I actually do not understand how people with lives - who sleep, and eat, who have school and/or work and maintain even the briefest of social interactions - can manage to draw on a regular basis much less finish something nice, which reflect current trends or events. Everyone except me seems to be able to pump this stuff out weekly or once every two weeks or so. And I mean finished, colored, clean work. The quickest I can respond to something cool that's going on right now is like three months later and by then the idea has lost its luster. Even the simplest digitally colored drawing for me normally takes about three days on-and-off if I want to balance other responsibilities in my day. And the last NICE CG I finished before I got really serious with the vector work (which isn't even a big deal by some people's standards) was the WCRG album cover, and this was in February, and it took me nearly a whole month. Not on-and-off, I mean from early morning until late at night, eyes red and popping out of my skull with very few intermissions.
I write myself to-do lists every day, I make schedules to allow myself time to get everything done, including housework, homework, job-searching, writing coverletters, touching up my resume regularly, responding to emails, writing emails, working on my portfolio, studying Japanese, watching software tutorials, doing freelance work, getting sufficient exercise, etc. And this is assuming I don't have to go on errands, cook meals, or mingle with people. I never have more than about an hour-and-a-half, and on most days it's closer to a half-hour, unless I stay up until a preposterous hour of the night, and that time usually goes to practicing ONE thing, and maybe Posemaniacs. It makes me incredibly uncomfortable and self-critical that even with an organized schedule and good discipline, I still cannot do what other people seem to pull off effortlessly.
Does everyone else just let their bodies and health waste away to accomplish this, or do they not give a shit at school or the workplace or what? It makes me wonder.