Update #19 - November 2020

Hello, Patrons!

Before I start, thank you to everyone who has continued to support me, and thank you to my newest patrons: M and Nate!

Thank you all so much; it really means a lot to me to have your support!!

WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO?

This month was a very slow one for me. Although I often participate in NaNoWriMo, I didn't feel up to it after having just completed a month-long drawing challenge in October. I spent most of my time getting back into the swing of my daily comics, and hosting weekly lives on my instagram. 

Outside of drawing, I continued to skate every day. I got back into guitar, under Aidan's patient tutelage. One of our neighbors gifted us a turkey, so I taught myself how to cook a turkey. My parents sent me a copy of Pandemic and I got completely hooked (despite unknowingly playing on hardmode up until last week... turns out you just need to find cures to all the diseases, not totally eradicate them! Whoops!) Also I recorded and (with Aidan's help on the editing) released a dramatic reading of the infamous Metalocalypse fanfic Dethmelons. 

WHAT HAVE I BEEN WORKING ON?

Honestly, as badly as I wanted to finish my short comic about Jesus and Judas or get a jump on my 2021 goals, seasonal depression started hitting me hard this month. My biggest focus in November was completing basic self-care and meeting the minimum goals of my organizational system. 

In that spirit, I'd like to give a walkthrough of how my organizational system work!

There are two main components to my system: my wall calendar, which I use to track habits I want to work on every day, and my planner, which I use both as a to-do list and as an introspection tool.

The wall calendar, aka my daily habit system, is largely taken from the system detailed in the book Elastic Habits by Stephen Guise. The changes I've made are almost entirely in how I track my habits; I wanted to use the wall calendar I already had, rather than buy one of his specialized kits.

This is my list of daily habits. I choose three habits I want to work on every day; I've chosen drawing, writing, and exercising. I've tried to keep up with more than three, but it just doesn't seem to work. Three, for me, is the maximum amount of daily habits I can work on at any one time.

For each habit, I choose three different activities I can do in order to work on that habit. For example, in order to complete my 'exercise' habit, I can choose between skating, running, or lifting weights. Even though I almost always choose skating, having the option to choose something else is important.

For each of the habit's three activities, I then decide on how much of that activity corresponds to achieving the mini, plus, and elite levels (these are basically a small goal, a medium goal, and a big goal, but Guise has given them these names to be more encouraging). I try to make the mini goal as small as conceivably possible; the rule of thumb is that if I haven't done it by bedtime, I should be able to get it done in under five minutes before going to sleep. The plus is set by how long I will naturally do an activity when I'm not particularly tired, but am also not pushing myself particularly hard. The elite is set to how much of an activity I can complete when pushing myself.

When all that has been figured out, there should be three habits, each habit having three possible activities, and each possible activity having three possible amounts. As I mentioned before, the rule of threes is very important. Less than three options for activity and amount is too restricting; more than three options is overwhelming. 

This is the key I use when marking my habits on my wall calendar. Guise sells special stickers to use on his special chart, but I do this instead, as it's cheaper. As you may have noticed, my daily habit list is color coded. I record each habit using the corresponding color pen, which you'll see below.

I indicate that I have filled the 'mini' level of a habit with a hollow triangle, the 'plus' level with a solid triangle, and the 'elite' with a solid square. These shapes are useful because if I accomplish a lower level of a habit and record it, I can update it later that day if I do more of that habit and end up achieving a higher level. A hollow triangle can be filled in to become a solid triangle, and a solid triangle can be added onto to become a square.

If I miss a habit, I can make it up the next day with a 'patch.' To use a patch, I do the 'mini' level of the habit, and put a hollow triangle with a 'P' in the middle on the previous day. I then repeat the habit at any level and record it as normal for the current day. The main purpose of this is that, when a habit is missed (as it inevitably will be) there's incentive to get right back to it the next day, rather than allowing the one day of missed habit to snowball into two or three or many more days of missed habits.

If I miss a habit and also do not patch it the following day, I give myself a frowny face. This should be self-explanatory. 

This is how a the daily habits look when they're recorded on the wall calendar. As I mentioned, I color-code the habits: blue is drawing, pink is writing, and orange is exercise. 

In the book, Guise has a point system that you can use to score every 15-day period, which is what the numbers at the top of the page are, but doing so is largely unnecessary and I've honestly fallen out of practice at tallying them up.

So, that is the wall calendar! It is responsible for tracking the habits I want to practice every day.

The second piece of my organizational system is my planner.

Here is what the weekly pages in my planner looks like. This is the only part of the planner I tend to use; I'll occasionally make notes for the future on the monthly pages or in the 'future planning' section, but I spend 99% of my time with it open to whatever week I'm currently in. 

The planner I've used both this year and last year is the Pantone Planner; I enjoy the minimal layout that gives me my entire week at a glance, with space for each day of the week as well as a free area. 

Each day has a to-do list. Appointments, events, or jobs (basically, anything that involves me being in a certain place at a certain time) are written in pink. Non-habit tasks are written in blue. Daily habits (which I discussed above) are written in purple. 

I've found I can do no more than eight tasks per day, including my three daily habits. I never let myself write down more than that.

I use a simplified bullet journal system: every task is headed by a hollow square, which I fill in when I've completed the task. If the task is moved, I put an arrow through the entire thing. If I've made a mistake (e.g. I wrote something in the wrong place), I cross it out with a wiggly line. If the next day comes and I've failed to complete a task, I cross it out with a straight line.

If I complete all the tasks I've set for the day, I give myself a little sticker and draw a speech bubble that says "good job!"

In the notes space, I keep my mood tracker and the goals I set at the beginning of each week with my therapist. The week pictured also has a question for introspection, again posed by my therapist.

The mood tracker has a y-axis that runs from 1 to 10, with 1, at the top, being total euphoria, 10, at the bottom, being a total meltdown, and 5, in the middle, being neutral. The x-axis lists the days of the week. Each day (or, if I have shifts in mood, multiple times a day) I decide where my mood is on the 10-point scale and plot a point. I then connect it to the previous point on the graph. If my mood is above the midline (aka positive) I use a blue pen; if it's below the midline (aka negative), I use a pink pen.

This system may end up getting changed or refined in the future, as it has in the past! In 2021, I'm switching from the Pantone Planner to the Hobonichi Techo Weeks, which I've heard good things about and I'm hoping will suit me just a bit better, since I want a bit more space in the notes section and don't need quite as much space in the sections for each day. Also, my wall calendar for 2021 is chicken-themed, which I'm excited for.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN CONSUMING?

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) dir . Kenneth Branagh

I watched this with my housemate, an enjoyer of all things Frankenstein, and my partner, an enjoyer of all things Kenneth Branagh. 

One of my favorite parts of this movie was the sense of aesthetics, which were ridiculous and high drama, and thus immensely enjoyable. Branagh took every excuse possible to take off his shirt and run around with a sheen of sweat or possibly oil covering his half-naked body. The set design was very fun: Frankenstein's family home had a large set of banister-less stairs that were used to great effect in several scenes, and his lab was filled with equipment for him to dodge around and interact with while he was conducting his experiments. 

I still haven't read the original book, but according to my housemate, Branagh correctly conveyed the bulk of the story. Frankenstein is a story ripe for trans interpretations, which makes me even angrier that Jeanette Winterson bungled it so badly (see last month's review of Frankissstein for more thoughts on that). It makes me happy to know at least that I have friends such as Nev, who is developing a much more thoughtful and interesting reinterpretation. 

Happiest Season (2020) dir. Clea DuVall

I thought this movie did a good job of balancing the inherent conflict of its premise with the ability to not make any characters so irredeemably terrible that a happy ending was either precluded or unbelievable. I thought it was smart to not to be too harsh with the heterosexism in the family and to keep it subtle instead (I thought the mom character did perfectly with that; she reminded me so viscerally of that subtle persistent pressure I feel during family gatherings.)

I get why people hated Harper, but as someone who's hid from their family rather than risk coming out, it was very easy for me to relate to her. I felt for her very deeply, and was relieved that she got a happy ending. 

I really liked that the sisters felt like actual siblings. I especially liked Jane; my partner pointed out that she seemed as if she could be interpreted as autistic, which I both entirely agree with and love. I'm happy also that her character was given a satisfying arc that was treated with dignity.

My one critique of this movie is that giving the only characters of color subplots that revolve around cheating or stealing is maybe not a very good look and should have been thought out a bit better.

As a whole, I really liked this movie. I watched it once by myself, and again with my partner and housemate while we set up our tree and made popcorn garlands to decorate it. It may also surprise no one that it directly inspired me to draw A Sequence of Ridiculous Things, a short comic detailing the events of my own outing at Christmas.

THIS MONTH’S MUSICAL JAMS

Between continuing to listen to Bruce Springsteen's autobiography (YES I'm still working on it YES it is VERY LONG) and a truly excellent playlist put together by one of my friends, I've been listening to a lot of his music. I put together a mini playlist of my current top five Bruce Springsteen songs for your listening pleasure.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!

If you have any questions or stuff you've wanted to talk to me about, do leave a comment below!

Hope you're doing well!

<3,

Dave