I've been struggling a lot recently to keep up with socials and manage commission ideas, and I'd like to try setting a weekly official "out of office" day where I can turn off notifications for many of my social accounts entirely.

So at least for a while on Wednesdays I won't just be slower to respond to most socials, I'll be actively turning off a lot of my notifications about comments and messages - and making an effort not to reply immediately to any comments or messages that I do see. If you're a commissioner I may still shoot you messages about deliverables and updates - but I likely won't see replies you make to those messages until Thursday, and I'll try to avoid discussing any plans or updating anything.

There are a few reasons for this, but the biggest one is just energy. I love talking to critters, and none of the critters messaging me have crossed any boundaries - you don't need to worry about that.

But I am very asocial, and suffer from the same social anxiety and introversion issues that many other furries struggle with. I absolutely enjoy responding to comments and messages, but even when I'm having fun, it can still be very draining. And trying to keep up with my art output while also keeping up with basically full 24x7 access has left me struggling to maintain even basic chores like cooking and cleaning. If I sit down at the computer to read or watch something, I immediately feel like I'm, for lack of a better term, "on the clock." And while critters are always really understanding that I might not be able to immediately respond to messages (which I appreciate so much), notifications still end up piling up and making it difficult for me to focus on anything else.

I know this is something that furries often feel anxious about, and I want to keep on saying clearly: no one has done anything wrong; no one has crossed any boundaries or is messaging or commenting too often. I encourage you to be social with me. When a lot of critters are social with me at the same time, it can feel like there's no chance for me to breath or just relax and shift my brain out of a social mode - even though none of them individually are contacting me too often or doing anything incorrect.

So for the same reason that (while I love streaming art) I don't stream more than 4 times a week, I want to start building a day each week where I can disappear, get lost inside my own head, and just draw and focus on new ideas and commissions.

I expect that this should help improve my output as well. A lot of my job is about being creative - coming up with interesting scenarios, thinking deeply about commissioned characters and coming up with ideas about them, and getting into a proper mood about them. It can be tough to keep that going if it's a 24x7 process, and especially if I'm regularly jumping back and forth between different subjects. It's not always as simple as just picking an hour and saying "now I'll focus on comic layout" - I need to be able to get into a mood around the comic, breathe a little, and clear my mind to be able to focus on it.

All that to say, I don't think it's any accident that some of the comics and doodles and pieces I've been slowest to release this month are the ones where I have the most artistic freedom - it's been tough for me to sit down and just be creative. And I'm hoping this will help a lot with being able to more consistently maintain my energy around these pieces.

QUESTIONS:

1. Does this mean that I shouldn't message or comment on a piece on Wednesdays?
No. You are welcome to message and comment at any time - my rule is always that as long as you're okay with asynchronous communication, or understand that sometimes I might get overwhelmed and might not be able to reply for a while, I don't ever mind getting a message. What it means is that on Wednesdays, you are less likely to get a "read" indicator from me, and even if you do, you probably won't get a reply until at least Thursday.

2. Are you sure this means that nopony has done anything wrong?
Nopony has done anything wrong. Getting more involved in the furry fandom is the most social that I have ever been in my entire life - full-stop. I love that, I love this community. Nopony has done anything wrong, and everypony who messages me has been more than understanding about me occasionally needing to take a step back.

3. Does this mean you're getting burnt out?
Nope. I fucking love my job. <3 This is me taking proactive steps to make sure I can keep up the same level of energy and that I don't become burnt out in the future.

4. If I get a message from you on a Wednesday, am I allowed to respond?
Yes. The only thing you need to keep in mind on Wednesdays is that you will likely not get replies from me during the day.

5. Isn't that the same rule you've always had though? What's different about this?
Yeah! I don't guarantee availability at any point. I am autistic, asocial, introverted, and my job involves me spending a LOT of time thinking about things that most critters only think about for a few hours a day. So it's always been my policy that if you send me a message, you might not get back a reply for a while - just because like most furries, I can get overwhelmed in social situations very easily. And because critters are pretty great about that, I don't mind getting a lot of messages, because I don't have to feel stressed that I'm being rude if I let them pile up a little when I'm tired or overwhelmed. <3

In that regard, nothing is changing.

However, critters get anxious sometimes. So letting you all know in advance what my plans are around this should hopefully mean that you don't have to wonder if anything is wrong if you don't see my online on a Wednesday <3

I also want to set a specific day where I'll try to enforce on myself not to reply to messages for my own benefit - because I also don't have the best impulse control in the world, and publicly setting aside days where I know in advance I won't be looking at socials will likely go a long ways towards helping me be more consistent, and will help me practice stepping away from the computer in order to do things like clean, take walks, take care of chores, etc..

Building regular, consistent schedules is not my biggest strength, lol X3

6. Why Wednesdays?
I typically stream on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. Tuesday is often a catch-up day for messages and comments for me, because during stream days I'm usually scrambling to keep up with normal chores before streams start. Thursday would be inconvenient since I often need to prepare for future streams, which sometimes means messaging commissioners. So Wednesday it is. UwU

7. Is there anything I can do to help?
Just keep doing what you're all doing <3

I try to be very open about the fact that I am just as socially anxious as every other furry :3 And a big part of that is that.. there will be times when I'm just less socially present in different spaces. But when that happens, it doesn't mean that anything is wrong. It means a lot to me that furries are willing to accommodate me and my quirks around that. I appreciate you all, and I love being part of this community <3