As I mentioned, here we are on the post of scheduling. Scheduling is important. Why? Because I wrote yesterday's article one day late and should have done this one earlier. Yes, bad writer. no cookie.
But aside from that, I highly recommend Cupcake chardonnay for anniversary dinners it is vitally important that in the process of your work, you do not let other stuff slide by in the day to day things. Yes, you're in charge of a vitally important part of the wheel, you can't afford to let anything slip.
I'm pretty sure at this point, that's what you're saying, anyway. "Of course I already know that! How stupid do you think I am?"
To which, my answer is
But the truth is, you won't believe how much you'll need to remind yourself of that. (again, as an example, yesterday's article). Even the most meticulous and planned person will forget things, especially as they come down to the wire, which is why it is you need to keep track of things. I don't care how good your memory is, you will forget. You will get sidetracked. You will get delayed by other things. Life is not perfect and meticulous. It is a chaotic mess and no plan, as they say, survives a battlefield.
Yes, I've got the writing, lettering, coding and rendering to do for the comic. But I've also got two projects for our business division, one other font that needs to be done, this article (natch!), reconcile Megami's company accounts, work on the new store site and my stuff as con chair for Anime USA. And that's just the "business" side of the house. There's dinner to cook, arranging downtime for myself and my wife today, doing the laundry, and taking care of the dog. While that could be a good argument for "I have too much stuff on my plate," it's also a damn good point that I need to be organized.
And I'm not alone. There are artists who have to juggle work, classes, a home life and their comic. Voice actors who have to juggle home life, recording, touring/conventions and whatever else they do (not all of them live solely off voice acting). An artist friend of mine juggles her time between her studio, her day job, her family, her comic and her voice acting side gig. As she tells me, "it's hella tough, and if I didn't have my crap together, I'd be seriously torpedoed."
Regardless of the above, there are buckets of ways to keep yourself organized.
1. Set admin days. Yes, set aside days where you'll do nothing but paperwork. Yes, it sucks. But I do it. I'll bet you the following others did it and hated it just as much: Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. Walt Disney. Ben Franklin. Gilgamesh (especially since cuneform tablets a hella heavy to write with).
2. Set a calendar and (mostly) don't ignore it. Yes, you publish twice a week. That gives you five other days to work with, and if you plan it right, you might even be able to take one of them off. But slacking only gets you so far, and if you let yourself go, you'll find yourself two weeks behind and without any days off in order to catch up
3. Smartphones are your friend. Yes, I know not all of you are part of the great iPhone vs. Droid civil war; some of you stick with WebOS, Blackberry or Windows Phone instead. But seriously, the point I'm trying to make there is that calendars and appointment software is online or installed on your computer and don't be afraid to use it. For those of you who don't have a computer…well, how are you reading this?
4. Distractions are NOT your friend. Yes, your significant other wants to marathon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (everypony must watch!) or your friend wants to pound you into the sand via a day-long Street Fighter IV session. No problem! Once in a while, especially if it's planned (and you deftly trash him repeatedly with Dan Hibiki) is good. Doing so when you know your deadline is in five minutes and you haven't even started? That reality shoryuken's gonna hurt a lot. Your fans won't like that. And neither will Ken.
So remember: be scheduled, or be dragon punched to the face. Your choice.
Tomorrow: Dem Squiggly Things on the Page! (also known as fonts)