Author Journey (October 9, 2023)

2023 10 09 The Otaku Author Journey

It’s Thanksgiving in Canada today. I’m thankful for the current anime season which is shaping up very nicely. What are you thankful for?

Author Journey (October 9, 2023)

It’s all too easy to focus on the things that annoy or hinder us. For example, I had a week full of interruptions and distractions which definitely impacted the amount of work I was able to get through. There were public holidays and basement-related things that popped up all over which is to be expected at the moment. Strangely, though, it felt like a really long week and thankfully, I did manage to do some work. The real highlight for me has been the new anime season. I’m already celebrating my decision to dive back into seasonal anime.

The Weekly Recap!

Anime Goal – 7 Episodes

I’m not sure how I came up with the target of seven episodes. I think it must have been because I watched seven episodes the week before. Anyhow, with the numerous Real-Life Family Events, which were all fairly minor but time-consuming, I managed to watch five episodes. There were four that I had planned to watch and one that slipped in at the end of the week. That’s right, I took on a fifth seasonal show.

Manga Goal – 3 Volumes

My pile of library books seems to be remaining the same size. That’s partially because I haven’t read as much lately, but I also have most of my holds paused so I’m not picking up any more. I do have a good number from my personal collection to get through too, which may be a focus for next year at this rate. Anyhow, I had one book that I was not able to renew, so that’s all I read.

Posting Goal – 11 Post

This goal was based on the idea that I would watch seven anime episodes and read three manga books… Neither of those came to realisation so this area is also down a bit. As a result, I got through seven posts. It’s not bad, but I had hoped for a little more.

Writing Goal – 1,000 Words

I’m still trying to work out how best to fit this into my schedule. I have the time, but it’s not at the right time. I need to look at my daily routines and shuffle some things around. As I’ve said before, this needs to be a priority. Must try harder!

Drawing Goal – 0 Sketch

This feels like one of the treats that I can only get to if I do all my other work and since I didn’t achieve anything like I was planning, I didn’t have any time for drawing.

Frieren Beyond Journeys End Episode 4 Frieren and Fern inspecting Flamme's grimoire
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Episode 4) – The Land Where Souls Rest
TasksGoalCompleted
Anime Watched7 Episodes5 Episodes
Manga Read3 Books1 Book
Posts Scheduled11 Post7 Posts
Chapters Written1,000 WordsNone
Artwork Completed0 SketchesNone

Aspirations for the Week!

This was the first week this year that I failed to achieve any of my goals. There was work towards most of them, but not enough. One thing that has impacted me is that my wife has been trying to change my sleep cycle. She thinks I stay up too late… All that’s happened is I end up waking up at ridiculous times because my body has decided that I’ve slept enough. One morning I woke up at two! I’m not sure if this experiment will continue as it’s throwing me off in a number of areas, so we’ll see how it goes this week.

Watching Anime

At the moment, I need to watch six episodes to keep up with my posting schedule. It’s more than I managed last week, but I’m going to go for it. I did add another show last week and the review for that will come out on Wednesday. I’m treating it as a bonus series so the day could change from week to week, but that’s the target day for it going forward.

Goal: 6 Episodes

Reading Manga

Three has been a pretty good goal for me in this section and more often than not I’ve achieved it. Of course, there have been several that I haven’t, but it’s not enough to convince me that this isn’t a good target. I’d like to think that after a while I’ll have a standard target and a variable that I can adjust each week. That might help me see where the pinch points in my schedule occur.

Goal: 3 Books

Posts Scheduled

So, like last week, if I achieve my two goals above, I’m looking at ten posts, especially as I’ve already written this one and today is actually Monday.

Goal: 10 Posts

Writing

This week, I’m planning on doing a little time study where I record everything I do throughout the week. It should help me spot the times when I can focus on things like this. I might also identify some tasks that are taking too long. Hopefully, being mindful of what I’m doing will also help me stay on track.

Goal: 1,000 words.

Artwork Completed

This is the treat if I complete all my other work so I’m making no plans here. It’ll just be a nice surprise.

Goal: 0 Sketches

Ragna Crimson Episode 1 Ragna rewarding Leonica
Ragna Crimson (Episode 1) – The Day the Reaper was Born

Final Thoughts

I’ve got lots to do and only so much time to do it. I think that’s why I’m going to look at the time I spend on all my tasks. As with anything, if you want to see progress or enact change, you need to know what you’re currently doing. After saying all that, it wasn’t a bad week all round despite not hitting any of my goals. I’m happy that I’m back doing seasonal shows again and I think that will help me to structure my days better too. I can’t watch something that hasn’t aired yet so that should force me to change my focus from goal to goal. Anyhow, as I said, I’ve got lots to do so I’m going to get on with that. Thanks for reading.


Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header

6 Comments

  1. “One morning I woke up at two!”

    I’m no doctor, but in my experience, few things can mess up a life worse than trying to manually change a sleep schedule. I’ve seen others in my family try to do it, too, and the results aren’t positive. I had to do it years ago when I worked third shift at UPS, but those months are a blur when I try to remember anything!

    About this season’s anime: man, there’s a lot of stuff I’m excited about! I had planned to cut back to 3 new reviews, but with 6 I would like to write about, I’m going to compromise and stay with 4.

    • Me neither and I was quite happy staying up late. I like the night, it’s when I feel relaxed. We’ll see how that works out.

      I started with four and maybe five, but then I learnt that the fifth was on Hulu and I don’t have Hulu or fancy adding another service. Then, I saw another and couldn’t help myself. It would have been more if was up to date on Shield Hero, Dr Stone, and Spy x Family. It should be a great season!

  2. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Hope you eat lots of yummy things! Being thankful for anime is always a rewarding thing to be thankful for! This season is looking pretty darn good. Of course, I’m super happy that SpyXFamily has returned. I’m also really enjoying this season’s mystery series Ron Kamonohashi, Forbidden Deductions. I had been looking forward to the hero anime Shy, but I found the first episode to be a bit slow. Maybe it will pick up in the next episode? Two out of three good premiers isn’t too bad!

    • Thanks. I had plenty to eat and some good company so it went pretty well.

      This season has been great so far. I planned on watching four and ended up with five. And, so far, all five are hitting the ground running. I just hope they keep it up. Unfortunately, it makes me want to dip into more…

    • Hey. Thanks for the concern. Family life and work life both massively increased their demands on my time this last week, and for the next while. I’m taking a short break from my Author Journey posts and plan on doing my next one on November 6 when everything should have calmed down. However, I’ll try to keep up with my other posts. I just needed to ease off some of the pressure.

What did you think?