Taking Stock - A Mid-Month Review of October
Good morning, lovelies!
Did you read the title and think, "Hm, another post that doesn't feature art? Is Corinne scrambling for ideas again?"
My answer is, yes. Yes, I am.
ANYWAYS, I thought it'd be a good idea, mostly for me, but maybe for you! to see how I'm coming along this month. And you can follow along with your own goals. It's literally halfway into the month. Two weeks is usually when I start petering off and not doing so great. It's probably important to take a step back, evaluate how you've done so far, and then re-energize yourself for the rest of the month.
Plus today is the first quarter of the moon, meaning it's on its way to becoming full. If you believe in that stuff (which I might) then now is the perfect time to revitalize yourself and take your goals to fruition!
At the beginning of October, I listed out--in thorough detail--everything I wanted to accomplish, not just in general for the remainder of the year, but also for each month specifically. For October, my main goals were as follows:
Inktober
Livestream
Calendar prep
Zine
Add in my "in-general" goals:
Weekly updates for blog
Weekly updates for both webcomics
at least 2 YouTube videos a month
Podcast
Keeping apartment clean
Training for half-marathon
Taking care of myself
Scheduling in my freelance gigs
Revamp portfolio
Let's break these down.
INKTOBER: 16/31
At the time of writing this, I am currently caught up and on track for Inktober, which I am very pleased about. However, I do know that I start tripping up around the 2-3 week mark, so I'm staying conscious of that and trying to make an effort to keep it up. But yeah, congrats where they are due, I am happy I've kept this up
.LIVESTREAM: 2X!
At last, I have finally streamed, live! And twice at that! The first time was on Facebook, with hilarious hiccups such as using copyrighted music and having my audio blocked out, having to restart the stream twice for some reason, and completely failing to notice the slew of comments in the chat until the very last second...but I still got it done! The second time was on a different, lesser known streaming service called vimm.tv. That was late at night and more of a last-ditch effort to make sure I got my inktober for the day done...which worked lol. Less issues there, although I did have to configure the video footage in a specific way.
But yes, taking this down as a win! The next step will be figuring out a consistent schedule and finding a way to stream to multiple platforms at the same time. So far I've done it once a week, so we'll see if I keep that up, but the bare minimum has been completed.
CALENDAR PREP: visited a print shop...but that's it
So haven't made as much progress with this, and if the schedule on my markerboard is to be believed, I'm actually behind. I did visit a print shop and get a chance to actually look at the paper options, so now I need to solidify a vendor and actually get my layouts set up. As well as a hundred other things. Due to priorities, I'll be getting more involved with this next week, but I have written down that I need to decide on my printer by the end of this week, so hopefully I'm able to get to that.
ZINE: sketch, check. Lineart, almost there.The deadline is this Saturday, so this is definitely my priority project for the week. I've go the idea down and started the lineart. Once I finish writing this post, I'll be finishing that up and will hopefully have the rest of the week to color. So yeah. I'll say this is...on track?
WEEKLY UPDATES - blog and webcomics: mostly
For the blog, this is a check. For TIMLN, this is also a check. The only hiccup was Notice Me!, but that was on an intentional hiatus, and will resume updates this week. Next!
YOUTUBE VIDS: overkill
Not only have I accomplished this with "regular" videos, but I've been posting a youtube video almost everyday for Inktober as well...so yeah. Definitely surpassed this goal. I don't really have a video idea for this week, or if I do it'll be coming out later than usual, but I think with the inktober stuff, that's okay. And I hit my bare minimum anyways.
PODCAST: recording, just not editing
This has taken a bit of a backseat to my other projects. While we did launch (and you can listen to our first few episodes on youtube here!) and have been recording consistently, I haven't found time to sit down and do a listen/edit through...we have a backlog, but will need to get on that eventually. If not this weekend, then next.
KEEPING APARTMENT CLEAN: so far, so good
There are still times when I go 2-3 days without doing the dishes, but I vacuumed twice in the past two weeks and did laundry, and there isn't stuff all over the floor, so that's a plus! My counter is getting a bit messy though with mail again. It's not a disaster zone, at least. I'm marking this as an okay lol.
TRAINING FOR HALF MARATHON: could be better
I'll be honest...I was supposed to run today. And last Saturday. But...I didn't. :/ I ran the first two weeks, but...it's starting to get to me unfortunately. This week in general has started off in a slouch to be honest, and it's been a struggle getting stuff done, but you know what? I'm going to force myself to run tomorrow! Yeah! Back on track, I hope.
TAKING CARE OF MYSELF: at least my skincare routine is consistent
That's...pretty self-explanatory. I've washed my face every night, which is an accomplishment in itself, I tell you. Is my face acne free? No. But do I wash it? You bet I do.
FREELANCE: got the bare minimum done. will probably overextend myself again
I'm still trying to ease into my freelance gig and balancing money work with art work. Last week was my money work week, and it was pretty good the first half, but then I got overly ambitious and bit off a little more than I could chew, which lead to a really late night on Sunday that has affected my past two days negatively. So...probably not going to do that again. But at least I got it done! Just need to be careful about not taking on too much, and still making time for my art. I'll probably keep the next two weeks focused on my art, and pick up more money work the last week. But we'll see how I feel.
And to everyone reading this who has a full-time job, works 8 hours a day, still makes time for their relationships and hobbies, and probably thinks I'm being a big baby about all this....lmao u right.
REVAMP PORTFOLIO:
...
tumbleweed floats past
So that's how I'm doing so far!
If I had to grade myself, I'd give myself a....B+? That sounds about right. Doing pretty good, but could have done a bit better. Still time and room to end the month with an A, but if I let up too much I'll end up with a C...
Let me know how your guys' progress has been this month! Are you on track? Did you fall a little behind? Maybe a lot behind? Just remember it's okay to fall off and stumble. Just make sure to get back up, dust yourself off, and try again each time!Talk to you guys next week! Bye!