NotitiesSomeday Is Today
Matthew Dicks
"Someday Is Today" van Matthew Dicks benadrukt het belang van tijd in besluitvorming en creativiteit. Het moedigt lezers aan om de lange termijn in overweging te nemen bij keuzes en benadrukt dat kleine, consistente vooruitgang een grote impact kan hebben. Dicks pleit voor het omarmen van imperfectie en het belang van het creëren in alle omstandigheden.
- Tijd is je meest waardevolle bezit en moet als een primaire factor worden opgenomen in al je beslissingen.
- Het kijken naar de toekomstversie van jezelf (bijvoorbeeld de honderdjarige versie) kan helpen betere beslissingen te nemen die niet alleen zijn gebaseerd op kortetermijnplezier.
- Minuten zijn belangrijker dan uren; je kunt veel bereiken in korte tijd als je deze effectief benut.
- Creatie vereist geen perfecte omstandigheden; het gaat erom dat je gewoon begint, zelfs in de "scheuren" van je dag.
- Het verlangen naar perfectie is vaak een vermomming van angst en kan productiviteit in de weg staan.
- Je moet taken delegeren en zinloze activiteiten minimaliseren om tijd vrij te maken voor wat echt belangrijk is.
- Creativiteit en productiviteit worden bevorderd door verschillende interesses te combineren en ideeën te laten "kruisbestuiven."
- Succesvolle makers leren slechte dingen te maken en accepteren fouten als onderdeel van het creatieve proces.
- Kleine, consequente vooruitgang heeft een enorme impact; werk aan kleine taken en vier elke stap vooruit.
- Multitasking is inefficiënt voor diep nadenken, maar sommige taken kunnen goed gecombineerd worden, zoals wandelen en nadenken.
- Het creëren van een systeem om tijdverlies te minimaliseren (zoals bij routineklussen) verhoogt je algehele efficiëntie.
- Sociale verwachtingen en traditionele normen zijn vaak obstakels; het loont om eigen keuzes te maken en regels te negeren die geen waarde toevoegen.
- Inspiratie komt vaak uit onverwachte hoeken; het cultiveren van brede interesses voedt creativiteit.
- Het bewaren van complimenten en positieve energie kan je helpen door moeilijke creatieve momenten heen te komen.
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”—PABLO PICASSO (Page 0)
Tags: Geel
Whenever I need to make a decision—monumental or minuscule—I no longer rely upon the current version of myself to make that decision. I have discovered that I am an unreliable, ineffective decision maker in the moment, because I often base my decisions upon my feelings, thoughts, and desires in that moment. I do the thing that makes me happy now—which is sometimes perfectly acceptable and advisable—but is oftentimes shortsighted and counterproductive. Instead, when I need to make a decision, I try to look to the future. I look to the one-hundred-year-old version of myself. The version of myself near the end of his life. The person who understands what it’s like to be on the doorstep of death. (Page 10)
Tags: Geel
So when I’m sitting at my desk, trying to finish a novel, staring down an email from my editor asking why my novel is so late, and my son Charlie, age three, tugs on my shirt and asks to play monster freeze tag, the current version of myself says to finish the damn book. You have a hundred pages to write and bills to pay and an editor to keep happy. But then I look ahead to the one-hundred-year-old version of myself, and he says that bills will somehow get paid and you can always find time to finish a book, but that little boy who wants to play monster freeze tag isn’t going to ask to play forever. One day he’s going to stop asking. One day he’s going to stop asking, and you’re going to hate yourself for not saying yes to him. So I shove all my work aside, and as much as I hate monster freeze tag—a truly senseless game—I play, knowing I will be a happier person for it. (Page 11)
Tags: Geel
Asking your future self to make decisions allows you to play the long game. (Page 12)
Tags: Geel
I say yes. Every time. We have to play the long game. Our future selves understand the value of time better than any of us. The version of ourselves looking back over the landscape of our lives, staring down oblivion, knows damn well the importance of time. (Page 13)
Tags: Geel
“The average novel is somewhere between five thousand and ten thousand sentences. Every sentence that I write gets me closer to the end. Today I got nine sentences closer.” (Page 16)
Tags: Geel
I’ve written eleven books and published nine over the past dozen years because I don’t wait for the right moment to write. I don’t waste time on preciousness, pretentiousness, and perfection. (Page 18)
Tags: Geel
I’m actually writing this very sentence on a Friday during my lunch break. I write while waiting for the water to boil for spaghetti. I write while the mechanic changes my oil at Jiffy Lube. I write in the first few minutes of a meeting that has failed to start on time. Are these ideal times to write? Of course not. But unless you’re blessed with a patron who is willing to support your every earthly desire, you need to make the time to write. (Page 18)
Tags: Geel
The problem is that so many of us discount the value of minutes and overestimate the value of an hour or a day or a weekend. (Page 18)
Tags: Geel
I want you to stop thinking about the length of a day in terms of hours and start thinking in terms of minutes. Minutes matter. (Page 19)
Tags: Geel
Most creative people are holding down another job (or two or three) while waiting for their passions to pay off. The tragedy is that creative people (and people who dream of being creative) often use their time less effectively than most, and more often than not, they spend their lives waiting for the right moment instead of making the time. The trick is to utilize your time effectively. To value every minute of the day equally, regardless of how many other minutes are attached to it. Once you have chosen to value every minute, you can begin to create systems by which those precious minutes can be used. (Page 19)
Tags: Geel
Rule #1: Include the Element of Time as a Primary Factor in All Decision-Making (Page 19)
Tags: Geel
Rule #2: Minimize the Time It Takes to Get Places (Page 21)
Tags: Geel
I’ve also met people who tell me that they enjoy their commute. It gives them a chance to decompress. Relax. Process the day. I point out to these delusional lunatics that the same thing could be accomplished via a relaxing walk around the block. Or half an hour at the gym or in a yoga studio. Maybe reading a book on the front porch. Napping beneath a tree. (Page 22)
Tags: Geel
What I’m asking you to do is factor in the element of time when choosing your living situation. (Page 23)
Tags: Geel
I quickly realized that if I gave up my teaching career, I’d be earning a much higher salary but paying an enormous cost in terms of time. (Page 24)
Tags: Geel
Time and flexibility are essential for people who want to make things. (Page 25)
Tags: Geel
In education, the only way to climb the career ladder is to become more and more distant from children. (Page 27)
Tags: Geel
Rule #4: Maximize Task Efficiency (Page 27)
Tags: Geel
If I’m eventually going to dive into the water anyway, why not just dive in right away? Why lose ten minutes of playing with my kids while I allow myself to become accustomed to water? Never again, I declared. From now on, I will run into the water with the same reckless abandon that my children do. They seem to understand the value of time when it comes to swimming. (Page 30)
Tags: Geel
Rule #5: Relinquish and Reassign Tasks (Page 30)
Tags: Geel
One of the best ways to be more productive is to stop doing other things. (Page 30)
Tags: Geel
So whenever possible, I stop doing things that needlessly occupy my time. I slough off responsibilities and expectations whenever possible. I replace meaningless tasks with meaningful endeavors. (Page 30)
Tags: Geel
Money can be made. Time cannot. (Page 31)
Tags: Geel
Depending on your specific situation, delegation can increase your productivity immensely. Delegating tasks to employees, students, your own children, an assistant, an intern, or even a friend or neighbor can free up time for your creative life. (Page 33)
Tags: Geel
So much time is saved and mental bandwidth preserved by simply letting go of the details and decisions and allowing someone else to be in charge. (Page 34)
Tags: Geel
The reasons why people cannot or will not delegate are varied and unfortunate, but I believe that they come down to the following: • They possess an unwavering belief in “one right way.” • They cannot accept less than 100 percent of their expectations being met. • They lack faith in the capacity of others. • They fail to understand the importance and necessity of autonomy when delegating responsibilities. • They fail to recognize the value of an initial investment of time in training for the sake of future productivity. • They do not plan ahead. • They do not maintain a to-do list (mental or physical). • They cannot think open-endedly. • They are ineffective teachers. • They value process over results. • They view a reduction in their workload as a threat to their ego or self-worth. • They fear failure. • They are overly attached to habit or routine. • They do not follow up on the people to whom they have delegated responsibilities in productive and inspiring ways. (Page 34)
Tags: Geel
Task reassignment also comes into play in our home. As a rule, Elysha and I very much divide and conquer when it comes to household chores and other responsibilities. This means that not only do we assume the responsibility for each task but, more importantly, we don’t burden each other with any aspects of those particular responsibilities. We do the job, say nothing, and move on. (Page 35)
Tags: Geel
Elysha and I can avoid burdening each other with the bandwidth required to report on these responsibilities. (Page 38)
Tags: Geel
Rule #6: Choose How to Spend Your Time (Page 38)
Tags: Geel
Remember: When you say you don’t have enough time, you’re actually saying that there are other things more important to you. (Page 39)
Tags: Geel
“You can get a lot done in two hours.”—Judy Blume I agree with Judy Blume. You can accomplish a lot in 120 minutes. In the right hands, with the right attitude, mindset, and plan, two hours is an enormous amount of time. I’d like to offer a slightly different spin on Judy’s quote: “You can get a lot done in ten minutes.”—Matthew Dicks (Page 40)
Tags: Geel
Don’t kill the ten minutes. Seize control of them. Make them work for you. (Page 42)
Tags: Geel
Rule #7: Minimize Time Spent on Routine Tasks and Fruitless Pastimes (Page 43)
Tags: Geel
Multitasking has been proved by research to be a misnomer in many instances. Effectively engaging in two or more deep-thinking tasks simultaneously is not possible or, if possible, is entirely inefficient and will produce subpar work. But there are things in which multitasking is legitimately possible and even advisable. Eating is one of these things. (Page 44)
Tags: Geel
There is no way for me to measure the lasting effects of this cold shower, and since I take some of my showers in the evening, just before bed, I may not be enjoying the full benefit of the practice. But I know that after sixty seconds under the cold water, I exit the shower with a spring in my step and a sharpness of mind, and I like that a lot. (Page 47)
Tags: Geel
Elysha made the faulty assumption that I value money over time. She believed that saving us money by offering a couple of hours of my time was a good idea. But I know the value of time. I value it properly. I’d rather cut the painter a check and continue the pursuit of my dreams. (Page 51)
Tags: Geel
In all things, it’s better to have choice over how you control your time. (Page 54)
Tags: Geel
Unless you’re using social media to earn a living, drive traffic to something more meaningful, build a brand, or effect real change in the world, you should ask yourself what social media is doing for you. (Page 57)
Tags: Geel
If you assign your body two different sleep schedules—a workweek and a weekend schedule—then you have no sleep schedule. Your body is perpetually confused. (Page 65)
Tags: Geel
Awakening naturally is a much healthier and far better start to your day. Rather than being shocked out of sleep by an alarm, I awaken slowly, the way my body was designed to awaken. (Page 66)
Tags: Geel
It turned out that I hold my stress in my jaw and my hands. When I relaxed those parts of my body, it not only helped me sleep but made me a slightly better flute player, too. (Page 71)
Tags: Geel
Exercise I know it sounds strange, but exercise will vastly improve your sleep. Even a brisk walk at some point during the day will improve the efficiency of your sleep. Research has repeatedly shown that moderate-to-vigorous exercise can increase sleep quality for adults by reducing the time to onset of sleep. Exercise is also an outstanding reliever of stress—which, as you know, will help you sleep better. There are few things in life that can improve the quality of your life more than exercise. Skipping it is a dreadful mistake. (Page 72)
Tags: Geel
Your body’s internal temperature shifts throughout the day. This is known as your circadian rhythm. Your body begins to lower its internal temperature around the time you go to bed and continues to cool down until reaching its low point near daybreak. Your body accomplishes this cooling process by expanding the blood vessels in your skin. When your temperature starts to drop at night, you may notice that your hands and feet get warmer. This is because your body is letting heat escape through them to reduce your core temperature. If the temperature in your sleeping environment is too hot or cold, this can affect the drop in your body’s internal temperature and cause you to have disrupted sleep. (Page 73)
Tags: Geel
My friend Bill recently quoted something that I apparently say often enough to be quoted: “You can sleep eight hours a night and not write a book, or you can sleep seven hours a night and become an author.” It’s true. If you wake up one hour earlier than you currently do and spend that time writing, you’ll have yourself a book in a year or two. (Page 75)
Tags: Geel
“People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”—SENECA (Page 78)
Tags: Geel
Markeren(Geel) - Chapter 4: The Eagle and the Mouse > Pagina 81 · Locatie 1645 (Page 80)
Curiosity Kills Productivity: Cultivate Deliberate Incuriosity (Page 81)
Tags: Geel
The eagle knows not to invest your most precious resource in things that are ultimately irrelevant. Don’t waste time on things that will mean nothing to you hours or days later. Don’t spend a minute on something that you will forget in an hour. Don’t even think about things over which you have no control. (Page 81)
Tags: Geel
Science has shown us again and again that the more information we process in a day and the more decisions we must make, the less effective we are as the day proceeds. Decisions wear us down. Eagles know to limit them whenever possible. This is why Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day, including a turtleneck designed by Issey Miyake, purchased in bulk so that he had “enough to last for the rest of my life.” It’s why President Obama limited himself to the choice of one of two suit colors. “You need to remove from your life the day-to-day problems that absorb most people for meaningful parts of their day,” Obama said. “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” Obama also mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions. (Page 82)
Tags: Geel
The eagle says things like: If it won’t matter tomorrow, don’t let it matter today. If I’m the only one who will notice, it ain’t worth doing. Procrastinate on stupid, menial tasks. You could be killed by a crashing airplane in five minutes. Do you want to spend the last five minutes of your life on a meaningless task that could’ve been accomplished next week? Organization for organization’s sake is a fool’s errand, perpetrated by people who don’t value their time appropriately and forget how soon they will be dead. (Page 85)
Tags: Geel
The eagle knows that if it takes you hours to collect tax documents every April because you failed to file receipts and statements throughout the year, you are costing yourself precious time and energy. Instead, invest in a system to document and collect information throughout the year so that you’re not scrambling at tax time. (Page 85)
Tags: Geel
Markeren(Geel) - Chapter 4: The Eagle and the Mouse > Pagina 86 · Locatie 1735 (Page 86)
The eagle knows that you cannot fall behind. This seems exceptionally obvious, but it’s also extremely important and often overlooked. Almost always overlooked. Grading assignments is a good example of this that I see a lot. If a teacher allows themselves to fall behind on a week or two of correcting, the mountain of uncorrected papers transforms (in many people’s minds) into a long-term project that will require a specifically assigned period of time—a Saturday afternoon, a Tuesday night, or an entire Sunday—to complete. As a result of this unfortunate mindset, if that same teacher finds themselves with five or ten free minutes in their day (which happens a lot), it is far less likely that they will attempt to use that free time to put a tiny dent in their enormous pile, since the progress made will feel meaningless. Rather than working for five or ten minutes, the teacher will likely waste those small slivers of time, which add up quickly, as I keep emphasizing. (Page 86)
Tags: Geel
Laundry is another good example. If you don’t allow dirty clothing to collect in enormous piles, and if you don’t allow folded clothing to fill numerous laundry baskets, then you will be in a better position to tackle a small load or put your clothes away when you find yourself with a few minutes to kill. I put most of my folded clothing away while waiting for my wife to get ready for bed. This would otherwise be unproductive time, but because the amount of my clothing in the laundry basket is never overwhelming, I can complete enough of the job to make the time feel well spent. (Page 86)
Tags: Geel
When you feel like you are able to make a difference, you are more likely to use that time productively. (Page 87)
Tags: Geel
Writing a book is an enormous, unwieldy, yearslong process, but if I find myself with ten free minutes, I will sit down and attempt to write four good sentences. (Page 87)
Tags: Geel
The eagle knows that if you keep the job small and manageable, you are far more likely to use the slivers of free time throughout your day more productively, and these few moments will add up. (Page 87)
Tags: Geel
You’re Not the Center of the Universe, So Stop Acting Like You Are: The Spotlight Effect (Page 89)
Tags: Geel
Not only do people not care what you look like, but they are rarely paying attention. When you can embrace this belief, you will be more productive. (Page 91)
Tags: Geel
I opt for an uncomplicated, streamlined existence. (Page 92)
Tags: Geel
When it comes to productivity, less is more. The fewer decisions you have to make and the fewer items you need to constantly inventory, the more time you will have and the better decisions you will make. (Page 94)
Tags: Geel
I realized that as poor as I may be, some jobs are simply not worth the compensation or my time. My time, I came to understand, is exceptionally valuable, and simply having more money than I had before should never be the reason to take a job. It was the moment I realized that my time was worth a certain amount of money and, perhaps more importantly, should result in something that I am proud to do, so my goal was to find work that balanced the equation between my time and effort and the money and benefits being offered in return. (Page 97)
Tags: Geel
Here’s the thing about bragging rights: no one cares. (Page 101)
Tags: Geel
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.”—THOMAS SOWELL (Page 105)
Tags: Geel
When I tell people that I am productive in the cracks of my life, this is what I mean. A few minutes here and there over the course of two years turned me into a notary without dedicating any real time to the process. (Page 110)
Tags: Geel
I break the rules and get away with it because the results warrant my criminal behavior. (Page 114)
Tags: Geel
At work, I like to pilot the “I’m not going to do this—let’s see what happens” plan. When a task seems arbitrary, meaningless, or purely bureaucratic, I try to avoid it at all costs, knowing that failure to execute it will almost certainly result in no trouble at all. (Page 114)
Tags: Geel
So often in life, people assume that there is a correct way of doing things, when in truth, we are more often simply saddled by norms, tradition, the way our parents did something, or societal expectations. (Page 116)
Tags: Geel
If you are creating or building or inventing, you need every second that you can get. You cannot allow the avoidable to stop you. (Page 116)
Tags: Geel
I suspect that a lot of people react to negativity in the way I responded to that woman. Self-doubt, fear, and uncertainty can creep into the mind and ruin a day, a week, a month, or more. Negative people can destroy our spirit. Strip us of our enthusiasm, excitement, and motivation. These are critical components to creativity. They are the lifeblood of anyone trying to make something. (Page 119)
Tags: Geel
Forgiveness is hard, but when it becomes possible, it is the best way to stop the festering and eliminate the negativity from your life. Maya Angelou once said, “It’s one of your greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.” (Page 123)
Tags: Geel
Empathy doesn’t heal a relationship, but it reduces its toxicity. It prevents you from wasting time and bandwidth on wondering the how and why. (Page 124)
Tags: Geel
Ask yourself why someone in your life is acting so poorly. Seek the source of their negativity. Try to understand the reason behind their stupidity and cruelty. When you can empathize with their struggle, you may find yourself better equipped to brush that negativity aside, recapture some of that necessary bandwidth, and get on with the stuff that matters. (Page 124)
Tags: Geel
One more rotten person I’d like you to avoid at all costs: the “Yeah, but” monster. These people are the worst. These two words are the worst. (Page 127)
Tags: Geel
“To begin, begin.”—WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (Page 131)
Tags: Geel
The result of that simple yes is remarkable. That yes results in a possibility tree—the branching of new opportunities—of enormous proportions. (Page 134)
Tags: Geel
Sometimes we have to ask ourselves the hard questions. When others aren’t daring us to exit our comfort zone, we have to be willing to step into that discomfort ourselves. We must demand it of ourselves. (Page 141)
Tags: Geel
“Be willing to say no” is a mantra often preached today. It’s nonsense. Frankly, it’s what people want to hear, and what you want to hear and what you need to hear are often two very different things. Remember: a yes can always easily become a no if needed. (Page 141)
Tags: Geel
Yes is not a permanent state of being. It’s a willingness to try something new, even if that thing strikes you as ridiculous, unappealing, time-consuming, or foolhardy. It’s the acknowledgment that being asked to try something new is a (Page 141)
Tags: Geel
When you say yes, your life is in a constant state of change. Enormous, blessed change. (Page 142)
Tags: Geel
When you say yes, doors are constantly opening, and your life changes in profound and unpredictable ways. (Page 142)
Tags: Geel
One of the primary stumbling blocks for most of the creative and entrepreneurial people I meet is the inability to actually launch their endeavor. Rather than saying yes and leaping into the abyss, people wait, calculate, ponder, and prepare. There is always a better time. The right time. Conditions that must be met in order to achieve the perfect time. They also tend to cling to their original vision, unable to see divergent paths and new opportunities. (Page 143)
Tags: Geel
Perfection is insidious. The desire for perfection is nothing more than fear masquerading as something else. (Page 143)
Tags: Geel
More than likely your need for perfection is simply a symptom of your fear of failure or your tendency to procrastinate. (Page 144)
Tags: Geel
Just starting something, as imperfect as it may be, already makes you better than the vast majority of people, who never start anything. (Page 144)
Tags: Geel
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you. Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion. Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”—RUMI (Page 147)
Tags: Geel
Unless you plan on being Harper Lee and make one great thing and nothing more, you need to be a chicken who lays a lot of eggs. Simply put, creativity flourishes, productivity increases, and opportunities expand when the mind is permitted to wander, the maker of things is free to tinker, and the creative spirit is allowed to dip its toes into many waters. Single-mindedness is not a useful trait for most creative people, yet it’s quite often the perception that people have when they embark on their creative journey. (Page 148)
Tags: Geel
Stuff Begets Stuff I also believe in the power of cross-pollination: Allowing one area of interest to inform another. Creating a space for the convergence of many ideas. (Page 148)
Tags: Geel
One of the questions I get asked most often as a novelist is “How do you avoid writer’s block?” My response: “I’ve never had writer’s block. If you’re suffering from writer’s block, you’re suffering from a lack of things to write. Write different stuff.” The problem is this: as students, we’re often advised by people who teach writing but don’t actually write themselves that we must finish one project before moving on to another. Complete that essay. Finish that poem. Wrap up that story. You must reach the finish line before finding a new starting line. This, of course, is bunk. Utter nonsense. The words of the non-writer. I don’t suffer from writer’s block because when one project isn’t moving forward, I simply switch to another. (Page 149)
Tags: Geel
Stuff begets stuff. Not the loveliest sentence I’ve ever written, but true nonetheless. I am a better writer because I tell stories onstage. I am a better marketing consultant because I do stand-up. I am a better playwright because I write comics. I am a better storyteller because I officiate weddings. I am a better elementary-school teacher because I am a parent. I am a better public speaker because I am a wedding DJ. I am a better leadership coach because I am an investor. (Page 150)
Tags: Geel
A few years ago, a journalist asked me how I juggle so many balls at one time. I laughed. “There is no juggling,” I said. “There are simply many different balls of many sizes sitting in front of me. (Page 151)
Tags: Geel
No one can juggle multiple projects. You can’t be making different things at the same time. But in the same day? The same week? Can you work as a tattoo artist by day and soundscape designer by night? Can you spend your weekends carving ice sculptures for weddings? Build boats in the summer? Write the great American novel on the side? I think you can. Not only do I think you can do all those things, but I think that each would inform and improve the others. (Page 152)
Tags: Geel
We don’t juggle our passions. We engage with them, one at a time, over the course of time. We divide our interests and divide our time in pursuit of those interests, knowing that one may very well inform another. (Page 152)
Tags: Geel
Not everything I write is profound or transformational. (Page 153)
Tags: Geel
Finally I had a portal into the post. (Page 154)
Tags: Geel
Note: Portal
Keeping an open mind in terms of what your finish line might be is critical to both learning to make something great and making that great something. (Page 160)
Tags: Geel
Your finish line should not be a fixed point in space but a horizon of possibilities. (Page 160)
Tags: Geel
When the Royal College of Art said it would not allow Hockney to graduate if he did not complete an assignment that required a life drawing of a female model, he protested by painting Life Painting for a Diploma, a six-foot-by-six-foot image of a man in white underwear posing in front of a poster of a drawing of the human skeletal system. The poster is labeled PHYSIQUE, and written across the image are the words life painting for a diploma. He also had refused to write an essay required for the final examination, saying he should be assessed solely by his artworks. Recognizing his talent and growing reputation, the Royal College of Art changed its regulations and awarded the diploma. Hockney forced the college to alter its required end point. He moved the finish line and forced them to conform. (Page 162)
Tags: Geel
Instead of a five-year plan, how about a six-month plan? Or a three-month plan? (Page 168)
Tags: Geel
That’s the thing about a five-year plan. It allows you to do nothing for a long time. (Page 169)
Tags: Geel
The expression should instead be this: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of progress.” “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” establishes an expectation of good, when in truth, creative people—the makers of stuff—make terrible things all the time. We must. Creation is hard. It is messy and ugly and fraught with struggle and failure. It’s an oftentimes miserable journey littered with cast-offs, botched experiments, fitful starts, unmitigated disasters, and utter failures. We must accept this if we want to make something good. We must be willing to fail again and again and again in order to find our way to goodness and, sometimes, greatness. (Page 170)
Tags: Geel
This is the beauty of making terrible things. No one remembers them. They are almost always forgotten. You need not worry. Even when the mistakes are remembered, mistakes happen every damn day. Your failures are commonplace at best. (Page 172)
Tags: Geel
Ira Glass of This American Life probably said it best: All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good. ... And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you’ve got to know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It takes a while. It’s going to take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that. (Page 172)
Tags: Geel
I spent more than eight years writing bad fiction before finally stumbling upon a method and mindset that made fiction writing click for me. (Page 174)
Tags: Geel
When we begin making things, we must give ourselves permission to make terrible things. (Page 174)
Tags: Geel
Judgment, taste, and self-assessment are critical to the creator’s journey, but these tools should be applied only to the things we are making. Not to ourselves as the creators of the things. (Page 174)
Tags: Geel
Create another terrible thing until you make a not-so-terrible thing. Maybe even something great. (Page 175)
Tags: Geel
Understanding how someone accomplished something can make an enormous difference in the life of a creator. (Page 181)
Tags: Geel
You’re just another creative soul, journeying on a long and windy path to making something good and maybe great. There is no telling how long it will take you and how many bayonets to the chest you will have to suffer along the way. But cheer up. You’re walking in the footsteps of greatness. Just keep walking. (Page 185)
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But without Post-it Notes and a whiteboard, I just started writing, blindly plunging myself into the story. For the first time ever, I wrote without a plan. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was writing something good. (Page 191)
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Creation in a vacuum is a difficult thing. Eventually you need to hear from people you trust, and oftentimes the sooner, the better. This is terrifying for many creative people, because showing your work before it is complete—and sometimes even after it’s complete—requires an enormous amount of vulnerability and courage. (Page 193)
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Identifying and assembling the right “first-look audience” for your work is critical to your success. (Page 193)
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One of the biggest stumbling blocks for creative people—the potential makers of things—is a lack of accountability. (Page 194)
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When we judge our progress on our own efforts, we avoid assessing success and failure based upon things we cannot control. (Page 206)
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There are usually two (or more) ways to accomplish a goal, but so often, people choose the way that is more publicly demonstrative, visibly active, and unquestionably effortful. They want to be seen as busy even if their method of choice is not the most efficient way of getting things done. Performative productivity, I call it. “Look what I did!” “Watch me working hard!” “You can’t doubt my effort now!” The credit you receive should be derived from the results of your effort. Not the journey you took getting there. (Page 210)
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Creative people are notoriously unsatisfied with the quality and quantity of their work. Upset about their progress along the creative continuum. Disappointed with their distance from their end point. As a result, they fail to celebrate each and every step of the way. (Page 212)
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Makers of things deserve credit, but they deserve credit for each step along the path. (Page 212)
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When we finally take a meaningful, well-earned step forward, we must pause for drink and dance. We must make merry. This is the fuel that will fire our furnace and keep us moving forward. (Page 213)
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It’s as if creators are embarrassed to celebrate until everyone around them deems it time to celebrate. (Page 214)
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We cannot wait for the world to recognize our achievements. (Page 214)
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“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”—BRENÉ BROWN (Page 216)
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We retain a small collection of kindnesses bestowed on us over the years but allow the rest to fall away, then we wonder why we can’t marshal the enthusiasm needed to move a project forward. We can’t understand why we lack the motivation or drive to succeed. We can’t imagine how we might continue on when the slopes seem so steep and the destination seems so far away. We’re offered fuel for our fire all the time, but instead of holding on to it, we allow it to slip through our fingers, forgotten and useless. As creators, we are going to face a ton of doubt and uncertainty along the way. Naysayers will stand in our path and lecture us on the foolishness of our dreams. Our work will be scrutinized, criticized, and utterly dismissed. We will be subjected to enormous amounts of negativity. It’s hard enough to make something out of whole cloth. The critics along the way can sometimes make it feel impossible. As a result, we must hold on to every ounce of positive energy. We must hoard the good to counteract the bad. Cling to the light for use on our darkest of days. (Page 218)
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This is why we must preserve the positivity that we receive in this world. There are too many days when the universe kicks us in the teeth, leaving us flailing and floundering in pools of doubt and despair. A list of compliments, deployed at just the right time, can be a life preserver for us. (Page 222)
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Don’t allow another compliment to pass by unrecorded. (Page 223)
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The world is filled with far too much negativity. In an effort to increase the amount of positivity in my life, I make these compliments count twice. (Page 223)
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Gratitude is a good thing, but knowing your story, telling your story, and listening to your story is just as important on those days when things seem hard or disastrous or impossible. (Page 227)
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climb out of bed, wishing I didn’t have to go to school and teach. (Page 227)
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Our brains are listening to us for clues about who we are, how we feel, and how we are doing. If we speak kindly and generously to ourselves—aloud—our brains will hear that and respond accordingly. (Page 231)
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If I did that, I can do this. (Page 234)
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If you want to make things as desperately as I do, you don’t need picnic baskets full of warm treats, idyllic mountaintop settings, and whiskey-fueled campfires. I wrote the majority of this book at the end of my dining-room table, opposite my wife’s laptop, surrounded by folded laundry, small piles of books, and sleeping cats. (Page 238)
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As a maker of things, you don’t have the time to embrace ornamentation, ostentatiousness, unnecessary complexity, and purposeless expense. (Page 240)
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This is important to you as a maker of things, because all too often, people who want to lead a creative life become ensnared in the perceived trappings of the creative life instead of the hard reality that gets things done. (Page 242)
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Creation requires going into the mines. Digging deep. Working hard. Getting your hands dirty. If your act of creation is an image fit for Instagram, you’re probably doing it all wrong. (Page 242)
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The making should be ordinary. The results should be extraordinary. (Page 243)
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The lesson here is simple: Don’t ever do something that will steal time and effort from your life just because everyone else is doing it. Also, don’t ever do something that will steal time and effort from your life if it doesn’t yield any meaningful results. (Page 245)
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As creative people, we must be the collectors, the preservers, and whenever possible, the transformers and expanders of our ideas and content. We need to be supremely flexible in terms of how we view the path of our creative life and the things that we make. When we learn to unshackle our ideas from their original conceptions and allow them to collide with the world, we can find ways to transform them into something new, and the results can be extraordinary. (Page 248)
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As the makers of things, we must view these things not only as the things we made but as the inspiration or seeds for the next thing. Content—whether it be stories, sculpture, graffiti, costumes, quilts, jokes, novelty socks, balloon art, fireworks displays, murals, songs—is our most precious and valuable commodity. Making something from nothing is miraculous. (Page 249)
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Your job as a creator—a maker of things—is to make your thing, but then put that thing on a proverbial shelf in your brain. Not on some shelf in a dusty pantry at the back of your brain but on display in a place of prominence and importance. (Page 250)
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“Be a good person, it is easier than pretending to be a good person.”—NITIN NAMDEO (Page 252)
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Creative people understand that inspiration can come from almost anywhere, so the more content you consume, the more interests you cultivate, and the more things you learn, the more likely you will find a new idea. (Page 270)
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