Sometimes I Procrastinate by Doing Something Productive

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I’ve been really busy for the last, I don’t know, seven or so years, and I’ve been trying to pin down why.  I’ve identified a few different factors that lead to my constant scrambling, which, in no particular order, are…

  1. Wasting time on social media/texting/phone checking when I should be getting shit done
  2. Taking on too many projects
  3. Keeping my schedule intentionally full so I can harness the extra energy that comes from being productive

Number 1 is clearly terrible and I’m actively trying to eradicate any lingering control that social media and my phone have over my time, while Number 2 is a mixed blessing, since more projects = more opportunities.  Number 3, though, can be pretty beneficial, since I feel better and more productive when I’m busy instead of bored. Continue reading »

Working on New Stuff Always Gets Me Excited: Miranda Reeder of Minyan/Harlevin Visual Novels

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Miranda Reeder writes and draws visual novels (kind of like graphic novels, except you play them on the computer) under the name Minyan and the label Harlevin, where she has over 1,400 followers on Itch.io.  Her VNs include Arena Circus, The Pretenders Guild, Mnemonic Devices, and Lilith Hall, and her current project with Fablesoft Studios, Twisted: A Dark Fairytale, raised over $2,300 on Kickstarter in October 2019.

I first met Miranda in Toyama, Japan, where she spent three years in the JET program teaching English.  After leaving Japan she returned to Ohio to pursue a master’s in Japanese translation at Kent State University, and over winter break we talked via Skype about staying motivated, balancing creativity with Day Job work, and sharing her passion with her family. Continue reading »

I’m Not Using Amazon This Christmas—Here’s Why (and How!)

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‘Tis the season to be incredibly freakin’ busy.

December’s always been a hectic time for me.  I tend to start a lot of projects in the fall that are still on my plate at the end of the year, plus I always have a lot of friends to see, and two years ago I got stuck with a ridiculous amount of holiday overtime.  On top of all that, there’s a pretty important holiday in there somewhere.

Ever since I was a kid, Christmas has mattered—a lot.  My family and I still do big gift exchanges, even when I’m away (I call in via Skype on Christmas morning) and during the holidays I also reach out to friends I don’t see that often, which means writing Christmas cards, mailing gifts, and a plethora of holiday texts.  I don’t mind working hard to create special holiday moments for the people I care about, but this tends to take a lot of energy—and when it comes down to the wire, I’m always looking for ways to make December easier. Continue reading »

When You’re Busy, You Get More Done

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This week’s post is going to seem obvious, but it’s actually worth some thought.

Last week I had a few things to do, but not too much—my To-Do list was nice and short with no looming deadlines and plenty of time to work on long-term projects.  As a result, I took my evenings at a slower pace, didn’t work any late nights, and read a few hundred pages of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (a badass novel full of savage beatings and do-it-yourself abortions that makes The Grapes of Wrath look like a kids book).

It was a pretty chill week, and as it went on I found myself taking longer breaks, scrolling through more social media, and just plain staring into space when I could have been working—or at least doing something I enjoyed. Continue reading »

Six Factors I Consider When Prioritizing My Worktime

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In the real world of getting things done, we all have to make tough decisions about how we spend our time.  This involves sorting through a shitload of tasks, which I do by making To-Do lists and using my kick-ass new whiteboard system, and that others do by keeping Bullet Journals or using other systems.

Every workday, as part of my morning routine I make my bed and then write out a list of what I’m going to do that day, in the approximate order I’m going to do it in.  I’ve talked about this process many times on this blog, but there’s one crucial thing I haven’t yet addressed: how exactly do I decide what goes on the list???

More and more, I’ve noticed several distinct factors that affect how I choose to spend my time. Continue reading »

I Used to Have This Weird Afterschool Addiction to Computer Minesweeper and In Some Ways I’m Still Dealing With It

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I haven’t played Minesweeper (or any preinstalled Windows game) in at least five years, and probably longer than that.  Back in the days of Windows 3.1 though, Minesweeper was definitely the shit.

This would have been back in the mid- to late-‘90s when I was in middle school and my computer use was restricted to the family desktop we kept in the computer room (which is itself a laughable concept now) and that I had to fight my younger brothers for on a regular basis.  This was in the days of dial-up internet when doing anything online required real planning and thought, so most of my computer use back then consisted of games and word processing.

…except that we didn’t have that many games because our outdated, clunky PC had trouble running them.  So I found myself playing Continue reading »

Summer Progress Report – How Am I Doing?

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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 Continue reading »

Life Update: I’m Swamped With Work and Things Are Crazy

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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: Continue reading »

Don’t Reach for Your Phone When You Have a Few Minutes to Kill

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Earlier this month the Japanese emperor stepped down and abdicated, beginning a new era in the Japanese calendar (Reiwa) and giving everyone in Japan a ten-day Golden Week vacation.  So that was awesome.

I spent four of those vacation days working at home, one of those days relaxing, and five of those days traveling, first over the Tateyama Alpine Route through the Northern Japanese Alps, then to visit friends in Yamanashi, and finally a stopover in Tokyo to visit another friend and enjoy some sweet Japanese Taco Bell (which was of far higher quality than its American counterpart).

It was a super-fun trip that also involved a LOT of waiting, first in the massive lines for cable cars up the mountain, then on the local trains, then waiting for friends.  I’d downloaded a week’s worth of podcasts and packed my e-reader in preparation, but more often than not I found myself reaching for my phone to mindlessly scroll through social media, which I realized I’m fucking sick of doing. Continue reading »

Which Do You Value: Your Time or Your Money?

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In the original Legend of Zelda on NES, one of the dungeons holds an old man who refuses to let you pass unless you either give him 50 rupees (which can take a while to get) or one of your heart containers.  Fittingly, in the game’s terse narration, his caption reads “LEAVE YOUR LIFE OR MONEY.”

I remember finding this as a kid and thinking pretty hard about it—you could always get more rupees in the game by killing enemies, so paying the money seemed like the better option.  But, if you were short on cash and a really good player, could you potentially save some enemy-farming time by giving up the heart container?

I never seriously gave up the heart, but I always thought about it Continue reading »

Daily Creative Work Schedule in Japan!

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(This one took a couple of tries to iron out…)

After I got to Japan, I had trouble sorting out the best way to schedule my creative work time—like, a lot of trouble.  I finish work at 4:00 every day and get home soon after that, so it seemed pretty simple to walk in the door, throw down my bag, and get right to work on the novel, right?

Negative.

Looking back, I wasted a lot of time when I first got here, especially in the afternoons between 4:00 and 5:30, when I’d come home, plop down on my bed, and scroll through my phone or listen to a podcast for longer than I intended.  I was also losing a lot of time after dinner to inactivity Continue reading »

Stuff I Do Before Bed to Help Me De-Stress

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Two weeks ago I talked about reducing stress and slowing down, a subject that’s been on my mind a lot lately as I work to, well, feel better about things.  And getting a decent night’s sleep is a big part of that.

Let me rephrase—when I say “getting a decent night’s sleep” I’m talking about more than just the actual body-rejuvenating sleep I try to get eight hours of per night.  I’m talking about an overall end of the night routine that’ll relax me overall, and that includes the part before I actually go to sleep.

So here’s a list of things I do before going to bed—I don’t manage to do all of them every night, but I think of them as general guidelines I like to follow.  (On a side note, I once had a friend who kept an elaborate 3+ hour going-to-bed routine from which she never, ever deviated, to the point where Continue reading »