By Gamal Hennessy

This is a modified excerpt from a book I’m working on called The Business of Freelance Comic Book Publishing. It examines time management and work-life balance for comic creators. While this can’t be taken as legal or financial advice, it can help make the most of one of your most limited resources.

 As a freelance comic creator (FCC), you offer services to your clients to produce the comics they want. Your skills, reputation, professionalism, and creative vision are intangible assets that you have in an almost unlimited supply. But you are also selling your time, which is one resource which is both limited and subject to other demands.

This means your time has to be balanced effectively if you’re going to survive as an FCC. This balance needs to occur not just between your work inside and outside of comics. You also need to manage your freelance time to account for all the demands of an FCC.

What are the Elements of Time Management?

You only have so many hours in a day to get things done. You only have a finite amount of energy to devote to any task. The key is getting the most done in the most efficient way. Time management is defined as the organizing and planning of how to divide your available time. Like the crime-fighter who practices law during the day and patrols the streets of Hell’s Kitchen at night, you’re going to need a plan if you want to get both jobs done.  Business journalist Mario Peshev created a useful framework in an article for Entrepreneur Magazine.

• Create a long-term roadmap: Start with where you are, figure out where you want to be, and then determine your path.

• Manage Priorities: Accept the reality that you can’t do it all. Your personal life may have to suffer if you want to work in comics. Storenvy CEO Jon Crawford put it succinctly: “Work, sleep, family, fitness, or friends—pick three.”

• Break down every task into simple problems: Instead of trying to handle all aspects of your business at once, figure out what needs to be done in what order to make sure you’re not wasting time.

• Start with a simple task: It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the different aspects of being an FCC. Start your roadmap with a manageable first step and you won’t sabotage yourself before beginning.

• Adapt to Changing Circumstances: No plan survives contact with reality. Things will change in the industry and your life during your career. Adjust your time management as you move through the process and adjust the balance between your work and your life.

How Do You Balance Your Work and Your Life?

From my perspective, time management starts with the understanding that your time and energy are limited resources. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and there is only so much energy and sanity one person can utilize in that day. It is unrealistic and counter-productive to work under the premise that you don’t need sleep, food, or time away from work.

Burnout leads to several negative outcomes, including physical and emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, loss of personal identity, and depression. This type of burnout can affect any type of worker, even someone working in a field they love like comics. According to Indeed, up to 52% of workers experienced burnout in 2020.

Once you understand your time is a finite resource, you can resist the urge to try and offer time you don’t have or trying to fill every hour of every day with activity. This means learning to allocate sufficient time to the aspects of your life that are important to you in addition to taking time to sleep, socialize and step away from work. It may sound contradictory, but a completely full schedule isn’t a viable long-term solution. Developing an FCC business takes time and often can’t be done all at once, no matter how many all-nighters you pull. Trying to do too much too soon will reduce the quality of both your life and your work. It could also lead you to a place where you are too overwhelmed to work at all. Knowing that you can’t work all the time will help you make a realistic assessment of how much your time is worth and how you charge your clients.

Time management also means being in control of the time that you do devote to work. In this area, the FCC has an advantage because they are not tied to the rigid schedules of most employees. This allows them to reject unprofitable work, avoid unnecessary meetings, and politely decline any activity that doesn’t fit with your goals but chews up valuable time.

Have fun with your comic.

Gamal

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If you have questions about the business or legal aspects of your comic book publishing and you'd like a free consultation, please contact me and we can set something up that fits in with your schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH YOUR COMIC PROPERTY, DISCUSS IT WITH A QUALIFIED CONTRACT ATTORNEY OR CONTACT C3 FOR A FREE CONSULTATION