Eliminate Distractions by Unplugging Your Internet

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I wrote this article a few (well, many) months ago as a guest post for another blog…that didn’t end up getting picked up :-(  Rather than relegate it to a folder on my hard drive I decided to share it here.  While the app I mention in the opening paragraphs is old news, whether you eliminate distractions through internal or external means is an important question to consider when taking back more of your time.

A while back I read about an app designed to improve focus for writers.  Cleverly named The Most Dangerous Writing App, it serves as your word processing program and monitors how long since you’ve actually pressed the keys to write. After five minutes of inactivity the app will assume you’ve gotten distracted and your writing will start to fade; go for much longer and it disappears completely. How’s that for incentive to stay focused? Continue reading »

Is Too Much Freedom With Your Time a Bad Thing?

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Short answer: Sometimes.  Long answer:

Recently someone asked me how I felt about the idea of having total freedom to write or do whatever creative work I wanted—and whether that much freedom would be overwhelming.

The question took me back to the last time I had a lot of freedom with my time, after I left my job where my boss was crooked and before I started my current job in Japan.  I was editing the fourth or so draft of MFA Thesis Novel during the day, editing the first New Hampshire Writers Project Anthology in the afternoons, and in between that I was brushing up my Japanese, doing editing side gigs, and trying to read a lot of books.  I also had to find time to move all my stuff into storage and vacate my apartment.

In short, I was pretty busy. Continue reading »

Do You Have Trouble Starting New Projects, or Trouble Finishing Them?

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I’ve got a big writing project I want to start, but instead of actually starting it, I’m going to blog about it instead.

I’ve always had trouble starting new projects.  In high school I was a bad procrastinator who often watched TV and played video games when I should have been writing papers, and as an adult I developed productive procrastination habits where I do the million and one other things I have to do apart from the difficult project, thus creating the illusion of productivity.

I guess I just get intimidated by big projects.  If I start something new, I know I’m going to have to finish it, which can feel downright scary.

A lot of other people, though, start projects easily because they’re excited about them.  Unfortunately, when the initial excitement wears off Continue reading »

Sometimes I Take on Too Much and Then Screw Up

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Let’s get one thing straight: we all make mistakes, whether it’s in our creative work or at our Day Jobs.  If you think otherwise, you’re living on another planet.

For me, the vast majority of my screwups happen because I take on too much and rush through things.

This wasn’t always the case—when I was younger most of my screwups happened because I was inexperienced, or because I wasn’t organized enough and forgot appointments or deadlines.  I improved the former issue by getting better at things I wanted to do well, and solved the latter by implementing a To-List system that’s served me well for the past nine or so years.

Now, though, I notice a different kind of problem: because I have so much going on, and so much of it coming from different directions, I tend to rush through some tasks so I’ll have more time Continue reading »

Day Jobs are Great for Earning Small Wins

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Life can be rough, and little boosts help a lot.

Little boosts come in many forms: I get them when I see my friends, enjoy a fun dinner with my family, read an awesome book, or take a scenic bike ride.  Those aren’t the kinds of boosts I’ll be talking about in this post, though.

When I interviewed visual novel artist Miranda Reeder she talked about earning small wins to get her through slow periods.  Because she usually had several bigger projects going at once, taking time away from them to work on something smaller that she could finish and feel good about provided a small win Continue reading »

A Short Post About Positivity

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Every time you create something, it makes a positive change.

Every time you share a new idea with at least one person, that creates a positive change too.

And every conversation, every group gathering, every hangout, every project, report, blog post, tweet, journal entry, game, cooked meal, video chat, jigsaw puzzle, and inspirational meme makes a positive change too, because you’ve created something that didn’t exist before.

Now, think about this: Continue reading »

Thoughts on Going Back to Work After School Closures

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Quick Recap: The Coronavirus pandemic hasn’t hit Japan nearly as hard as most other countries, and in my region of Toyama there’s only been 227 cases since COVID-19 came here in late March.  Still, schools in my city were closed for most of March, all of April, and the first three weeks of May.  During that time I mostly stayed home, running a schedule that mixed creative work and Day Job work, where my coworkers and I made English movies for the kids to watch at home.

But that’s all changed now—schools in my city opened on May 21st, and as of June 1st the foreign teachers are back to work too.

Since most schools in the US are still closed, Japan’s school openings…may seem surprising to some of you.  Going to school naturally involves a lot of people being close together indoors for long periods of time, Continue reading »

Things That Bring Me Down During COVID-19

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I haven’t caught the Coronavirus, nor do I know anyone who has.  I also still have a job, got a $1,200 stimulus check from the US government, and I’m going to get another ¥100,000 yen stimulus (just under $1,000) from the Japanese government in a few weeks.  My part of Japan has had relatively few cases, and almost everywhere in my city has stayed open except for schools—which has given me a lot of extra creative work time.  I also got a haircut yesterday—the barber wore a mask, and since not many people go to that particular barbershop, I felt pretty safe.

In the grand scheme of things I shouldn’t feel sad at all, since there are other people out there who have things way worse than me—but still, I often feel down in the dumps.

If you’re like me and don’t have any of the more serious problems I listed in the opening paragraph, maybe you’re feeling guilty that the comparatively minor problems you do have are getting you down Continue reading »

Non-Creative Things I Do to De-Stress: Jigsaw Puzzles

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In this occasional series, I’ll be looking at some non-creative, non-work things I do that both relax me and mentally prepare me to start back on creative work.  Work stuff is important, but non-work stuff matters too.

When I was a kid I did jigsaw puzzles I assembled on a sheet of plywood under my bed.  This was between late elementary school and early high school, when I got good enough to put together the 500- and 1000-piece landscapes and illustrations my family had amassed over a generation, and that I regularly got for Christmases and birthdays.  I’d assemble each puzzle over a period of weeks (or, as I got busier, months), working for stretches of an hour or two while listening to music.

Over the years I honed the steps necessary for doing puzzles quickly and efficiently: browsing through the box to find the edge pieces, trying likely matches first, putting together Continue reading »

Stay-at-Home COVID-19 Creative Work Schedule!

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If you’ve read my earlier posts on Coronavirus in Japan, you may recall that cases here have progressed more slowly than in the States, and there haven’t been nearly as many.  Schools have been almost entirely closed since early March, and they’re slated to stay closed until the end of May at least.  In Toyama, most businesses are still open, albeit with limited hours and fewer customers, and most people seem to be practicing safe social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand sanitizing.

I too have been working from home since early April, and have started to understand what my friends and family back home are dealing with.  Not leaving your house…kind of sucks, especially when your house is a three-room apartment and you spend most of your day sitting on a tatami mat floor. Continue reading »

Non-Creative Things I Do to De-Stress: The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

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I talk a LOT about work on this blog, so to switch things up I’ll be talking about some non-work stuff that impacts the work stuff in different ways.  In this ongoing series I’ll go in-depth about some distinctly non-work stuff I do to enrich my life and de-stress—things that put me in better shape for when it’s time to sit down and do the work stuff again.

Let’s get one thing straight: I love Bob Ross.

I used to watch The Joy of Painting as a kid on weekend afternoons, when I’d flip through the channels and always catch episodes at the halfway point.  (As a result, I don’t recall ever seeing Bob Ross actually paint a sky.)  I was fascinated by Bob’s soft, gentle voice, and his amazing landscapes: the sharp mountains cutting into the sky, the puffy evergreen trees, the reflective lakes, the multicolored rocks, and even his red-roofed shacks. Continue reading »

Thoughts on Harnessing Your Creativity During COVID-19 (Or Not….)

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If you’re like me, you’ve been spending a lot more time at home lately, which is both a good and a bad thing.

It’s bad because we’re missing out on a lot of cool stuff, including events, vacations, hangouts with friends, and even the simple pleasures of being in public spaces like restaurants, coffee shops, or (for me) the town library.  Being cooped up inside for too long can also have some pretty nasty effects on our mental health, and that’s not cool either.

On the flip side, more time at home is good because it gives you a lot more of that precious commodity known as Time.  Even if you’re working from home and telecommuting keeps you just as busy, you’re still eliminating your actual commuting time, which adds up fast.  So that should mean that Continue reading »