Behind the Scenes: The Math of May

Hello, awesome people!

Things have been a bit quiet on the Patreon front this month, so I'm writing to give you a not-so-brief update on what's going on behind the scenes with me.

(These things are pretty long, personal, and wonk-ish, so I have no expectation you'll all read every one, but I love having you in my "in-club" and giving you glimpses at what my life is like behind-the-scenes).

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Since November I've managed to squeeze between 60-160 blogging hours out of each month. 

I know - the variance is crazy! I can usually only count on about 20 hours each week, so that extra 80 hours honestly comes down to how little sleep I want to get in a single 30-day period.

I was incredibly happy with how March and April turned out on CK, but throughout both months I've been bumping up against a new and curious barrier: I simply don't have enough time to write all the things I want to write.

This is totally different from old problems like not making enough time for writing, or not having enough to write about. I am making all of the possible time for writing. Any time I am not hanging out with my child, doing chores, or briefly hanging out with my wife (known as "E"), I am writing.

And I love it. 

E keeps checking on me to make sure I still love it, especially when I trudge upstairs with a sort of "time to make the donuts" lament of, "I've got writing to do" to eventually fall asleep in bed with the lights on and the laptop still open next to my head. 

I do still love it. In fact, I think I love it even more those nights. 

CK continues to experience a rush of the highest sustained levels of traffic it has seen in its 17 years of life. I'm writing about stuff I love - not just comic books - and people are reading it. 

That's utter happiness, in my book.

However, this month the math around having enough time to write is particularly askew.

1.

First, the legendary Tigereyes conducted his Marvel Most Wanted Omnibus Secret Ballot a little earlier than I was planning for, and started releasing results on May 8th. 

I genuinely love dissecting this poll, and last year it brought CK monster traffic. After much fiddling behind the scenes, I decided to do one post per entry - 63 posts. That not only gives each write-up room to breathe, but does great things for my SEO.

I originally planned to  somehow fit all those posts between May 8th and 31st, but after writing two samples I realized that they take anywhere from 90-180 minutes to research and write - between 95-189 hours in total! Clearly that would need to broken across two months, so I settled on just a daily post through the end of June after a few initial doubled-up days.

• May commitment: 42 - 84 hours
• Total blogging hours remaining: 18 - 76 hours

2.

Plus, I have a few standing posts I try to get out each week. The most-prominent one is my Drag Race recap, but I've been wanting to keep up my weekly comic reviews and haven't been able to for lack of time. 

• May commitment: 20 hours
• Cumulative May commitment:  62 - 104 hours
• Total blogging hours remaining: -2 - 56 hours

Still seems manageable, right?

3.

Then, quite out of the blue, an old employer rang me up last week to send a freelance project my way. The catch? It had to be done by the end of the month. 

I tried to demure, but it's something I'm quite interested in. And, not for nothing, my freelance rate is a multiple of what my blogging hours are effectively earning from all of CK's various revenue streams.

• May commitment: 25 - 50 hours
• Cumulative May commitment:  87 - 154 hours
• Total blogging hours remaining: -27 - 6 hours

You're probably looking at that and thinking: You're still right inside your sweet spot. Maybe you won't get a new guide out, but you should be about to balance the freelance project and the blogging - right?

At which point I introduce a final element...

4.

My wife was selected to attend a week-long event out of the country with very little notice, and she departed on the same day the freelance gig hit my plate.

Even though I'm at home with my little one on weekdays, having my wife around on evenings and weekends to co-parent gives me some room to breathe by granting me about 8hrs of my weekly writing allotment (plus coverage to hit the gym) and splitting up the household upkeep.

• Cumulative May commitment:  87 - 154 hours
• May loss of possible writing hours: 10 - 14? hours
• Total blogging hours remaining: -37 - -8 hours

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As you can see, I'm in the hole, hours-wise. 

We're now on day four of E being in a different country and the little things around the house that are typically balanced by our teamwork are starting to get a bit scary. It doesn't help that I've spent seemingly every spare moment of potential tidying time while the little one has been awake plunging toilets. 

I'll save you the rest of that story. 

Suffice to say, there are nine days left in the month, which contain an absolute maximum of 180 waking hours if I run myself totally ragged (which I am fine with!), but at least half of those are meant for the kid and I (which I am also fine with!).

What's going to get done by the 31st? Well, the freelance project, for sure. And, I'd like to catch up and then keep up with the Tigereyes results, as consistency makes for good traffic. And, I refuse to snap my Drag Race streak now, so close to the end of the season.

As for my other blog posts, intended May comic guides, videos, and music? We might need to re-evaluate come June. But, I did manage to get a basic slider navigation set up on the sidebar - whoo-hoo!

Again: I love this. There are no complaints to be found here. It's the best possible situation to be in - tons of stuff I love to do and not quite enough time to do it all. 

I simply wanted to let you know how things are going because this is all made possible by your support, both in dollars and encouragement. My life was great back in October before you all arrived, but it wasn't this great. Looking forward to writing my 17th Anniversary post in August, I can already say this has been the year I've always wanted CK to have.

I hope that you've been enjoying the recent CK content - and, if you have any suggestions or requests, I'm always happy to hear them.

Excelsior!