Productivity, Burnout, and Trying to Do It All

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I’ll start this (short) entry by doing something I don’t normally do: pointing you toward something I didn’t write.

That something is this BuzzFeed News article by Anne Helen Peterson entitled How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, and it covers a social phenomenon I’ve talked about elsewhere but haven’t seen explored in this kind of depth.  The gist is that by trying to do it all—and by trying to harness every ounce of our productivity and working efficiency—we’re not only burning ourselves out, we’re overlooking simple errands like registering to vote or taking knives to get sharpened (something I’ve never done, btw.), which in turn is having adverse effects on our sense of fulfillment.

In addition, the article reads like a laundry list of issues that I’ve dealt with myself and/or have had friends deal with, including putting off low-reward errands, maximizing time by cutting meal prep, excessive multitasking, learning to overwork while in grad school (!), Continue reading »

Don’t Just Say “I’m Too Busy”

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I’ll try to keep this one brief, since I’ve got stuff to do today.

I don’t like saying “I’m too busy” when someone invites me to something or asks me for a favor.  It feels like a copout—because in a lot of ways, it is.

If have a chance to pick up a new editing job or write something or even just go out for drinks with friends, I try to think about the other things I’m currently juggling in comparison to this new opportunity.  Do I really want to do this new thing, or would I rather focus on what I’m already working on? Continue reading »

Guest Reflection – 3 New Developments a Day

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So two weeks ago I posted about making good use of your time and the challenges that go along with it, which a lot of folks seemed to appreciate.  (A sign that maybe we’re all struggling with the same problems??)

One of those folks happened to be my old board-game playing cohort Darryl Parker, web designer and self-employed entrepreneur who opened up Schoodac’s coffee shop in my hometown of Warner, New Hampshire back in 2015.  He wrote some wise words down in the depths of the comments section about how he manages his time, and I found it way too thought-provoking not to share as its own post: Continue reading »

A Short Piece (Promise!) About Making Good Use of Your Time

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I think a lot about time.  Namely why I never seem to have enough of it.

I think about the things I do in the short term to waste time, like scrolling through news after work and watching chains of Youtube videos after dinner and lying in bed too long on weekend mornings.  When these things start to become habits, that’s dangerous, because the amount of time they take away increases over a longer period and you lose even more of your time in these small chunks.

So, I’ve been trying to catch these habits and get rid of them before they do more damage. Continue reading »

I Got SICK (But I’m All Better Now)

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The title says it all—last week I got hit by a nasty case of strep throat that had me writhing in tonsil-pinched agony for three nights and coughing in a runny-nosed mess for four days, plus some lingering coughing and sneezing I just couldn’t shake.  (That’s the most graphic I’m going to get in this post—promise!)

We’ve all been sick before and know what it’s like (no fun, except for the staying home and watching movies part), but this week I want to share three illness-related observations you might not have thought about: Japanese health care, taking days off, and falling behind on creative work. Continue reading »

Bad Habits I’ve Fallen Into in Japan

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Opportunities aside, a big disadvantage with packing up all your stuff and moving halfway around the world is that it screws up your rhythm big time.  Back home I had a set work schedule, a familiar desk where I could write, and ingrained habits for how to get my shit done.  In Japan, not so much.

Part of why I love schedules is that they help me develop better work habits: by doing my work at similar times of the day in similar ways in a similar place, the process becomes more familiar and less intimidating, thus helping me ward off procrastination and save time by getting down to work faster.

This is the same reason I do things like make my bed every morning and eat a similar breakfast (eggs over easy with toast if I have the time, cereal with milk if I don’t) so that instead of having to think about how to get my day going I can just do it, like a kind of reflex or muscle memory.  Get enough of these little routines Continue reading »

Last Post in America! (For a While, Anyway)

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It’s been a CRAZY few weeks since July started and I realized I had LESS THAN A MONTH before Japan to pack up my entire apartment and finish the novel and cancel all my utilities AND finish up a bunch of miscellaneous writing projects AND bring my Japanese up to par—so yeah, I’ve been pretty busy.

Having so much to do has partly been good, since it’s kept me insanely focused most days and pushed me to get more done…though the downside is that it’s also causing me a lot of stress and led to a lot of mad scrambling as I second-guess myself about what needs to be done and in which order.

So with a week before my flight, here’s a report card-style progress report of Continue reading »

I Spent a Bunch of Money on Pens and I Don’t Regret It At All

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Many of you reading this know that I’ve carried the same blue medium-sized style Bic pen in my pocket since high school.  It’s hands-down my preferred writing implement for both creative work and all those little notes and lists I tend to write in my daily life (though not for Day Job-related tasks, as I talked about last summer).

I keep a handful of fancier pens I use for special notes or formal occasions, though for regular writing, I just plain feel better using something familiar.  I love the weight of these pens, their simple style, the way their blue ink stands out against printed black type when marking drafts, and even the way I can cleanly slide their caps off with one hand. Continue reading »

July Novel Update: Deadline Met…Almost!

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One of my friends recently described this blog as a chronicle of projects I’m trying to get done and how outside problems keep getting in the way.

Yeah, I get that.

If you’ve been following my Novel Update series you might recall that I’ve ALMOST finished a workable Fifth Draft of my novel about grad school life in the Midwest, and that this draft is especially important because it’ll be be the first one that’s finished enough to actually show people.  Since I leave for Japan at the end of July, a few weeks ago I set a self-imposed deadline of finishing the Fifth Draft by July 1st so I’d have time to Continue reading »

My Weeklong Return to Online Test-Grading and Why It Still SUCKS

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So last week I briefly mentioned that I’d signed on to a week (five and a half days, to be exact) at my old Secret Work-From-Home Day Job grading standardized test essays.  The chance to pick up extra hours arrived conveniently in my inbox six or so weeks ago because I’m still on the company’s mailing list, and at the time I figured, what the hell—I could always use the extra cash, and a week of test-grading wouldn’t set me too far behind, right?

*Cue ominous music here* Continue reading »

How Much Brainpower Does Your Work Take Up?

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Here’s a list of everything I did today, in no particular order:

  • Graded eight hours worth of standardized test essays
  • Studied Japanese
  • Wrote three emails (one short, one medium, and one reeeeeeeeeaalllllllly long)
  • Outlined and fine-tuned some trouble areas in my novel
  • Made lunch and dinner
  • Drafted this blog entry (working on that now)

So first off…yeah, I picked up some hours at my No-Longer-Secret Work-From-Home Day Job grading standardized test essays, but only for this week, swiping up an opportunity to bring in some extra cash before I leave for Japan.  Plus, since I’m able to basically do other work Continue reading »

Self-Pacing and Breaks are REALLY Important

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This is one of those entries where I talk about something that happened to me, then relate it to a larger phenomenon so that you, the reader, can have something to reflect on too.  Here’s the story:

Yesterday I vowed to finish retyping the edits to the fourth draft of my novel, which I’d been working on slowly over the past two weeks but wanted to finish ASAP in line with my self-imposed deadline of finishing the fifth draft by July 1st.  However, accomplishing this mighty goal involved me typing out 140 pages worth of edits (give or take) in the 7 hours I’d set aside.

The math worked out to about 20 pages per hour.  Challenge accepted. Continue reading »