Procrastination

My motivation for creating the video died with the battery on my camera.

I was paddling along Lake Stratton, in Algonquin Provincial Park, the wind at my back but still wanting to blow me to the opposite side from where I wanted to be, making me dig deep to keep my craft on course. My Insta360 One X camera had died, the last of the three batteries exhausted over the two days of use. I knew that I could always use my smartphone, which I had used for some other parts of this camping weekend, in late June of last year.

But I had lost interest in making a YouTube video of DW's and my adventure at the Achray Campground. I would use a couple segments of the video for Instagram posts and I would share some of the photos on The Brown Knowser, but I knew that creating a longer video of our weekend would take an effort that I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend.

When I recently saw that one of the kayaking videos on my Brown Knowser YouTube channel became the most-watched of all the videos by far (and, I admit, my channel has a very long way to go to get any traction), I wondered if the popularity came from people who were looking to explore Algonquin Park. After all, DW and I often go to YouTube before we consider embarking on some of our travels.

My YouTube channel, in fact, has been neglected over the past couple of months. I've been meaning to record more Beer O'Clock reviews, but I've been procrastinating. I don't really have any reasons or excuses for not doing a beer review other than, "I'll do it later. Not now."

There have been so many brews I've wanted to share. If only I had the time (I have the time).

My second most-watched video is also a kayaking adventure, and I started wondering if this should be my focus for my YouTube channel. I looked at all of the footage from Achray and wondered if I should make the video, after all.

I asked DW, who had also made some video recordings of our trip, to send me her footage. I would organize the clips into a storyboard and see what we had. I also took some screen captures of Algonquin Park, from Google Maps, and added them to the narrative.

Apart from having a clear ending to the video, I knew that I could put something together, relying on voiceover recordings, to tell the story. I decided to create the video.

That was a couple of months ago. While I had the desire, I still lacked the motivation. And so, I procrastinated some more.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I decided to devote a couple of hours each week to assembling the video, stills, background music, and voiceovers. I tend to have my Brown Knowser blog posts completed a week or more in advance, and I had dedicated time where I worked on my novel, so I certainly had the time to work on the video.

I finished up the last of the voiceovers and assembled the video last Thursday. It's now live, on my Brown Knowser channel, and I've added it, below. When you have a chance, please give the 17-minute video a watch, and if you like it, please hit the Like button, and consider subscribing.

The more viewers I get, the more motivation I'll feel to keep recording, and the less procrastinating I'll do. Cheers!