Follow Through and Finish: Lesson four: Make time for your projects
Week four! I hope you’ve found this month’s lessons to be useful in helping you wrangle your brilliance into form. Today’s lesson will be short.
I hope you can make our group call tonight at 4:00 pm PST, 5:00 pm MST, 6:00 pm CET, 7:00 pm EST. (Convert to your own time zone here.)
Step one: Get present
Look at your calendar for the next three months. Take into account your existing obligations. Then return to your map and look at the stars next to the projects you wanted to focus on for the next three months.
Highlight those things. You should have no more than three projects or areas of interest highlighted for the next three months. Even that is probably too much but I understand it’s hard to choose just one thing.
Looking at your calendar and project desires might force you to re-assess. I almost always have to postpone or punt something off the list at this part of the process.
Step two: Make choices for this quarter
In a separate document, list those 1-3 projects you’d like to work on in the next three months. Go back to your mind map and take the action item bubbles and mark dates next to them. You want to be able to look at things in the order of when you do them. You might not have all the information to know this but make the best estimates you can.
Give yourself more time than you think you need. Take into account all the other things you are doing. If you have any big personal or work projects like: moving, a wedding, children’s graduation or other big events, take that into account.
Step three: Brainstorm next steps
Free-write your answers to these questions:
• What do I need to work on this?
• What will I do this week to prepare your workspace/workflow?
From here, put your action items into your to-do list.
Voila! This should give you a sense of how to move from planning stage to action stage.
Right about now, things might have gotten a bit, er, less fun. When I teach this in person, I always say, “What’s that smell? Oh, it’s the rubber meeting the road.”
I joke but it isn’t always fun to take a sober assessment of your time, existing commitments and things you want to add in. We LOVE possibility. It’s easy peasy to live with the possibility of all our great ideas. And it’s good hard work to actually make them. We may unconsciously know that and want to avoid facing the reality of our limitations, so we stay in the dreaming phase, clinging to the ephemeral pleasure of Dreamland.
Why do I care that you write and make things and not just dream about them?
I don’t give these lessons to you to make you feel limited. My intention is to train you to develop a process that helps you take your ideas into action and into the world.
I believe that it’s much, much, much better to face the challenges inherent in writing or making things than to sit on the sidelines as a dreamer watching everyone else publish their books, essays, blogs and whatnot.
I believe that making things makes us. I am a MUCH better person as a result of the books I have published, the art I have made and the things I have built through Original Impulse.
That’s why I do the work of helping creative people focus, follow through and finish things that matter to them.
That’s it! Our class is complete. Feel free to share your experience on the Original Impulse blog or hit ‘reply’ to let me know personally how this has helped you.
Two reminders
Enrollment is still open for February’s Free-Write Fling, which starts on February 1st. This is such a great way to start working on these projects now. Join us to write every day in February.
Remember, I’m bundling two cycles of the Free-Write Fling with Make Writing a Happy Habit. MWHH helps put all the pieces in place in your life so your writing practice is sustainable, perfect for you and enjoyable. We are going to have a ton of fun getting things done this seasonand I do hope you join us. Reserve your seat here.
Tonight’s group call dial-in information
I hope you can make it to tonight’s call. I look forward to answering your questions. Here is the information on how to join.
Jan 27, 2016 5:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) (Convert to your own time zone here.)
Use this link to join from your computer: https://zoom.us/j/839866399
If prompted to enter a meeting id: Meeting ID: 839 866 399
Or call in by phone: +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)
International numbers available https://zoom.us/zoomconference?m=krZF...
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