three months. In an ideal world, this course would have been something I worked on a few hours a week over the course of a year, but with time running out, I’ve got to get to work.
Prepping for the JLPT Test in July
I’m also trying to improve my Japanese—studying grammar, drilling vocab, and writing, reading, and speaking whenever I can. For now I’m trying to do an hour of combined practice per day so I can upgrade my fluency for the test, and I usually study right after getting home as a way of transitioning into my creative work time.
My study routine changes depending on the month: I just finished an online Japanese course paid for by the JET program (sweet!), and I’ve set a new goal of finishing one unit of Genki Book II every week as a way to review the grammar. I’m also drilling flash cards every day, learning sixteen new kanji every week (four every weekday with a review on Friday), and writing sentences using weekly new vocabulary words—yikes!
Each of these is pretty manageable on its own, but the whole regimen can get out of hand quickly if I don’t stay on top of it. I like how studying in one area (for example, writing kanji) helps me in other areas (say, learning new words), and how what I learn during study time comes in handy when I need to explain something at work or when I’m traveling.
Taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is more of a measure of my abilities than a useful credential, but it also serves as another real-life deadline to keep me motivated. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to pass the N4 level at my current rate, but it feels good knowing that it if I fail, there’s always another chance in December.
Keeping Up with Self-Improvement That I’ve Been Neglecting for a Long Time
This one’s less of a goal and more of a series of habits. I realized recently that over the past decade I’ve been devoting a LOT of time to Day Job work, creative work, money management, adventure and cultural stimulation, and friend and family relationships—but not a lot of time to other areas of my life that need improving. And there’s kind of a lot of them.
I’m talking about stuff like keeping in shape, eating right, keeping my apartment clean, getting regular haircuts, and wearing clothes that aren’t the same ones I’ve been wearing since college (though to be fair I only have a few of those left). I felt a lot less inclined to keep these things up when I was nineteen and no one gave a fuck what I looked like, but now as a single guy in my 30s, I’m waking up to just how much the bar’s been raised.
This self-improvement category is still in its infancy, but so far it’s been revolving around the following:
- Getting Regular Exercise (that doesn’t involve actually going to a gym): Riding my bike, walking, playing tennis once a week, doing push-ups, lifting light weights, etc.
- Eating Better: Eating less junk food, more vegetables, better portions, less processed food, less alcohol.
- Sleeping Better: Getting more sleep, going to bed at the same time every night, not staying up late working.
- Dressing Better: Wearing clothes that fit, look cool, and that I actually like for work, home, going out, and formal occasions.
- Grooming Better: Getting regular haircuts, shaving in such a way that doesn’t leave me with crooked sideburns and neck hair, using face wash, other things to make me look sharp.
- Keeping My Place Cleaner: Doing weekly cleanings, keeping things organized, doing bigger cleanings as they necessary, making sure I have enough laundry.
I plan on organizing these goals more specifically over the next few months as I clarify what I really need to work on, but for now I’m mostly just testing the waters. Watch for more updates…
Finally, there’s one more really, really important thing I want to be doing more of but that hasn’t been working out the way I want to:
Reading More Books
‘Nuff said.
Wish me luck, everybody…
So I totally have an Instagram now where I post cool and offbeat pics from Japan—check it out!
Plus, you know, there’s other ways to follow me…
But I Also Have a Day Job on Facebook
Occasional Email Update List (extra cool stuff ahoy!)