Comments on: T-Minus Seven Weeks: Don’t Panic!

By: Nic

Nic — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 21:28:07 +0000

I wish I had seen this during my first semester of grad school! It took me years to learn about this creative mode, and work my way toward putting away time, place, and allowing myself the opportunity to play.

The key is the working back and forth (like he says) between the play time and the closed time, allowing yourself to be open, making decisions, then working toward the decisions, then allowing yourself more open time for the next set of decisions.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 16:26:43 +0000

“The real struggle comes when you come back and nothing you do seems worthy of writing about.”

I am looking forward to having that problem. 😀

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 16:25:04 +0000

This doesn’t relate directly but found it last night and thought it was worth sharing. It’s a nice video of John Cleese talking about creativity and getting stuff done.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 16:22:31 +0000

“Anything can happen, and most of those anythings are awesome!”

That’s what I’m aiming for.

By: nic

nic — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 21:55:35 +0000

Enjoy the jump, my friend. No one knows whats going to happen to anyone besides the forlorn rags of growing old. Own that. It’s yours. Turn the terror into enthusiasm. Anything can happen, and most of those anythings are awesome!

By: Poi

Poi — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 20:01:09 +0000

The real struggle comes when you come back and nothing you do seems worthy of writing about. While doing so many interesting things while we were away it was easy to write write write but back in the UK we’ve been finding it tough.

We should be back in full on planning mode soon though so it’ll all get going again soon.

We look forward to following your journey!

By: Kace

Kace — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 16:46:10 +0000

Speaking as someone facing my own Big Trip (only 4 wks to go from this Thurs–eeek!), I know what you mean. I’ve done the major planning–bought the plane tickets, made appointments at the clinic, reserved the hotel room, even bought a guide book!–but that doesn’t make me feel more reassured at the moment.

When I start to fell overwhelmed with all the Stuff To Do, I find the best thing to do is to break it down in manageable chunks–give yourself 30 minutes and do what you can in 30 minutes. This is especially true for writing. Write what you can in 30 minutes and feel good about what you’ve been able to get done. But, that also means no distractions–turn off the internet, turn off your phone, don’t answer the door, etc. I think all the constant tweets, pings, and FB status updates have turned our attention spans into mush and this is my way of combating the “Look–Squirrel!” effect. The thing to be careful of though is not to dedicate *too* much time. Don’t give yourself a couple of hours because then you’ll think you can just stare at the screen. If you make it short, then you are forced to focus.

At least that’s what works for me. I find the time chunk to be easier to handle than the breaking it down into manageable steps, just writing one blog post, etc. Even if you don’t finish the blog post or the web project, you can get to work on it again by setting yourself up another 30 minute no-distraction window (either later in the day, the next day, or whenever you can set aside that 30 minute window).