my latest Youtube video ruffled some feathers
And some ideas to make more time for your creative work
Issue 208
Hello!
Spring is in full swing here in AZ with temps starting to creep into the upper 90s. Not looking forward to summer.
I’ve been so stinkin’ busy putting together my latest course which is Graphic Novel Pro and the art I’ve been doing lately is all NDA so I really have nothing to share with you yet. But I did put together another video for youtube which you can see below.
Let’s dive in!
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1) How to Make More Time for Your Creative Work
From the Department of Video Works
Looks like my latest Youtube video ruffled someone’s feathers. Check out this exchange in the comments section:
The video in question is all about the too-hot-to-handle topic of Time Management:
I’ve often found myself frustrated by how little time I have for making comics. It always feels like something else gets in the way. I tell myself, “If I just had a couple of free months, I could make so much progress.”
If you’ve been beating yourself up for not making more progress, let me stop you right there: This isn’t a time problem.
It’s an energy problem, an expectations problem, and a priorities problem.
I want to talk about what’s really going on when we say:
“I don’t have time to make comics”
“I’m too exhausted after work”
“I keep falling behind before I even begin”
Here’s the truth: No one finds time. We all make it—intentionally or unintentionally.
And the good news is, there are tools—tried-and-true methods—that help people make comics even with full-time jobs, families, and the exhaustion that comes with those.
In the video I give a bunch of tactics, mindsets, skills, and habits to conquer TIME.
I won’t get into ALL the points here, you’ll have to watch the video to see those, but I do want to share a few of them with you:
1 - I don’t have enough time
This is often more about perceived time scarcity than actual hours in the day.
The best tactic I’ve found is to do a Time Audit on yourself. Track your time for one week to a month. Write down what you’re doing in 15-30 minute blocks. Most people dramatically underestimate how much time goes to low-value activities (social media, streaming, gaming etc.). This isn’t to judge, it’s to become aware.
The key is to be honest in your tracking. Once you have a better understanding of where all your time is going, you can make better decisions about what is really important to you:
“Should I spend the next 2 hours catching up on Severence, or try to layout a few pages on my comic?”
2 - I’m Too Busy with Work, Family, or School
This is about prioritization and expectation-setting, not just scheduling.
The best tactic I’ve found to battle this problem is Batching.
Batching is one of the best techniques to maximize the limited time you have to work on something.
The reason is, making comics is cognitively demanding. They require a lot of concentration, motivation, and creative energy to do, so once you get into the flow you don’t want to stop and shift tasks because you’ll lose all the momentum you’ve gained.
Like a long cargo train, it takes time to get the train up to speed. To shift tasks is like stopping that train and putting it on a new track, then getting it up to speed again.
If you have a limited time to work on your comic I want you to batch similar tasks to get more done. Let’s say you have 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon to work on your comic. Instead of trying to layout, pencil, and ink a page in that time, plan on doing layouts for four pages. Then in your next session you can just work on penciling those pages. Then in the next you can ink them. Then start the process over with the next set of pages.
3 - I Can’t Manage My Time or Energy Well
This is about systems, not willpower.
It’s not that you’re lazy or undisciplined—it’s that you haven’t built a process that works with your natural rhythms and lowers the activation energy to start.
The best tactic I’ve found to battle this problem is Energy-Based Planning.
Like the time adit mentioned above, you should also do an energy audit and track when in the day your brain works best. Most people have a 2-3 hour window of peak energy. Use it for comic work, and save mowing the lawn or washing dishes for when you’re brain dead.
When I drew Skyheart, I went to bed an hour early and got up at 5 am to draw the book because that was the only way I had enough energy to do it.
If you want help turning those small steps into real momentum, I’ve got something for you.
I put together a free six-part video series designed to get you up and running on your next comic project.
It’s based on the live workshops I’ve been teaching recently, and it leads directly into the new Graphic Novel Pro course I’m developing with seasoned comics professional Shawn Crystal, which launches soon.
While what I shared today helps you get out of your head, those videos help you get work on the page.
If anything I said here resonated with you, you’re going to want to check it out—because in this series, I show you actual, tactical steps to help you start your comic and finish it strong.
Link’s below. It’s totally free. Hope to see you there.
Here’s a lil’ sneak peek at the videos. First one unlocks tomorrow:
That's all for now. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!
-Jake
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Weekend reading:
Fantasy Sports by Sam Bosma: LINK
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Haha, nasty comment people are dumb. I tried to train an AI to do art for me (stable diffusion with various LORAs). It was so time consuming, and produced so few artworks I could actually use, that it was faster just to get some Andrew Loomis books and learn to do it myself.
I discovered all your techniques for myself and use them daily. I work full time as a stay at home mom homeschooling 7 kids with another due here soon. I have an hour in the morning and two hours at night to work on my graphic novel, and I can complete 1-2 pages a week. It's all about that time management and self-discipline. Also, study the pros and learn as many of their workflow shortcuts as possible. :-D
60% sure that guy was a bot