Clephas Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 For those of us that have graduated from high school and are in the midst of higher education (technically, I came back to higher education two years ago), one of the biggest issues is balancing work and college with our otaku life. If you are primarily working retail, I'm sorry to say that you are screwed. Long hours, low pay, and a frequently unpredictable work schedule combined with the need to study... it is only natural that your otaku life will vanish (mine did for about a year when I was 18-19). My basic advice is... find a job that pays either the same or more than a retail job from home, so you can manage your hours to give you time to play, watch, and/or read your otaku materials. This is the path I went down... and I will never regret it, despite the fact that my particular line of work is frequently hellish in terms of how much time it eats. College... an ideal solution is learning to speed read effectively. The minimum pace at which you should be able to read to effectively compress your college study time is a page every 1.3 minutes. Why do I say this? Because most textbook chapters are about 12-21 pages long, and if you read at that pace, you can generally finish a chapter in about a half hour or so. Assuming you read each chapter twice, in order to retain more of it in your memory, this means you spend an hour on each chapter (other than note-taking). Since a pace of two chapters a week is generally all you need to keep up in most courses (in my experience anyway), this means you can spend less time studying and more time playing, watching, etc. To be honest, speed-reading isn't something everyone is going to be able to pick up. Some people just don't have the right type of brain structure to absorb large amounts of text quickly. Others can't adapt to particular speed-reading techniques. Yet others simply can't learn well from text and need to have it explained to them verbally or in pictures. Either way, this can eat more time. Another way of compressing time is to take as many classes as you can in distance learning, read the textbook quickly, then complete all the required course work in a matter of days or weeks. To be honest, the kind of concentration this takes is beyond most people. It is hard on the body and brain, and most people simply don't concentrate that well on educational materials. Another problem is that you need to pick out the right professor for your distance learning. Some force you to obey a schedule, whereas others let you simply do everything at your own pace. The latter is definitely preferable, as it allows you to rapidly complete your coursework whenever you have time. The last time-compressing method (one of my primary ones) is extreme multitasking done through parallel mental processing. To be honest, this method is... hard on the brain. In my experience, this method should really only be used in emergencies (sort of like energy drinks). Basically, you visualize a task you need to do as being compressed into a box and separated from the other task you want to do. In my case, this usually means reading a vn and typing for work at the same time (I usually set the VN on auto at half the normal speed). I basically absorb all the information I need to do my work beforehand, organize it inside my brain, then start the vn and let my hands act independently of my eyes. This really only works if your work-task is something that doesn't require the use of your eyes, and I generally have to go through my work and correct misspellings and grammatical errors caused by bad spacing and the like afterward. I'm actually unsure if this is something other people can do, as I learned to do this out of desperation so I could play more VNs despite a growing workload. The biggest downside to this is that I sometimes fall apart completely afterward and have to sleep for fourteen hours straight to get functional again... it is a lot like translating, since I have to think in two languages at once, lol (I could never have done this without my experience as a fansubber-translator). Anyway, as you probably guessed, this is basically a 'balance rl with otakuism' thread. Feel free to post your own experiences and methodology here for others' viewing. Edit: Don't ask me about details about how to do the parallel multitasking... I figured it out by intuition, and I'm about 90% sure my brain structure is abnormal in some way... crunchytaco and Zalor 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhurai Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 If you are primarily working retail, I'm sorry to say that you are screwed. Long hours, low pay, and a frequently unpredictable work schedule combined with the need to study... it is only natural that your otaku life will vanish (mine did for about a year when I was 18-19). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'd suggest actively developing a varied skill set, because you can never tell what might be of use in a job interview. Reading speed and comprehension, touch-typing mastery and speed, and critical thinking are the basics... and if you can do that, it is possible to learn to do a lot of different jobs. Well, that and learning to brown-nose like crazy. Edit: A knowledge of sociology and psychology is useful for management positions, for instance (as long as you don't start trying to fit everyone into archetypes). Also, I suggest learning to cook and cook well, because you'd be surprised at how often decent baked goods or a casserole can up your chances for a promotion or a shift to a department you'd prefer. People who have recently devoured good food are easy to manipulate, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andulir Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Well i only need to survive 8 hour in my job and its really near where i live. Only 20 minutes. So when come to break i always read some manga. After that i have 11hour to play games watching anime and read vn or manga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalRen Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 For those of us that have graduated from high school and are in the midst of higher education (technically, I came back to higher education two years ago), one of the biggest issues is balancing work and college with our otaku life. If you are primarily working retail, I'm sorry to say that you are screwed. Long hours, low pay, and a frequently unpredictable work schedule combined with the need to study... it is only natural that your otaku life will vanish (mine did for about a year when I was 18-19). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darklord Rooke Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'd suggest actively developing a varied skill set, because you can never tell what might be of use in a job interview. Reading speed and comprehension, touch-typing mastery and speed, and critical thinking are the basics... and if you can do that, it is possible to learn to do a lot of different jobs. Well, that and learning to brown-nose like crazy. OriginalRen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalRen Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I would also like to add that procrastination is your downfall. Finish all of your projects/homework and other things early. Be ahead of the game, and you'll have more time later on down the road. Most colleges will always give you assignments many days in advance, so use that to your advantage. Pace yourself by reading bits of a text each night, rather than speed reading the entire book and cramming it into your brain. Look ahead in the chapters if possible, and review a little bit each night. The sooner you finish things, the less you will need to do later. If you split things up, you'll find yourself having a lot more free time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nosebleed Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 While not in the US, i am certainly experiencing the brutality that is college schedule, mind you i'm unemployed, i have to get on buses 1 hour earlier every morning and it also takes one hour to come back home, meaning i only have about 2-4 hours a day to do whatever at home, yet i already have a ton of stuff i need to read (the odyssey and 2 other works by Homer as well as the genesis and new testament from the bible, just to name a few) as well as other assignments, so i think i'll focus on school earlier rather than leaving it for later, needless to say my otaku lifestyle will deplete for a while and so wil my fuwa life, but i believe this will be more helpful down the road. That's just my personal experience during the first week of college, it also sucks that i missed 2 whole weeks of content so now i also have the job to catch up. Much fun.I'd just like to add that effective communication skills are desired for almost everything these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilbi Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I get money from the government for doing a particular study on university. (enough to live comfortably as a student) And you get summaries of every subject from nerdy classmates, win-win. Other projects and school stuff still take a lot of time, but it's very doable. Enough free time I always begin to study on the last moment when I can't procrastinate anymore, pressure makes me study very fast and efficient Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalRen Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 While not in the US, i am certainly experiencing the brutality that is college schedule, mind you i'm unemployed, i have to get on buses 1 hour earlier every morning and it also takes one hour to come back home, meaning i only have about 2-4 hours a day to do whatever at home, yet i already have a ton of stuff i need to read (the odyssey and 2 other works by Homer as well as the genesis and new testament from the bible, just to name a few) as well as other assignments, so i think i'll focus on school earlier rather than leaving it for later, needless to say my otaku lifestyle will deplete for a while and so wil my fuwa life, but i believe this will be more helpful down the road. That's just my personal experience during the first week of college, it also sucks that i missed 2 whole weeks of content so now i also have the job to catch up. Much fun. Good thing i'm taking language and communication then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchytaco Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Put together job opportunities for Otakus and never worry about the passion being snuffed out of their life. In my field of work and experience, I want to open up a fashion salon just for Anime inspired fashion. Of course my real goal is to open a maid cafe someday. I'm still waiting to see how this is panning out. There hasn't been any updates on it since 2013. http://www.animeherald.com/2012/12/17/maid-cafe-to-open-in-los-angeles/ edit: apparently they gave up on it Oh, and my purpose for posting this was because I think these jobs are good opportunities for college students. A lot of them I know work at bars, restaurants and other jobs based on tips; and (menial) manual labor tasks here in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaguya Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'm not from the US (as you may be able to guess from my bad english) and I got my PhD 2 years ago... Which gave me the opportunity to get my job, which I can do from home, is easy, doesn't consume more than 6 hours per day (though it's often less) and anyone with minimum management skills could do- the higher your education, the less you'll have to use it. Well, at least here in Brazil. Honestly, my advice is to not try to balance things. Just forget you're an otaku and immerse yourself in your studies- Now, about work... Try to cheat your way through it. Your parents can't afford the full college fees? Go live with your uncle/granparents. Get a scholarship. It'll eat away your time to study, and being physically exausted can have an impact in your mind, so if you can't avoid working, stray away from physical labor, at least. I realize some people will end up having to work no matter what... But even they should look at alternatives. I had fun while I was in college because I enjoyed what I was doing. Also, social life takes more of your time than you'd realize. While all humans need some of it, ditching social events will give you more time than you imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchytaco Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'm not from the US (as you may be able to guess from my bad english) What do you mean? Everyone has a perfect American accent here to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaguya Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 What do you mean? Everyone has a perfect American accent here to me. I was obviously referring to the way I write. I'm pretty sure it's repetitive and looks awkward because of my vocab. I'm sure you just wanted to crack that joke, but it's derailing regardless. Next time there will be some sort of punishment. Now, on to the topic- college is over sooner than you expect. Spending a couple of years without putting much into your hobbies should be bearable for most people, and it will pay off in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchytaco Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 It was said in a tongue and cheek manner, yes. However I just wanted to assure anyone who was conscious about their English skills, including yours, that it's not detectable where you think your poor grammar gives you away. I have a lot of respect for which you've attained to communicate in our language at your level. Sorry, if it came down to an off-handed attempt at a crack. However if you want to ban me for derailing, I'm fine with that too. It just means I'll allocate less time addicted to forums and more time where it's important in my busy life right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaguya Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 It was said in a tongue and cheek manner, yes. However I just wanted to assure anyone who was conscious about their English skills, including yours, that it's not detectable where you think your poor grammar gives you away. I have a lot of respect for which you've attained to communicate in our language at your level. Sorry, if it came down to an off-handed attempt at a crack. However if you want to ban me for derailing, I'm fine with that too. It just means I'll allocate less time addicted to forums and more time where it's important in my busy life right now. What? Ban? Sorry for not being clear, I guess. The most punishment I'd give to some derailing is a verbal warning. If you do it a lot, maybe you'll eventually get a 24 hours ban, but you don't do that type of thing. Actually, I derail more threads than you~ I wasn't even planning on following through any punishment, even with two or three more derailing comments.... Hell, gotta remember that people take me seriously when I mention this type of thing because I'm a mod. /sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asterisk Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Finding that balance is really difficult but getting it is paramount I think. It's best to choose your classes as wisely as you can. Naturally some people won't be able to do this every time but try to give yourself a couple classes that you can afford to be a little lax on if need be. It's pretty important to have some leeway for when work gets to be too much. Likewise resorting to your hobbies to unwind is necessary. I know for me whenever I get home and am exhausted I relax with a bit of VN reading or a few episodes of an anime. Maybe even some video games or something. Anything that takes the edge off so I don't become a stressed-out mess, but not enough that I begin to fail my classes. If you don't even have the time for that then try multi-tasking or applying one of your hobbies to your studies. For instance, I'm a film studies major and I aspire to one day be a critic so I apply what I learn in a school setting to the things I watch/read/play and not only does it reinforce what I've learned but it actually increases my enjoyment of whatever I'm doing. Course this is just the stars aligning in my favor but if you can find a way to do it then go for it. Likewise I wrote a philosophy paper heavily based in the philosophy of Fate/Stay Night. Blending the worlds of school and otaku-dom can be surprisingly effective if done right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolverk Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 From experience the best way to get most time to play vn's is by doing most of the work you need to do in a bulk right away. Then chill for the rest of the day. The earlier it's done the better. Simply studying late for me usually makes me work slow and often I jump to doing other things at the same time. Yes, yes. This takes more mental effort in one burst, but for me I can enjoy the vn's more and play more that way lol. As for work.. Here if you are studying you get enough money from the state to live off mostly. Albeit if you wanted more money for minimum time used. I'd recommend getting a night-shift job on the weekends. Here you get extra pay for night work + weekend. Cleaning in hospitals is the first specific job that comes to mind that fit that. To be honest, speed-reading isn't something everyone is going to be able to pick up. Some people just don't have the right type of brain structure to absorb large amounts of text quickly. Others can't adapt to particular speed-reading techniques. Yet others simply can't learn well from text and need to have it explained to them verbally or in pictures. Either way, this can eat more time. Question to you Clephas. I've tried speed reading before. I've managed to read around 700 wpm and remember similarly well to normal reading. The main problem was my eyes couldn't handle reading for longer 30 mins at a time. My eye muscles stiffen and if I read more I get eye muscle pains for days. There is no problem with my eyes themselves, I've had my eyes tested and they are healthy, Do you have any experience with this? How to get around the problem of eye stamina. This was really the only reason I stopped speed reading, as I couldn't read more than 30 min was a serious buzz-kill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Secchan Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Well for one, I've cut anime out of my life. (no flame plz). I don't work so that helps. I don't play any games cause everyone I played with now lives on the other side of the world. Turn your otakuism in your study. Play games (VNs) only to realize that you really suck at the language and are only good at reading, but even then you still suck. long story short, life sucks and theres not enough time in the world. You will have to cut something to make time for others (for most of us thats probably sleep). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephisto Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I've found that not taking a bunch of science/math courses at the same time has helped a lot. OriginalRen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seventhfonist425 Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I've found that not taking a bunch of science/math courses at the same time has helped a lot. Oh. lol, I'm in my first year of college. Might be worth keeping this in mind. I'll also try considering the stuff said here. I'm always afraid I won't have time to read or do things. Anyways, one thing I think sorta works is fixing your sleep schedule. I don't really have the time to get into doing uberman or anything, but the super light siesta helps a bit by itself. Sleeping 6 hours technically adds 4 hours to the day everyday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 From experience the best way to get most time to play vn's is by doing most of the work you need to do in a bulk right away. Then chill for the rest of the day. The earlier it's done the better. Simply studying late for me usually makes me work slow and often I jump to doing other things at the same time. Yes, yes. This takes more mental effort in one burst, but for me I can enjoy the vn's more and play more that way lol. As for work.. Here if you are studying you get enough money from the state to live off mostly. Albeit if you wanted more money for minimum time used. I'd recommend getting a night-shift job on the weekends. Here you get extra pay for night work + weekend. Cleaning in hospitals is the first specific job that comes to mind that fit that. Question to you Clephas. I've tried speed reading before. I've managed to read around 700 wpm and remember similarly well to normal reading. The main problem was my eyes couldn't handle reading for longer 30 mins at a time. My eye muscles stiffen and if I read more I get eye muscle pains for days. There is no problem with my eyes themselves, I've had my eyes tested and they are healthy, Do you have any experience with this? How to get around the problem of eye stamina. This was really the only reason I stopped speed reading, as I couldn't read more than 30 min was a serious buzz-kill. I never really experienced this... but this is mostly because my type of speed reading doesn't require my eyes to be focused. I basically absorb the text paragraph by paragraph and read it in the back of my mind even as I go onto the next. The fastest method is the page-by-page one... but that tires you out faster... My own reading speed is about eight pages a minute at its highest and 1.5 pages a minute at its lowest.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funyarinpa Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 As a highschool student who has many extracurricular activities, I want to thank all of you for the recommendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arakura Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 My god... I wish I could do these things, but I'm actually horribly tuned for balancing an otaku life with a busy schedule of work and school. I go to school full time (15-17 credits) and work 20~ hours a week, plus an extra few for the club I'm in. Which is all fine and dandy, but I'm horrible at every single thing you listed. I'm in the science and engineering school here at the U of M, so I'm more geared towards that kind of work. My reading speed is somewhere around the 8th grade level (impressive, I know. Please save your applause for the end). It takes me 2.5~ minutes to read a page if I'm focused. And I'm really bad at focusing x.x I have no multitasking skill, little ability to urgently complete tasks due to poor focus, and in general this leaves me with less time to support my anime/manga/vn desires, haha. And then on top of that, I have this weird thing where I can't really get into something if I'm not in the right mood, and I also dont like doing anything while I eat, and I also can't multitask chatting online with reading/watching anything... The great light in the darkness is that I really do enjoy looking forward to the time I do spend. I generally try to condense all my schoolwork into a few days, leaving me huge open chunks of time on the weekends if I can manage it ^^ And there's always summer. There's always the rest of my life, so I can take my time and enjoy myself. In general, manga fits the smaller holes of time very well though, and I like to pick up longer anime series/shounens to watch more casually (I take the shorter stuff seriously, so I can't watch it as casually as when I have a random hour to spare... I'm weird like that I guess). My one fear is that someday, or over some length of time, I'll begin to be more like the people all around me: so callous and careless, especially about the otaku activities that I love so much. Oh, and my purpose for posting this was because I think these jobs are good opportunities for college students. A lot of them I know work at bars, restaurants and other jobs based on tips; and (menial) manual labor tasks here in the US. This is absurdly, almost tragically true. My roommates work as servers/wait-assists at whatever-level restaurants make roughly as much per hour as teachers in my state. It's actually pretty absurd that they literally make 3 times as much as I did working retail *is a little bothered* yet there's so much "oh you didnt tip enough" going around. My advice to anyone and everyone ever in the world who is in high school/college: get a job at a restaurant. You will make bank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havoc Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 well that was a interesting read. I life in the Netherlands and a study at the university of Rotterdam. And i can tell you one thing: Speed reading is not a necessity, it is an requirment. As while usually one chapter is about 13-22 long most of our books are in A4 format and we usually get more than one chapter to read (4-5). You gotta love chemistry tough. As any teacher will tell you, a good analist is lazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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