New comic! It’s a little bit of a call back to singletasking and the cuddle clock. I’m rather proud of the shower scene, though. Take that, Saul Bass!

Super Art Fight @ Nerdmelt Tonight, ALSO ONLINE

If you’re in LA, join us. Details are here. If not, we’re streaming the whole thing. Details here. But if I find out any of you in LA aren’t at the show and get lazy and watch online, I’ll come to your house and smack you in the face.

Some of you might disagree with me on this, but I’ll say it: Working from home sucks. This isn’t to say that working for yourself sucks, but working in the same place that you woke up in taxes on your soul after a while.

I changed jobs about a year ago, to one that let me work more on my own time and schedule, and a lot more from home. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get more things done on my own time. Unforunately, I’m just not built for that sort of thing.

I used to hate the idea of sitting in an office from 9–5 and the like, but I actually really miss it these days. I have to go out of my way to recapture a bit of that experience, because the truth is without that structure my motivation, productivity, and general attitude goes to shit.

If you’re different, more power to you. If you’re anything like me, here’s some tips that I constantly have to remind myself to follow:

• Keep to a routine, even a stupid one. Do the basic things anyway like getting ready in the morning, dressing like you’re about to be working, etc. Makes me feel lots more sane.
• Start each day by leaving your place. If you don’t it’s easy to get sucked in.
• Go out for little things. Start thinking of going out for food, coffee, groceries, etc. as payment towards sanity and an excuse to get out of the place. Maybe set up shop at a coffee shop for a few hours, especially if you drink coffee like I do.
• Make a to-do list. There are lots of systems for to-do lists from simple (a list) to complicated (a series of lists divided by importance and urgency) but whatever your system, keep to it.
• Talk to people. It’s the best way to stay sane.
• Set limits. Work some sort of hours (whatever works for you), and don’t slack off during them. Otherwise you wind up letting not-quite-working take up all waking hours, and you feel like shit by the end. Trust me.

As you can tell, this is a kinda personal issue for me. I’ve learned a lot this last year about how I work when I’m not at work, and I’m still learning. Share your thoughts, tips, etc. in the comments, because others, and myself, could use them.

Another week, more comics! Just a reminder, I’m heading off to SXSW at the end of this week to bum around, geek out, and party hard with all the other Film/Interactive/Comedy types. I’m going to put up a post about all this later today, but if you’ll be there, let me know! I’d love to meet up with some friends and Systemics.

Also, SUPER ART FIGHT IN DC! March 18th! I haven’t done a good job keeping up with the hype train, but if you’re in the area please help me make this a hit!

Yes, I know most of you are sick of hearing about it, but here is some insight into the SXSW Interactive Experience. I’ll post more of an update here soon, but for now this is about what I’m seeing. Of course, this is what I’m doing right now as well so who am I to talk.

UPDATE: I wound up on TWiT live for about 30 seconds during the DiggNation party the other night. I went up to Leo Laporte to thank him for linking to the Singletasking comic. Of course, I was in the middle of trying to get some friends into the party, but wanted to say a quick hello. This is when he turned the camera on me for a quick interview. I was off my game, and therefore only mentioned the web address twice. It was a live feed, but some amazing Systemics managed to swoop in and got some screen shots. PICS THAT IT HAPPENED. If anyone can find a video feed of this freakish occurance, please do let me know.

If you notice the tags, this is pretty much a true story.