This is a topic that’s been going around various blogs recently, but I was reluctant to write my own post about it since I sort of already did in a previous post. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that enough time has passed since then for me to say something different about the subject…
Finding time to keep up on many weekly anime isn’t always easy and tends to get more difficult the older we get as we become tied down with college, jobs, and social obligations. The average anime episode is about 24 minutes (21 if you skip the OP and ED), which doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re watching, say, 15 of those episodes every week, that’s dedicating about 6 hours a week for anime, which really can be quite difficult for people in this busy day and age. 6+ hours a week of free, uninterrupted time doesn’t come easy nowadays, and that only takes into account actual anime viewing time – for all other anime activities like blogging, online discussions, meetups, video games, conventions, etc., not to mention if you watch more than 15 shows a week, you gotta add even more hours.
I feel that there are three main real-life matters we need to take into account when deciding how much free time we have for anime – school, work, and family/social obligations. All three aren’t necessarily a part of everyone’s life, for example, if you’re working and are no longer a student, school wouldn’t be applicable to you. Obviously the more you have of these obligations, the less free time you’ll have for anime. Even though my work schedule is in limbo now and I haven’t had much experience working a full 40-hour work week, I have done it before and did figure out a way to keep my anime hobby going, though I did have to cut down blogging a bit. When I was at university however, I actually had even less time than when I was working since I was not only a full-time student, but then there were all the extra hours outside of class needed for studying and papers. The one advantage in free time I do have is the fact that I have a very small family (it’s just my mom pretty much) and a small group of friends I see sporadically, so I rarely have to use any free time for family/social events. Of course, there are other things that could take up time in our life besides these three things, such as other hobbies besides anime or time for other necessary errands like shopping, cleaning, doctor’s appointments, and what not. For me personally, work and occasional errands are now the only things that take up most of my time, with school no longer being applicable and family/social events being few.
Here’s how I manage my time for each anime activity I partake in:
My two years of living on my own at college helped me develop a system for watching 15+ seasonal shows at once without falling behind on any. Since I had little free time during the day to do anything else but go to class, study, run errands, and work on assignments, I made sure to put aside at least two hours every night before bed for anime, usually between 10pm and 12am. And even after I graduated and had work instead of school, I continued to use those two night hours as “anime time” for whatever seasonal shows I’m watching that are out that day. Right now for example, I’ll watch Bleach and Danshi Koukousei tonight since they’re out on Tuesday. So I won’t watch anything the minute it comes out and I may fall a day or two behind if, say, four shows I’m watching come out on Friday and I only have time for two Friday night and will then watch the other two on Saturday. But for the most part, this system works great for me and I think if you can put aside at least an hour a day for anime, you should be able to keep up on a handful of seasonal shows easily.
When it comes to rewatching anime or watching any anime that’s not currently airing, my time varies. Usually I’ll either have marathons of up to 6 episodes on days off or any day where I have some hours to spare, or I’ll watch some episodes during my nightly “anime time” if I have no seasonal shows that day. As always, it’s hard to find time for everything, so since I prioritize seasonal shows, I don’t rewatch anime or watch old shows as often.
Besides actually watching anime, I’m sure you all know my other big part of the hobby is blogging about it. I had to cut out blogging from my schedule during my two years at university due to lack of time, but since 2009 I’ve brought it back and am dedicated to keeping it! Some people may do other things like cosplay, read fan fiction, fansub, or run forums. But they all require extra time in addition to the time needed to actually watch anime. Due to the nature of the kind of blog posts I write, I usually need about 2-3 hours to complete a post (writing+proofreading+gathering images if necessary). Since my work schedule is different now, I’ll try to post on days I don’t have work or other obligations, which is typically once or twice a week. I’ll occasionally write a post on a working day in the evening before “anime time,” but I try not to since I’m usually tired by then.
Besides anime, I do have other things I enjoy that take up free time which include studying Japanese, watching American animated movies, playing video games occasionally, and getting together with friends. Like other things outside of “anime time,” I’ll either find time for these things on days off or squeeze them in between other activities. For example, let’s say I have a work schedule where I have two days off per week. I might use one of those days for studying Japanese and another for getting together with a friend. Then the next week I’ll use one day off to play a new video game and the other day to blog.
To conclude, I feel that unless you have a lifestyle where school, work, and/or social obligations are massive parts of your life, you should be able to find time to keep up on at least a few anime. But assuming none of us have the amount of free time we’d like for everything we want to do, it’s all about prioritizing what’s important and what you most want to do. So if being able to blog is more important to you than extra hours to rewatch anime, then go ahead and do the former. If you’re working and going to school and only have time to watch some anime and not any other activities, you’ll have to choose which you’d rather do. Or maybe you’re someone who wants to watch tons of anime at a time, in which case you may have to sacrifice your other hobbies. My personal goal in life is to be able to live in such a way that I’ll be able to comfortably support myself but still have time and money for anime indulgences. It sounds simple enough, but things don’t come that easy these days. Sometimes I wish we had more than 24 hours in a day!
Right now, I’m watching ten currently airing shows and juggling three non-airing shows. Anything above thirteen is too much for me. But I’m also picking up a bunch of new ones and putting them on-hold.
Since it’s my senior year, I’m only taking two major academic classes with my other eight periods being electives, including a study hall. So homework hasn’t been too time consuming this year. The things that have been keeping me busy are college auditions, voice lessons, and TA-ing for the middle school musical for three hours a few times a week. But I still have plenty (and maybe too much) time to watch anime.
My episodic posts are short and I only blog two shows. So including watch time, they don’t normally take longer than 40 minutes each. I pre-write almost all of my editorials and work on them a little bit at a time.
So right now, time for watching anime and blogging isn’t a problem for me. Obviously that will change during college. I’ll probably limit myself to 2-5 shows a season. But we’ll see what happens.
I’ve noticed that you’re constantly completing series, starting new series, and continuing your seasonal shows – you must have time XD I’m sure it will change during college depending on how many classes you take. My three years at community college were really chill, but university was much harder – I took four classes every quarter, which was more than enough work and made me put my blog on hiatus! But since your blog posts are very concise and you’ll be watching fewer anime, you’ll probably be able to keep it up ;) Good luck with your studies!
Me personally, I have a schedule of watching anime every Friday. This generally applies to on-going seasonal shows. For anime that has already aired, I will allot time to watch that series. It’s quite simple really. Nothing complicated at all. I use to watch much of my anime on the day they would come out but I slowly became the type that liked to wait so that the viewing of my entertainment had more impact. Even more so, I will even watch the show I like the most last just to make the experience even greater. For example, I will watch Bakuman first, then I will watch Guilty Crown, next Zero no Tsukaima, and finally Nisemonogatari. I just added Mouretsu Pirates to my watching but I don’t know where to place it in my viewing order. It might actually go after Zero no Tsukaima simply because of how much I am enjoying it thus.
I will note that I do nearly the same with manga, except I view manga chapters on release rather than at the end of the week. In a given day where I find out that there have been releases for eight mangas, I will attempt to save the manga I wish to read the most last. Further note is when the manga sites I read from post multiple chapters for one manga, I will still continue to read from least anticipated to most.
It is not to say that I watch or read manga from what I like the least to what I like the most. It is more so based on a preference I have at the time and my attempt to savor the moment. For upon watching all that anime, I know that I will wait another week for the next Friday and I make sure that I enjoy it thoroughly.
As for blogging, I’ve never really been a heavy blogger. As much as I’d love to post up my thoughts and have people see them and reply with theirs, I am not sure if I really like the idea of being in the spotlight.
Video gaming is something I still keep up with. I wouldn’t say that I am heavily into it as I once was but I will say that I play my fair share of games in a month at the very least. I use to play games on a near constant basis in my free time but I seem to lack motivation to play as much as I use to.
At the moment though, I will say that I have a lot of free time on my hands that I just simply use wrong. Someday this will probably catch up to me or I will possibly improve my time management skills tremendously. Until then, only time itself will tell.
Watching your seasonal anime all on one day in order of preference is an interesting method =) As for manga, when I used to read manga I would just read as soon as the chapters were out. Unlike an anime episode, reading a manga chapter just takes, like, five minutes so I just read it then and there.
I used to be much more into video games when I was younger, but once I got into anime too and life became more complicated, I had to choose which one I wanted to dedicate most of my time too. Obviously I love anime more so games became secondary – the only game series I’m dedicated to is the Pokemon series, and will only get into a new non-Pokemon game once in a while (like, once a year maybe).
I basically watch it like you. Around 10 or so to like 12 or 1 a.m. Or a giant catch up on like Saturday night at like 4 in the morning until I pass out. I just curl up in my nest of blankets and either watch a little anime or YouTube or something…
Wow, now that i think about it. Chalking up my life to THIS. School, tennis, socialize, sleep, and repeat. Hmmmmmmmm sounds depressing. If someone showed me that life and said “what do you think?” I’d say “poor bastard.” and that life is MINE!….. My life needs more explosions lol.
But yea, anime is definitely a nightime ritual for me when I don’t have obligations. A piece per night usually. I’m only watching 8 shows though so I’m never TOO far behind. Very cathartic to watch something majestic and then enter your dreams after a long day. It just seems like a nighttime “thing” to do. It’s solitary, it’s something to do at night. I dunno, I actually almost never watch it before like 8pm. But speaking of finding time to keep up with the seasons, this Spring looks AMAZING. I haven’t been this impressed for awhile and I have high hopes.
Mini-marathons before bedtime or big marathons on a day off are how I do it, however I’m not a night owl and never stay up past midnight. So watching anime until 4am is out of the question XD That is a good way to catch up though.
I wouldn’t say your life sounds depressing – as long as you’re enjoying your anime, tennis, socializing and what not, you have plenty of time for things to change when you’re done with school.
Anime became a nighttime thing for me when I started college in 2004 and my Japanese class didn’t get out until 9:30pm. Before then my bedtime was 9pm! So I adapted to staying up until midnight and finding that the most convenient time to watch anime in my college schedule was the few hours before bedtime. And that’s how it’s been since – like I said, I do sometimes marathon during the day on weekends, but it’s mostly a night thing for me too.
Since I started working, I’ve also found that I have more time compared to when I was in school. While still at university, I usually watched 3-4 series at a time, with the absolute maximum being 7. My education was more important than pleasure so sometimes I would have to put off anime altogether for a week or two. This season I’m following 12 series, which is the most I’ve ever followed at once and I still have weekends to watch old anime that I saved from many years ago but never got around to watching.
I don’t think having fewer friends reduces social activity though, it seems like every day someone is asking me to go do something with them and I don’t keep a very large circle of friends.
I still kept up with a good amount of shows when I was at uni, but I sacrificed blogging instead. My studies came first and the only real free time I had during those two years was those few hours before bedtime to watch my seasonal shows.
I like to think that I have few friends but true friends. My friends have busy schedules though so they don’t ask me to get together with them that often. Guess your friends have more free time.
Yeah, it all depends I guess. On my free days, I’ll watch anime when I’m alone at home, or there is not much to do. I also watch it while doing other things. For example, I may watch an episode when eating lunch, and also when exercising (with an orbitrek, and a laptop on top of a bookshelf), and time my exercise by watching 3 anime episodes :)
On my work days, I may watch one episode late at night before going to sleep (if I’m not too tired). So I still have plenty of time to watch anime. I just try to fit an episode here and there if running low on time. However, I do not think I have ever kept up with 15 shows in one season :S that’s just too much. I usually watch 5-6. I do not watch the really long running ones, so that takes off quite a few shows I guess.
That’s interesting that you watch anime while doing other activities like eating and exercising. I like to give my full attention to anime, especially when it’s an episode I’ve never seen before, so I’ll never watch anime while doing other things. The most I’ll do is have a quick snack that doesn’t require me to look away from the screen ;) I prefer watching regular TV shows when eating and listening to music while exercising.
Yeah, the long-running shows can take up a lot of time since they’ll always be on your “Watching” list. I’ve managed to keep up with Naruto, Bleach, and Pokemon for years, but came in late with One Piece and have thus resigned myself to always being behind on that one.
I like how systematic you are! It’s really important to be organized if you don’t want to fall behind, especially when it comes to currently airing shows. If you miss a night then you have to catch up the next night which can throw you off for quite a while.
This year I haven’t even finished 1 anime series yet after starting uni, but I only watch completed anime so catching up isn’t a big deal for me. I can’t imagine devoting 6+ hours a week to anime-watching every week… though, I think that there’s always time for things you want to do – all you need to do is become more time-efficient!
Thanks!
There are some rare nights where I’m just not in an anime mood. But I try not to put shows off for more than a day or two. For example, the new episode of Another comes out on Monday, so if I don’t watch it Monday night I’ll definitely watch it Tuesday night.
Watching only completed series does have its advantages since you don’t have to worry about falling behind and can better choose when to watch it. Whatever works for you =)
I basically watch anime till around 12am to 1am too. But I can basically marathon anime anyday, on weekdays, I can marathon a 10+ episodes anime with the minimal amount of real life obligations. With weekends.. well that’s obvious :D I also use my weekends for various misc tasks, like reading light novels, visual novels, blogging, etc.. They all eats up a lot of time though.
Sounds like you have a lot of free time if you can marathon that much anime any day, even on weekdays. Plus all those other activities you do – I’d imagine that lifestyle won’t last forever, but I hope you’ll always have time for your hobbies even if you do get more real life obligations in the future =)
Organisation is definitely the key if you’re going to keep up with a reasonable amount of anime while juggling all those real-life activities. I’ve been a full-time student at university for 7 years now, so what with also working part-time, getting enough time for all the anime I’d like can be tricky. It’s do-able though, and it can be very satisfying to complete the real-life tasks and then settle down in the evening with some anime to wrap things up. No matter how busy life gets, I hope I’ll always find the time to indulge in my favourite hobby.
Currently I get in only about an hour or so on most days, but then I have an anime marathon night once a week with a couple of friends, when we stay up until the wee hours eating junk food. It’s always something to look forward to. :)
Yeah, due to school or work I rarely had time to watch anime during the day, so watching it at night became a habit. Sometimes it just seems like there’s not enough hours in the day to do all the necessary daily tasks and have all the fun you want – I too hope that even if my life gets busier in the future, I’ll still have time for anime.
Good luck with your studies! I took a glance at your LJ profile and it sounds like you’re doing very well for yourself ^_^ Keep it up!
Right now, I have a decent amount of time to spend watching anime. Unless I have other obligations (social engagement, test the next day, etc), my habit is to watch an episode per day on weekdays to entertain myself during dinner and up to two or three on weekends. I don’t generally marathon and like to pace myself through shows, so I don’t watch as many episodes as some do.
I don’t (as of now) blog, but I do spend a bit of time on anime websites such as MAL looking up various information. If I ever get into blogging like I’ve considered, I imagine that would consume quite a bit of my time. I expect my workload to increase considerably over the next year or so, college and a job, etc, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to keep my anime time each day =D
Yeah, I usually watch one or two episodes a night as that’s usually what’s out as far as my seasonal shows. Then there are some days of the week where, like, four shows I’m watching have episodes out that day. My limit is usually four episodes as far as my nightly “anime time.” I do snack for a few minutes when I start anime time, but I typically don’t like to eat big meals or anything where I’ll have to look away from the screen, especially if it’s an episode I’ve never seen before.
You’ve left some very insightful comments on my blog, so I feel you’d make a great blogger =) It doesn’t necessarily have to take up a lot of time if you can write concise posts once a week or something. Blogging takes a long time for me because I typically post more than once a week and my posts are usually long, wordy editorials.
Just curious, do you have any tips on how to start out as a blogger? I am a bit hesitant to start out because bloggers usually start at the bottom with no popularity and work their way up bit by bit to acquire regular commentators, a process that is somewhat daunting.
Naturally it takes a while to build readership on a blog, but there are things that can help. I would recommend figuring out what kind of blog you’d like first (episodic, editorials, news, etc.,) and once you meet the requirements of Anime Nano, get it on there. Other ways to start building readership is to link to other blogs in your blogroll and posts, and to comment on other blogs since your comment will also have a link to your blog. If you do these things, as well as enjoy what you’re writing about and keep it up, readers will slowly trickle in.
Let me know via e-mail if you’d like any extra advice =)
Hmm, I just watch whatever I like whenever I like (providing, obviously, I’m not working/studying/gigging/in a sports match etc, of course). But that’s probably why I tend not to finish current shows until a little late and couldn’t do episodic blogs one by one. I currently have about 45 different anime on the go…
Being able to watch anime anytime, anywhere is a great way to get things watched =) I’m the type of person who has to psyche myself for things and factors like environment and how I’m feeling physically at the time can determine if I get in the mood for something or not. So when I watch anime, it has to be at the right time (usually my anime time at night or days off where I have many hours free) and right place (I could never watch anime outside the privacy of my room for example).
I used to watch a lot of my visually unspectacular anime on the train using my PSP. I’ve gotten back into mobile gaming again for the last couple of years, though, so I don’t tend to do that much any more. I tend to at the very least watch some anime during a meal and an episode before bed, so it builds up!
I’ve noticed recently that I’ve had to watch less anime unfortunately, but that is just related to the factors you mentioned above. College, working, studies, friends, and older and all that take a lot out of a person. I wish I had the time to watch anime much like I did in middle and high school, but that’s simply life.
I saw the trailer for the new Eureka Seven coming out and told myself to spend an entire day watching the 50 episodes in the first series. That didn’t pull through because of abridging. Then I told myself to try the next day, completely forgetting work and classes still happen. So, I guess it’s just better to watch stuff at a leisurely pace, rather than going through 15+ hours of a show.
Most of the time now, I just download like three episodes of a series, and go on mini-marathons. Mainly because that seems to work best for my time, and cliffhangers. Only shows that I’m absolutely in love with, such as Nisemonogatari, are watched the moment they’re released.
It sounds like you have the kind of schedule where you should watch one or two episodes of anime a day rather than trying to set aside time for long marathons. That’s what I did during my two years of college and it worked fine. But everyone’s different and you may have even less time than I did. But I’m sure the busy lifestyle you have now won’t last forever, so you may be able to watch more anime again someday =)
I’m also building up to watch Eureka 7. I’ve already watched the full 50 episodes once in 2006 but my memory of it is vague and I want it to be fresh in my mind when the new season comes out.
Short summary of my own post: “What time management?”