I had mixed results yesterday I seemed to make half hearted efforts at getting started in the STUDIO. My excuses are that it was a hot and sticky day and that the room the Studio's in is pretty much the hottest in the house during Summer. However excuses won't get stuff done at the end of the day. I had a minor success later that night doing more Return to Second Life pages, but that's not the masters is it (and that was done in the Rec Room)? In fact I procrastinated on stuff all through the day.
Thinking about that, I probably need to do two things:
Maybe the first would be to do stuff at night or when it starts to get cooler, or to stuff in rooms or areas that are cool (like outside or the lounge). If I defer work in the Studio until later in the day I need to make sure I follow through. This does lead to interesting possibilities, like shopping during the day or trips to the uni (or somewhere air-conditioned).
And with Weekly goals (rather than daily) I would have a clear indication of progress without an excuse to feel guilt on a particular day if stuff doesn't happen the way I expected. That being the case my goal for this week is to create "bridging pages" for the webcomic versions of the graphic novels, which lead directly to the first REAL pages (that is, pages that would appear in the printed version) of the graphic novels. In particular I'm starting with Real Life Trips. There's extra "unseen" work that goes into this - the narrator characters are different for each graphic novel.
But I'll see how this goes. Right now IO'm attempting to recover my mailboxes of the Studio PC. Somehow they've disappeared!
The new schedule will work like this:
WEEKDAYS
4 Days working on Masters/Work between 9am-4pm
1 day "off" where I go out and do stuff other than "just" food shopping.
WEEKENDS
1 day drawing non-Masters comics and art
1 day housework
I have to have a certain amount of discipline to make this work. I foresee that I might have a different weekday each week for the "off day", but:
A work day will be one whether I go to uni and do stuff there, or stay home and do stuff here. See if I'm going out that really includes catching a 9:05am bus to the university. In practice I find catching a later bus I seem to lose more than just an hour, I lose momentum as well. But if I'm not going out then I still need to start at 9am. If I'm on the bus I'm usually reading something (book or comic) but all the while I'm also thinking about what I'm going to be doing that day. As any writer knows, spending time in the study, even when it looks like you're not doing something, is not wasting time - it's thinking and contemplation (hence jokes about relatives asking the writer to "do something while they're not busy").
So, if I'm "working at home" (that is, working on an important art project) I ought to be IN THE STUDIO most of the time - no shirking off to play games, do social media, or watch TV. With most of that being in other rooms, this ought to be easier to stick to. My uni counsellor suggested that I also do other things that I'd do if I were going to uni - get dressed for going out (as opposed to wearing very casual gear or just a nightshirt), and pack a lunch. Not so sure about that. I know the first week will be the hardest, but I also know that to complete the masters I need to make it work and get stuff done. This is a big step towards that.
Often I'd go shopping or run errands on the way home from uni. I've found doing either on the the way to or before university to be counter productive. How can you get around uni carrying a bunch of shopping? But on the way home is different, and that's why the standard work day ends at 4pm. Most shops are open until 5-6 so it give plenty of time to go shopping. But what happens when I'm at home and not at uni? Well there is a 4:12pm bus from Barnsley that takes me past Edgeworth and Glendale shopping areas. If I need anything I can still get it (and this is another reason to dress as if I'm going out).
For lunch times I could just stream something on the media PC to the Studio PC, and watch it while eating my (packed) lunch. Means I wouldn't be drawn away too much. Or maybe not. Maybe lunch is down the other end in the rec room catching up with social media. If that were the case, then it would be associated with "time out" during the day. Maybe.
So that's the idea, and I'll be starting this come Monday. The rest of this week is about catching up with stuff that's been ignored over the last 8 days.
I will be starting the use the STUDIO properly on Monday.
The last week and a bit has been all about setting up the Studio and rec rooms. I moved furniture around and then PCs and last week I went out and bought something that needed to be brought home on a trolley every day: Monitor (OK, I carried that one); flat-pack computer desk; PC Tower; and Lawn mower. Friday was spent hooking things up, and Saturday to Monday about decisions and installing things and finally moving and re-storing things. Feel a bit worn out, even though this is a good thing.
I've also realised that having a separate studio IS going to work. Why? Because of the way I've divided things up, it will be blatantly clear whether I'm working or just piss farting around. Before, when everything was set up on one computer, that was less obvious, because I'd say to myself "ah, I'll work later but play now". But now, if I'm not in the room I know I'm not focussed on the task at hand. Another thing I've done is set up power-boards with switches for all three PCs. The initial reason for this was thunderstorms. Having a switch on the board means that I don't have to turn everything off at the power point (and there may be other things hooked up along the way).
The media PC in the lounge stays on most of the time. The other two hower will stay off when I'm not using them, unless there's some process or reason to have them on (like rendering a video or DVD build, which might take a couple of hours) when I'm not here. So in addition to powering them down, I'll also be turning them and their peripheries OFF via the powerboad. Hopefully this will save me some power.
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zvi and krja
