It’s been…a busy few weeks, which, as I talked about last month, was entirely my own fault for taking on too much.
I’m realizing that more than anything else, my tendency to say “Yes” to things (sometimes with an exclamation point attached) is really having an adverse effect on my productivity, because not only does having more things to do quantitatively reduce my amount of free time, it also pulls me in multiple directions, giving me more things to juggle and making me exponentially more stressed.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make this problem better, and though the solution definitely involves taking on less things, making this happen in the real world is going to take some time and careful thought, and I’m not quite there yet on the best way to do it.
In the meantime, though, here’s an update on things I have been doing, some finished, some stalled, and some still in progress…
I Finished My TEFL Class!
WAY back before I came to Japan last summer I signed up for an online TEFL class thinking it’d be a good professional qualification to have. I had an entire year to finish the class, so I figured I could easily work through it a little at a time on weekends and be golden, right?
Fast forward to a few months ago when it became obvious how little progress I’d really made and that I needed to get the remaining 75% of this thing done. As a result, making this very real deadline became a very real pressure on my evening and weekend time to the point where it started taking priority over other things and causing some serious eye burnout from too much staring at the computer screen.
Well, that ordeal is finally over—I finished the final exam with a week to spare, and I’m happy to report that I’m now a TEFL-certified ESL teacher through the University of Toronto (cue fanfare). I learned a lot in the class that can help me in my Day Job for sure, though how useful the certificate might be for my future plans remains to be seen.
Mostly, though, I’m just happy to put this behind me and move on to other endeavors.
I Took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test…
…and I’m not sure how I did. Just to recap, the JLPT is a standardized Japanese-language exam for foreigners with five levels graded on a pass-fail basis. I passed N5 (the lowest level) when I lived in Japan the first time, and thought I’d come back to challenge the N4 (the second lowest level) as both a way to guide my Japanese studying and to snag another resume boost. Getting better at Japanese so I can communicate with friends, coworkers, and other people here is important to me, and I thought having a for-serious test to push me toward that goal would serve as a good external motivator.
For the past year I’ve studied a lot of grammar, practiced a lot of reading, and drilled a lot of vocab, and on test day I felt like I nailed those sections for sure. The Listening section, though…could have gone either way. Unfortunately, a Fail for one section of the test is a Fail for all, and it was frustrating to know that I may have spent the last few months focusing on the wrong thing.
I won’t know the results for a few weeks yet, so I’m trying not to think too much about it until then. Whether I pass or fail, though, I’m also not sure where I want my Japanese studying to go from here or how much time I really want to be focusing on these kinds of standardized exams, so I’m going to have to do some real thinking about that too.
The Summer Toyama TRAM Magazine Is Out
Another big project, my first issue as coeditor of Toyama’s Random-Ass Magazine (aka The TRAM) is done, and I was really, really happy with how it came out. (Check out the free online version here.) My main duties were editing submissions and working with authors, though I also solicited a few pieces, helped with organizational stuff, and wrote a second edition of the book review column (“Let’s Talk About Japan Books!”) I started last winter.
The TRAM was a fun and ultimately rewarding project to work on with a cool indie look (which was entirely the brainchild of our designer, Diane Huynh), and while I definitely want to continue with it, I also don’t want it to consume all of my creative time, so finding the right balance is going to be the trick.
I Haven’t Queried Any Agents in 3 Months
Yeah, my quest to get an agent for my novel about grad school is still on the backburner, though if all goes well I should be back in the querying game by next week. That’s been a disappointment, because when I think about what I really want to be focusing on right now, querying agents in hope of getting my novel published always ranks near the top.
I really want to keep giving this an honest shot, and I think it’ll be a lot easier for me to prioritize this goal moving forward because it’s one I feel so strongly about. Here’s hoping for a more positive update in a few months.
I’ve Been Working on A Few Shorter Writing Projects
Though in my last update I talked about not doing any writing at all, that isn’t quite true—aside from the book reviews for the TRAM, I put the finishing touches on a shorter essay about urban decay in Japan that I’m hoping to use for this year’s edition of the New Hampshire Writer’s Project Anthology and that I also read at The Art Thing open mic organized by some fellow JETs back in May.
I’ve also been working on a longer (20ish page) nonfiction piece about life in Japan that’s been on hold since March or so that I really want to finish up. My thought is that the two Japan pieces could ultimately be the starting point for a bigger nonfiction project, but I’m still a few months away from starting that at least.
So, let’s just say that all is not lost, and I have been making some time for writing, though not as much as I’d like.
I’m Feeling Good About My Social Media Use (or Lack Thereof)
A few weeks ago I wrote about my tendency to fall into phone wormholes when I found myself with a few minutes to spare and got sucked into checking and scrolling through a million things on my phone. This realization was the culmination of years of bad phone habits that I’ve been writing about since I started this blog, and I finally decided to set strict limits on my social media use by only checking my accounts at a certain time of the day for a length of time I decided on beforehand (usually five minutes or less, but sometimes as much twenty minutes).
I’m happy to report that this is actually going very, very well—just thinking and writing about the problem directly was enough to make me realize I had to change, and I found it ridiculously easy to stick to the new routine (sweet!). I’ve also noticed that the tendency to pull out my phone is strongest when I’m out (riding the train, waiting for someone, etc.), so these are moments where I’m particularly trying to be more aware.
It also doesn’t hurt that I’ve been so insanely busy lately, which in turn has been giving me tremendously real incentive to focus on actual work over social media. When things slow down again and I’m left with less immediate deadlines, that’s when I’ll have some rougher decisions about how to spend my free time, and I don’t want to start falling into phone traps again.
So Overall, How’s Everything?
The past few months have been…interesting in that I’ve been focusing on a lot of things that are either tangential to, or in some cases unrelated to my actual writing but could still benefit me on a professional level (the TEFL certificate) or in terms of my separate goals (learning Japanese).
The big trick, though, is going to be balancing those different goals, deciding how much time to devote to each activity, and making real, concrete plans to ensure that I’m spending my time on the things I most want to be spending my time on. Being able to fine-tune my mid- to long-term goals and work toward them is insanely important to me, and if I can do that like a boss, I’ll be able to make better use of the time I have.
Keep in touch! All the cool kids are doin’ it…
But I Also Have a Day Job on Facebook
My Instagram where I post cool pics from Japan