As an animation director, my job requires a lot of sitting alone in my studio, often in my pajamas, drawing the same thing for hours on end.
If you do this every day for three months, you can start to go a bit mad -- especially if the workload doesn't allow for much down time.
During my day to day I make sure to set up an array of elaborate distractions to keep my stamina up and fool my brain into thinking it's having fun. At any given time I have roughly four beverages on the go, ranging from hot to cold to fizzy to vodka (ho ho, just kidding), some kind of snack food and countless episodes of Radiolab or... Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If my brain is given any time to solely focus on work, it immediately has time to think "Woe is me, I wish I was outside having a crazy adventure," and stress shortly follows.
These diversions can only last so long, however, and I have a few tactics that calm me down when all else fails, and they all involve putting the work DOWN, even if just for a moment, depending on the stress level.
Stress Level 1 -- Touch your toes whilst making a cup of tea.
Stress Level 2 -- The ridiculous dance playlist teamed with ridiculous dancing. The music should be unashamedly classic and cheesy -- just give into it, it's the only way. One of my go-to moves is letting my arms go limp and then flailing them around my head, it cures all frustrations.
Stress Level 3 -- The ill-advised spur-of-the-moment adventure. You wake up one morning with a whole day's important work laid ahead of you when a friend texts you asking if you want to go to the beach. Before you know it, you're out the door rationalizing that you'll be back by 4:00 and you can cram all your work in then. You're back by 10:00, which is just enough time to eat an ice cream sandwich in front of Buffy and go to sleep, exhausted from swimming and exhilarated from playing hooky. Trust me, the work you get done the next day will be all the better
And here is my playlist:
Photo by Elizabeth Weinberg
For more by Julia Pott, click here.
For more GPS guides, click here.
Follow Julia Pott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/juliapott
Karen Horneffer-Ginter, Ph.D.: 50 Ways to Take a Break, and the Essential First Step of Remembering
Cilla McCain: Letting My Southern Roots Grow
Mathew Tombers: My Own Private Arcadia
Laura Dunn: GPS for Laura's Soul
No to sound like an insensitive jerk or anything, but sitting at home in your pajamas in comfort making a great living doing something you love is hardly a reason to feel woe... even if it's a bit tedious. I'm sure there are quite a few who are on their feet all day in less than ideal conditions working for a minute fraction of your salary that would love to feel that woe... not to mention those that have no job at all. This sounds too much like self-serving minutia.
It might be that you don't really have an understanding of what working at home in your pj's entails. First, you have to have twice as much discipline as most people because you have the freedom to slack unless you want to keep the job ... which means you usually have the need to work 12 hour days under very stressful time lines. I'm a web designer and my friends envy me when I'm in a slow period (AKA - not making any money) but don't see or hear from me when I'm in a job because clients always want the site up now, even when they've changed direction twenty times since you began. I'm generally working under more than one contact and often, one person will want things exactly as they were in my first draft, while another will want it turned upside down and shaken and I have to please both.
I have a friend who's an animator. She doesn't work for a studio, she gets piece work and her snippet has to fit seamlessly with the work of everyone else and at any time, she can be let go because a project was cancelled. She works in her Jammie's but the pay isn't great and the security isn't there.
I've worked on my feet all day and while I agree that working at home is infinitely easier, it most definitely is also 10x more stressful.
I love it!
I agree with you on the tennis, however. Few things are more regenerating than placing a gorgeous, net-grazing backhand shot right on the backcourt line.
---
What's the most fun, distracting and calorie free thing a person can do working at home alone, anyway?
A character would be what their representing, be it funny, mischief, dark or light with other aspects, a good day for a stroll if not completely found in your room, it might not be human or a complete character that it's found in, one toss two or more birds.
You have got the beginning, like reading the back cover of a book.
No one cares.
As a student, I find the most important way to relieve stress is to make sure you have your down time. Make sure you get enough sleep, eat, and relax a little. I've done the studying-'til-5 AM thing before a test, and I always do better when, at midnight the night before, I put the books down, pop in an episode of Frasier (my Buffy), and then roll over and go to sleep.