Promises, promises
So with the new year comes a new set of resolutions and promises. This year I have the added bonus of this platform to make them all public, theoretically giving me the motivation to try and hold them all sacred instead of abandoning them come the third week of January.
I'm going to get into this below, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea, so feel free to jump to the next section if this is the case.
Firstly, I'm planning on working smarter this year. This is partly common sense and partly thoughts coalescing after reading Cal Newport's 'Deep Work'.
On average I'd work 3-4 hours per night on whatever #makecomics project was on the plate last year. But, this would be interspersed with spurs of checking social media, refreshing the email inbox and RSS feeds (more on those later) for the umpteenth time. It gives the brain the false notion of busyness and efficiency.
Instead of this, I could probably get the same amount of work done in 2 hours just by cutting out those distractions for the duration of when I'm working. This also adds a layer of concentration to the work done in this period, hopefully increasing the quality of output.
It doesn't mean less social media, it just means I'll only be using it when I'm not working (the Facebook app has already been vanquished from the phone).
Secondly, quality not quantity. I felt frazzled from the amount of work and information I was taking on last year. As a result, I took on courses and other things outside comics that perhaps I didn't need to, spreading what little free time I have a little too widely.
Additionally, my RSS and podcast feeds were overflowing (I think at one point I was subscribed to about 40 podcasts). I'd end up feeling guilty about unlistened episodes or for skim reading a long form article because there were 50 other articles waiting to be read that day. So, this year is all about cutting back, trimming the fat and taking my time in consuming my media. Savoring it. Analyzing it. Enjoying it!
Thirdly, instead of my usual 'here is my goal for the year' I'm splitting it up into quarters to allow me a little bit more flexibility.
So my goals for the first quarter for this year are:
- To be consistent with my training for a half-marathon due to take place in April. That starts next week.
- To remain consistent with my 1 Page 1 Shot scripts until I've completed 52 of them.
- To have completed the script for the third 'War' one shot (the others being Go Home and Disconnect). I'll be referring to this one as Project Memory.
- To complete my next journalism assignment (I've been waiting for interview subjects here so it's been stalled for a while now).
Outside of these goals, I'll also be continuing- work on Projects Curveball, 47 and Gibson my three heavy duty editing gigs. These are all projects I cannot wait for everyone to see.
The previously mentioned Project Hydra is still on the docket, just later in the year.
TL:DR - Working smarter. Consuming smarter. Scheduling smarter.
###
I completely skipped on handing out links the last few weeks, so here are a few recent ones:
Future Shock - a great retrospective on one of my favorite movies, Children of Men, by Vulture.
I’ve left Twitter. It is unusable for anyone but trolls, robots and dictators - a Guardian opinion column on the recent state of Twitter. I've backed away from Twitter a little bit recently and I'm trying to steer back into using it like I used to. Lists are your friend.
Rodrigo Duterte’s Army of Online Trolls - Speaking of trolls and authoritarian regimes...
Everything Steven Soderbergh Watched and Read in 2016 - Soderbergh does one of these every year and I'm always surprised at how much he consumes. Dude is always learning.
###
So far this year I've watched Disorder a great euro-thriller about a returning French veteran with PTSD becoming a bodyguard for a businessman's wife and child. The sound design to evoke the protagonist's condition and the great synth soundtrack lift this up another notch or two. It's on Netflix so give it a look.
I also finally watched Detention (also on Netflix), Joseph Kahn's homage/parody of well...slasher movies, high school culture, sci-fi, pop culture in general. It's a crazy cauldron of a movie that kind of defies classification. It's worth a watch because it's just bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm.
I also watched Taboo last night on BBC1 (I think it's showing on FX in the US), starring (and co-written by) Tom Hardy. This has the same showrunner as Peaky Blinders and is also exec-produced by Ridley Scott's production company. It's about a long thought dead man returning to a grey desolate 1800's London to claim revenge on those who have recently killed his father. I'm still on the fence after the first episode, but it has promise. I'll be watching next week.
Until then...
I'm going to get into this below, which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea, so feel free to jump to the next section if this is the case.
Firstly, I'm planning on working smarter this year. This is partly common sense and partly thoughts coalescing after reading Cal Newport's 'Deep Work'.
On average I'd work 3-4 hours per night on whatever #makecomics project was on the plate last year. But, this would be interspersed with spurs of checking social media, refreshing the email inbox and RSS feeds (more on those later) for the umpteenth time. It gives the brain the false notion of busyness and efficiency.
Instead of this, I could probably get the same amount of work done in 2 hours just by cutting out those distractions for the duration of when I'm working. This also adds a layer of concentration to the work done in this period, hopefully increasing the quality of output.
It doesn't mean less social media, it just means I'll only be using it when I'm not working (the Facebook app has already been vanquished from the phone).
Secondly, quality not quantity. I felt frazzled from the amount of work and information I was taking on last year. As a result, I took on courses and other things outside comics that perhaps I didn't need to, spreading what little free time I have a little too widely.
Additionally, my RSS and podcast feeds were overflowing (I think at one point I was subscribed to about 40 podcasts). I'd end up feeling guilty about unlistened episodes or for skim reading a long form article because there were 50 other articles waiting to be read that day. So, this year is all about cutting back, trimming the fat and taking my time in consuming my media. Savoring it. Analyzing it. Enjoying it!
Thirdly, instead of my usual 'here is my goal for the year' I'm splitting it up into quarters to allow me a little bit more flexibility.
So my goals for the first quarter for this year are:
- To be consistent with my training for a half-marathon due to take place in April. That starts next week.
- To remain consistent with my 1 Page 1 Shot scripts until I've completed 52 of them.
- To have completed the script for the third 'War' one shot (the others being Go Home and Disconnect). I'll be referring to this one as Project Memory.
- To complete my next journalism assignment (I've been waiting for interview subjects here so it's been stalled for a while now).
Outside of these goals, I'll also be continuing- work on Projects Curveball, 47 and Gibson my three heavy duty editing gigs. These are all projects I cannot wait for everyone to see.
The previously mentioned Project Hydra is still on the docket, just later in the year.
TL:DR - Working smarter. Consuming smarter. Scheduling smarter.
###
I completely skipped on handing out links the last few weeks, so here are a few recent ones:
Future Shock - a great retrospective on one of my favorite movies, Children of Men, by Vulture.
I’ve left Twitter. It is unusable for anyone but trolls, robots and dictators - a Guardian opinion column on the recent state of Twitter. I've backed away from Twitter a little bit recently and I'm trying to steer back into using it like I used to. Lists are your friend.
Rodrigo Duterte’s Army of Online Trolls - Speaking of trolls and authoritarian regimes...
Everything Steven Soderbergh Watched and Read in 2016 - Soderbergh does one of these every year and I'm always surprised at how much he consumes. Dude is always learning.
###
So far this year I've watched Disorder a great euro-thriller about a returning French veteran with PTSD becoming a bodyguard for a businessman's wife and child. The sound design to evoke the protagonist's condition and the great synth soundtrack lift this up another notch or two. It's on Netflix so give it a look.
I also finally watched Detention (also on Netflix), Joseph Kahn's homage/parody of well...slasher movies, high school culture, sci-fi, pop culture in general. It's a crazy cauldron of a movie that kind of defies classification. It's worth a watch because it's just bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm.
I also watched Taboo last night on BBC1 (I think it's showing on FX in the US), starring (and co-written by) Tom Hardy. This has the same showrunner as Peaky Blinders and is also exec-produced by Ridley Scott's production company. It's about a long thought dead man returning to a grey desolate 1800's London to claim revenge on those who have recently killed his father. I'm still on the fence after the first episode, but it has promise. I'll be watching next week.
Until then...
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