This season on...
Balancing priorities with purpose.
EFFIGIES — Bringing nerds together to reveal the hidden wisdom of comics for fuller, more productive lives!
What’s Inside:
Life and its seasons.
Trade-offs.
Dimmer Switch Framework.
You may have noticed a slight drop in newsletter frequency. You’re not imagining things—I’ve been writing fewer of them lately.
I’ve written before about how I think of my life in seasons—periods where I focus on one or two key priorities while minimizing others. In my most recent season, running the No Heroine: Second Chances Kickstarter has been my primary focus. With the final backer rewards now shipped, that season is coming to a close.
Now, I’m moving into a writing season. New stories to script. More regular newsletters. Different priorities.
As I prepare for this shift, I’ve been thinking a lot about the trade-offs that come with trying to balance different aspects of life.
Trade-offs of focus.
Every time we commit to one priority, we trade off something else. Running the Kickstarter meant writing had to take a backseat. Now, shifting into a writing season means other things—marketing, administrative tasks—will move to the periphery.
This is opportunity cost in action: every hour spent on one task is an hour not spent on another. Trying to do everything at once means doing nothing well.
That’s why I embrace seasons—focusing deeply on what matters. But how do you decide what matters? How do you fully commit to one or two key things without letting everything else fall apart?
Dimmer Switch approach.
Sahil Bloom has a great analogy for this: instead of treating priorities like on/off switches—where we’re either fully engaged in something or completely ignoring it—we should think of them like dimmer switches.
At any given time, different parts of life can be dialed up or down depending on what needs attention. The core areas of life generally fall into a few buckets:
Health – Exercise, diet, sleep, mental well-being
Work – Your job, business, or creative projects
Relationships – Partner, kids, friends, community
Growth – Learning, reading, skill-building
Pleasure – Travel, entertainment, creative outlets
Right now, my Work and Growth dimmers are turned all the way up—I’m writing and studying. Most of my energy is going into creating new and better work.
That, however, doesn’t mean my Health, Relationships, and Pleasure dimmers are all the way off.
For Health and Pleasure, they’re dialed down right now—more in maintenance mode. These are areas I’ve built strong foundations in during past seasons of my life. At this point, it’s second nature for me to hit the gym and make decent food choices. I also don’t have to think too hard about making time to watch some TV or read comics. I trust that these areas will take care of themselves, even if I’m not actively working to improve them.
For Relationships, the dimmer is a bit higher. I want to make sure my friends, family, and partner continue to receive the love and support they need from me—and vice versa. I wouldn’t be able to create the stories I do without their support, so I want to be sure I’m both giving to and receiving from these connections.
With this framework, instead of abandoning any area of life outright, I can keep it running at a lower intensity. Maybe I write five days a week instead of seven. Maybe I keep fitness steady without pushing for a new PR in the gym. The key is adjusting the brightness instead of flipping the switch.
Seasons change, and so do priorities. The trick is knowing what needs full brightness and what can run in the background—until it’s time to turn the dial again.
- Frank
I’m Frank Gogol, writer of comics such as Dead End Kids, No Heroine, Unborn, Power Rangers, and more. If this newsletter was interesting / helpful / entertaining…
After credits scene.
I recently read—and am now re-reading—The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin.
I had flipped through the book a few times in passing, and it all felt kind of woo-woo to me. Despite that initial hesitation, I decided to give it a proper read. I have to say—I’m glad I did.
It’s a great book on the creative process.
It’s an incredible book about life, joy, and many other things.
I can’t say for sure that it will click for everyone the way it did for me. But I gave it a shot despite my reservations, and I’m really happy I did.