For the last 1.5 years, I have been preparing to narrate my own audiobooks, but I’ve been fooling myself. It’s just not feasible, economical, or time-respectful for me to narrate my own audiobooks. I desperately want to do it, and still may do so one book per year, for example, but it won’t be a core part of my strategy. That frees me up, but does mean that I’ll have to pay more to produce audiobooks since I have to hire a narrator, but that’s the way it goes.
I did my financial calculations, and I am losing money when I don’t have audio editions published for my writing book series. So I’m going to start getting audiobooks up, slowly, but surely. This ISH is expensive, but worth it. For me. Everyone has to do their own math here.
This will also give me an opportunity to test out an audiobook proofer, a service I’ve never tried but would like to, as it will improve the quality of the audio for my listeners. Historically, I did the “proofing” of my audiobooks. This meant that I would listen to the book and compare it to the text, verifying that the narrator didn’t make any mistakes. That took a very long time. My plan is to outsource that to someone so that I can listen to the audiobook narration without having to worry about proofing. This would also allow me to listen at 1.5 or 2x speed so that I can get through the Q&A faster.
Audiobooks are production hell, and you have to be careful or they’ll consume your time. I need to figure out how to produce them at a high quality level while also minimizing my time and effort where I can.
In other news, I’m back to a semi-regular routine. Starting Monday, I’m going to ease into waking up at 5AM again. I haven’t been doing it for a while—mainly to get some extra sleep, but I’m ready now.
I’m ready to start runnin’ again, even though this current novel is still plaguing my productivity. I’ll just keep chipping away at it.
INTERESTING IDEA #1: GETTING THREE DAYS OF PRODUCTIVITY IN ONE DAY
I was watching a YouTube video where a motivational speaker was talking about how he broke his workday into 3, eight-hour days:
- 5AM-2PM: Day 1
- 2PM-10PM: Day 2
- 10PM-5AM: Day 3 (sleep)
(And yes, getting adequate sleep makes you more productive).
What does the first day look like?
What does the second day look like?
What if you thought about your days like this? Granted, a 9-5 muddles this somewhat, but it’s an interesting idea if you play around with it:
- 5AM-8AM: Half day
- 8AM-4:30PM: Workday
- 4:30PM-10PM: Half day
You’re still getting two days in.
SECOND INTERESTING IDEA: GETTING UP AT 5AM WITH A ROUTINE
I’m typically an early riser. It’s one of the secrets to getting so much done. I typically get more done before breakfast than some people get done in an entire day.
My routine typically consists of:
- Exercise (something I need to get better at)
- Meditate/Updating my journal with goals
I was watching another motivational speaker who talked about his simple morning routine, which I really liked, and I’ll be implementing it into mine starting Monday.
- Exercise (20 min)
- Meditate/Thinking Time (20 min)
- Learning (20 min)
I picked up the 5AM Club by Robin Sharma if anyone is interested. I like Robin’s advice a lot, but don’t know if the book is any good. We’ll see. But I like this routine.
That’s a lot of time before the writing starts, but the point is to start your day with intention.
Now that I’ve reached a certain level in my writing career where the productivity just happens and I don’t have to worry so much about grinding, I can afford to start introducing other, vitally as important elements into my daily flow. One thing I don’t do nearly enough is read. I still read circles around the average person (somewhere around 50-75 books per year, but it depends. I read in voracious bursts, and then can go weeks or even months without doing it).
Anyway, have a good night. I’m publishing this post early so I can get some writing in tonight.
