I did what I always do at the beginning of each week and I drew up a rough timetable, blocking out lots of time for the book.
Although I don't always stick to this, it gives me a framework and enables me to focus on more than one thing, rather than getting lost in the weeds. I'm a big fan of the late Randy Pausch who was excellent at getting a balance in his life. If you haven't seen his talk on time management and you need more time to do the important stuff in your life you should
check it out here on YouTube (although it takes an hour to watch, it is time you will save after watching it!). When I'm in need of a refresher, I listen to it when inking.
One of the things I think (I definitely need to listen again) he mentions in his talk is Stephen Covey's Urgent vs Important Matrix:
Stephen Covey wrote
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People . I haven't read his book, but I use his matrix all the time. Basically, you need to work on the things that are important first and let go of the things that are not important. With the constant barrage of information from the likes of social media, it is worth bearing in mind.
Forget Kids –
Get a Dog is something that's not urgent but it is important to me. Working on it this week is sad in a way because so much of it reminds me of Billie. And he was the reason for writing it in the first place, as he brought so much joy to our lives (hey, I love my niece and nephews, but...). Also, when I showed fellow cartoonists some drawings from the book
way back in 2011, it had a lot of resonance. So I want to put it out in the world before it's too late.
And that's where we get to the next thing that happened this week.
My friend
Ashley and I often talk about how the world as we know it is changing. We note the shift of everything that can be shifted to the internet and how the rise in off-shore working and artificial intelligence is radically changing how we pay for things, with the impact that will have on jobs and society. Sometimes he'll send me upbeat pieces about how alternative energies are replacing fossil fuels. But this week he sent me a (non-peer-reviewed) paper on climate change that put me into a tailspin. You may have seen
this pdf by Jem Bendell, as it has being circulating online since the latter half of last year.
I've been creating comics about climate change since 2007 and I have read a lot of depressing reports on climate change, whilst researching the strip. But this paper has to be the most alarming thing I've read. It doesn't say anything new, but reviews what is happening and the science and psychology of the reaction to climate change to conclude how that will affect society (not well). Jem has shone a spotlight on the elephant in the room: that we are heading for societal collapse, and
soon.
This is not the place for doom and gloom, but it is making me assess what is important in life. I haven't been this disturbed since hearing an interview about how if you believe in science, there is no such thing as free will because everything can be predicted by physics (I can't remember what podcast I was listening to, but you can read an article along those lines in
The Atlantic).
I guess this is another thing that makes you reflect that you never know when your time is going to be up, so you should make the most of life. And though our civil society may be threatened in the near-term, this is not a certainty. I still want to do everything I can to delay the catastrophic effects of climate change, by putting pressure on politicians, connecting with my local community to be more resilient, volunteering with groups that effect habitat restoration, etc. And I'll continue to try and educate people in an entertaining way with Arctic Circle.
