All right, gang—this is going to be quick, because as the title implies, it has to be.
I’ve had a lot going on spread across multiple fronts the past few weeks—Day Job work, creative work, daily life maintenance, and just about everything else you can think of. On top of all that I had some friends visiting from the States last month, and while it was all kinds of awesome to see them again and take a sweet trip, taking two weeks off from creative work hit me hard.
To give you a better idea of what I’m dealing with this month, here’s a snapshot of the most pressing items:
1. I’ve got a month to finish my online TEFL class and there’s still a LOT to go.
I’ve been kicking myself for letting this slip by the wayside for so long and for not making more progress in the fall—I had a year to finish this online TEFL class and with less than a month to go I’ve got to shoot through the last few units or risk losing the time and money I’ve already invested.
When I realized how little time was actually left I moved the class to the top of my priority list and made a plan: if I finish one unit a week I can make this very real deadline. This definitely seems doable as long as I keep scheduling the time—and to give myself more leeway, I even cancelled a few weekend engagements. I may also have to break my Day-of-Rest mantra and work a few Saturdays to get this done, but in the end I think I can walk away with the kick-ass resume-building TEFL certificate I’ve already paid for.
2. The JLPT Test is…Soon
July 7th to be exact, and while I feel like my Japanese is in a pretty good place, I still need to keep at it and review a lot of grammar (日本語の文法はむずかしいですね？).
While it’s not the end of the world if I don’t pass the test, I still want to give it my best, and on a practical note I’ll be out fifty bucks if I fail. Once again, both of these incentives are enough for me to make studying a priority.
3. I’ve Got a New Gig Editing the Toyama JET Magazine
So this is pretty cool, and something I haven’t mentioned here yet—this spring I was elected one of three Publications Representatives for the Toyama AJET newsletter/literary and art magazine, the TRAM (a.k.a. Toyama’s Random-Ass Magazine), which you can check out online. I was psyched to get it, and happy to bring my skills to the job of running an actual, for-serious publication that real people around Toyama actually read. The timing, though, was less than ideal: we’re putting our first issue together this month, which has meant a lot of extra work all at once.
I’m staying on top of it for now, but once again, it’s just another thing that needs prioritizing.
4. Everything Else Adds Up Fast
I won’t bore you with specifics, but little things like getting a haircut, buying new short-sleeved work shirts for the sweltering Japanese summer, and cleaning out your shower tend to get pushed back when you’ve got a lot going on, so I’ve got to deal with the fallback from that too (e.g., not having enough short-sleeved work shirts to make it through the week).
Being Super-Busy Has Made Me Think About My Priorities
As you probably noticed, making time for actual Writing didn’t make the list (the one exception being an upcoming book review essay for the TRAM), which I’m been feeling pretty crappy about. Querying agents for my novel has unfortunately also been put on hold until next month when I can salvage more time.
In other words, I’ve had to put the two aspects of my creative work that I care about most on the backburner.
This has made me think a lot about how I prioritize my daily life and which projects I take on, and it once again reinforces this idea that at the end of the day, I keep taking on too much. That means that projects without external deadlines like finishing a novel (or finding an agent for that novel) keep getting put off so I can work on projects whose deadlines are more real and immediate.
With that in mind, I’ve been working overtime trying to get back on track, and cancelled the abovementioned social commitments and some low-priority projects I wasn’t that interested in as I reorganize things for the future.
In other words, June might be a mess, but I’m pretty sure I can salvage July and August.
As far as this blog goes, I’ll still be doing weekly posts, but for June I’ll be running the next few entries in my Adventures from Japan photo series, since this is something I’ve already put in motion and those posts are less labor-intensive than a typical post like this one. Then, after I catch back up I’ll be starting on some other blog ideas I’ve been mulling over, hopefully by July.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work.
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My Instagram where I post cool pics from Japan
Okay- feeling pretty guilty..………..