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What do you guys do while you draw/do commissions?
8 years ago
SO as a lot of people can probably tell, I'm a very disorganized person. Its very hard for me to focus on commissions
most of the time largely due to ADHD. I really need something to split my attention between while I work in order to
be efficient. I want to be able to focus well and get commissions done in a timely manner, because it doesn't actually
take me that long to draw when I really put my mind to it.
So basically I'm asking for recommendations. I've tried having a really small tab of netflix open on the side, but that
forces me to use up screen space which in turn limits my work space and makes it harder to focus. I know podcasts
are a thing, but I've yet to find any that actually really entertain me and don't just become background noise eventually.
Usually I put on music, but since I've listened to everything in my playlists a million times they don't help me focus as much anymore.
Any ideas???
it's also my only way to get to books because i cannot sit down and read something xD
Finding a good podcast is difficult, but I really enjoy The Adventure Zone. I've never played a minute of Dungeons and Dragons in my life and I still adore listening to the silliness.
Best wishes to finding what works best for you!
i used to listen to ted talks & science youtube programs, and to stand up shows, if thats more your flow?
but ive found that for me podcasts are best! i think a good place to start with them is finding what genre you like. theres a lot of 'talkshow' type podcasts and those really arent my thing, personally, so i tune them out eventually as well (like mbmbam which a lot of people seem to really like)
but ive found that when i listen to crime podcasts (serial, criminal, sword and scale, generation why, etc) i find it easy to focus most of the time, mainly since its a topic of interest for me,
and also audio dramas, thats podcasts which are fictional shows and are most often played out like a movie without the imagery (though these are a lot harder to find without having to suffer through some terrible acting; cabin pressure, welcome to night vale, lifeafter, old harry's game, wooden overcoats, limetown)
and finally, podcasts where people tell stories, real and otherwise (the moth, the truth)
so uhh i guess its just finding out what you like which helps keep focus on it! i tried listing some recs in case youre interested in any of the things i am lol
ive never listened to biology podcasts but as i mentioned before i did listen to ted talks - https://www.ted.com/ - which you can filter by topic (i think?) andd youtube shows like scishow, minute physics, vsauce , etc (its been ahwile so its a bit hard for me to recall names rip)
umm but yeah for podcasts im 100% sure they exist, so maybe start by looking at some top 10 lists on google and seeing where that takes you?
I have a terrible attention span and can't just sit there and watch them play a video game sometimes. So listening and drawing is my thing.
But just them talking makes me laugh.
I especially do this with Mark when hes playing jump scare games. I don't want to watch it but love listening to him talk.
It also helps that the videos can range from 10minutes all the way up to an hour.
But when I've watched them all I get bored with drawing, kind of the only downside there.
I also have a tangle toy on my desk to help expell some energy, but I still frequently get up to move my body and I have to make vocal sounds (like weird voices or grunting...) to get rid of my pent up energy.
Do you allow yourself time to get rid of energy when you work?
I find myself needing to move or fidget every 45mins or so (if i don't have a good show or music on), but it doesn't seem to break my concentration. I think if I just carried on drawing and working through the pent up feeling it probably would. I end up doing it for 5-10mins or even less than that.
As for music! I can recommend Spotify for finding new songs Spotify has an "artist radio" feature where it compiles an everlasting playlist based around songs similar to whichever artist you pick. (Just right click the artist's name and choose Artist Radio) I think you can also do something similar with genres by putting genre:genre_name in the search and it'll list artists, albums and songs relevant to the genre. I find myself using those options when I run out of music...
Otherwise I can only say that I had my issues getting used to having a smaller window for drawing due to the video on the side as well, but tbh I'm super used to it now, so that it even feels weird working full screen. I also find it easier to watch smaller youtube videos, rather than movies on netflix, because those don't ask for as much focus or distract as much as an interesting movie (talking about let's plays and stuff like that at least).
This is how I structure it usually: http://i.imgur.com/VbKzPpT.png
a lot of podcasts have their own sites or blogs too, so if there's a particular subject you enjoy (history, medicine, criminology, paranormal stuff, etc) you can always google for specific lists and find some blogs. youtube also has a decent variety (i've mostly listened to 'creepy'/paranormal stuff, but i know they have some lectures that don't require you keep the video up). i'm not sure what kind of phone you have, but if you happen to have an iphone you can also get a podcast app on there and browse through the educational genres!