Making Time: Operation Get Up Early and Work on Comics
[dc]L[/dc]ast week, I decided to take drastic steps to help improve my productivity—specifically, productivity when it comes to working on my comic strips.
Good, because I enjoy the shade. Photo by me.
I don’t consider myself lazy (Stephanie frequently encourages me to relax more), but I grew tired of working on my comics at the last-minute (in this case Sunday afternoon and/or evening). Instead of working all weekend on a comic, I began Operation Get Up Early and Work on Comics.
In short: wake up an hour earlier during the week and spend time working on a comic—every morning, Monday through Friday.
I don’t necessarily work for an hour straight—I move slow in the mornings before I fully wake up (due in part to medication I take)–but, 20 minutes here and there adds up, especially over five days.
How did my first week go? Great. Sure, it was rough at first, but I adjusted as the week went on.
- Monday, I worked on the script/thumbnails for yesterday’s comic, as well as next week’s.
- Tuesday, I laid out the panels and lettering lines on Bristol board with my T-square and lettering guide. I think I roughly sketched parts of the panels (word balloons, etc.)
- Wednesday, I began to draw and letter the strip.
- Thursday, I finished drawing and began inking.
- Friday, I finished inking, and uploaded the comic in the evening.
Instead of doing these tasks Saturday through Sunday, or worse, just on Sunday (too frequent as of late), I was able to take my time and spread the tasks. It also meant I could enjoy my weekend, which I haven’t been able to do in a month or so.
There is a great sense of accomplishment with being creative first thing in the morning. It takes a lot of stress out of my weekly comics, because I know I already put in a good 20 or 30 minutes before the day gets going. I’m a big believer in ‘making time’ versus ‘finding time’ for projects, and trying to do the latter for the past month or so just wasn’t working.
All of this getting up early might require me to invest in a new, more annoying alarm clock (now, I just put my smartphone on the other side of the room, which means I HAVE to get out of bed to turn it off).
And thanks to Operation Get Up Early and Work on Comics, I can spend my Sunday evenings doing what is really important: playing video pinball or Final Fantasy Tactics A2. Spending time with Nigel Stephanie.
I love your idea of getting up a bit earlier everyday to work on the strip, not that I have a comic to work on, but there are other things that would be easier to do in small chunks during the week. However I find it near to impossible to get up earlier. I already set my alarm for 5am so I can be up at 6, I think my wife would shoot me if I started it going off at 4 to get up for 5. As far as alarm clocks go, I love my Chumby One. Even with the service crippled because the company went under it’s still the best alarm clock I have ever used AND the new clock interface is done up in LCARS! (http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bb-sony-dash-7-personal-internet-viewer-hidc10-99-a-984795/#post12154354)
It has made a huge difference. I paneled next week’s comic this morning (which is perhaps the most tedious, boring part of making my comics). I remember the Chumby–a friend of mine had one 😀 seems like a million years ago though.
Yes, Chumby has been around a while now, but even if i only use it as a clock, it’s a clock with an internet time sync, battery backup, and internet radio. When the full service was running it would wake me and display current tweets, engadget feeds, the weather etc and I wouldn’t even have to get up to see it all.
Fun!