Worklog 10
Time for an inventory
SKETCHY THOUGHTS:
Had a fun charcoal session with my friend Mer this week! Don’t really know what I’m doing but I found out we’ll be working with charcoals this fall for school so wanted to get started.
A little messy but Mer had the gloves ready!
And being that this is WORKLOG 10 (!), it feels like a good time to pause and take a quick inventory, weighing how the experience has been in case anyone else is also considering starting a WORKLOG (!).
Between my current MAIN QUESTS and SIDE QUESTS, there’s a lot in the works - I credit this Substack with helping me get a bunch of ideas rolling, slightly game-i-fying my life 🎮 👾 and helping me prioritize/organize ideas.
There’s no real consequence if I don’t finish them. No one is standing over my shoulder threatening me with a butcher knife🔪, but posting on the internet is good incentive for me to move things along - if I say out loud that “I will post something once a week” it is highly motivating for me because I want to be someone who does what he says he’s gonna do. I fail at it all the time and life happens…but it is aspirationally my NINJA WAY (fun fact…Naruto and I share a bday [why do I know this…?] and something I work towards in my life.
It also just feels nice to have a place for all the versions that won’t make the final cuts (i.e. - THE LOADING DOCK does anyone else find organizing files strangely therapeutic)?
That being said, the next WORKLOG will be August 1st! The next couple weeks I have some life-tings coming up and also need some time to close out some of my open items in THE LOADING DOCK because…now there’s a lot of unfinished stuff in there, lol.
WORKLOG TAKEAWAYS SO FAR:
1- Tiny Celebrations - Since I’ve been doing them weekly it’s kind of nice to force yourself to celebrate some tiny progress from the week! Even if they are minuscule, they are forward motion.
2 - Little Deadlines - If you know me, you know I love (and need) little deadlines to move myself along. Life comes in waves and we are always toggling our priorities. I have extra time right now and may not always be able to sustain this weekly. But for now, it works well for me.
3 - The Creative Snowball - Creativity definitely inspires creativity and the ideas are very much flowing right now. It’s been nice to let the ideas roll down the hill, catch what I need for now and catalogue good stuff for later.
4 - Time and Planning - the blog does take some time. I think the results have been worth it for me so far but I have had to set some rules for myself. I’m not allowed to write the post during the week…it’s a same-day thing. I don’t want to usurp actual project work-time by working on this blog and I also want to be less precious with my writing in general. For me, this thing is all about getting OUT of my head. So I don’t give myself too much time.
5 - Thinking Out Loud/Processing - It’s amazing what thinking-on-paper/out loud will bring up and what the impact of documenting small takeaways can have on your workflow.
One big takeaway over these past 10 weeks for me has been that, as much as I’ve resisted it over the years, having a reliable go-to workflow is really, really helpful. Like, being confident with your art/music/animation programs and having a go-to way of doing things really frees up the creative part of my brain. I don’t have to figure as much of the “how-should I separate my layers” stuff. I’m still learning and always trying to optimize, but it’s been a good mindset reset.
So all in all, whether you’re considering WORKLOG-ing weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, annually, I recommend!
ALSO these WORKLOGs helped create WORKTUNA🎧🎶🍣🐟!
He’s been in my head for a while and I finally got a prototype design down yesterday:
Work_tuna_v1
He is something between fish and ipod? Between him and Disquette, I feel like we are starting a Music-Player Animal Sanctuary👀👀👀?? What animal/music-player should be next?
Disquette_mockup
As for music recs this week, I (like much of the world) am also obsessed with the K-Pop Demon Hunters Movie and also OBSESSED with the soundtrack. So. So. Good.
WORKLOGS will be back AUGUST 1ST!
In the meantime, I plan to be in THE LOADING DOCK, dropping in new versions of things and hopefully finishing a thing or two and moving them over to the Portfolio (we’ll see)!
Thank you for being here. Hit me up if you start your own WORKLOG! You are great and I wanna see what you’re making.
See you around - make your thing! Be kind to yourself 💙
Love and safety,
Futurefinished
(Daniel T)