It Takes Chucks of Time

My schedule works differently than the majority of those who work a 9-5. I don't always have a set time available the same time every day. So I have pockets of time at odd times, so I try and dedicate certain times; I set aside time that I must devote to certain audio projects.

Audio projects are a mental sport for me. I have to be in the right frame of mind and my body/voice has to be pepped up. If I'm not 'ready', the audio reading usually goes slowly or has lots of mistakes or my tone doesn't sound right to me that I end up scrapping the whole thing sometimes.

When I have to do a recording, it's like prepping for a sports event. I have to be in top energy but I also have to block off an uninterrupted period of time, like as if I were playing in a game or match.

I get into a groove and don't normally want to stop until I've finished a reasonable section of reading or of some part which can naturally be read in parts and thus take a break between parts.

On the other hand, for the editing part (when I've done the majority of the recording), at least for me, can be done in multiple slots of time (just because I often get interrupted by my other responsibilities and don't have the time to devote to it in one huge go).

Sometimes it feels like I'm holding my breath for a dive into the pool and then I swim laps until I'm done which gets me really exhausted but I don't feel like it's a finished workout until I've finished my laps. 

But after the dive and swim, the analyzing of my laps (the metaphorical 'editing' process in audio for me) can be a little more relaxed in it not having to be reviewed all in one shot.

The editing has been taking more time than my recording because in the beginning it was all relatively new to me, but also I was picking really hard selections, stuff like with foreign accents that I wanted to sound just right which took me forever to get decent. 

Meanwhile, any mistakes that I couldn't live with, I'd be editing it which has been slowing down my overall process. But I'm working out how to improve my recording process overall to reduce my editing time.

The trick to that is by getting smart about the prep work (before I record). It's also dependent on the difficulty level of the selections I've been choosing. For now, I'm trying to go a little easier on myself on the selections by picking them a little less difficult so I can get a better prep down and get a rhythm down and then I'll up myself again and try some more harder selections after that.