Archive for October, 2009

I’m trying something new, it’s called “Setting An Alarm.” It’s this thing where you go to bed and use some device which is equipped with a timing mechanism (it could be a clock, a phone, a rooster) and at a designated time the alarm will go off and rouse you from your sleep. I used to use one of these as recently as 3 months ago, when I had regular employment and needed to get to work on time, or at least consistently 5-10 minutes late. When I became self-employed, I thought that I would give my internal clock its chance to shine. (I want to say “biological clock” there but that’s the one that wants to have babies, right?) Anyway, I thought I’d leave it up to nature and trust that my body would crave the daily grind of drawing comics as innately as it craved food and water and sunlight. It seems that my body, instead, craved sleep and not a whole lot else, at least before 10am. So here is what my schedule started to look like, when I let it be completely organic:

7:00am: First stir. Fall immediately back to sleep.

9:00am-9:30am: Wake up.

9:30-10:30: Internet while still in bed.

10:30-11:00am: Make coffee, get some kind of food in my stomach.

11:00am: Ease into drawing.

12:00pm: Break for lunch.

1:00pm: Return to drawing.

1:30-5:00pm: Get distracted intermittently.

5:00pm: Call it a day, meet up with friends.

Now listen, I am a German, Lutheran, Midwestern woman. I know a thing or two about work-ethic, it has been bred into me. I recognize when I’m not living to potential, or feeling any kind of push. I can feel it in my bones, this kind of itching. In my defense, I don’t think it was pure laziness that determined the above schedule. I think (and trusted others have confirmed) that for the first month or two after you move to a new place one of the top priorities is to become acclimated, get to know the surroundings, and make friends. This is an important step, and I have been doing it. It’s not like I’ve been substituting my drawing time with soap operas. So I don’t feel guilty about my pattern leading up until now. But I do think it is time to kick things up a bit, now that I’ve started to feel more settled and adjusted.

So, I’ve set an alarm. I’ve set it for real-people time, which is 7:30am. I haven’t given up in-bed internetting, though, and you should be glad, because that’s how you’re able to read this thrilling post about my new schedule. Why do I subject you to these things?