I am an incredibly lucky person: I’ve managed to make a name for myself writing about Japanese cartoons, comics and all the other things that tickle my fancy when it comes to the Land of the Rising Sun. It nabbed me my job at Vonage, to be honest. And it might nab me future jobs as well.

But one of the things that I have to complain about is time management. It’s very easy to get lost in putting up a post here or a post there, or whittling time away reading about every little update that’s going on in the industry. I don’t even touch ANN or AOD’s forums, because I know I’d never escape that quagmire of popular opinion. And considering I have a million and one things that I want to do with my life, I must admit that I look to minimize my time doing extraneous things for the site.

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy myself at Japanator, I just want to maximize my efficiency at getting it done, y'know?

So I’m looking at spending more “highly concentrated” time writing on the site, banging out five or six news posts in a day – twice a week – leaving the other time to manage a number of things such as ads, feature writing, and monitoring other staffers.

So far this plan has worked out alright, at least in terms of getting the news I need to write up, and move on to some of the other things going on (like my day job!). That I can do with relative ease, and doing it on Monday and Wed/Thurs (depending on obligations) has worked out a-ok. Now it’s time to build out. I’m going to start by adding features planning to my Sunday routine of watching football, The Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire.

Beyond that, Fridays would (ideally) be for reviewing what people have done that week, sending out critiques, and all that other good stuff. Get things in order for the weekend, when I take some time off from thinking about these things. After all, I have an incredibly talented team that can handle a lot of things without my input – there’s no need to be in the weeds over every little decision.

The key here is to take things bit-by-bit, and not rush into all of this. Things are falling into place with the site, but I’m doing all I can to avoid burnout. It’s hurt me a number of times before, and I’m trying to skirt around it and that whole idea of diminishing returns on my work.