Productivity

Long weekend. I was able to accomplish a few things on my to-do-list. I finished…

• creating my first “freebie” if you signed-up in my e-mail list. It’s a pdf copy of my blog post that got about 13k views on Quora.
• setting up my MailChimp/Sumo account to help me start growing my e-mail list.
• posting my artwork on Kijiji to test if people have interest in buying framed digital artwork.
• drawing another draft (Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail) for this new series of weekly posts in my Instagram account.
• working on this “toy bus prototype” for work using items bought from Dollarama (yup! arts, and crafts..for work lol).
• randomly messaged a business owner who’s looking for artists who’s interested in showcasing their artwork in his restaurant. The tip came from a friend of a friend of a friend. He never responded lol.
• cooked another Brodo inspired soup.

But how come I still felt like I didn’t accomplish anything?

I wasn’t sure why. Perhaps I expected too much from myself.

I paused for a moment to dig in deeper (because I tend to study my own thoughts).

My conclusion? I wasn’t clear on what I needed to accomplish to make myself feel more productive.

It’s a shitty feeling to have. But what makes it worse is that I kept failing to get a really good (high-quality)…

Sleep

I’ve reached the point of desperation (on Tuesday) that I took a sleeping pill to help me get that good sleep I’ve been craving for weeks.

The result? It failed. I didn’t feel much restful as I as expected it to work.

Then I started to track my habits to help me figure out the things I’ve been doing wrong.

One assumption I have is that I don’t do enough things that would make me feel exhausted at the end of the day. But hold your thought there for a second (before you start talking about kids and other “regular people” responsibilities you may have that I don’t). This does not mean I’m looking into adding a shit load of things in my schedule for the sake of feeling tired or feeling busy. There’s this surge of energy I’m feeling lately that doesn’t allow me to feel exhausted. That’s a good thing but at the same time, that also tells me I need to do more.

Falling asleep was not the problem. STAYING asleep IS the problem. I always get up in the middle of the night either to take a piss or whenever my brain becomes too active that it wants me to “get up and go go go”.

To fix this, I started tracking my habits. After a while, I’m starting to realize that maybe I was chasing a phantom. After all, I don’t feel tired during the day. Perhaps the sleep I’m getting is enough. And the quality of the sleep I get is enough. I’ve been getting up earlier than my alarm clock for a few days. That may be a sign that I don’t really need that much sleep?

I don’t know but I will keep going with Headspace’s 30-day sleep meditation package. I never knew what counting sheep meant until I went through that package lol. This must be one of the best online purchases I’ve made for a while.

I have two more online purchases this week. One from…

Uniqlo

They finally decided to have an option for online shopping (but I have a feeling this is just a test to see if there’s enough demand to justify whether or not it makes sense to do it).

I love buying my shirts there because they fit me (and they’re cheap). They are the solution to my problem of finding clothes for short Asians like me who couldn’t seem to get the right size of shirts even when they’re already sized “XS”.

I even thought about buying and selling these shirts (an idea to make some money on the side). But because of this, I don’t need to do that anymore. Besides, no one seems to be really interested in it. Total views for that item is less than 5.

I also ordered a couple shirts from Printful so I can start wearing my own product (as my way of promoting it while testing the quality of the prints).

This reminded me of the conversation I had with my coworkers about the things I’m trying to accomplish to make money on the side. To find a way to make money off of my…

Artwork

They asked me: “So what are you selling?”

The truth is, I don’t have anything to sell yet. I’m still trying to figure that out. I can – sell the design or do commision work or sell printed products.

If there’s no demand. There’s no need to create the product. Thus, you need to test the waters before jumping in. Owning a shop is just that – owning a shop. It doesn’t mean anything. My e-store flopped – really bad. BUT now I know what I need to set one up 😉

Perhaps there are things I have to make sure of first before I put one up: is the artwork even good enough?

Probably not/ The key is to stand out in a super crowded industry. But to stand out, you need to be unique which draws the next question…

“What makes your art unique?”

It’s drawn using MS Paint – a free software in your PC that people find non-user friendly.

“But why not use Photoshop? Or a software that would make it easier for you to draw?”

Because that’s the brand I wanted to build – to be the artist who uses MS Paint to produce digital art. 

My goal is not to mass produce my work out there. My goal is to find the people who have an interest in that kind of stuff. Though it’s hard to draw with MS Paint, I stick with it. Why?

Because of “the story” I can add to it. Using a software similar to what everyone else is using (because they’re easier to use) is the exact opposite of “standing out in the crowd”.

“But people don’t care about how its made, they care more about the finished product…?”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. That was one of my realizations about a year ago. It’s a true statement. However, I think it’s missing the point. Talking to other people about what I wanted to do shows a misalignment between my goal and the things I’m doing. But I beg to differ.

The goal is to make money on the side. Therefore, I should be focusing my efforts on producing more and creating awesome work out there that people actually like…right?

Again that’s a valid statement and I do agree.

However, I don’t want to do this for everyone – I don’t want to make art for the sake of making money.

Then you’re thinking “You only say that because you’re not making money…”

That is 30% true.

And the 70% is because I actually enjoy writing and drawing. I remember drawing or writing for other people because I was eager to make money. BUT the quality of work is borderline disgusting.

That’s when I realized I can’t draw or write for the sake of making money. It’s not a profession. It’s a hobby. But I like the challenge of making money from it regardless if it’s super cheap or expensive as long as it’s not free.

The money is just a representation of how people perceive my work.

Zero money means no one really sees its value. And that is the reality.

Then it makes you wonder – “Why the hell am I wasting my time on this thing? Is it even worth it? Do I fold? Or should I push through?”

So here’s what I decided to do…

You DO You

I decided to keep going despite the setbacks.

Instead of doing it for others – I do it for myself (because I enjoy drawing and writing).

Over the past couple of years, I experimented with different ways to make money. I failed on all of them but I was curious to learn more.

It irks me to talk to people about creating or having a business because I haven’t made any money. Most people want proof – you making money. Otherwise, no one is interested in what you have to say about it. It’s like hiring a fat unhealthy trainer to help you out on your fitness journey. It just doesn’t make sense.

I laugh in my head whenever people feel the urge to give me advice about my making money on the side. I appreciate the feedback but I don’t find them helpful. Their advice is driven by everyone’s idea of business – make an awesome product, show it to people, be very good at convincing them to buy (even if they don’t need it) and they will buy.

Not so simple my friends.

I tested different ways to make money on the side but they all failed – freelancing, affiliate marketing, local business, commission work and by having an e-shop.

I wanted to share everything I tested and learned along the way but I’ll save that for another post. If that’s something that interests you, sign up for my e-mail list and I’ll send you the pdf 🙂

Lately, I’ve been focusing on creating content. Now I’m at that stage where I want to focus on…

Product Promotion

Buying my own product is a start.

One of the reasons why I started this weekly updates is so I can push myself to write better.

I also bought and read books on copywriting.

For this week, I bought an online course on selling. I’m pretty excited to apply whatever I’m gonna learn.

Heh, sounds like I had a busy week. But I feel like I can do more.

What have you done lately?