I’m sure we’ve all heard the lament before, whether from others or from ourselves, that goes “I don’t have time for all the anime I want to watch!” or “I keep falling behind on my weekly anime!” As someone who very rarely falls behind on anime and usually finds time to watch the shows I want to watch, today I felt like offering advice and tips I go by for keeping up on all my anime amidst limited free time while still maintaining a healthy lifestyle…
Sometimes I feel that a lot of anime fans only manage to keep up with watching anime either by staying up late many nights per week, or when they just happen to have tons of free time, like vacations from work or school. Since 2006 when I started watching anime seasonally, I’ve always managed to keep up with shows, rarely falling more than a few days behind, all while either going to work, school, or both, having other hobbies, and always within a healthy 16 hour day (24 minus 8 hours for a good night’s sleep XD) So I’m hoping that with the advice I offer below, I can show that you don’t necessarily need tons of free time or need to stay up until the wee hours of the night in order to keep up with a decent amount of anime.
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Step 1: Pick a number of anime to watch that you feel you can manage. The beginning of each season is typically when people pick new anime to watch, as shows from the previous season end and new ones begin. Now it’s really hard to say how many shows someone should watch at any given time since everyone’s lives and motivation for watching lots of anime differ – some people with very limited free time want to watch 15-20 airing anime while someone with more free time only feels like watching 5-10. So I guess the first thing to do is think about the things you’re going to have to do in the ensuing months (work, school, etc.,) and how many hours each week you would have and want to use for watching anime (I’ve found that it’s easiest to go by free hours per week to determine your time for anime, since new episodes air every week). Since each anime episode is about 20 minutes, you can get through 3 episodes in 1 hour. So, for example, if you have 2 hours of free time each day (again, I’m assuming a 16 hour day with 8 hours for sleep), that’s 14 hours per week, which means you could fit in 42 episodes of anime each week. But the reason I said to think about the free time you’d have and want to use for anime is because most of us don’t want to use all our free time for anime. We have other things we want and have to do such as other hobbies. So let’s say out of those 14 hours per week, we use 5 for playing our new favorite video game, another 5 for blogging and other social networking, and the last 4 for anime, which would still give us time to keep up with 12 shows. I know it’s hard to plan out in advance exactly how many hours of free time we’ll have and exactly how we should distribute them. But as long as you have a rough idea, it’ll be a big help in figuring out how much anime you can keep up with without losing sleep or time for other things.
Step 2: Figure out your anime’s airing schedule. After you’ve determined how many anime you want to watch and which ones (and people have different ways for picking the ones they want to watch, so use whatever method you prefer), I found that it’s helpful to keep in mind what days they air or the day your source for watching them has the new episode available. For example, after I’ve settled into the shows I want to watch for the season, I keep a little post-it note on my desk where I write down what days they all come out. My current one looks like this:
Mon.
Tu.
Wed.
Thu. Pokemon XY
Fri. Mushishi
Sat. Mahouka, Brynhildr, Nisekoi, Mekaku City Actors
Sun. One Week Friends, Kawai Complex, Tonari no Seki-kun
Keeping this little list on my desk is very helpful for remembering which anime I need to watch each week. For example, when I’m ready to watch anime on, say, Sunday, I’ll glance at the list and figure out which of the Sunday shows I want to watch or if I still need to catch up on some of the Saturday shows. There are times where I can’t remember if I missed an episode or what episode number I’m on, in which case keeping my list up-to-date on MAL or consulting anime countdown sites like this one are helpful too.
Step 3: It’s fine to fall a bit behind…but not too far. As you can see from the current list of airing shows of mine above, pretty much all of them air on the weekend. But that certainly doesn’t mean I have to watch them all on the day they air. For me personally, I usually only put aside .5-1.5 hours a day for anime right before I go to bed, which means I won’t be getting through 5 episodes on Saturday for example. So all I do is just push the ones I don’t get through that day to the next day and so on. Since I don’t have anything that airs on Monday through Wednesday, I use those days to catch up on what I didn’t finish for the weekend. So as far as what I actually watch each week, my schedule looks something like this:
Mon. Brynhildr, Mekaku City Actors
Tu.
Wed.
Thu. Pokemon XY
Fri. Mushishi
Sat. Mahouka, Nisekoi
Sun. One Week Friends, Kawai Complex, Tonari no Seki-kun
Again, by only dedicating a small .5-1.5 hours a day for anime, I can easily keep up with 9 shows. I would even have time for a few more since I have no anime on Tuesday and Wednesday and could watch a second episode on Thursday and Friday. But I don’t mind having the extra time for other activities and to allow more flexibility with my viewing, for example, if I get home from work real late on Monday and only have time to watch Brynhildr, I’ll just watch Mekaku City Actors on Tuesday. So it’s perfectly fine to fall a few days behind on anime and not watch a Saturday show until the following Tuesday or something. I would say that as long as you watch the new episode of something before the next episode airs, you shouldn’t have trouble keeping up until the end.
Step 4: Other things to keep in mind.
– Watch anime on the go or while doing other activities. To save time, some people watch anime while doing other things, like eating and exercising, or on a laptop during time between classes or a lunch break at work. I usually have my late-night snack during my aforementioned “anime time” before bed for example. So if doing something else while watching anime isn’t too distracting for you, that’s definitely a good way to save time!
– Take advantage of marathoning. If a day ever comes up where you have a lot of free hours and nothing to do, why not use that time to catch up on anime? Marathon viewing like this is a good way to catch up on something you’ve fallen a few episodes behind on, or if you want to start watching an older non-airing show you’ve been meaning to watch. A 12-episode series could be completed in a free afternoon. So if you know you have a day coming up with nothing to do, perhaps you can use it to catch up on those episodes you’ve fallen behind on or get through that one older series you’ve been meaning to get to.
– You can use this same planing for non-airing shows. Even though the tips I discussed above are geared towards seasonal anime viewing, as in, people who watch the latest anime from Japan weekly, they can easily be applied for watching non-airing anime, or a mixture of both. For example, with my schedule, I could easily add in a couple of non-airing series to watch on Tuesday and Wednesday. And what’s good about watching older shows is that you don’t have to wait each week for the new episode – if you have the time you can get through a bunch of episodes a day since they’re already available. Or you can just treat them like the seasonal anime and watch one episode a week. The good thing is that you can be more flexible ;)
– Sometimes falling behind simply means lack of motivation. Even if you have enough free time and find ways to organize your anime watching schedule, whether using my methods or your own, if you find that you still have trouble keeping up with weekly anime, it could be that you just don’t like the anime you’re watching enough to want to keep up, which is perfectly fine. Especially if you have the free time but often find yourself preferring to partake in other hobbies rather than watch anime, then maybe it’s time to just put those series on hold or drop them altogether. Like any hobby, anime is meant to be enjoyed and shouldn’t feel like an obligation.
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Anyway, I hope what I discussed in this post is helpful to anyone who has trouble keeping up with weekly anime or organizing their viewing. If you have your own methods for watching anime on a schedule, feel free to share =D
Very nice advice! My problem is that sometimes I get sidetracked when watching anime, so it takes much longer than I’d like to to watch. I’m going to keep this advice in mind.
By “sidetracked” do you mean you get distracted by other things while in the middle of watching an episode and then have to keep pausing/rewinding it? If that’s the case then I’m not sure what other advice to offer other than try and get everything you need to do finished before you watch anime. That way you’re less likely to have to stop in the middle to do something else XD Also try to watch it in an isolated environment without distractions if that’s possible.
Well, it’s embarrassing to admit, but sometimes I do get distracted in the middle of watching an episode, but I also meant that I sometimes start another series when I haven’t even finished the first one, and stuff like that. But even so, that’s still really good advice. Thanks! I’ll be sure to keep that in mind too.
Some great ideas here, especially with the weekly schedule! I rarely ever eat dinner without doing something else concurrently, and since things that require keyboard and mouse are out of the picture, that something usually ends up being anime. It’s a good length of time for your typical weekday meal, too.
I usually prefer not to watch things while I eat only because if my food is loud and crunchy (like chips) then I can’t hear what’s being said while chewing, or if my meal requires me to look down a lot, I miss seeing some things too. So the only time I’ll eat a big meal while watching something is if it’s something I’ve seen before and don’t care to give my total attention to it. But I don’t mind having my midnight snack while watching new anime episodes because even though the snack involves pita chips, the crunching isn’t a problem because I can read what’s being said via subtitles even if I can’t hear it. But I wouldn’t want to eat something that requires me to look down a lot because then I would miss reading some of the subs XD
The idea of watching while doing other things is a good one. I watch when eating sometimes, and also while exercising. I actually time my exercise with Anime. I watch 3 episodes, so it comes out to an hour or so. Pretty good (and fun) way to keep time. And also motivates me to exercise. I find it pretty boring, but not while watching anime :) I try not to stay up too late. I will just feel tired the next day, So I always get my 7 hours of sleep. We should never sacrifice sleep, or family time, just to watch anime.
I explained above to Frootytooty about why I’m not that big on eating while watching things. However, your method for exercising while watching anime actually sounds pretty good =D I’ve been exercising somewhat regularly over the past few years but it usually involves me walking/jogging around the neighborhood, so I couldn’t watch anime doing that. But sometimes if the weather is bad I’ll exercise on the elliptical I have in my house (it’s too much of a hassle to go to a gym) and set up the portable DVD player so I can watch something while I work out. The elliptical is kind of noisy though so I can’t hear much of what’s said on the DVD, but I guess if I want to use headphones and set up the laptop, watching anime that way could work. I’ll consider it XD
This is really good advice! I do a lot of this myself, although recently I’ve had to be really picky about the number of shows I follow due to school taking up a lot of my time. I also strongly agree with the last part. If you don’t have the motivation to finish an anime, why continue watching it? When I had more free time I took a lot of pride in not dropping things, but now it just feels like “why am I wasting my time with this when I could be watching something that I actually enjoy?” It sounds harsh, but it’s saved me a lot of my sanity in the long run.
When I was a full time student living on my own, I did cut down a bit on the anime I watched, but mostly I put my blog on hiatus, which gave me a lot more free time too. I think some people pick too much anime to watch at once, not realizing how much free time they’ll actually have for it. So giving thought about that beforehand can be helpful.
I used to take pride in not dropping things either, and even now I might drop one or two series a year and that’s it. But yeah, if it becomes more of a chore to watch a new episode than fun, definitely consider dropping it. Life’s too short to waste time continually watching a show you don’t really like just because of some personal pride.
Generally, I only watch a max of 4 to 5 shows a season, meaning that I never really get to the point where I’m going to fall behind. Of course, by doing this, it gives me the flexibility to watch previously airing shows on my own schedule. Even so, I tend to only watch a few episodes at a given time rather than marathoning it all at once. Also, I know that I’m not going to have a lot of free time in the near future, so it’s for the best
Of course with stuff like tablets and smartphones are now capable of Crunchyroll streaming and playing fansubs. While my iPhone 4S can’t really play fansubs anymore, I still have a Surface Pro 2 that can play fansubs without having to convert them. But in general, mobile devices make it a bit more convenient to stay up to date at any place.
I notice that you only watch a few shows each season and you never fall behind, so if that works for you, go for it ;) There’s no rule that says you have to watch a certain number of shows each season in order to be considered an anime fan.
I haven’t really gotten into mobile devices as the only one I have is my smartphone, an Android LG. It works pretty well for being a basic smartphone, but when I last tried the Crunchyroll app it didn’t work that well (the video would constantly get pixel-y and lose sync with the audio). Haven’t tried it in a long time though so maybe it’s gotten better.
Since I’ve been mostly devoted to clearing out my anime backlog, I’ve basically taken everything and…put it in Excel. The shows I’m currently watching (mostly sequels and shorts) and shows in my backlog. That’s separate. I ended up having a to-do list & schedule in Word. Basically so I can keep track of everything that needs to get done each day, and yes, I act ahead: I plan for the future a bit, just so nothing surprises me or if something comes up I can just add it in to the schedule.
How’s it done so far? Welp, I’ve had more of a motivation to finish and keep track of airing shows more than I did before, finished 6 TV shows, somehow managed to get halfway into Detective Conan, & getting through my backlog shows on a day to day basis. It’ll be interesting to see how my schedule changes when I’m done with this backlog.
In seeing your steps, it’s not all too different, save I guess for the marathoning and selection of shows (since I’ve essentially taken two seasons off). Guess there is a method to this anime madness after all…xD
Heh, nice to see someone else who keeps everything scheduled and organized XD In addition to what I explained here about organizing my anime viewing, I keep a schedule/calendar for everything else too. For the past several years I keep a little pocket calendar at home where I keep track of everything I need to do each day, not just appointments and stuff, but anything that comes up that I have to remember, even something simple like I need to email a certain friend or I need to buy a certain something on a certain day. I don’t know how to use Excel (I’ve taught myself a couple of times but then forget because I never need to use it =P) and I would use Word for my scheduling but having a physical calendar book is just easier for me.
That is interesting I thought I was the only person who made a list of when watching anime. Some good advice and enjoyed the post.
Watching anime for me is a daily work. I watch 1-2 anime episodes daily and normally i watch them before lunch or at tea time when i am active mostly.
Great advice! My problem is, as I prefer watching shows that have finished over airing shows, is that if I do watch ones I really enjoy, I can’t really stop. Whenever I get really into a show, it sorta takes over my life! (‘:
I’m one of those who binge on anime/tv shows in my free time and vacations, and often let it get a bit out of hand. For the past couple of seasons I’ve tried following some currently airing anime but most of the time I fall behind. I’ve accepted I need to drop show more when I don’t really like them, but sometimes I let them finish and then just marathon them in one go.
Also, recently, there have been some shows I didn’t particularly enjoy, but felt obligated to finish as I had already seen more than half of them.
It’s no easy task being an avid anime fan! I will try your advice, but I guess I have a big problem with self control. There are many other hobbies and activities I’d like to dedicate more time to, but somehow anime comes in the way sometimes (‘:
that’s Awesome and keep it up also if you have facebook that would be grate <3