With my interviews going reasonably well, and the art of my comic being reasonably satisfactory in its current form, the next problem to tackle was time. Time management is an ironic topic to discuss in this assignment, given I’m writing it on Tuesday night. Nevertheless, procrastination is a particularly nasty sort of ghost that has haunted me since sixth grade, and has largely seeped away at any semblance of free time I had. It has (and evidently still does) interfered with my sleeping patterns, my social life, and has generally been a nuisance. With me choosing to attend a particularly difficult workload-heavy college, it has become apparent that this problem needs to be taken care of swiftly and brutally.

The problem with avoiding distraction and procrastination is, it’s perpetually tempting and besting it once only wins you the battle and not the war. I am happy to report, however, that I have indeed won such a battle over the week. Essentially I have realized that while I probably can’t concentrate well on my own yet, I do work much faster and more efficiently under observation. So, I sat a family member down in my room, had them narrate to me one of their trademark lectures that they always come up with when I do something wrong, and, motivated by pure spite and hatred for my work, I got into it. And surprisingly, this spite allowed me to finish the page in question not only quickly but exceptionally efficiently. Whenever I would be incentivized to slack off, I would have external help to pick me back up. Whenever I wanted to slow down and stop, the careful monitoring had me maintain my pace.

It was not a pleasant experience. It was not a particularly fun experience, but it was quite productive. Most importantly, I realized it was not only possible but very much attainable to accomplish adequately decent work quickly. Obviously there is still a very long and difficult road ahead. I cannot yet call this a resounding success, given that I am still evidently having problems sinking into procrastination. It’s difficult to maintain, and even more difficult to force out a habit entirely, no matter how much you know this habit is going to hinder you professionally, academically and artistically in the future. Its insidious allure is what makes it so difficult to bypass, and so easy to fall back into. Nonetheless, I am certain that I have at the very least made a step in the right direction, and that this project is and will be a great template for me to become not only a better artist and writer, but develop a much more focused, concentrated work ethic.